Dismemberment Plan
Engine Down
@ Bowery Ballroom
There was much disappointment amongst the socially disenfranchised internet youth when DC’s Dismemberment Plan announced that they were splitting up. In typical DC fashion, there was allegedly no bad blood, and a final tour was announced and quite an extensive one at that. Everybody’s got their next project lined up: Travis with a solo record on Desoto, Eric playing with some of the remnants of The Promise Ring, Joe off to study Maths and Jason to build cabinets. Ok, then. This was the second of their "last shows" and as was the norm on the tour, the set was all requests. Not a bad idea and fun from an audience participation point of view. The D-Plan’s rapport with their audience can get a little trying, especially during the now-more-than-tired deal where the audience can get up on stage during the Ice Of Boston. That does a great job of derailing a show’s momentum for ten minutes or better and may very well explain the D-Plan’s reason for breaking up. They put in a good effort, but it did have all the earmarks of a band that knew their end was near. They’ll be touring in Japan in the Fall and then it’s done. Kudos to the Plan for going our on an up note. Engine Down opened the night with a smooth set of post-rock that enumerated all the reason why Sparta are very boring and they are not. Let’s get some headlining gigs around town with these guys.

Iron Maiden
Dio
Motorhead
@Madison Square Garden
There are very few tickets that I can rationalize going out to the Garden at all for, much less shelling out 62.50, but Maiden, Dio and Motorhead is one of them. Hoo-wee, is this a flashback to my mullet-wearing upstate New York dwelling youth. This is no Black Oak Arkansas county fair nostalgia fest, this is the sound of three bands who haven’t changed a bit in their thirty years in bands. Motorhead raged as they always do. You’ve got to love a band whose frontman has been advised not to stop doing speed for health reasons. They played the same set they always do and it was just as good as it always is. If there is a nuclear holocaust and the rest of human kind perishes, you can count on Motorhead surviving. Dio are the perfect band to have in the middle slot. They have forty-five minutes of great songs and you don’t need to hear any more or less. You heard Rainbow In The Dark, Last In Line and Holy Diver and were damn happy for it. Ronnie James Dio is in amazing voice for his age (and size for that matter). I could have gone without the silly anachronistic drum solo. Don’t get me started about the guitar/keyboard duels, but kudos to Dio for coming out and rocking like they were the headliners. But they weren’t. It would take a big band to headline about Motorhead and Dio, but Maiden are that band. With an intensity equaled only by Judas Priest, they rocked the hell out of an enormous group of shirtless mullet wearing Jersey contractors. Most of the highlights were hit: The Trooper, Number Of The Beast, Run To The Hills. No Aces High, but still a great show. The only drawback is Janick Gers. What kind of dirt does this guy have on the rest of the band. He spends most of the set preening like David Coverdale in a mirror warehouse and running the gamut of played out rock moves. Lose the dead weight guys. I still hate the Garden, but this was one hell of a show.