I got "pinched" at the Alice in Chains concert

Dude I got caught Wednesday night. Caught trying to sneak my camera and mini-recorder into Selland as I attempted to get into the Sparta, AIC, Velvet Revolver show. So I have no video clips, pictures or audio liked I'd planned for this blog.

But I have gathered some opinion of how the bands did:

SPARTA
They were great...from what I saw of them. I was late getting into the arena due to my botched equipment sneak-in so I only saw one song. But, they must have played for only fifteen minuets because they were done by 7:20. What the hell? I know they're the opening band but give them some time....geezzz. Sparta is a real underrated band. I hope for great things for 'em (yeah, like they need my hope).

ALICE IN CHAINS
New singer William Duval was dead on. And it didn't feel like he was trying to mimic Layne, it just sounded good. I closed my eyes a couple times and it sounded like I was at a Chains concert in '93 or something. It made me want to bust out my AIC box set. Still, that being said, nobody can replace Staley. The band's performance also confirmed what I already knew: Jerry Cantrell is the heart and soul of AIC. He is actually the one member they could not go on without.

VELVET REVOLVER
They came out to a half-empty Selland Arena that consisted of mostly Alice and Chains fans and put on a good rock show. It was the first show I've been to where there were less people for the headliner then an opening band. Slash, Weiland and the rest of Revolver stuck it out though and gave Fresno a good ROCK show.

I imagine if Axl was there to sing that night, he would have took one look at the half filled arena and told everybody "FUCK OFF! NO SHOW FOR YOU FRESNO!"

Here's something for the fellow AIC geeks out there that weren't at the show. Alice in Chains' set list from the Fresno show:

AGAIN

GRIND

WE DIE YOUNG

THEM BONES

DAMN THAT RIVER

RAIN WHEN I DIE

NUTSHELL

DIRT

ANGRY CHAIR

MAN IN THE BOX

WOULD?

ROOSTER

If you'd like to read some more reviews of the Fresno show, check out the comments on Mike Oz's blog. Or, how about this? Leave us your own review, or just your AIC feelings, as a comment to this blog!

MORE CONCERT REVIEWS:
-My Type of Crowd
-Gynocide
-Ed Stew'
[where: 93704]

Remove children and Sam Raimi from Spiderman

Before I get to a brief Spidey 3 review - we couldn't call ourselves Dorktown if we didn't review "3" - I have a demand: Don't bring your children to a late showing of a movie ... EVER!

So, we go to Broadway Faire for my first screening of Spiderman. We Pick a 10:45 PM showing because Broadway is always the least busiest of the Fresno area theaters and there shouldn't be any children to deal with at 10:45 ... Right?

WRONG!

We're inside, sitting in the next to last row, trailers are about to start, even with the theatre seventy percent full, I'm feeling confident that nobody is going to sit behind us. Then, in walks a mom with six, count 'em, six kids ranging from two to eight. I don't know if they're all hers, doesn't really matter, I just know that they're sure to be sitting behind us...and they do.

Ya just want to stand up and say "Lady, how the HELL do you think it's at all a good idea to bring a shit-load of kids to a two-hour plus movie late at night, you thoughtless asshole!" It's borderline child abuse.

Of course, throughout the movie, there was all the classics: seat kicking, crying, random question asking, whining, sneezing and coughing - all the glares and comments in the world did nothing to stop this.

There needs to be a theatre that steps up and doesn't allow children inside after ten. Is that really so much to ask?

Now back to the quick Spiderman review:
Spidey 3 director Sam Raimi has managed to derail the Spiderman franchise. How does a person whom supposedly knows Spiderman and movie making inside and out, do that? I really didn't think this franchise would wander down the Batman sequels path, but it did. Too many villains with not enough story, that's the big problem with "3".

But maybe worse than that, the little things: Countless worthless crowd reactions. Cheesy news reports that reported WHAT WE WERE ALREADY SEEING! Terrible montages. Several slow sections that could have been replaced with something meaningful or just cut. Complete miss-use of the Venom character and what it does to Spiderman. Really Raimi? That's all you could get from the Venom character? Fucking VENOM?

I admit, my sour review of Spiderman was influenced by what I went through in the back of the Broadway Faire theatre. Spiderman is still a decent flick. Any movie that features Spiderman is worth watching; regardless of how many kids sit behind you.