Ahh, haven't posted in a while. Big 4 last September kicked ass.. Slayer stole the show for me. I say that with the disclaimer that I didn't know what to expect and was blown away. Metallica was awesome but.. I expected that. Of course Anthrax and Megadeth were excellent as well. Traveled to NYC from Cleveland for it and was a great time. Being on the floor of Yankee stadium was an experience in and of itself.
After that I didn't venture out too much before the normal Mushroomhead shows. Saw Anthrax headline over Testament at the HoB in Cleveland in November and it has to be one of my favorite shows of last year. The venue can make or break a peformance IMO. Was great to see Billy and Joey genuinely enjoying their time on stage and with a smaller venue like that, it was not a problem to get close to stage and feel connected to the performance versus watching a screen from 200+ feet back.
Skipped a GnR show in Youngstown since I was sick (quit smoking from that little bout) but I heard they went on close to 12a and played for over two hours.. wouldn't have been reasonable for me to attend on a worknight an hour+ away but I can live without seeing them in that form.
Was pleasantly surprised to find that Tool announced a small tour and made sure to get tickets despite them playing only as close as Toledo (I'm sure they'd sell out a Cleveland venue but who knows). Show was great.. they played for just about 90 minutes (shorter than the drive from Cleveland) but it felt like a full set despite wanting more from their extensive catalog of available songs. I had never seen them before and I guess they played a few songs they never used to do live. I would love to see them again but closer to home.
In February I made the trek to Chicago to see Gigantour. First visit to the city was a trip. Hopped off the bus and grabbed a pizza at Giordanos before even checking into the hotel despite the snow storm we were enduring (Highly recommend that place btw). Foolishly, I thought it would be a good idea to leave the coat and take a train to the venue from the loop in just a hoody so I wasn't burning up inside. The Aragon ballroom was a beautiful venue and was wide open general admission (my preference). Missed Lacuna Coil but caught Volbeat from the start. They sounded really solid live and I would recommend them to anyone on the fence. Motorhead was up next and killed it. Lemmy is truly a legend and even though you can't understand wtf he's saying most of the time, the live show is heavy and energetic and more than you should expect from a speedfreak who still drinks a bottle of jack everyday into his 60s. When Megadeth came on, Daves vocals were way too low and between the travel/booze/having seen them already, I felt like I had a good enough time seeing the openers to sit through a horribly mixed set and left about 5 songs in.
Recently, just saw Soulfly a few weeks back (sad to see them play in a club in front of maybe 200 people but is probably why the short 1 hr set = / and then Rammstein the other night.. holy shit they are a crazy bunch of

s. Forget the commodities market, if the price of gas goes up it's because these guys are on tour. Pyro or theatrics during almost every song. Let me just say their music stands on its own and to see the show they put on it's most likely a steal at whatever price you pay for the tickets. If you pass on a chance to see them, you are missing out. That's all I can say. They played for about two hours and there was never a down moment. Intense energy and performance.
Upcoming shows: Hed 2 Head 3 tour next Saturday, Rock on the Range in two weeks, RHCP in June, Mayhem Fest in July and Kiss/Motley Crue in Sept. Kicking around the idea of seeing Adrenaline Mob, Aerosmith, Reel Big Fish and Sublime with Rome ($40 for them though... kind of salty about that).