Hey KAIZEN fans! You know how they say every cloud has a silver lining? Well, Trev and I recently got hit with a cloud that actually ended up being almost entirely comprised of silver!

It all started a few weeks ago…Trev and I were at Play N Trade and he was talking to the clerks there, contemplating buying a near-mint copy of Lunar for the PSone (which he ended up doing later in the week). To waste time, I filled out a drawing slip they had on the counter, not even reading what it was for. I figured, “What the heck? Sounds fun.”

So, about 2 weeks ago, I am woken up by my cell phone blasting Nightwish’s Planet Hell, which can only mean someone has left me a voice message.

The message said, “Josh, I am not sure what your definition of, ‘urgent’ is, but this is Hugh with the Rock Hog (a local metal/rock station), and this is not a prank. You are one of the winners of our drawing and have won dinner for two at Boston’s as well as VIP tickets to the upcoming Static-X concert where you will get to meet the band. Please call me back at ***-****.”

So yeah, hehe. I am into metal and rock, and have heard of Static-X, but never listened to their music (I lean towards weird metal like Nightwish or Versailles -Philharmonic Quintet- –which happens to be my favorite band). But I still was excited, it had been a LONG time before I had attended a concert and, in my natural entrepreneurial way, I was looking at this as me winning a networking opportunity. So, I dropped 2 bucks in iTunes and downloaded Isolaytore and Z28, two of Static-X’s newer songs off of their latest CD, The Cult of Static. Not bad, not totally my thing either but still not bad.

So anyways, the day of the concert Trev and I went to Boston’s earlier in the day. Then, since Play N Trade was right there, we went in and told Cassie that we won at her location, which of course made her extremely happy and excited. I was also happy and excited because they had near-mint copies of Resident Evil: Director’s Cut and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (black-label copy) for PSone, which I picked up for 8 bucks apiece. From there, we went to the Civic Center and waited for the action to begin. We were told at the door that the meet-and-greet would happen with Static-X at 9:15 near one of the exits, and that it would happen after the opening acts played but before Static-X took the stage.

The opening acts were all good, but one band rose above the rest. I will detail them a little more in a little bit, but they are based out of California and are called My Evolution, as part of their set they did a cover of Duran Duran’s Ordinary World which was AMAZING!

So, anyways. The moment of truth rolled around and all the contest winners and their guests congregated at the exit around 9:15. Several of us were there including a mother-son couple where the son was still in grade school. He was a HUGE Static-X fan and had a homemade looking Static-X jersey on and his mother was telling us how he did a recent school report on Wayne Static (lead singer of Static-X). The DJ of the Rock Hog even told the band’s management about this boy’s report and how he was going to be there, it was a long term dream for this kid to meet Static-X. Then, a member of the crew came up and told the DJ, “The band decided they don’t want to do it. The meet and greet isn’t going to happen. Sorry.” We weren’t given any reason. Hugh tried to reason with them on it, then angrily told us, “I moved here from Phoenix, AZ where I disc-jockeyed, I have been doing this for 28 years and have only had bands back out on a promised meet-and-greet like this 4 times.” Just minutes earlier, he was telling us how he had interviewed the band in the past and thought them to be a great bunch of guys, then he was like us, angry and confused. We all talked in private out of the ear reach of the little boy saying how we were all very angry for him. We were adults, we could deal with it and move on. But this kid just was shown how worthless he was in the eyes of a man he looked up to. I can’t imagine anything more crushing, to fall in love with a band and singer and then have them tell you (after winning a contest to meet them) that you aren’t worth the time of day (much less worthy of an explanation of the cancellation).

Even My Evolution, when they found out, talked with the road manager several times to try and get them to reconsider and were met with very stiff resistance.

So, long story short, I wish I knew that road manager. I’d ask him for the 2 bucks back I spent on Static-X songs in iTunes, because I don’t want to support a band who is that stuck up!

Because of that, Trevor and I skipped Static-X’s set and hung out at the merchandise table with My Evolution. They were awesome guys! They talked with us about everything from music, clothes, Visual Kei (Japanese music movement involving crazy costumes and on-stage theatrics) and video games. When our company came up, they got all excited and they each took a card (including their road assistant)—and we talked about making it as an artist and it just ended up being an awesome conversation! While talking with them, I mentioned to the lead singer that he looked like Ted Price (President of Insomniac Games), to which he got all excited and said he needed to go to a gaming convention now so he could cosplay as Ted Price. These guys had so much energy and were just a blast to be around, and (unlike Static-X) they were very human and easy to connect to, they are an example of how ALL rockstars should be! As is tradition with our family, we gave them some keychains (Mom makes keychains that we give to people, a tradition we started in our 2007 trip to Japan), the lead singer was nearly moved to tears! Also, we got both of their CD’s (only their first one, All Eyes On ME, is available currently in iTunes, but all their music can be listened to on their website) as well as a poster–and had everything (including our tickets to the show) autographed by them. While autographing the tickets, we also handed the tickets to the road assistant and told him, “Hey, you are part of this too, can you please sign it too?”–you could tell it totally made his night to be asked for his autograph! Then, the band members found a wide area with a gray curtain and took turns with Trev and I taking photos so we would each have a photo with them. These guys went way above and beyond–and not just with us, they talked with anyone who came up and went out of their way to make their fans feel special even though THEY were supposed to be the rock stars!

I can’t stress this enough everyone, please support My Evolution! They MySpace is http://www.myspace.com/myevolution and their normal website (with all their music on it) is http://www.myevolutionmusic.com/

Now, really quick, to prove I am not just talking with the whole Ted Price thing:

Ted Price, President of Insomniac Games.

My Evolution, with the Lead Singer (Burgos) in the middle, kneeling next to him is Juzwick, behind him to the right is Micah and behind him to the left (in the hat) is M. Lopez.

Yeah, see the resemblance? If you ever see videos of Ted Price talking and Burgos, they have very similar mannerisms too. Trevor had never seen a photo of Ted Price, so when I showed him a pic he about died laughing going, “Yeah, it’s Burgos dude, they are identical!” The crazy part too is that, if you look at this pic, you would think they would be a very dark or depressing band–but they were so full of life and energetic that they were by far the best performance of the night, even shaming Static-X. These guys are gonna make it big, no doubt! And, they took the lemons of Static-X’s self serving idiocy and made some kick arse lemonade! Thank you so much My Evolution!