Dispatch from the Razor's Edge, the Blog of Michael Stephen Fuchs

Hollywood Undead

So I don't suppose I could very well blog about seeing my second favourite band in the universe without doing one for my very favourite – the next night. (Though, honestly, if Starset keeps producing material of this amazing quality – something I'm in a position to say is nothing like guaranteed – they're on track to overtake the #1 spot…)

“California Dreaming” – HU have a few sort of recurring themes they do, and the Paean to LA or CA is definitely one of them…

Another is the Club Anthem, which typically features conspicuous substance abuse and rather regrettable objectification of women: “Comin’ in Hot” (this was also the number where they do their regular gracious maneuver of inviting a random musician from the crowd to come up and play with them)

The seamy-underside version of the Paean to LA: “Been To Hell” (also if you follow the link to the video, you'll get them in what used to be their trademark masks, before they ditched them; also, God I love this song, and have done a whole awful lot of writing to it…)

A sort of mash-up of those two themes – the Sunset Strip Anthem: “Usual Suspects” – and one I love even more than the last one, a lot more.

Just by the bye, and regarding these themes of theirs, they're really not being done justice here. For instance, my favourite is probably the Existential Lament, e.g. “Hear Me Now”:

(that one has made me sob live, and more than once hearing it on runs); and for another e.g. “I'll Be There”:

I mean, seriously? you can keep your Sartre and Kierkegaard; or, Oh, my god, “Your Life” (did I mention how much I love this band!?):

Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled show we actually saw… concluding with their ULTIMATE club anthem – and one guaranteed to bring down the house live: “Warchild” (did I mention that in addition to being super-smart, these guys have an AWESOME sense of humour?)

Finally, hilariously enough, two nights later we were watching whatever we were watching over dinner, then flipped to YouTube for our regularly scheduled hedgehog videos. And YouTube of course served the following up, so of course we we watched it. Then when the camera snaked down the queue outside we were like, Hey, that's our show from two nights ago!

Then of course when they had crowd shots, our eyes went to the spot we were in. Then Ness hit pause – and, Boom: us. I'm reasonably recognisable (click the image for larger version)…


…and you can also just make Ness out to, to my right – blue hair, and top of her eyeglass frames.


  existentialism     music     art  
about
close photo of Michael Stephen Fuchs

Fuchs is the author of the novels The Manuscript and Pandora's Sisters, both published worldwide by Macmillan in hardback, paperback and all e-book formats (and in translation); the D-Boys series of high-tech, high-concept, spec-ops military adventure novels – D-Boys, Counter-Assault, and Close Quarters Battle (coming in 2016); and is co-author, with Glynn James, of the bestselling Arisen series of special-operations military ZA novels. The second nicest thing anyone has ever said about his work was: "Fuchs seems to operate on the narrative principle of 'when in doubt put in a firefight'." (Kirkus Reviews, more here.)

Fuchs was born in New York; schooled in Virginia (UVa); and later emigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lived through the dot-com boom. Subsequently he decamped for an extended period of tramping before finally rocking up in London, where he now makes his home. He does a lot of travel blogging, most recently of some very  long  walks around the British Isles. He's been writing and developing for the web since 1994 and shows no particularly hopeful signs of stopping.

You can reach him on .

THE MANUSCRIPT by Michael Stephen Fuchs
PANDORA'S SISTERS by Michael Stephen Fuchs
DON'T SHOOT ME IN THE ASS, AND OTHER STORIES by Michael Stephen Fuchs
D-BOYS by Michael Stephen Fuchs
COUNTER-ASSAULT by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book One - Fortress Britain, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Two - Mogadishu of the Dead, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : Genesis, by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Three - Three Parts Dead, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Four - Maximum Violence, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Five - EXODUS, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Six - The Horizon, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Seven - Death of Empires, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Eight - Empire of the Dead by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : NEMESIS by Michael Stephen Fuchs

ARISEN, Book Nine - Cataclysm by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Ten - The Flood by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Eleven - Deathmatch by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Twelve - Carnage by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Thirteen - The Siege by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Fourteen - Endgame by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : Fickisms
ARISEN : Odyssey
ARISEN : Last Stand
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 1 - The Collapse
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 2 - Tribes
Black Squadron
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 3 - Dead Men Walking
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 4 - Duty
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 5 - The Last Raid
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