Regionalism advocate Kevin Vaughan is back with a kick-start for local government reform: a study documenting the cost of elected officials and their staffs. This should be yet another wake-up call to the apathetic legions, but I sadly doubt it will have much effect. The numbers are staggering: Erie County has almost twice as many elected officials as New York City, and slightly less than the combined totals of the greater Baltimore, Charlotte and Indianapolis areas. Gaughan proposes that all suburbs downsize their legislatures by two seats, which would result in a nearly 20% downsizing of local government.

Gaughan's report and related information: TheCost.org

Dweezil Zappa had a gem of an idea to get a band together and go out and play a tribute to Frank's music. The tour came to UB tonight. What a show! I wasn't overly familiar with FZ's music going into it, but I do enjoy his stuff. The show didn't disappoint. The band, handpicked by Dweezil and including special guests Napoleon Murphy Brock, Terry Bozzio and Steve Vai, who played in various incarnations of Frank Zappa's band, was absolutely great. They played for about 3:30, breaking only before the encore. Dweezil was quite obviously getting off on conducting the band (and the audience) as his father used to do. His guitar work was impressive. Of course, he can't match Vai, but he's a very good player. Bozzio came on about halfway through the set. Vai came out a couple songs later and played one or two with Bozzio before Bozzio departed. Vai stayed on stage for a couple more songs before leaving the ZPZ band to finish the set. Both Bozzio and Vai returned for the encore. Multiple (very impressive) extended solos were taken by both. It was quite apparent that all the musicians were having a great time, and that made the show even more enjoyable.

Needless to say, I'll be getting into Frank's stuff more now. :) I really hope that they do a DVD from this tour. I took a bunch of pics at the show tonight and will post them once I have a chance to crunch them down.

So, while I was at work on Thursday, we got hit with one mother of a storm. I called home to find that the power went out around 6 pm. I got home around 12:15 and found devastation...tree limbs down everywhere. I had to work at 8 the next morning. It took me half an hour to get out of my driveway and onto Elmwood. Amazingly, the gallery never lost power. We've been having some issues with water leaks and minor flooding but we're getting by. At home, we had the big cleanup this morning. We spent about 3-4 hours clearing all the debris from the backyard tree. That was just a blast. Pics will come once the power is back on. I just hope that isn't going to be too much longer, but I'm not really expecting it to be back before Monday at the earliest.

To my one loyal reader: Yes, I am still alive. There ya go. :-P

I arrived at the Agora Ballroom in Cleveland (same club as the Dream Theater show in March, but a smaller room) at 5:15 and was surprised that I was only the second person to arrive. I got to hear soundchecks (Kamelot played When the Lights Are Down without vocals and Epica played Blank Infinity) and spotted Simone Simons (Epica vocalist) directly on the other side of the locked glass doors on a couple occasions.

They opened the doors 30-45 minutes late. I went straight to the merch table, got a Kamelot shirt and headed for the stage. There were two local openers: Gravity is an instrumental prog-metal band and was quite impressive, especially since the members are in high school; and Eternal Legacy was a half decent power-meets-thrash band. Bridge finally showed up around 8-8:15, just before Epica went on.

The evening started in earnest around 8:30. Epica was impressive. Simone was just awesome...she's such a great singer. I was slightly disappointed that they didn't play either Solitary Ground or Another Me, but I wasn't surprised. They tend to avoid putting their slower songs in the live sets. Kamelot, however, stole the show. Roy Khan really knows how to take ownership of an audience. His stage presence is undeniable. The band was top-notch from start to finish. I came into the show a casual Kamelot fan, but I'm much more into them now.

I was hoping to get over to the tour buses after the show but, with Bridge having to leave right away, it wasn't in the cards. I guess I should have gone to the Rochester show too. Maybe the venue there was more friendly toward cameras...the camera Nazis at the Agora took mine before Epica started. I got it back without a problem, but I was still really bummed about it. Oh well.

Set Lists:

Epica:
1. Hunab K'u (intro tape)
2. Dance of Fate
3. Sensorium
4. Quietus
5. Cry for the Moon
6. Seif al Din
7. Facade of Reality
8. Crystal Mountain (Death cover)
9. Consign to Oblivion

Kamelot:
1. When the Lights Are Down
2. Soul Society
3. The Edge of Paradise
4. Center of the Universe (w/Mari)
5. The Spell
6. Abandoned (w/Mari)
7. Moonlight
8. Forever (w/guitar intro)
9. Keyboard solo
10. The Haunting (w/Simone Simons)
11. Memento Mori (w/Mari)
12. Drum Solo
13. Farewell
--encore--
14. Karma
15. Epilogue
16. March of Mephisto