Happy festivus!

If you know the Wild Heartwell, it’s a widely-known thing that I LOVE Seinfeld. However, there is one particular episode

Happy Festivus from the Wild Heart

that strikes my fancy: The Strike. This one is perhaps best-known as The Festivus.

With that said, I present to you the Wild Heart’s celebration of Festivus. HAPPY FESTIVUS! LET’S RUMBLE!

Airing of Grievances:

The airing of grievances gathers everyone you know and you tell them how they have wronged you in the past year.

• Heart – you come to Houston AGAIN and every time you do, you jack up your ticket prices. As a fan, I find this completely appalling. I haven’t seen your act since 2008’s Human Tour when I was in college. Between then and now, the economy went to hell and now this jobless college grad cannot afford to go to your concerts. Please lower your ticket prices!!
• Amy Grant – Your “2 Friends Tour” COMPLETELY avoided coming to Houston. I really wanted to see you live again and performing all your old hits, as well as Michael W. Smith. So I suggest that you stop snubbing Houston, and come to some place like the Berry Center, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion, or even the House of Blues. Otherwise I am done listening to your music!
• KTRU – I go in for an interview twice with you dumbass hipsters and you refuse to hire me twice! You act all anti-record industry yet what do I see when I walk into your studios but a big white banner that says “TOM WAITS FOR NO ONE!” Guess what? He was signed to Asylum and Island Records – both are major labels. He’s currently signed to Anti records, the US distributor to Kate Bush. Hate to break it to you but that’s a major label too. Yet somehow you don’t like me because I tell you the artists I am currently loving are Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks and Kate Bush. You are nothing but hypocrites. Thanks for crushing my on-air dreams.Oh and one more thing, since you are based at Rice University: GO COOGS!
• Stevie Nicks – Why did you have to snub Houston for the “Heart and Soul” tour? I wanted to see you perform that duet of Young Turks with Rod Stewart Not cool! But thanks for coming for the “In Your Dreams” tour. That was amazing!
• White Stripes, Rilo Kiley, & R.E.M – Why did you all break up? We need you to save us from the clutches of the evils of bad music such as Lady GaGa & Katy Perry!
• Ke$ha – I couldn’t help but notice that your song “C U Next Tuesday” is an acronym for “cunt.” As a college educated woman who took at least 9 hours of womens studies classes, I find this VERY offensive. Just because a guy calls you that doesn’t mean that it is okay. It’s degrading a female to a mere body part and nothing more. Take a freaking lesson from the women’s lib movement from the 70’s Ke$sha!
• The Ton Tons – How come you never got back to me about covering you guys?
• Nameless haters of that know who they are – What the hell gives you the right to take shots at the Wild Heart? BTW keep up the hatin’ because people like you only make people like me stronger! To quote Pat Benatar: “Knock me down it’s all in vain. I get right back up on my feet again! Hit me with your best shot!” It’s never cool to make fun of someone’s album collection. Vinyl is cooler, better sounding as far as decibels go, but you are a clueless jerk who only cares about making other peoples lives miserable.

And now for the toasts of 2011

• All of the local bands that I have covered this year – Nightbird – Stevie Nicks Tribute, Spare Parts, Spare Heart – Heart Tribute, August 83, Kozmic Pearl – Janis Joplin Tribute, Love It To Death – Alice Cooper Tribute, and BlackRozeHouston. I have loved every minute of covering you guys. Houston’s music scene is like a hidden gem of musical talent. All of y’all keep up the good work and I think you will go far! Special thanks to John Hill and Jennifer Nguyen for giving me this idea.
• Glee – One of the best things that you do, aside from the funny storylines with Jane Lynch and Matthew Morrison, is that you introduce classic rock numbers to a new generation. You did this well with last season’s salute to Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. No thanks to the show, a new generation got to hear snippets about the emotional drama that went on behind the scenes but also hear the songs themselves as performed by the cast. I want an encore! However can that encore be with something by Yes or Styx?
• Stevie Nicks – Your new album, In Your Dreams, is AMAZING! It reminds me of your old 80’s albums like The Wild Heart, Bella Donna, and The Other Side of the Mirror. Also, your In Your Dreams tour was pretty magical – least your concert in Houston was. (Never have I been to the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion where a concert was done in 103+ degree heat under a big full moon. Even better, your merchandise wasn’t too expensive and my mom liked the keychain I got her.
• Lindsey Buckingham – I won tickets to your concert at Cactus Records. Though I am unfamiliar with your solo work, I must say you were pretty amazing at the Verizon Wireless Theater. Also, I must give you mad props for performing my favorite Fleetwood Mac song, Tusk.
• Cactus and Black Records – Without you lovely people, I would not have been able to cover 2 major shows (Lindsey Buckingham and Lost 80’s Night at StereoLive with Animotion, When In Rome, and A Flock of Seagulls), survived a bad day at work, and helping me to climb the ladder of success with blogging.

MTV ID – One Night Stand w/ Fleetwood Mac – YouTube

MTV ID – One Night Stand w/ Fleetwood Mac – YouTube.

If I were alive during this time I would totally enter this contest. I know that it is no secret that the Wild Heart LOVES Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks – heck, I am named after one of her albums. (the one with Stand Back)

However I can safely say that if I WERE alive back then, my loving but strict Christian parents probably would NEVER let their daughter enter in a contest like THIS. Why you ask? a) drugs b) they thought Stevie was a practicing Wiccan – she wasn’t. c) my dad prefers the Peter Green years. I prefer the Buckingham Nicks years. and d) a young Baptist girl meeting a famous rockstar or a whole group of them would not bode well with the members of the local Southern Baptist Church. (still wouldn’t actually)

Here’s to dreaming though!

5 artists that should tour together

Image via Wikipedia

In honor of the latest announcement from Fleetwood Mac, we thought it would be nice to tell the whole wide world of what artists would be possibly a well-sold tour if they teamed up. As they say, sometimes two heads are better than one.

1. No Doubt with the Cure: Punk and emo-heads UNITE! You know this would draw those emo kids, hipsters, and punkheads alike.
2. Stevie Nicks with Pat Benatar: Two of the greatest women in rock & roll. Though they are getting older, songs such as Dreams, Gold Dust Woman, You Better Run, and Heartbreaker are timeless classics.
3. Linda Eder and Lea Michele (tv’s Glee): Lea Michele is a great singer in her own right and was in Spring Awakening. I think it would be a great career boost for Michele to have an audience with a Broadway legend.
4. Yes and Rush: Though I am a fan of Yes’s 90125 and I love Jon Anderson’s voice, this would be a total testosterone fest. Mostly men like Rush from what I can tell. Bring it on!
5. Talking Heads, Muse, and Radiohead: Now there’s one way to bring all the hipsters and nerds outta the woodwork. However, one thing that would have to be brought down is none other than the ego of Talking Heads lead singer David Byrne.

4 Worst Concert Disasters

Unfortunately this weekend, the Indiana State Fair suffered a catastrophic loss of 5 people with dozens more injured when country band Sugarland was to take the stage.

Unfortunately this isn’t the first time that something horrible has happened in concert. If anything, it should be a lesson to concert promoters and management to make sure that the stage is structured properly and also, if bad weather is coming – which they were reportedly forewarned a few hours earlier, please take the proper precaution so that this never happens.

Unfortunately in the past, some concerts have even gotten violent, such as these. May those that suffered or died know that you have not been forgotten.

Altamont

Altamont was an accident waiting to happen when it came to security detail. It was billed as “Woodstock West” – it was anything but. Instead of getting regular security guards or even SFPD, they paid the San Francisco chapter of the Hells Angels with $500 worth of beer. The headlining Rolling Stones were intimidated by the whole situation. Mick Jagger urged everyone to “just be cool down in front there, don’t push around” shortly before a fight erupted within a minute of their third song “Sympathy For the Devil” – one minute into the song. After consistently telling the crowd to calm down, the Hells Angels went after 18 year old Meredith Hunter, who became a homicide victim after drawing a pistol. It was a rather violent festival that also included 3 accidental deaths, injuries, property damage and cars stolen.

The event was so violent that other acts such as the Grateful Dead refused to play after the Stones’ set.

Woodstock 99

A peace group passed out candles that were supposed to be lit when the Red Hot Chili Peppers played “Under the Bridge” but were instead used to make a massive bonfire and burn everything in sight. There were also reports of rape going on – including a woman who was crowd surfing during Limp Bizkit’s set, was pulled down into the crowd and gang raped.

1979 Who Concert Disaster

In 1979 the Who’s concert at Cincinnati, OH Riverfront Coliseum killed 11 fans and injured dozens more. Seating at the venue was festival seating – first come first served. There were only a few doors opened when everyone outside heard the band warming up and thought the concert had actually started. Bottlenecking ensued and people were essentially trampled and suffocated. This resulted in the remainder of the concert season of the venue, which included Aerosmith and Blue Oyster Cult, being cancelled as well as festival seating being banned in Cincinnati for many years.

The Station Fire in Rhode Island featuring Glam metal band Great White

The Station Fire in Rhode Island was perhaps one of the worst tragedies in concert history. On February 23, 2003 at a glam-metal themed nightclub, The Station, Great White was scheduled to perform and decided to use pyrotechnic gerbs during their opening number, which ignited the flammable sound insulation foam in the walls and ceilings that surrounded the stage. Over 100 lives were claimed including Great White’s lead guitarist Ty Longley and WHJY DJ Mike “The Doctor” Gonsalves.