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So...recently (on June 23rd) Dream Theater's latest album came out, Black Clouds & Silver Linings. It is a masterwork consisting of six songs...each of which are epic and moving. I haven't been this excited for an album since Opeth's Watershed last year, and no other album before that. Especially the album's closer, the nineteen-minute epic, "The Count of Tuscany" is extraordinary and remarkable. It's seriously one of the best rock, metal and progressive ballads I've ever heard.
For my full thoughts, check out my music review blog: http://musicandreviews.wordpress.com/
(Don't judge too harshly, I'm still a noob at this.)
Suspiciously, my traffic has died recently. Please click that link about thirty times and drive it back up, plz. (:
Anyway...now moving on to the shit luck part, which is related, I promise...
So...I became oh so excited (to the point of drooling and having wet dreams) at the prospect of seeing Dream Theater live this summer. They're like 75% likely to play "The Count of Tuscany", after all...and if not, they're 100% likely to play at least one of the other five amazing songs on that amazing album they just released (ok, so "A Rite of Passage" isn't so great, but the other four are pretty good).
In any case, I immediately looked up the tour dates and began planning what promised to be a great night. They will be playing in LA on August 29th.
Now...I suffer from a serious and critical problem concerning my music: I don't have any friends who listen to the same music I do. I'm a weird pretentious douche who listens mainly to metal, progressive and classical music, with only random bits of rock, pop and hip hop (mostly from Korea and Japan) thrown in. All of my friends listen to what I condescendingly call "dumb music". I'm always joking, but they still think I'm a douche. Just kidding. I am a douche.
So naturally, I don't have any buddies to call up and go, "Dude! DT! August 29th! Greek Theater in LA! GO TIME!" To which they'd jovially reply, "Already on that shit, mang! Tix in hand! YEAAAH!" To which I'd ecstatically exclaim, "FUCK YEAAH, BOYEEE~!" as we both high-five thin air at our respective locations.
Instead when these come up, I usually drag a different friend or two every time that have only a passing interest in these kinds of bands. Usually Dream Theater is a hit just becaues it's interesting to watch them play so fast their hands blur even if you don't know the music. My other favorite bands, Opeth and Tool, generally aren't such big hits (there's something about the unintelligibility of death-ish metal music live (yes, even Opeth) and the overwhelming stench of weed that floats 'round Tool shows that turns non-believers (and non-stoners) away).
Last year, when Dream Theater played in the area last, I got a few friends (including my best friend) to go with me. I figured I could ask her for a favor again this year. Who knows...I thought that maybe, just maybe, the promise of buying her enough drinks to enjoy anything, splitting the cost of the ticket, the off chance (and by off chance, I mean <1%) that Dream Theater will play the ONE song she likes from them that night, and (of course), spending a fabulous music-filled night with yours truly, might persuade her to go to some event that will only result in her getting hit on by creepy metalheads with long hair and greasy progressive nerds (happened last year, I swear), leaving with hair smelling like cigarettes and weed, and becoming deaf for the next two days. Just maybe.
So...I decided to go ahead and press my, what this blog title has established as, shitty luck...I asked her the same day of my previous blog (that shitty day in San Diego seeing panda bears and being dicked by pumped wannabe tough guy motherfuckers in shady bars)...and our conversation went something like this:
[While fooling around with my other friend's iPhone, I suddenly thought of checking DT's tour dates; I wanted to see what the website would look like on an iPhone, and I had been meaning to check but kept forgetting.]
[EDIT: Because people were misunderstanding...my friend was being mean, but jokingly so. It wasn't serious serious, but serious joking as Perguvious put it /EDIT]
Me: "Dude! Dream Theater is playing in late August!"
Her: "Cool. Good for you."
Me: "Omg please go with me...other than [name] and [name] who are fucking annoying, no one else would go..."
Her: "Are you serious? You really can't ask [name]?"
Me: "No, he's been a bitching tool lately...just imagining driving in a car with him for an hour and a half is taking years off my life."
Her: "Ugh...ok, fine I'll go...but if another creepy dude hits on me there, I'm gonna taze him AND you."
Me: "YESSS!"
Her: "When is it, btw? It's not on the 29th, is it?"
Me: "It might be...lemme check [on this nifty iPhone with 3G internet!] real quick. Yeah, it is...why, what's the 29th?"
Her: "Are you serious?"
Me: "What?"
Her: "No, no...forget about it."
Me: "Oh god...it's your birthday, isn't it?"
Her: "No. But we're no longer friends."
So...wow. Can you believe that coincidence??
Me: "So...what if I bought you a ticket to a Dream Theater concert for your birthday?"
Her: "Go to hell, 'buddy'."
Man...at that moment, I realized how fucked I was. I had just found out that I would NOT be going to the Dream Theater show with the 75% chance of them playing, "Count of Tuscany" and 100% chance of them playing at least one of the other four amazing songs on that amazing album, and I had just pissed off my best friend who, as a woman, sometimes (LOL no...a LOT of the time) acts like...a woman.
Fuck my life...I want to go to that show so badly. Too bad instead I'll be drowning my sorrows with alcohol that night after being dragged to a fucking club or some shit on $9 beer night. T_T.
 
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so, uh, memory lapse? or did you legitimately not know her bday lol
and cant you go alone if youre that excited? >_>
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MrHoon
10183 Posts
Me: "It might be...lemme check [on this nifty iPhone with 3G internet!] real quick. Yeah, it is...why, what's the 29th?"
Her: "Are you serious?"
Me: "What?"
Her: "No, no...forget about it."
Me: "Oh god...it's your birthday, isn't it?"
Her: "No. But we're no longer friends."
I'm sorry but is this what she really said?
Because, thats just like WOW, what crawled up her ass?
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@paper: I've been to ONE concert by myself before because I REALLY wanted to go. I ended up being miserable. Since then, the thought of going to a concert alone has never crossed my mind, lol.
However, that's not the issue. The problem is that it's on my friend's birthday. I'm going to be out and about for that. ):
@MrHoon: She really did say that in real life, but I guess it was funnier then than it is reading it now, lol. She was being mean and was definitely pissed, but it was just friendly banter.
I have a very bad habit of being horrendous with birthdays and stuff like that. I didn't even know it was my birthday this year (and I turned 21) until my friends asked me what I wanted to do for it the night before.
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without facial expressions and tone I have no clue if she was joking joking or serious joking or serious serious. I'm guessing it's serious joking
sucks that you can't go to that concert, I wanted to go to some random concert with my friends one time and fucking had to go to a family dinner
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Serious joking, yeah. We've been close friends for over twelve years, so we get at each other a lot.
I should probably include some kind of a disclaimer saying that in the OP.
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i'll go with you, i love dream theater.
i also:
1. am cool
2. live in los angeles
3. will not disown you if you forget my birthday
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Baa?21244 Posts
That sucks. Hmm.
I do agree with your views on Dream Theater and their newest album though, hope you can persuade her to change her mind and go with you haha, good luck ( !).
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@esla_sol: haha. I would, but like I said earlier, I'm going to be out and about for my friend's bday. Next time, though. We'll make a TL thing out of it and find everyone who likes DT in socal.
@Carnivorous Sheep: Isn't it amazing? My only gripes are that little rapping part in "A Nightmare to Remember" that's just too much, and "A Rite of Passage" being really flat and dull.
I can't get over "Count of Tuscany", though. I've listened to that song at least two dozen times since I got the album...it's so great, and, to be honest, beats the shit out of their other epics, "A Change of Seasons", "Octavarium", and "In the Presence of Enemies", even if it's a bit shorter.
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lol gw. reminds me, my stupid ex's birthday is on that day too. so screw girls that are born on that day, they are obviously losers.
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First off, as a huge Dream Theater fan, I too can't praise the new album enough. I haven't been this excited for an album since six degrees, even if you're just counting A Nightmare To Remember and The Count Of Tuscany. I find the only down part to be their quantity of music on the new album, taken into comparison with their earlier albums, but I guess the epicness makes up for most of it.
Secondly I'd like to quote MrHoon here with the crawling up her ass part, because seriously, who takes off like that just because of a birthday. I'd probably really dig into my friend-library to find another one that might be willing to seeing a band of epic proportions that night, and just go to the concert. A birthday would seriously not stop me from doing that ( well...unless it's some round number or special birthday or whatnot, but It'd have to be special! ).
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whats the deal with birthdays anyways, who gives a damn, i dont expect anyone to remember mine and i sure as hell wouldn't care if no one did.
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On July 14 2009 21:13 VarmVaffel wrote:
First off, as a huge Dream Theater fan, I too can't praise the new album enough. I haven't been this excited for an album since six degrees, even if you're just counting A Nightmare To Remember and The Count Of Tuscany. I find the only down part to be their quantity of music on the new album, taken into comparison with their earlier albums, but I guess the epicness makes up for most of it.
Secondly I'd like to quote MrHoon here with the crawling up her ass part, because seriously, who takes off like that just because of a birthday. I'd probably really dig into my friend-library to find another one that might be willing to seeing a band of epic proportions that night, and just go to the concert. A birthday would seriously not stop me from doing that ( well...unless it's some round number or special birthday or whatnot, but It'd have to be special! ).
The album still feels rather complete, even with only six songs. I also think it's their best album since Six Degrees and Scenes. I got into DT when Octavarium was already out, so I eagerly anticipated Systematic Chaos...and omg, I felt like I was trolled...or even betrayed. The only two songs I listen to off of that album are, "In the Presence of Enemies Pt. 1" (part 2 is shit) and "Ministry of Lost Souls". This new one is a mind-boggling turn around from that album's failure.
And lol...even with that disclaimer, I guess people are still taking it the wrong way. I've been friends with her for more than twelve years, and we bicker a lot.As much as I love Dream Theater, I won't ditch a good friend on their birthday for them...especially if they're nearly like family...
Which is why this sucks so much ass, lol. It almost makes me wish the new album had been shit. ahahaa.
On July 14 2009 21:27 besiger wrote:
whats the deal with birthdays anyways, who gives a damn, i dont expect anyone to remember mine and i sure as hell wouldn't care if no one did.
They're a great excuse to waste money and get wasted. 
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you're a really nice guy for ditching DT for your friend o__o
also your music site was cool.
Antoine dufour is so much cooler than andy mckee though~! ^^
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Are you guys kidding? Dream Theater officially SUCKS as a band because of this new album, and trust me, I'm a bigger Dream Theater fan than you. But I'm for the music, not the image of the band, and they have musically begun to suck. John Petrucci is a non-musical metal-head shredder, who ruins any beauty the songs might have achieved.
Jordan Rudess is a musical genius, and I am personally WAY more interested in his solo stuff more than ever. Especially since this last album... if they let him write all the songs it would be okay. Rudess himself has commented on how bad the aim of DT musically has become (and he is EASILY the most talented in the band).
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On July 14 2009 20:56 PH wrote:
I can't get over "Count of Tuscany", though. I've listened to that song at least two dozen times since I got the album...it's so great, and, to be honest, beats the shit out of their other epics, "A Change of Seasons", "Octavarium", and "In the Presence of Enemies", even if it's a bit shorter.
are you serious
Even if one disregards tCoT's painful lyrics, A Change of Seasons still rapes it.
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On July 15 2009 01:28 Romance_us wrote:
Jordan Rudess is a musical genius, and I am personally WAY more interested in his solo stuff more than ever. Especially since this last album... if they let him write all the songs it would be okay. Rudess himself has commented on how bad the aim of DT musically has become (and he is EASILY the most talented in the band).
Myung needs to write again imo.
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On July 14 2009 20:02 MrHoon wrote:Show nested quote +Me: "It might be...lemme check [on this nifty iPhone with 3G internet!] real quick. Yeah, it is...why, what's the 29th?"
Her: "Are you serious?"
Me: "What?"
Her: "No, no...forget about it."
Me: "Oh god...it's your birthday, isn't it?"
Her: "No. But we're no longer friends." I'm sorry but is this what she really said? Because, thats just like WOW, what crawled up her ass?
yea, fuck that bitch
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They might have their loyal followers, but charging 50€ for a concert ticket is a fucking ripoff : /
I'd go see them too if they weren't so expensive.
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EPT
