Rocking my Inner Roll

Okay, I am going to come completely clean with you all. I, Beans, am a Liar. Huge. Big. Monstrous Liar. On Saturday, 7-21-18, in response to OldAFSarge talking about going to see the Foo Fighters, I stated in my comments, “My first and only rock concert was a Monkees reunion tour.”

Though at the time I commented that was the only ‘Rock Concert’ I remembered going to, I realized later, while fixing lunch, Bacon Lettuce and Tomato (with a smear of good mayonnaise) sandwiches if you must know (and down-right tasty, though I actually like LT sandwiches with the Bacon on the side,) that I lied to you all. I am a Liar. Because, well, I have been to ½ of one Rock Concert (or to a Half-Rock Concert,) and to another Rock Concert. There. I admit it. Liar I am. Shame upon my house, or memory, or whatever.

Now, to be truthful, I don’t like going to concerts at all. I like my music… pure. And I mean PURE. No farts, no coughs, no one singing along badly next to me (not Mrs. Andrew, she has a great voice) or people screaming and whooooing so loud one can’t hear the drug-addled band that only sounds great on records because they can overdub and take multiple tracts and all that studio stuff.

And I don’t like my fellow ‘man.’ I tend not to like being around large groups of them (unless I am in armor and hitting them.) I especially do not like being around people when they are ‘whooooing’ and screaming (except when I am the one hitting them and causing the screaming) or when they are politicking, which would explain why I finally gave up on my city's 3rd of July Celebration concerts (yes, 3rd of July. This town is full of socialists and communists, all who flock to the concert to try to get one who is there for music and bad food to vote for their socialist or communist disguised as a democrat, sort-of.)

So. There. I like my fellow man, at a distance (distance being the range of whatever weapon I have in my hand at the time, which means when I go out without a weapon in my hand I am somewhat paranoid around unknown people, a trait that I learned by being the walking, talking punching bag throughout my public school career (and, yes, I thought all the time about shooting, stabbing, poisoning, setting aflame, nuking, blowing up my schools with all those jerks in them, but I never actually did all of that. I guess I was following one of the precepts of St. Mattis of the Leathernecks as I always had a plan to kill everyone. Somewhat farfetched, fanciful, but, oh, I planned and planned, in my head…)) People, I hates them, nasty peoples…

Now, I have been to concerts, from Josh Groban (where some stupid twits were trying to sing along with Josh) and some Regimental Pipe and Drum band from Jolly Olde Scotland, to pipe organ performances and those Japanese Drum people. I’ve gone to a live performance of “Madame Butterfly” (Opera rocks, baby!) and I’ve gone to a Mannheim Steamroller Christmas concert. And the aforementioned "Monkees Reunion Tour" (so sue me, I like their music. It's happy and fun and isn't too weird, well, except when they morphed into "Head" but that's weird music so I don't listen to it.)

Woooooo. Living on THE EDGE I am… On the Friggin EDGE!!!

So.

The ½ of a Rock Concert, or Half Rock Concert I went to? The Beans Family Safari went to see Sting (without the Police) down near Tampa, FL one year. Lead act was Amy Lennox. Okay, so we get there to an open air venue, in Florida, in the Fall, and the venue people won’t let me take an umbrella into a performance in an open air venue in Florida in the Fall. Yes. It rained. Beans does not like getting rained on. Nasty rain, it hurtsss… and Beans mildews when wet (no, seriously, ever since a little sprout (get it? sprout?) Beans has mildewed when not properly dried, and Beans does not like being mildewey.) Sting (without the Police) was awesome as Sting could be. Amy Lennox? Well, she apparently had just embarked upon being a full-fledged barking moonbat so got to listen less to her singing and more to her idiot political dis-beliefs. (I pays the dancing monkey to perform, not to listen to the poop flinging out of her mouth.) So there were some rock songs but it was more of a concert with rock songs than a rock concert.

The other Rock Concert I went to? Totally Awesome. So totally awesome I forgot that it was a rock concert. Left totally blown away, totally.

So what, totally, was this totally rocking Rock Concert I totally went to? The Beans Family attended one of the “How to be a Megastar” rock concerts of… Blue Man Group. Whoooooooooooo!!!! And… I lied again, my memory must be going as we also went to a “How to be a Megastar 2.0” concert. Does BMG count as a rock group? That right there might have been why I might have forgotten I rocked at their concert. For those of you not in the know, Blue Man Group is a performance artist group of 3 guys who wear latex hoodies, black baggy clothing and cover their exposed portions in blue paint. And they do percussion music on a variety of instruments, from conventional drums to various PVC concoctions to abusing a baby grand piano with a sledge-mallet. Their music is some seriously good percussive trippy stuff, really good for introspection or just grooving (I used to listen to it at work a lot until the fun police stopped me.)

Any group that combines percussion instruments with an empire-waisted light-up A-line dress is...
Rock and Roll, Baby
Yes, I am weird, as I know what an empire-waist dress and an A-line skirt are, having made both of them for other people at one time.
(I haz madz skilllzzz.)
Oh, the big drum that one of the Blue Man beats, you feel that anywhere you are at in the concert hall. You feel it as much as you hear it.
And aren't women who smile with their whole soul awful pretty?

This is BMG performing with the Kodo Drummers doing BMG's "Mandelbrot 7"
Shows one of the interesting percussion instruments made of PVC

The Forge
see, this music is awesome

Here is one of their most heartfelt pieces, called "Exhibit 13." This was done as a tribute to 9-11, as it was based on papers found at their New York City venue after they returned.
Listen carefully to the whispering in the background of this piece.
That's someone reading what is on the pages.

This piece just pulls my heartstrings. Makes me cry, silently, as I stare off into the distance and remember a lost world and fallen giants.

Okay, enough of the maudlin stuff, here's some more (since I now know how to embed videos, what seemed so hard is so easy, or at least I say that now and may change my mind depending on how Blogger actually acts after I post the post.)

A series of shorts

Rods and Cones - one of their classic pieces

Now, if you haven't seen them yet, do so. Go see them at some location like Universal Studios, Orlando or Vegas, baby, or some other place. Or catch them when they tour again. It's worth it. Really. (If you can't make it, just search "Blue Man Group The Complex Rock Tour Live" for a 75 minute video that I couldn't link to this page for whatever reason, mayhaps I am using too much bandy width or other such technical stuff.)

Okay, just for all y'all's edification, empire-waisted gowns come from the Empire period, which is one of OldAFSarge's favorite periods to blog about. Yep, good old Napoleonic Empire fashion. The skirt of the dress starts flaring out below the protu.. the boo... the.. the... the breasts. Very fashionable during Napoleon's Empire, on both sides of the Channel. 

artist: Merry Joseph Blondel - Felicite-Louise-Julie-Constance de Durfort - 1807

See?  Dress starts to flare under the, um, er, well, you get the picture...

(As to the artiste, who knew hobbits painted pictures in France?)

And an A-line skirt is a skirt that flares like an 'A,' instead of being a tube, sheath, mermaid or other variety. Christian Dior named the A-line the A-line. He didn't originate it, but he named it. Think 50's classic female dress, kinda like...

Yes, it's an A-line Dior dress, if you must know.

So, because I had to, like twist my arm had to, listen to some more of that beautiful singer in the first BMG video, Venus Hum (irl - Annette Strean,) well, so do you, so there.

Venus Hum - Emergency

Venus Hum - Soul Sloshing

Catchy tune, isn't it?

Cute happy ladies singing are just beautiful.
And nice... Lungs, very powerful... voice.

Ah, hell, just because this song is so good and Venus Hum is so cute, BMG and her in the music video version of "I feel Love."

I like the Blue Man guys, but...
There's something about a woman with a great voice and who glows while smiling.

See you next time for another adventure through Bean's head...