:: TIONOL

It is old news now, but I went to the St Louis Brewery Taproom to check out an Irish jam session called Tionol.

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A Dozen Musicians playing at Tionol

Jam Session Continued

:: EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGNS 2005

In older news I went to the Egyptian Campaigns 2005 with a buddy. It is a gaming convention run by the students at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. It was disorganized and noisy, but we made our own fun.

The year 2004 was filled with many overhyped products. I decided to give some exposure to a few items I feel did not receive the praise they deserve.

Good news! My Windows installation is mostly working. Look for the article on quiet PCs soon.

This past weekend I went up to Chicago to visit my brother and check the Chicago Blues Festival. Unfortunately, my train was five hours late getting up there on Saturday. By the time I got there, the festival was winding down for the day. So, my brother and I caught a train out to his suburb and got a bite to eat.

I did get to check out an hour of Blues Fest on Sunday. There were six stages with some good Blues being played. Gibson had a stand set up where a dozen or so people could play Gibson guitars. I’ve never seen that before.

On the train ride home I sat next to a woman who graduated from high school with me and also went to the same college. We spent the train ride chatting. We caught up on each others’ lives and the goings-on in our hometown. Nancy, you rock!

I nearly cancelled the trip when I learned the train was late on Saturday. I’m happy now that I didn’t. Talking with Nancy made the trip worth it.

I saw the sold-out Primus show at the Pageant last night. There was no opening band. The band launched right into a few Frizzle Fry songs and played some tunes off their new CD. The second half of the show was almost entirely songs off Sailing the Seas of Chesse. Overall, it was a decent show.

I saw the Halloween show that the Canadian Brass did with the St Louis Symphony Orchestra. If you had asked me if it were possible for a brass quintet to perform to perform Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, I would have said it wasn’t possible. But the Canadian Brass pulled it off in a frenzy that took my breath away. Those guys have talent!

Kevin, my brother, recently contributed a track to the album: Requiem – For the Children of the Oklahoma City Bombing. The tune is entitled “Cement Skeleton” and appears under the band name Kevin Dumps Core.

Ballistic Test Zine, an online mag that covers the industrial/dark ambient/goth Christian music scene, has posted a review.

For more information drop by Kevin’s site.