Something to Ponder

I've been going through a phase where I'm currently listening to a lot of Slayer amongst other artists and genres, and it got me thinking about a few things; 1) I am super glad/lucky I got to see them with the original 4 guys twice inside of a year 2) Slayer should not play Dave Lombardo songs without Dave Lombardo, and they should not play Paul Bostaph songs without Paul Bostaph 3) towards the end of his run with Slayer Jeff Hanneman's leads were beyond not good.
Now I know that its a bummer about Jeff Hanneman, but if you listen to any of their live stuff from say...2005 until Hanneman had to bow out, his lead playing was atrocious. I know that he had arthritis and various aliments that he didn't want out in the open, I know that Slayer has an unorthodox lead style, I know that he played whatever he wanted to, BUT the leads were bad. I like noisy solos as much as the next guitar guy. The stuff you can do with a whammy bar and some delay/reverb is amazing, but he wasn't even trying. This none more apparent then when you listen to say "Seasons In the Abyss" from The Big 4 box set (which is an awesomely awesome thing BTW). Now it's not just his leads that sucked balls in that show; Kerry King is very meh as well. But the solo(s) in that song are so good. SOOOO GOOD. And during that one he just wanks chromatically all over the place. It sounds like a kid with epilepsy at Guitar Center playing. Yikes.
My next point. Yes it sucks that Lombardo is out, again. But at least Bostaph is back in. If you watch the YouTube videos of them both playing you can tell the differences between their styles obviously and how they don't really fit into the others songs well at all. Example: watch Lombardo play something like "Dittohead". Great song, but the drumming is super tight and technical. Dave Lombardo is not tight at all. He has that great groove that makes the songs he plays on come alive. Plus he loves to do improv (which he is super good at), which does not lend its self to Bostaph songs. Second example: watch Bostaph play "War Ensemble". He is way stiff. But that's his style. Technical and precise. That's not to say that he lacks groove or anything, but he can't hold a candle to Lombardo. The parts in that song are looser, even the fast parts, and they give that song life. But when a robot plays them not so much. So again my solution: don't have Dave Lombardo play Paul Bostaph songs, and don't have Paul Bostaph play Dave Lombardo songs.
And, I really don't know how I feel about Gary Holt moving forward with these guys. Maybe it's because it's too soon since Hanneman, but it feels weird. And what does it do to Exodus? We'll see I guess.

Awesome

I've been to my fair share of concerts, and I have some good memories of them. One of them is seeing Guns N' Roses* in 2003 and getting handed a toy by Buckethead. My favorite one though would be the first time I saw Slayer in 2003. I'm not sure what it is that got me thinking about this, maybe it was just deciding to throw on a Slayer album the other day (World Painted Blood) or maybe it just randomly popped into my head during my daily 5 mile journey.
Here's what happened. We were in high school and  had bought tickets to see Slayer on the 2003 Jagermeister tour. I went with my best friend and another friend of ours who decided to bring his dumb ass skanky girlfriend along (boo). My friend Ray and I were separated from our other friend and his skank. We were at the front on the left, while they were on the right. Show starts and bam! Craziness ensues.
When I was going there I was totally set that I wanted to see Dave Lombardo, because he's the fucking man, but as the show started Jeff Hanneman was right in front of me. The entire time. I couldn't believe it. Next thing I know, their set is halfway over and then Jeff Hanneman throws his pick RIGHT at me; the one he had played the entire first half of the show with, and some ass face knocks it away. Then the security guard picks it up and it seemed like time slowed down. The pick seemed to be sitting there for minutes. Just sitting there in his hand. I saw it and went for it, grabbed it while the asshole next to me went for it. I then open my hand and see it sitting there. The security guard saw that Hanneman had thrown it at me and when he saw that I got it, he high fived me. Than to top it off, Jeff Hanneman saw that I got it and screamed "YYYYYYYEAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" at me.

It. Was. Awesome.

Also Ray got a pick from him also.
Than I had to drive the 5 hrs back home as our dip shit friend didn't (and probably still doesn't) have his license, and I wasn't going to trust his girlfriend driving my car. So that's my favorite concert memory, and I still have the pick!


*As much as you can call it Guns N' Roses I guess. It was still a kick ass concert.