Archive for the ‘concert’ Category
BulletBoys Concert Review, Austin, TX, November 21, 2014
I will go on record to say that most of the music from this genre of hard rock/metal didn’t do it for me in the 80s. I found the hairspray and makeup quite silly and still do. There were a few bands that did stand out and I took a liking to, but BulletBoys were not one of them. Smooth up in ya? Puhleaze! That over the top, bombastic pretty boy type stuff just made me want to puke. I had even seen them a few years ago when from pal in Arsis was in town on tour and freaked out knowing that BB was playing next door, so I subjected myself to it and didn’t pay any attention to the show at all. “Another shot please!?”
Fast forward to 2014. My friend, Shawn Duncan, who plays drums for DC4 and Odin (yes, that Odin), let me know that he was touring with BB this year and that they were coming to Austin and Houston. Shawn’s one of the nicest dudes out there and I was stoked to be able to hang out with him again. We didn’t get to hang out on my last couple of trips to LA so I was happy to get to see him here in Austin. He let me know that for the Austin and Houston shows, Odin bassist, Aaron Samson, was also playing.
I work near a Guitar Center and the band’s manager had asked me to pick up some sticks and strings for the band if I was near one. Luckily I work right around the corner from one so I grabbed their stuff and went right downtown after work to catch them at sound check and to try and grab dinner with them. There were several issues related to the promoter in getting an actual backline, hotel, food etc and the band decided to just go back to their hotel until showtime. Fine by me, I needed a nap anyhow!
After getting some rest, I catch my ride back downtown and get ready to see the band. Again, I am not a BB fan and was only there to hang out with Shawn and Aaron.
But I got surprised big time. I thoroughly enjoyed the set besides Smooth Up In Ya and For the Love of Money. Those still give me an MTv hangover. But the band was as solid as they could be. Marq Torien’s voice was strong and he handles most of the guitar solos these days. Homeboy can play and he’s a really good front man. I love watching Shawn play drums. I always get a Cozy Powell vibe.
There were about 50 or so people there, with a lot of them being fans of the band singing every song. That was good to see and I could tell that the band was having a good time. I had a great time as well and would definitely go see them again, even if my friends aren’t in the band. I’m still tired as that was night #1 of 3 straight shows.
Heart Concert Review, Austin, TX, November 16, 2014
Heart was great last night. I’ve been a fan since the 70s and it started in Ellwood City, PA in my grandma’s basement. My awesome aunts Dianne and Debbie were big fans and I have good memories of spinning Dreamboat Annie, Dog and Butterfly and Little Queen down there. The limited time I spent up there yearly was filled with music in the basement with my cousins and aunts.
Oddly, I never went to see them until last night. I especially love the 80s MTV-era stuff.
Heart opened with a slow-ish version of Barracuda and rolled right into Heartless and Magic Man. Ann’s voice was stellar. She’s 64. She sounded so damned incredible and I was completely blown away by the power she still possesses in her voice. Nancy is 60 and neither of them looked their ages at all. They are still both beautiful. I was amazed as to how tiny/short the sisters are. I don’t know why I thought they’d be taller. I would have hugged both of them if I had been given the chance.
The whole band was tight as expected. The setlist was a decent cross section of the 70s and 80s hits. I will admit to getting all choked up during Dreamboat Annie. A few tears rolled down. Not sure why. I love that song and all, but it just moved me a bit last night. We were 5th row center for the show. Right after Dreamboat was played, the lights were turned on the crowd for a moment and I had the horns up in the air. Standing at the edge of the stage, Ann caught my glance, gave me a wink and a thumbs up. I was already smiling and that just made me smile even harder.
I will say that the show was damn near perfect except for one thing…the abundance of cover tunes. I know they’ve been playing Zeppelin covers for years, but for the entire three song encore? I’m not a Zep fan at all, but Heart does it well. They also did a Wings cover. I went to the bathroom on that one. I’m no McCartney fan in the least. They did, however, cover Robin Trower’s Day of the Eagle and that sounded cool. But when you’re already playing what I thought was a short set, fill it with originals.
But overall, it was a great show and I wish I hadn’t waited so long to see them.
courtesy of the Austin American Statesman
courtesy of the Austin American Statesman
courtesy of the Austin American Statesman
courtesy of Heart’s soundwoman
Kat, Wendy, Monkey Boy, Alysha. Photo courtesy of “The Austin 360 A List”
King Diamond Concert Review, Austin, TX, November 8, 2014
It’s tough writing reviews sometimes because I have trouble being objective when trying to talk about seeing some of my favorite bands.
There was something incredibly special about last night’s King Diamond show that I just don’t know if I can put my finger on it or properly describe in words better than just saying, “That was fucking awesome!”
And it was. It was fucking awesome. Really fucking awesome.
I’ve loved King Diamond (KD) since Abigail came out. That album had me delve back in time to quickly get into Fatal Portrait and Mercyful Fate. But Abigail is #1 for me in KD’s catalog.
I’ve see King twice before tonight (’88/2000) and Fate twice (’93/’99). All of those shows were special in their own ways, especially that ’88 show on the Them tour. King sounded great in all 4 of those shows. With it being 14 years since the last time I had seen him, I had concerns that his voice wouldn’t be what it once was. That thought was quickly removed from my head once they broke into the opener, The Candle. They quickly kept it running hard and heavy with Sleepless Nights and Welcome Home which went over very well with the crowd. Everyone knows the “grandma song”.
They mixed it up with songs from Them, Puppet Master and Give Me Your Soul…Please, not to mention 2 Mercyful Fate songs, Evil and Come To The Sabbath. It was a very metal crowd that was very into the show. King’s stage set up was over the top filled with a giant goat’s head pentagram and upside crosses.
Andy LaRouque and Mike Wead were shredding it as expected. Matt Thompson did a fine job handling Mikkey Dee’s drum lines, but he’s no Mikkey Dee. Few are. That’s no slight to Matt, he was killer. Pontus Edberg held down the bass perfectly. The mix was great, especially for an outside venue.
Highlights for me were Sleepless Nights (love that drum line), Family Ghost and especially Black Horsemen. That song is the best ending to any album I have ever heard and it was the perfect closer to last night’s set. It gave me goosebumps last night and I have them again writing this. It was such a powerful show all the way around. I did notice, however, that King had a female backup singer that sang some of the high notes along with him. I tried to listen to the difference in the voices (his and hers) and really couldn’t tell. There were times that he was hitting the notes perfectly and she wasn’t singing at all, so maybe she was just there for harmony and melody purposes.
What a great fucking show!
Judas Priest Concert Review, Austin, TX, November 7, 2014
The shows just keep coming. I’m tired but musically satisfied and it’s always completely worth it. Priest is an odd beast for me. Been a fan since the 70s and prefer that era much more than the 80s to now stuff. When Rob’s voice started leaning towards screeching for vengeance instead of the clean falsettos of the 80s, I was turned off. I first saw Priest in 1998 with Tim Owens on vocals. Blech. Didn’t like his albums or his Anselmo like stage presence, but the band sounded great.
Flash forward to 2008 and I went to the Priest/Heaven & Hell/Motorhead/Testament show but left before JP came on. I had seen footage of Rob from that tour and it was awful. Immobile, hunched over, a slave to his teleprompter, much like when I saw Halford (solo) in NYC. I didn’t want to see how much the mighty had fallen so I left. I sort of regret it but oh well.
Flash forward again to 2014 and Fun Fun Fun Fest announced that Priest and King Diamond would be headliners on their black stage. I wasn’t going to miss Rob this time. I got to the venue around 7PM and the line to get in was about 3hrs. I did a little hocus pocus and only waited about 15 minutes to get my will call wristband. Hung with some friends until Priest went on and then we rocked out. They opened with Dragonaut from the new album. I’m not a fan of the newer stuff as stated previously but it sounded fine. Then right into Metal Gods, Devil’s Child and Victim of Changes. Overall Rob sounded pretty good. He avoided the notes he knew he couldn’t hit. Some of them he got pretty good when he tried like in Victim. There were some instances where he did try and failed, but whatever. It was what it was…a great metal show.
They played 4 tracks from the new album. A decent mix of the older stuff. Of course my setlist would have been totally different. Richie Faulkner is sort of the star of the show now. He’s out front most of the time and handles all of KK’s old leads just fine. He’s good. The band was very solid as expected. Hard not to be when you have the human drum machine Scott Travis keeping time for you. Beyond The Realms of Death was the highlight for me.
So many childhood memories listening to that one as a kid. It was a fun show but when it ended all I really cared about was going home and going to bed. I went downtown for one beer and could barely drink it. Pure exhaustion. Today I rest up for King Diamond tonight!
The Metal Files 
You must be logged in to post a comment.