Posts Tagged ‘coheed’

So we decided to go see a movie this weekend; pickins’ were kind of slim- we were going to go see Drag Me to Hell, but got talking about Will Ferrell’s Land of the Lost. I was trying to explain to Alison what the craziness was of watching the Kroft shows as a kid- how, even when I was little, I knew they were cheezy. But somehow, they were still awesome, and we watched every damn day.

In that vein, we decided the Land of the Lost remake might be fun/nostalgic. (In the end, not so much, but that’s a different story.)

The trailers start, there are a couple things I’ll have no problem skipping, and then this came on:

First off, Tim Burton=”we will go to see it,” so that’s cool.

But, about halfway through the trailer, this music starts to play and I lean over to Ali and ask her who it is- it seems familiar. She looks at me like I’m crazy.

“No, seriously,” I whisper, “I think I know this!”

“Mom, ssssshhhh!” she hisses, looking around to see if anybody’s noticed her Mom behaving badly, not only talking in the theater, but claiming knowledge of some rock-music- something she’s only supposed to know about unless we’re talking Flock of Seagulls-era.

“I mean it,” I ask, still whispering, but annoyed. “Just tell me who it is! It’s driving me crazy!” The music has gotten louder now, and changed tempo- I am more convinced than ever I know it, but I just can’t…

“Hey!” I say, WAY too loudly. “That’s Coheed!”

“Mom!” Alison withers, sinking down, down, down into her seat, looking up at me like I am the biggest, oldest dork on the planet. I beam, unashamed of my essential dorkish nature.

It was all especially fun since- as we all well remember from teenhood- parents live to embarrass their kids, and I’m not sure how many more opportunities I’ll get. I need to remember to savor the ones I have as an ever-scarcer commodity.

And just to illustrate the level of cheez in the Kroft shows, I bring you the intro (yes, it’s just each episode’s opening credits, despite sounding like the entire series arc) to H.R. Puffinstuff. Hope you took your Lactaid:

Yesterday Travis & Coheed were in town to work on a Habitat house with the guys from Linkin Park. Turns out LP started a charity after the tsunami called Music for Relief, and they’ve since branched out into different projects. Coheed’s been on the road with Linkin Park and were happy to get involved.

It was a damn cold day, and I know Travis was itching to get his hands on a nail gun and really go to town, but they kept warm swinging hammers, putting down floors and putting up walls.

They kept the location quiet so they could work in peace, but the Times-Pic did show up for a few minutes, shot some photos and videos and were off.

Times-Picayune story with link to their gallery

Times-Pic video

We took a few pics when we picked him up, but weren’t allowed up on the staging area without wavers, etc. The studs (boards that is, not bands) were sort of in the way, but they were only going to be working for a few more minutes, so we opted to stay grounded.

Since they were winding down we chatted up the Habitat rep instead and found that that pre-K they did an average of 4 houses a year in New Orleans- post-K it’s about 170, and it’s only through the generosity of groups like Music for Relief that they have the funding to keep going.

When we took off, she was rounding everybody up for the Death & Destruction tour through the Lower 9- something she gets to do a couple of times a week.

The photos after the jump: Read the rest of this entry »

I’ll be honest, I don’t usually do Voodoo. It skews a little young for me, but this was the first year that Alison really REALLY wanted to go- she did all three days, while we wimpy adults just did Saturday, which was when Coheed & Cambria played.

We got in the gate late because we naively didn’t realize we’d have to park miles and miles away and hike up and through City Park to get there. Coheed was already setting up by the time we’d gotten our tickets and I fought with the security guard who tried to take my camera away- for the only time in my life I played the “Do you know who I AM???” card. I, of course “am” nobody…but I had a backstage pass that said otherwise, and what the guard didn’t know didn’t hurt him.

But then we had a second go-round with the guard watching the backstage entrance who didn’t want to let us up. Luckily, Alison spotted Travis behind him and started screaming. Despite the fact that onstage he looks like he might skin and eat you alive he’s actually the nicest guy you’ll ever meet, and, unlike me, he actually IS somebody but naturally he took the high road. “C’mon, man,” he said, “they’re my family!”

After a brief negotiation, we were in…and Alison, never one to know when to stop pressing her luck, got her friend Corrine in too. Very cool all around.

The viewing area was elevated off to the side and it was only once we were up there we realized just how huge the crowd was- official reports are that there were more than 400,000 people over the three days.

Need I even say that it was a phenomenal show?

Before they had to jump on the bus and hustle out we talked about how different it was from their first show in New Orleans just a few years ago. Back then there were only 40 or so people in this tiny club with serious electrical problems- Claudio got a huge jolt from a malfunctioning microphone. Everybody was hauling their own stuff, and ‘shoestring’ would just about describe it.

Amazing guys. Go buy their new album. And if you want to see more pics, check the Gallery.