It’s not often that we get to recommend a book during the Backstage Blog because music-related books aren’t usually worth the time and effort it takes to read the blurbs on the back, let alone the 300 pages of well-manicured tripe within. How many times can you read about rock excesses, the tragic downfall of the misunderstood genius and the shameless bragging about the greatly inflated numbers of some idiot bass player’s sexual conquests? But finally we have a music connection to a book that has nothing to do with telling the partly true, unadulterated story of a band’s meteoric rise to the glittering heights of corporate sell-out. Del James’ horror/sci-fi book “The Language of Fear,” which has been out of print for over ten years, is now once again available for purchase. If you’ve ever watched the “November Rain” video and thought to yourself, “What the hell is this about? Why is that guy diving into a cake? Why is Slash playing guitar in the dessert next to a wind machine? How the hell did that woman die?”, then you need to get “The Language of Fear” because that video was based on one of the short stories in the book called “Without You.” Apparently this has been a very coveted collectable book over the last decade or so ranking #7 on bookfinder.com’s top 10 most sought after books, right behind Ray Bradbury’s “Dark Carnival.” The new edition comes with a forward written by Axl himself.
If you’ve always been a big fan of Trans-Siberian Orchestra but always thought they’d be much more interesting if they all shot a cocktail of espresso, granulated sugar and crystal meth right into their carotid arteries before the show, then I have good news for you. Guitar Hero’s favorite wank rock band, Dragonforce is planning a stop in Portland before their show up the street at the White River Amphitheater as part of the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Tour. Dragonforce will play July 5th at the Roseland. This will be an all ages show, which is probably good for these guys because I haven’t seen anyone over the age of 17 that hasn’t burst out laughing when they heard this song. And for added extra Fatty-cranial-damage, the name of the opening band? Powerglove.
