{"id":1141,"date":"2010-12-16T00:06:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-16T00:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/?p=1141"},"modified":"2024-04-12T00:07:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T00:07:00","slug":"ugly-sweaters-tight-pants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/?p=1141","title":{"rendered":"Ugly sweaters, tight pants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Is
Is that that guy from American Pie? And singing a duet with Autumn Sky? Why, yes: Thomas Ian Nicholas, a man with three first names, gigged Naked Lounge Downtown last Saturday.PHOTO BY STEVEN CHEA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wear your holiday worst:<\/strong>
Truth be told, I\u2019ve never actually been to a bad-holiday-sweater party. But I\u2019m quite intrigued as to which of the five performers at this Friday-night gig will take home the prize of ugliest damned Xmas sweater<\/strong>: Chris Twomey<\/strong>, Dean Haakenson<\/strong> of Be Brave Bold Robot<\/strong> (playing with full band), Ken Burnett<\/strong> or Adam Varona<\/strong> of the Inversions<\/strong>? If I had to put money on it, I\u2019d bet on Haakenson, as he\u2019s a man with a vision who\u2019s sure to deliver some tacky-ass threads. Though I won\u2019t underestimate Twomey, either. Or, hell, maybe I\u2019ll have the best dang sweater? Find out this Friday, December 17, at the Fox & Goose<\/strong>, 1001 R Street; $5. (Nick Miller)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lord of the ball-squeezing falsettos:<\/strong>
I\u2019m certain my wife and I were the only Sacramentans present at the recent Blind Guardian<\/strong> show in San Francisco at the hallowed Regency Ballroom. It\u2019d be a good guess, as there were (maybe) around 300 metalheads<\/strong> in an area that safely holds three times as much on a good night. Even the balcony was closed. WTF?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way, as my luck would have it, her favorite band is Blind Guardian, that plays a brand of music that I, out of sheer hate<\/strong>, have dubbed \u201cMordor metal<\/strong>.\u201d What is that? If you took the elements of Dungeons & Dragons<\/em>, Lord of the Rings<\/em> and all the bombastic, unnecessary singalong choruses you could (or couldn\u2019t stomach), this would be the ungodly result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As luck would have it, Holy Grail<\/strong>, a Pasadena-based five-piece old-school outfit, replete with ball-squeezing falsettos, was the highlight of the night. Touring in support of their latest release, Crisis in Utopia<\/em>, these lads came out swinging to the near empty room with a dual guitar assault that would make any mom proud. James Paul Luna<\/strong> ran around the middle of their allotted stage (they\u2019re openers, you know?) screaming at the top of his lungs, only pausing for brief interims to head-bang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about the headliner? Blind Guardian took the stage, and its drummer was shirtless<\/strong> before the first song even started. Enough said. (Eddie Jorgensen)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pizza-parlor mosh pit:<\/strong>
A crowd of guys\u2014and two or three girls\u2014wearing either plaid shirts and polos, emo glasses or uncomfortably tight<\/strong> pants, Vans or Chuck Taylors, and all with disheveled long hair, waited eagerly at the foot of Luigi\u2019s Fun Garden\u2019s stage for A Lot Like Birds<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The openers of the show\u2014local bands So Stressed<\/strong>, the Speed of Sound in Seawater<\/strong>, and Oregon-based Duck. Little Brother, Duck!<\/strong>\u2014managed to get a few shy head bobs at the beginning of the show. And the lineup was a pretty good mix: the Speed of Sound in Seawater boasted upbeat melodies and catchy bass lines; Duck. Little Brother, Duck!\u2019s emo-rock instrumentals and memorable vocals, comparable to Taking Back Sunday<\/strong>\u2019s Adam Lazzara, kept me interested and genuinely head-bobbing along with the crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when A Lot Like Birds\u2019 Cory Lockwood<\/strong>\u2019s scream vocals filled the room, a mosh pit<\/strong> was already in the making. The ridiculously long changeover almost had me indifferent by the last set, but A Lot Like Birds\u2019 first song converted. Lockwood\u2019s onstage antics, Ben Wiacek<\/strong>\u2019s guitar skills and the stage presence of the entire band created an epic atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The witty banter among the band\u2019s members and some random guy\u2019s\u00a0failed attempt to crowd-surf<\/strong>\u00a0were entertaining, but A Lot Like Birds\u2019 ending performance was definitely the cherry on top. (Jamie Santiago)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(SN&R)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wear your holiday worst:Truth be told, I\u2019ve never actually been to a bad-holiday-sweater party. But I\u2019m quite intrigued as to which of the five performers at this Friday-night gig will take home the prize of ugliest damned Xmas sweater: Chris Twomey, Dean Haakenson of Be Brave Bold Robot (playing with full band), Ken Burnett or Adam Varona of the Inversions? If I had to put money […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1142,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1141\/revisions\/1142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}