Michellica

1. Metallica, "Enter Sandman"
2. Nine Inch Nails, "Head Like a Hole"
3. Anthrax and Public Enemy, "Bring the Noise"
4. Faith No More, "Falling to Pieces"
5. Rob Zombie, "Dragula"
6. Sepultura, "Ratamahatta"
7. Motörhead and Girlschool, "Please Don't Touch"
8. Living Colour, "Cult of Personality"
9. Pearl Jam, "Animal"
10. L7, "Pretend We're Dead"
11. Queens of the Stone Age, "No One Knows"
12. Danzig, "Mother"
13. Pantera, "Cat Scratch Fever"
14. Deftones, "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)"
15. Alice Cooper, "Poison"
16. King's X, "It's Love"
17. Rage Against the Machine, "Killing in the Name"
18. Shakira, "Nothing Else Matters/Despedida"

For MLC.

Depeche Mode at Barclays Center

Perhaps the biggest contradiction about Depeche Mode is that they're popular. 33 years into their increasingly storied career, the synthpop heroes are selling out arenas all over the world, playing songs that should have been killed by grunge, g-funk, techno, emo or really anything that has gone platinum since 1992. But here they are, fawned over by everyone from the Deftones to the Arcade Fire to Shakira, releasing solid new music and packing the $60 nosebleeds section (trust me). "Personal Jesus" has been covered by Johnny Cash and sampled by Hilary Duff's producers. So why the Mode, and not The Human League or Erasure?



Judging from last Friday's show, it's Dave Gahan. I'd undervalued his role in the band, and you might too, if you only know Depeche Mode from their albums. He's credited as writing exactly zero of their great songs and plays nary an instrument. In the liner notes and music videos, he's always handsome, stoic-looking and groomed, the spokesman for these gloomy goth cowboys purely on the fact that he has the deepest voice and darkest eyes. But in person, he's a transcendent figure, a seemingly effortless everyman who can express alienation and despair from tight black leather pants and a shirtless vest, the latter of which only made it through a few songs before getting stripped off. Perfectly chiseled at 51, he looked more Robert Downey, Jr. than Robert Smith, even if he emoted like the latter.

Like the top tier rock stars of his time, Gahan finds the magnetism in his loneliness and expresses it, channeling his Songs of Faith and Devotion into Music for the Masses, or vice versa. He can prance or swing his mic stand like a less self-conscious Bono, somehow without undermining the agony of "Barrel of a Gun" or "Black Celebration." A heated take on "A Question of Time" matched the frantic anxiousness of Joy Division, only moments before Gahan giddily let the arena sing most of "Enjoy the Silence." Lest we forget we were in the presence of a showbiz pro, he prowled almost every square foot of the stage, playing to even the worst seats in the house and bringing us to our feet.

Although Gahan is undeniably the band's star performer, it was not a solo show. Even on their most programmed songs the band sounded fierce, whether ripping into the industrial tones of "I Feel You" with the restlessness of a modern metal band, reimagining the first verse of "Personal Jesus" as a blues dirge (Delta Machine, indeed) or bouncing through "Just Can't Get Enough" as if they hadn't been playing it since 1981. Martin Gore, the band's main songwriter and primary instrumentalist, proved himself an affecting frontman when he took the microphone for the chilling "But Not Tonight" and "Home." Had he never met Gahan, Gore would have been a fine lead singer for Depeche Mode, and they would still have found success. But they probably wouldn't have sold out the Barclays Center.

Ten Metal Bands to See Before You Die: Iron Maiden

If heavy metal had a CV, Iron Maiden shows would go at the very top. Nothing comes closer to packing everything that's great about metal into one sitting than a stage with Eddie and his human counterparts. It's humorous, political and fantastical. Sometimes it feels raw and grandiose at the same time. Iron Maiden are likeable enough to sell out arenas all over the world, yet metal enough to do it with barely any mainstream press or radio. Iron Maiden may never make it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and if they don't, it'll be another feather in their caps.



Iron Maiden doesn't have to be your favorite band, or even your 30th favorite band for one to see that what they do with an audience is breathtaking. None of the musicians, the youngest of whom turns 55 this summer, seem to have been affected by aging, narcotics or world-weariness at all. If anything, they've improved, hitting higher notes and faster rhythms than the ones reached on their classic '80s output. Even on their "hits" tours (the best way to see them, between "new album" tours), they never come across as a nostalgia band, but rather a band that's still getting better at playing their best songs. It's entirely possible that they've spent their entire musical careers preparing for the performance you're about to see on any given night.

In the must-see Rush documentary Beyond the Lighted Stage, Neal Peart tells an interviewer that he will never get tired of playing "Tom Sawyer," because it's always difficult to play, and therefore he always feels good whenever he pulls it off. One can imagine everyone in Iron Maiden relating. They never stop having a blast treating their international audience to workouts like "2 Minutes to Midnight" or "The Number of the Beast," or grinning enthusiastically while running and/or swinging their guitars. On Maiden's newer albums, sometimes they seem to be writing longer and more complicated songs just to rise to the challenge, but onstage they find that challenge in their greatest music, conquering it like the heroes of "Aces High." Songs that you skipped over on Fear of the Dark sound like they should have gone on Best of the Beast. I could sooner imagine Iron Maiden releasing a rap album than phoning in a show.

For a purely metal arena show, it doesn't get any better than Maiden. More metal than AC/DC, less mainstream than Metallica, more musical than KISS, more theatrical than Judas Priest, funnier than Black Sabbath and more agile than anyone this side of Shakira, Iron Maiden are consistently the greatest live metal band in the world. Heard and viewed from any seat in any arena, Bruce Dickinson is an electrifying frontman, punctuating each power metal riff and burst of flame and with vocals that always seem to defy the larynx without forgetting to carry the tunes. If he leaves the stage for a moment, it's for an elaborate set or costume change--you're not getting any extended solos or banter tonight. Even their encore breaks don't last long enough for a bathroom stop. Just hit after hit, with a few engaging quips and explosions in between.

With another band, Maiden's stage, props, pyro and zombie mascot might seem excessive. But part of Iron Maiden's magic is their ability to blend their bells and whistles into the show itself. Their stage sets seem simple, humble even, when fused with the exhilarating hooks of "The Trooper," "Wasted Years" or "Heaven Can Wait." The brutality, steadfastness and musicianship that drive Iron Maiden's best songs deserve the sphinxes, sarcophagi and Union Jacks.

Iron Maiden with a stage is as natural and necessary as Babe Ruth with a bat or Fred Astaire with a dance floor. When people talk about metal that takes rock n' roll to extremities, metal that confronts the worst of life and celebrates the best of it, metal as high art and something to bang your head and flash your horns to, this is what they're talking about.

Song of the Day: Inaudible Whisper, "Nothing Else Matters"

Legend has it that James Hetfield came up with the idea for "Nothing Else Matters" while on the phone with his girlfriend. Holding the phone in one hand, he idly plucked out the open strings progression that would become the first two bars of one of his band's biggest hits.



"Nothing Else Matters" has been one of Metallica's gifts that keeps on giving. It has been played at nearly every one of their shows since 1991, fulfilling the fans' needs for a singalong and giving the band a break from two hours of more demanding material. Wikipedia currently lists over 40 cover versions, including ones from Shakira, Macy Gray and the Vienna Boys Choir.

By now, "Nothing Else Matters" should be exhausted. Yet a SoundCloud user calling himself Inaudible Whisper has found something new in the song by slowing it down 800%:



The whole thing lasts nearly an hour, but drop in at any given minute and you'll be rewarded. The song loses its simplicity with every note drawn out into an ambient wonderland. Parts of it sound like Sigur Rós. Traces of the original are scarce, yet the result it a must-hear, both to appreciate for its own aesthetics and to absorb what went into Metallica's recording.