The first time I heard Lazarus A.D. was when they were opening for Testament back in 2009. Just on that live performance, I bought their CD and became a fan.

The now defunct Poet’s & Pornstars was opening for Tesla a few years back, and I really dug their music and their show. Again, I picked up their CD and became a fan. Shame they fell apart.

Crowbar is a band I had always known about, but trying to listen to their albums I just couldn’t get into them. But when I saw them live with COC, Alabama Thunderpussy, and Suplecs, I was sold.

Something about live performance. And truly live performance, mistakes and all. Seeing a show, which isn’t just rehashing the album but playing, moving around, interactions, and having energy and excitement.

So when my buddy W told me about Halestorm some months ago I tried listening but just couldn’t get into them. Not sure why. However, when I recently read this article on BW&BK well.. the article is about how Steve Whiteman from Kix (awesome band, BTW) was Lzzy Hale’s vocal coach. What got me was the article embedded a 30+ minute video of one of Halestorm’s live performances – a full set from a gig in Cologne, Germany from early 2012:

I listened to it one day while at work.

Holy crap!

Blown away.

Just listen to the opening song, “Love Bites (and So Do I)”. Holy shit… Lzzy is amazing! So much energy, so much power. I even like how during the first solo she messes up — it’s live, baby. They know how to put on a show, how to perform, not just play music. What got me the most was you could tell they were the opening act for someone, most of the audience was not there to see them or even knew who they were. But every song won over more of the crowd, and Lzzy was able to get them to do her dirty work (so to speak).

No question, Lzzy is the compelling part of this band. Her vocals, her presence, her good looks. But what’s also striking is their songwriting. Good songs, catchy, solid. I picked up their two studio albums and there’s a lot more good stuff there.

Sure this wasn’t truly a live performance — I wasn’t at the show, seeing them standing in front of me. But it’s a live performance, and a complete performance (despite the frenetic camera work and video editing). It conveyed a lot about the band, and certainly when/if they come to Austin, I’d love to see them.

I haven’t listened to much new Stevie Wonder, but I love his older stuff.

I recall seeing a video earlier this year of Stevie being introduced to the Harpejji, which was really cool. It’s not just the instrument that was neat, but seeing just a talented musician like Stevie Wonder being shown the instrument and seeing him start to work with it… just so cool. So when I saw the above video of him performing with it, neat.

But even more neat was the song itself. I agree with his question and sentiment. We seem to relish being angry and ugly… when will there be a time for love?