Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks @Westbury Music Fair, 5.16.25

On Friday evening I shook off my introverted-ness enough to head out to Westbury, NY to see Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks perform a selection of (mostly) Yes classics, with a few choice cuts from their stellar 2024 album True sprinkled throughout the band’s two sets. Armed with nothing but a crappy camera phone I got to see a legend sing and wave his tambourine around like it was still the md-70s, despite the man himself being in his 80s. It was wonderful, and to memorialize it I wanted to throw a few words up here.

ChrisMay 19, 2025August 15, 2025Leave a comment

Playlists

(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 50: Walk a Mile In My Shoes

Fifty of these. Feels like a milestone. But we’re just going to keep on keeping’ on, so to speak, and mark different milestones. In fact I have an idea for episode 52 already. Last night I got home late after seeing an incredible show that I’m going to write about here, so we’ll keep that under wraps for now and do another quick hit list of new albums I’m digging that came out recently as well as a few finds that made their way into my collection. And we’re even diving back into older rituals like ending with a Zappa track. Let’s go.

ChrisMay 17, 2025May 17, 2025Leave a comment

Jeff Beck: Wired (1976)

If my admiration for Blow By Blow was lukewarm at best, I wasn’t sure if Wired was going to be any better. A few more days spent watching tons of live videos showed me exactly what it is about Jeff Beck that was so influential: the guy was an absolute master when it came to dynamics, phrasing, and no one used the volume knob and whammy bar better than he did. Would that translate to a better studio album, especially one with a change of guard that now included some of the very same players who were inspiring him in the fusion world? I like Wired more: there are a few small issues here and there, but to my ears this sounds like the fulfillment of what Beck was shooting for on his previous album.

ChrisMay 16, 2025January 6, 2026Leave a comment

Jeff Beck: Blow By Blow (1975)

I know a consistent refrain here is that it’s never too late to discover an artist or band. And that’s true, for the most part. But time and distance can sometimes blur or fade the response to a legend, and I’m not going to lie here: Jeff Beck is most certainly a fantastic guitarist, but based on my first thorough impressions of Beck’s first “proper” solo album, the instrumental multi-genre hybrid Blow By Blow, I’m a little underwhelmed. There are a few moments when the tracks really soar, and Beck’s playing is always fine, but the songs themselves often feel rote and shallow. Yeah, I’m as surprised as you, and happy to return my cool cred card, but on the whole I’m not sure this is one I’ll revisit often.

ChrisMay 13, 2025January 6, 20263 Comments

Wurmian: Immemorial Shrine (2025)

As I get older I get more and more discerning about metal, especially metal that I want to put my name on as a reviewer. I’m known mostly as the old school guy, the retro rock and stoner metal and 80s thrash guy, but there’s a huge piece of my heart that falls for black and death metal. And over the past few years Inherits The Void has been really nailing that certain something I look for in modern black metal. So where I found out that Antoine Scholtes, the main behind that was putting his energies into a new project called Wurmian, and that it would be focused on more death/doom I was instantly intrigued…only to have my colleague Colin over at Nine Circles grab the promo and churn out a very positive review. Well, joke’s on you Colin¹, because now I have Immemorial Shrine on CD which makes it a valid entry for the site and, guess what? I might even like it better than the already stellar work Scholtes is doing in Inherits The Void.

ChrisMay 12, 2025May 12, 2025Leave a comment

Playlists

(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 49: Better Late Than Never

By “late” I mean by a few hours…and also late is relative since I really have no deadlines other than the ones I impose on myself for this series. Usually I wake up early in the morning and do this but today I had to be a Dad and take my son all around town for various chores and Mother’s Day prep. And I have to leave again in another hour so why not make this one of those random, confusing “Here’s a bunch of stuff I either am working through or just decided to include” playlists?

Yeah…that’s what we’ll do.

ChrisMay 10, 20251 Comment

Consuming the Tangible

We are what we consume

Month: May 2025