On Sunday night, Tesla put on a rock show to remember at the Showbox Sodo in Seattle.  The show rocked the venue with all of the enthusiasm and energy that Tesla is known to exhibit.  Prior to the show, I sat down with Tesla’s newest member, Dave Rude, to talk about playing with Tesla, fronting the Dave Rude Band, the future of record labels and even beer.  Following the interview, we hear a track called Eighteen Eyes from Dave Rude Band’s newest EP.  Check out the interview and then go visit Dave on myspace! 

On February 22nd, the Fuse network will premiere the first Talking Metal television episode that “will feature exclusive interviews and field packages in the podcast’s signature style.”  The show will air at midnight Eastern (9pm Pacific) and I already have my DVR locked and loaded and hope you’ll do the same. 

As a podcaster, a metal head and a media consumer, I’m proud of these guys for a few reasons.  From a Podcaster perspective, they took their passion for metal and ran with it.  It was and is a labor of love.  The fact that others have taken notice validates everything Podcasting stands for: broadcasting your passion and finding your audience.  As a metal head, I’m impressed that they marched ahead, even as pop-culture was turning their nose up at metal.  As such, the Internet proved to be a great medium for pulling together the metal audience from disperse geographies.  Likewise, over the couple of years in which they’ve been podcasting, the tides have shifted some, and the new television show is evidence that Metal is making its way back toward the mainstream.  Perhaps Talking Metal played some role in that shift, but regardless, Mark and John held fast and did their thing until the world took notice ( first iTunes and now the airwaves).  Finally, as a media consumer who pays over $100 a month for cable, I’m excited that their will be a new show in town that was not slapped together by some douche bag producers following a formula for capturing an advertising demographic.  The Podcast is testament to the fact that this is a real show with a real soul that is simply being ported to television. 

So again, be sure to catch the premiere on February 22nd.  Congratulations Mark and John, and if you ever find yourself in Seattle, allow me to give you a tour of some of the incredible breweries we have out here  - Rock on!

The Ballard Brewfest took place on March 4th, 2007 and featured some great live entertainment.  We were first treated to Gelsey’s Polka Sing-Along and were then honored with the presence of the rock n roll legend himself, Johnny Pinchaloaf.  The weather was great for gathering and plenty of quality beer was pouring.  The parts that I remember were filled with fun and good cheer.   Photos are available on Flickr and recordings of the music are available below in Windows Streaming Media format.   

   Gelsey’s Polka Sing-along

  The Bar Room Polka

   Johnny Pinchaloaf

  Cum On Feel The Noize

  Metal Health

  Happy Birthday

  The Number of the Beast

  Talk Dirty To Me

                                              Mr Crowley

                                              War Pigs

                                              Paranoid

All was not lost, however, in turn for the hospitality shown by the fine folks at Pyramid, Zakk agreed to put us on his backstage pass list.  I was pleasently suprised when, indeed, the three backstage passes were sitting at the gate for Art, Wendy and I.  Very cool for the band to do that for us!  It was awesome to hang in back with the tour buses and it was really impressive to watch the shows from the side of the stage.  Unfortunately, we did not get the opportunity to meet Zakk or Ozzy.  Zakk (and even Sharon Osbourne) were floating around back stage, but the buses arrived very close to show time and they didn’t seem eager to do the fan thing,  so we left them alone to prep for the show.

Even though we were cooking in the Eastern Washington Desert instead of drinking IPA’s with rock stars, it was a great weekend.  The show was awesome, the Gorge was beautiful as usual, and we learned that our rock idols are not only cool and down to earth, but they also have great taste in beer.  Below is some brief video I recorded as I wandered around the fest.  Check it out if you have 3 spare minutes.  There’s no polish on it, but I recorded a brief snippet of Lamb of God, Ozzy and Zakk.  Also thought it was funny that, while poking around on the stage, we noticed that Lamb of God is using a Dangerous Toys flight case.

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