Archive for the ‘austin’ Category
Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ Concert Review, Austin, TX, July 20, 2016
Night two of DnC’s stand in Austin. The band went on a little later this time, around 945PM and played until 1215AM. My friend Molly came, which was quite a pleasant surprise.
What another great night. DnC mixed up the setlist as they’re apt to do every night and played some more deep cuts. As an added surprise Cheetah Chrome from The Dead Boys joined the band on stage to sing and play guitar on Sonic Reducer and just guitar Out in the Middle of Nowhere. That was pretty cool.
It was a bit of a smaller crowd and I saw some of the same folks there from the night before. It felt hotter in there as well. Sweatin’ it out! It felt good, though. Rock and roll feels good.
Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ Concert Review, Austin, TX, July 19, 2016
Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ (DnC) are in town on a 2 day stint and that makes me happy. A band I was in back in the early-to-mid 90s played a handful of their songs and they became a band that I thoroughly enjoyed. I didn’t get to see them back in those days and the first time seeing them being only 2 years ago during SxSW.
I was surprised to see that they got booked at The Sahara Lounge in Austin’s far east side. This is a true dive bar in an area that’s starting to gentrify. I had only driven by the location before last night. Nothing was clear online as to when the band would start so I showed up at 8PM and parked. There were only 2 other cars there and I thought to myself that this was going to be a poorly attended show.
The band rolled in a few minutes after I did and I offered to help them load in along with another guy who had arrived early. This bar is tiny but has a lot of character and a friendly staff.
DnC took the stage at 930 and played for 2.5 hours straight. Wow. It was hot in there, too. The little wall unit ACs just barely took the edge off of the heat, but I was fine with sweating it out with the band. The band now features Warner Hodges of Jason and the Scorchers fame and is a top notch guitar player. The rest of the band, including main man Kevin Kinney, sounded great. DnC has a lot of material and I’m mostly familiar with some of the earlier stuff, but it all sounds like DnC. Kevin is a great riff writer and lyricist.
All said and done, I think there may have been 50-60 people there, maybe a little more. It was a very welcoming crowd as well. They played everything I would’ve wanted to hear except for Smoke. It was one of my favorites to cover and I love the riff in that one. After the show I asked Kevin if we’d hear it at Wednesday’s show. “We’d have to relearn it, mainly me. I haven’t played that one in a long time.” Bummer. That being said, I’ll be at the Wednesday show as well.
Ted Nugent Concert Review, Austin, TX, July 17, 2017
Ted Nugent. Just the mention of his name to some, especially here in Austin, sends people’s triggers through the roof. When the show was announced on Facebook, the SJWs of Austin took to their keyboards in protest. “I’ll never go to your venue again!” “Boycott the Scoot Inn!” “Such and such should be ashamed of themselves for booking this asshole!” and blah blah blah. It was fun to watch. That being said, I bought a ticket as I’ve never seen Sweaty Teddy before.
Some history…one of my older brothers, Robert (RIP), was a huge Nugent fan in the 70s and 80s and through his fandom, I became familiar with the first 4 or 5 albums. Just the sight of those records takes me back to being a kid again. Oddly, the only album of his that I ever owned was Little Miss Dangerous as I liked the title track. I went back and re-listened to that one a few weeks ago and it’s pretty horrible.
As a musician, the guy is a guitar beast and severely underrated. As a human being, well, I wouldn’t mind meeting him but I don’t think I’d want to be his neighbor. One thing I learned over the years was that if I based my fandom of bands on the people in the band and their previous transgressions, I’d probably never be able to listen to any band ever again. Stones? Bowie? Sheesh, there goes a chunk of my music collection right there!
My buddy Jason K went with me and we arrived right around 730PM just after the opening band, who isn’t worth mentioning, had finished. This was an early show with a hard curfew of 10PM. I was pleased to see the 5 protesters out front and wish I had taken a photo of their signs, but oh well. Good for them for exercising their First Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution. I applaud that.
Ted hit the stage right at 8PM with his rendition of the Star Spangled Banner and went into Gonzo after that. I expected long-winded political rants speckled between songs but hardly got anything out of him besides, “The world sucks these days, America just sucks a lot less,” and “I’m from Detroit, the murder capital of America, and that’s only because we’re a better shot,” and burped “Obama.” Pretty much everything else was about his love of Bo Diddley and Texas. I was a bit surprised.
Up next was Free-For-All, which is one of my favorites. Ted handled vocals for the whole show except for Stormtroopin’, another favorite. Bassist, Greg Smith, sang on that one. Greg has been with everyone it seems including Wendy O Williams. I met him 2 years ago when he toured with Hellion. Great bassist. It was also good to hear Hey Baby and Good Friends and a Bottle of Wine. Ted’s guitar playing was top notch. His trio was rounded out by 21yr old drummer, Jason Hartless, who was perfect all night.
I was told that presales on the show were about 450 and I think the overall number was about 700 or so in an outdoor venue that can hold 1200. I stayed up on the deck in the back with a couple of friends. It was a nice evening and even better running into my old friend, Robin, whom I hadn’t seen in some years.
This was likely my first and last Nuge show. It was fun and I got to see what I needed to see.
Stephen Pearcy Concert Review, Austin, TX, June 24, 2016
Last night was the third time in the last 2 years that I’ve seen Stephen Pearcy and those first 2 times weren’t that good. I had met him last year in Irvine, CA and had him sign The Book then. The main reason I went to last night’s show was to meet some of the guys in Pearcy’s band. More on that in a bit.
The Boley’s from Florence, TX opened. I believe they’re all siblings. It was a solid rock set.
Super Vato was up next which features my pals Yayo Sanchez on guitar and vocals and Chris Alaniz on drums. Omar Vallejo rounded the band out on bass. Musically the band was a bit all over the map, but I think this may have been their first show.
DeniroSmith, an Aerosmith tribute band featuring Jason McMaster on vocals. They only plays songs from the first 5 albums and do it well.
Pearcy and crew hit the stage opening with Wanted Man and Drive Me Crazy. His voice sounded really good throughout the whole set and they pretty much played everything I’d want to hear minus Morning After. I could have done without Way Cool Jr but oh well.
After the show, I got the opportunity to spend a few minutes with the band. I saw Stephen first and he asked if I wanted anything signed. I mentioned that he took care of all that last year. So he just gave me a hug and thanked me for coming. I was stoked to learn a few weeks before the show that Matt Thorne and Chris Hager from Rough Cutt. I had seen them in ’87(?) with Alcatrazz and Zebra. I mentioned that tour and they both said they only did a few shows with the other 2 bands. Great guys. Matt asked Pearcy to take the photo of us. Pearcy complained for a moment and Matt told him to just do it. It was funny. Greg D’Angelo from White Lion was on drums. I had him sign as well, but he was pretty disinterested overall.
Fun night overall.
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- Greg D’Angelo
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- Matt Thorne and Chris Hager
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- Stephen Pearcy and Monkey Boy
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- A picture of Pearcy taking a picture of Monkey Boy, Matt and Chris
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- Photo by Pearcy of Monkey Boy, Matt Thorne and Chris Hager
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- Stephen Pearcy
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- DeniroSmith
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- Super Vato
Gordon Lightfoot Concert Review, Austin, TX, June 21, 2016
Gordon Lightfoot will be 78 later this year. He still tours. He plays 2 sets and stands the whole time. That’s pretty awesome.
Given his age, his voice has deteriorated a lot and it’s only in a few spots here and there that you can hear his golden voice from the 70s. He’s much higher-pitched and weaker nowadays but he gets it done and does it without a teleprompter which I think is even more impressive. His guitar playing is still pretty good, too.
He seems like quite a personable guy. Doing some quick research online, it looks like he just got married (again) 2 years ago to the 55 year old actress Kim Hasse.
It was a good show overall and was comparable to the show I saw 2 years ago. He played pretty much everything one would want to hear at his shows and it brought back great memories of being a kid listening to AM gold with my Mom.
The Metal Files 
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