As I mentioned, the concert was great. If I were to pick out one part, it would have been this lengthy untitled (as far as I know) freestyle jam he did with a simple looping beat.

I cannot think of anything worse than falling in love with a song at a concert, and not knowing the name of it.

Thankfully, a lot of people have recorded the entire show. So Friday at work, while I was beating my head against MediaWiki’s new installer (that silently fails to populate the database with stock data because they tried to import a poorly escaped text blob… sheesh), I played the entire concert in the background. When my ears finally picked up the wonderful peice I heard at our SF show, I took note of the time.

The song starts around the 29 minute mark, and its nearly 8 minutes and 40 seconds long.

Once again, the first thing is to extract the audio from YouTube with youtube-dl:

[server]-[mcarlson] 11:55am: /SafeKeg/Music/Buckethead>youtube-dl --extract-audio --audio-format="aac" 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_bApGe0a0U'
[youtube] Setting language
[youtube] l_bApGe0a0U: Downloading video webpage
[youtube] l_bApGe0a0U: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] l_bApGe0a0U: Extracting video information
[download] Destination: l_bApGe0a0U.mp4
[download] 100.0% of 519.25M at    1.51M/s ETA 00:00
[ffmpeg] Destination: l_bApGe0a0U.aac
Time spent in user mode   (CPU seconds) : 5.831s
Time spent in kernel mode (CPU seconds) : 9.170s
Total time                              : 5:49.83s
CPU utilisation (percentage)            : 4.2%

Now I have a nice aac file to work with. That clip is almost 50 minutes long though, and I just want one song.

FFMPEG TO THE RESCUE!!

ffmpeg is an exceptional tool, and how it ties into a LOT of other codecs and filters make it really useful. You can even cut up an audio file, like I did here.

The command,

ffmpeg -i l_bApGe0a0U.aac -ss 00:29:01 -t 00:08:41 -ab 128000 -ar 44100 sweet-new-song.mp3

specifies the following:

• -i l_bApGeoaoU.aac : This is the input file, out audio that youtube-dl extracted for us
• -ss 00:29:01 : Seek to 29 minutes a 1 second
• -t 00:08:41 : The total “time”, or duration, of this file will be 8 minutes and 41 seconds
• -ab 128000 : The bitrate to use
• -ar 44100 : Sets the audio sampling rate to 44.1K hz
• sweet-new-song.mp3 is the final output name

[server]-[mcarlson] 10:03pm: /SafeKeg/Music/Buckethead>ffmpeg -i l_bApGe0a0U.aac -ss 00:29:01 -t 00:08:41 -ab 128000 -ar 44100 sweet-new-song.mp3
FFmpeg version 0.6.1, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Apr  2 2011 08:09:07 with gcc 4.2.1 20070719  [FreeBSD]
[aac @ 0x803c22010]max_analyze_duration reached
[aac @ 0x803c22010]Estimating duration from bitrate, this may be inaccurate
Input #0, aac, from 'l_bApGe0a0U.aac':
  Duration: 00:53:04.07, bitrate: 126 kb/s
    Stream #0.0: Audio: aac, 44100 Hz, stereo, s16, 126 kb/s
Output #0, mp3, to 'sweet-new-song.mp3':
  Metadata:
    TSSE            : Lavf52.64.2
    Stream #0.0: Audio: libmp3lame, 44100 Hz, stereo, s16, 128 kb/s
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Press [q] to stop encoding
size=    8144kB time=521.22 bitrate= 128.0kbits/s    ts/s
video:0kB audio:8144kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.000396%
Time spent in user mode   (CPU seconds) : 27.280s
Time spent in kernel mode (CPU seconds) : 0.340s
Total time                              : 0:27.74s
CPU utilisation (percentage)            : 99.5%

And if anyone wants to listen to the final product, here you go:
sweet-new-song

The whole thing is a work of art, and to me, the second half (around 4:30) is the absolute best. So beautiful.

Outside the GAMH

Since I say this after almost every concert I go to, I’ll not forget to repeat it again:

This was the BEST show I’ve ever seen.

There are many aspects why: smaller venue, and our seats were on the balcony. This gave us a great view of the show, and we were pretty darn close to everything. Oh, and you know, it is one of my favorite artist doing what he does best. Not to mentioned good food and beverages at a incredible price. The sound was great as well, not too loud, but enough to rumble you chest.

Even more triumphant, was the fact that Michele not only liked it, she LOVED it and requested that I load up her music devices with his music. His loud and insanely complex music, not the sweet stuff. There was only two mellow songs in that set, the rest were hair raising shred-fests. This is such an accomplishment, because leading up to this, she would ask me to play it in the car just so she could bitterly acclimate to it. Like it was cough medicine, she would sort of grimace, and roll her eyes, or take a jab at me and play the air guitar with a goofy face like “this is what you two look like!”

In the end, great music conquers all, and there is something powerful about live music. Living, breathing music in the air that you can almost taste.

Before I dive into that, lets get to the opening two man band, Wolff. A drummer and a tuba, and that tuba is a multi-purpose device. The musician uses it as a percussion instrument, a mic, and a sample device all at once. The sheer amount of skill he displayed creating and mixing samples of the sounds he made from it was incredible. He was mixing and looping effects on the fly for the entire set.

I also like watching drummers play. I told Michele that every time I see an opening band, I always like the drums. It makes me want to take lessons, or live vicariously though my kids and make one (or both!) of them pick up the drums. I think I’m also envious because I struggle with timing and rhythm. Total white-boy stereotype shining through.

So Wolff was cool, even though when they announced that there were only two more songs until Buckethead came out, I literally screamed inside my own head, “YAY!!!”

There is something about his music that resonates with me on a very deep level, more than any other artists. Despite what is observed by most, I do enjoy a lot of different music, but from the the ~140 artists currently on my “shuffle all” selection, not a one comes close.

Think about that, for yourself. Think of all the music you have heard, and narrow down the artists that give you goosebumps, or make your heart race, and make you smile really big.

I dunno, it seems to map well with my brain and how I see music. So I sat very still and very focused the entire set, except during Jordan, when I had to use the restroom.

That was funny because there was a line outside, and the guy behind me peeked in the Ladies room, looked back at me and said “What? *laughs* There are no ladies here, its all guys…”

Totally true. There were maybe 5 or 6 women there, and I would have guessed that most of them were like Michele (dates or spouses). Guitar players attract guys, period.

Anyway, the point is, I was mesmerized. A few times I would just shake my head in awe. Michele laughed because during the song Siege Engine, there is a part where Buckethead goes from the low E open note, hammers on the 3rd fret (G), hammers on the 8th fret (C). Then does the reverse ( pulls off the 8th fret, to the 3rd, and pulls off the 3rd back to open). This is all done in one very smooth rhythm, and if you have never laid your fingers across a guitar fret board, that is a LOOONG stretch. It always puts a smile on my face, I’ve worked at it many times, and it is demanding.

As far as his guitar work and accuracy, my goodness… the command he has over that instrument is ridiculous. I’m also amazed that he plays along with a MP3 player. That means he doesn’t get to take a break, or improvise a bit longer, he has to know his set inside and out without missing the next song. Sprinkle in the sweet robot dance moves, dispensing toys to the crowd (and getting a few back from his fans), and he wears a MASK. I actually don’t know how he can see much of anything with that on. It was so impressive that the both of us reminisced on the drive home. Michele even mentioned not only looking forward to seeing him again, but joked that we should go the next night. I would have, except it was sold out :)

The venue staff asked that no photographs (especially flash) or videos be taken, so I compromised… I took one photo without the flash:

The lighting just happened to be perfect for this shot. My phone isn't the best at taking low-light pictures

Otherwise, it was me scrunched up against the balcony so I could get as close as possible.

To finally wrap this up, I enjoyed it. I even heard a few new songs (Final Wars, pretty flippin’ awesome), so mre music to enjoy! Also the minimum age at GAMH is 6, guess who I’ll be taking in the future?

Oh don’t be so judgmental! My first concert was the Highwaymen, a “country super-group”, on the grassy field at the Concord Pavilion. It was terrible, this couldn’t be any worse and I’m pretty sure there was less pot smoked at the Buckethead show than at The Highwaymen’s show.

For an artist who doesn’t use any words, he knows how to say a lot. To me at least.

• The internet
• A quality *nix OS (FreeBSD in this case)
• youtube-dl, available in FreeBSD under ports/www/youtube_dl/
• ffmpeg, available in FreeBSD under ports/multimedia/ffmpeg/

First thing is first, find a really cool youtube clip. If you dont know of one already, use a Buckethead Song (Volume warning, this clip was mixed “hot”, so turn your speakers down):

Watch the drummer (Bryan Mantia) go crazy in the background, pretty intense.

Now, use ‘youtube-dl’, which is pretty simple, the main argument it accepts is a URL of the youtube clip in question, and it saves it as a Flash Video file.

[server] 3:41pm: ~>youtube-dl 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61k041I4aEo'
[youtube] Setting language
[youtube] 61k041I4aEo: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] 61k041I4aEo: Extracting video information
[download] Destination: 61k041I4aEo.flv
[download] 100.0% of 8.04M at   57.33k/s ETA 00:00

Next, use ffmpeg to save the audio stream as a mp3 file:

[server] 3:45pm: ~>ffmpeg -i 61k041I4aEo.flv -ab 128000 -ar 44100 interworld_and_the_new_innocence.mp3
FFmpeg version 0.5.1, Copyright (c) 2000-2009 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
  libavutil     49.15. 0 / 49.15. 0
  libavcodec    52.20. 1 / 52.20. 1
  libavformat   52.31. 0 / 52.31. 0
  libavdevice   52. 1. 0 / 52. 1. 0
  libavfilter    0. 4. 0 /  0. 4. 0
  libswscale     0. 7. 1 /  0. 7. 1
  libpostproc   51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0
  built on May  8 2010 15:43:57, gcc: 4.2.1 20070719  [FreeBSD]

Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 1000.00 (1000/1) -> 29.92 (359/12)
Input #0, flv, from '61k041I4aEo.flv':
  Duration: 00:03:38.24, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 306 kb/s
    Stream #0.0: Video: flv, yuv420p, 320x218, 242 kb/s, 29.92 tbr, 1k tbn, 1k tbc
    Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 22050 Hz, mono, s16, 64 kb/s
Output #0, mp3, to 'interworld_and_the_new_innocence.mp3':
    Stream #0.0: Audio: libmp3lame, 44100 Hz, mono, s16, 128 kb/s
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0.1 -> #0.0
Press [q] to stop encoding
size=    3411kB time=218.31 bitrate= 128.0kbits/s
video:0kB audio:3411kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.000916%

Verify the file with file(1), or listen to the newly saved mp3 file over and over and over and over and over and over again.

[server] 3:45pm: ~>file interworld_and_the_new_innocence.mp3
interworld_and_the_new_innocence.mp3: Audio file with ID3 version 2.4.0, contains: MPEG ADTS, layer III, v1, 128 kbps, 44.1 kHz, Monaural

One artist I came across is Buckethead. The first image that comes to your mind when you read that name is exactly what you should think of. He is a man who wears a bucket on his head, and he, Brian Patrick Carrol, has been doing this for 20 years. That sort of fascinates me, because the only picture of buckethead with out the mask on was taken before he created the character. When he is interviewed, he will either talk through a hand puppet ( a gruesome head ), or he will write down what he wants to say.

But you know, considering how your typical rock start tends to look (especially 20 years ago):

Flashy!

Or, what other soloist guitar “Virtuoso’s” look and act like:

I just did something in my pants!

I'm so good I can pout and play

This is what happens when Mike Myers puts his energy into music... greatness!

Besides the look to make him stand out, he is WICKEDLY talented! I’ve seen a LOT of footage by now on youtube, and I’ve purchased a few of his solo albums, and this guys plays on another level. Some of it is pure shred, and its almost obnoxious, but it just doesn’t feel like he’s jerking his guitar off in your ear like Yngwie or Steve Vai. I offer the follow clips to explain what I mean, and why I’m really getting into this guys music. Yeah, I’ve found something else to fixate on :) His guitar is a serious piece of wood too, it’s a chambered over-sized Les Paul with 24 frets (awesome, most guitars have 21 or 22) and two kill switches which he uses a lot.

He can bust out a pretty traditional rock song, and it makes sense why he was Slash’s replacement for Guns and Roses (I think he’s much better than Slash, but I was never a big fan of GNR, and Axl is another rock star dick).

Then, he can have something thats really mellow and full of soul

Those arn’t technical breakthroughs, so here is a “Lesson” by Buckethead. It is not so much a lesson, because you can’t learn this. I would say he’s a robot, but I think even a robot would screw this up. Check out the 4 note tapping, then the really cool riff afterwards.

It’s not all rock n roll though, he also plays some amazing chicken pickin’…

…and break out the Nunchaku’s followed up by a Robot Dance… Because he just couldn’t come off any more scarier.

I read in an old interview that he wears the mask because he wants his performance to be about the music, and not him. That, and it lets him feel like to can do more and take more risks on stage (like dance). I can understand that, and appreciate the emphasis on it being about the music. He is also a horror movie fan, and that shows. Most of his music would make a killer soundtrack, he should do one of the Silent Hill games. I’m adding him to my short list of concerts I want to make an effort to see.