For those of us who rock... (long post warning!)

Last night kicked my ass pretty hard. As previously posted, I went to see AC/DC last night at the Allstate Arena (still a shit-hole, tin box) with Dan "the man" Schramer.

The Answer opened up for the boyzz and actually weren't too bad, but I have to apologize to the band, I didn't bother to go to my seats to watch you, but I could hear you. Let's face it, it really WAS more important for me to down my 3, $8 Stella Artois' before seeing the big show.

Look I'm NOT a fuddy-duddy, but holy christ, can these concert venues become any bigger whores knowing that you're a trapped, willing participant? $4 crappy hotdogs, $5.50 small slices of pizza and $7.50 Bud/Light's and $8 "premium" beers? All of this on top of $20 parking! Yeah, the Economy sucks right now, what a load of crap!

What pounding my beers DID allow me to do was to bathe in the pure joy of people watching which was just the real show-before-the-show.

Holy Lord, you know the guy who sat next to you in biology class, you know, the burnout with the long straggly dirty blonde hair, black concert t-shirt, jean/leather jacket, ripped jeans and 5,000 mile stare? Well, he was there last night and he hasn't changed one iota in 30 years!

Also, the chick who used to wear the slutty clothes and pop her gum? She showed up too and has put on a few lb's, still trying to squeeze into a short skirt, jean jacket and shirt that showed some assets. She looked like a sausage that was on the grill and just ready to burst out of the casing.

The "youth" were there too, trying to look like they grew up in the 70's, acting all "the fool". It was just a load of fun watching everyone trying to fit in and enjoy the evening.

So the show finally starts with a classic cartoon video of Angus shoveling coal into a speeding train. Two vixens break their way onto the engine and tie him up (after sexually teasing the crap out of him) and take over in order to crash the train into the station and creating havoc. They jump off the train and Angus breaks free only to stop the train just in time but not before it crashes through the video screen. A massive AC/DC train (hollywood set type) blows through with flames shooting out, smoke, loud noise atop double rows of Marshall stacked amps, and then the boyzz hit the stage with Rock 'n Roll Train. Well, hell, why am I trying to tell you about it, when I some wonderful person posted it on the 'Tube from their tour opener two nights prior in PA.


Angus all decked in his schoolboy uniform, Brian Johnson in his sleeveless vest and trademark flat cap, Malcolm with his gravel-sounding voice, Phil Rudd banging the skins, and Cliff Williams fingering his bass.

From there, it was just a ride through the years of AC/DC anthem rock with just a smattering of the new stuff. Here's the set-list:

1. Rock 'N Roll Train
2. Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be
3. Back In Black
4. Big Jack
5. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
6. Thunderstruck
7. Black Ice
8. The Jack
9. Hells Bells
10. War Machine
11. Shoot to Thrill
12. Anything Goes
13. You Shook Me All Night Long
14. TNT
15. Whole Lotta Rosie
16. Let There Be Rock

Encore:
17. Highway To Hell
18. For Those About To Rock

Let's face it, there's not much more I can tell you about the show if you're a fan. AC/DC has not changed, nor should they, and they know exactly what to deliver to their fanbase. Why f*** with success? Angus is the never stopping, always running, sweat-dripping lead guitarist who delivers each and every night of his life. Even at 53 years of age, it's what he's always wanted to do with his life and with his brother by his side.

Here's a few more videos from the evening and OH, that's the only thing that let me know I've been wayyyyyyy out of the concert scene for a long time now. You can bring cameras into the shows and take pix and video. Had I known, MK's would have disappeared off the counter.

First Halloweens

This week is Aidan's first Halloween. Unfortunately at almost 11 months, I think he'll have fun in his costume and seeing other kids in his costume, but he won't know what it's all about.

One thing he did learn about tonight was carving the pumpkins that we bought a few weeks ago. It SO brought me back to my childhood. But it made me realize what a pain in the arse it is to carve a HUGE one that's really thick. (keep your dirty minds to yourselves)

I had to do the carving on three pumpkins (to be honest, my first ones ever in 42 years of life); one for Aidan, one for MK and I and one for Wrigley, our beloved Golden Retriever. I have to fess up that my damn forearm is tired. We bought the special pumpkin carving tools, which I've now found out have the life expectancy of about 2 1/2 pumpkins, but they really worked well. I had to be careful with Aidan's (his was last) so that the tiny little saw didn't snap off. But because they are tiny, you need to do a lot of "sawing" and turning and well, it's best to say I was well over my pitch count.

I remembered to spread out newspaper on the kitchen table to catch all of the guts and any other spillage. I also remembered to put a notch-mark on the top so that I could line up the cap to the pumpkin again.

I tried to make Wrigley's look like a dog (it's sort of a dog), MK's and mine is a ghost and Aidan's is just your typical pumpkin look. Since Aidan now has 5 teeth (almost 6) in his mouth, I gave the pumpkin a few teeth, so he and the pumpkin have something to bond about. Here's a nice "spooky" picture with them lit up.

So Aidan and my first carvings were a hit with MK and Wrigley. Success at these little things I'll be doing for years. It's nights like these that make any horrible days one could have a distant memory.

The FA Cup, First Round "Proper"

With its victory over Maidstone United in front of 1719 away fans of the Dons, AFC Wimbledon have qualified for the First Round Proper of The FA Cup, the worlds oldest and biggest of competitions.

Like a little school boy with his ear to the radio, but since it's 2008, me, with my ear to my laptop on the Internet, we found out that we'll be up against Wycombe Wanderers who are currently top of the table of League Two and without a loss on the season.

The GOOD news is that they have to come to "the meadow of Kings", The Fans' Stadium to play us.

Thanks to WDON for illegally "simulcasting" the ITV show via the 'net along with a little commentary.

So this is big news and we were mentioned several times on the broadcast for our achievements. Big enough that we'll be a match shown on Setanta, on November 10th, 2008.

"The FA Cup 1st round tie against Wycombe Wanderers will be played at the
Cherry Red Records Fans' Stadium - Kingsmeadow on Monday 10 November kick off 7.45 pm and will be televised live on Setanta Sports 1."

Stay tuned...

Hey, Whaa??? I thought my son was an original!

Damn Google Alerts and all that they stand for!

So in my alerts yesterday popped up that some 4-year old little boy in Tampa, Florida had fun sitting in a parked ambulance at some Safety Day.

His name? Yep, you got it, Aidan LoCicero!

First, our Aidan is born and like 5 days later we find out that Aiden/Aidan/Ayden is one of the top 5 popular names of 2007 (behind Jayden) and now THIS!

Okay, so this Tampa Aidan had the name first (and is a LoCicero, so he's gotta be a very cool kid with cool parents), but I guess we just hope as parents that we give our kids a certain bit of uniqueness that they can carry throughout their life. Well, at least I registered AidanLoCicero.com while ours was still in the womb, so I got that going for me, which is nice.

I'm sure my wife will remind me that she liked Colin as a name. (I bought that domain at one point as well but it's available again if any Colin LoCicero's want it)

Which reminds me that I've seen/met at least 3 other Brian LoCicero's on the interwebs as well. I can imagine all of the Italian Grandparents who cringed at those Irish names when we were all born!!