Archive for the ‘texas’ Category
Chicago Concert Review, Austin, TX, May 27, 2016
Last night was the 4th time I’ve seen Chicago since 1991 and the 3rd time since 2012. I’ve loved this band since I was a kid thanks to their heavy radio play and thanks to my Mom being a big fan.
Last night’s show was “an evening with” type show, meaning no opener which was fine with me. My friend, Kitty, ended up going with me and into the Moody Theater we went.
As soon as they hit the stage, I noticed on huge difference in the band. Jason Scheff, the bassist/vocalist who replaced Peter Cetera, was not there. Instead, Jeff Coffey was handling those duties. Apparently Jason had a family emergency and had to back out of the tour. Coffey auditioned for the band a week or so ago and got the job. Impressive.
The band played the set you’d expect with a song from their latest album thrown in. These “geezers” still deliver and it’s impressive how much energy they have. I’ll say this, though. Jeff Coffey was the highlight for me. For as good as Scheff is, Coffey was nailing Cetera’s vocal and bass parts effortlessly. I was really blown away. I’d be ok if he became a permanent member.
As always, the highlight song for me was Hard to Say I’m Sorry/Get Away. Street Player, Call on Me and Another Rainy Day in New York City were also great to hear again.
Even more impressive is that they played 32 songs. 32!
Voivod Concert Review, Austin, TX, May 21, 2016
The first time I ever saw Voivod live was during SxSW 2010, and there was blood. I was a latecomer to them and really prefer their middle-era of Nothingface, Angel Rat and Outer Limits, Negatron and Phobos over all of their other material. I love seeing them live and last caught them in Denver last year when I was up there for work.
I picked up my ticket yesterday afternoon and they were playing at the newly renovated Barracuda (f. Red 7). What a great job they did inside and out. The place is way more comfortable to see a show.
I missed opening act, Child Bite. King Parrot (King Boring) was up next and while I’m 0.0% a fan of them, their drummer is damned good.
Voivod was on next to a crowd of 100 or so, which was a bit disappointing. Apparently Dying Fetus was packed around the corner. Gross. Voivod was just hanging out with fans prior to their set. No rock stars here, folks. They’re really just laid back dudes and at least every time I have seen them, they’ve made themselves very accessible to their fans.
They opened with Ripping Headaches, Tribal Convictions and Order of the Blackguards. The set included 3 of the 5 songs from their latest EP, Post Society. The songs sounded great, especially We Are Connected. My favorites of the night would have to be The Prow and The Unknown Knows. This tour features new bassist, Dominique LaRoche, who did a great job. The whole band was tight as always and it’s really a pleasure to watch Away’s drumming. He’s a very unconventional.
The only played 13 songs ending the night with Voivod and Pink Floyd’s Astronomy Domine.
Upon exiting the stage, Dan Mongrain came up to me, put his hands on my shoulders and said with a smile, “How’s the head doing?” I said, “Other than a weird occasional twitch, no problems.” We both laughed, I told him it was a great show, he gave me a pick and we moved on. I’m surprised he even remembers that at all.
Can’t wait to see them again!
Foreigner Concert Review, Austin, TX, April 21, 2016
Let’s briefly go back in time…
I guess it was on the “4” tour for Foreigner that my oldest brother, Mark, went to the show (Norfolk Scope 1981?). He was a pretty big fan of the band and I think most people probably liked some of their stuff. In the late 70s and early-to-mid-80s you couldn’t get away from them. I liked them enough. Urgent is a great song. Beyond I Want To Know What Love Is, I pretty much like all of their hits. And for many of us musicians, Jukebox Hero has a lot of meaning.
Flash forward to today. Foreigner still tours…a lot. But wait. Who’s in the band? Lou Gramm is long gone. But Mick Jones is still on guitar, right? Nope. Who’s left from the original lineup? No one. NO ONE. Mick has had some major health problems in recent years and can’t tour. He did an acoustic TV appearance with the band a couple of months ago and looked pretty frail on that. So what we had last night was the most solid Foreigner cover band you could ever see and I was aware of that fact when I bought the VIP/meet and greet pass.
I’ve got a few friends that call me crazy for doing that with bands, but there’s usually a mission behind it and that’s to get certain musicians in The Book. With Foreigner, two of the guys were in 80s metal bands that I liked and actually have a little personal history with one of them.
Typically on these things it’s just a small group of folks but last night they had nearly 100 people buy the VIP. It’s also usually known up front if personal autographs would be allowed. Nothing noted during the purchase about that. This was not a cheap purchase by any means. We’re not talking KISS prices by any stretch of the imagination, but not chump change either. I was there on a mission. This one didn’t state either way so I went for it. As they’re explaining the process, the girl mentioned “no personal autographs”. Everything puckered up quickly. She walked through the line to see if folks had questions and when she got to me, she got an earful. Respectfully of course. I showed her The Book and explained to her blah blah blah. She leaned in to me and said, “I’ll do my best to make it happen. Just hang tight and maybe drop back in line a little.” OK.
So we’re going through the backstage area of the awesome Moody Theater and I’m noticing that only 2-3 other people had something extra with them. It was almost my turn to meet the band and she comes up to me and says, “It’s happening. Do the picture then just hang out over there with Bill (another manager) until everyone goes through.” I hugged her.
As I got up to the band to shake their hands, Jeff Pilson (Dokken et als) was first. I mentioned I was a huge early Dokken fan and said, “Me too!” When I spoke to Kelley Hansen (Hurricane), I mentioned our history. “What did I do?” I mentioned him contacting me around 2001 when I was selling a promo only Hurricane picture disc that he apparently had never seen and didn’t own. We had worked out a trade. “That was you?! I still have that thing and still haven’t seen another!” A couple of quick photos and I was shuffled off to Bill who says, “Leave the book here and I’ll bring it to you after they sign it.” ummm…What? No, sir. Sorry, that book doesn’t leave my sight. Allison heard our exchange and said, “He’s fine, Bill.”
As I’m waiting for the last 20 or so folks to do their thing with the band, I see Joey Kramer from Aerosmith walk in with a small entourage. HOLY SHIT. Joey Kramer. He lives locally and is out and about often but this was my first encounter. He walks by me and I just say, “Hey Joey, how’s it going. Got a moment to sign something?” “Sure, man. Whatcha got?” I flip The Book open to the Aerosmith page, he asked my name and signed it. I mentioned how much his playing blew me away the 3 or 4 times I had seen them since the 80s. “Best American rock drum shuffle ever”, I said. “Thanks, Sean. Nice to meet you.” To be honest, I got a little star struck. I’ve met a lot of bands over the years, but for whatever reason, maybe the surprise of seeing him, got me all worked up for a moment. That made the price of admission completely worth it.
After the crowd got through the line, Kelley came over and signed the book, shook my hand and moved on. Pilson came over and we chatted for a few minutes. Told him I saw Dokken/Aerosmith in 89. He asked who was better and I said, “We were mainly there to see Dokken.” He seems like a pretty laid back guy.
I ran my stuff back to my truck quickly and went back in. I was front row, just off center. The show started at 815PM and they were slated to only play 13 songs. Just the hits and nothing more. I’ll say this, they were fantastic. Everyone in that band is a solid professional, it’s just unfortunate that no original members are still playing in the band. I heard a lot of complaints around me about Jones not being there. It was a sold out show, too. As stated earlier, I knew what to expect going it, but it was all worth it. That said, I’ll never go see them again, even if Jones was able to come back.
I do want to give a hand to Kelley Hansen’s vocals and performance. That guy’s voice was perfect. He does, however, look a lot like Steven Tyler these days and is copping his moves pretty hard. Some of his between song banter was annoying but he was also playing to the older crowd that was there. At 46, I was one of the youngest in attendance. As he was introducing the band, he stated that Jeff Pilson was a founding member of Dokken. Part of me wanted to yell, “What about Juan Croucier?!” haha. He also mentioned that one of the guitarists had been assaulted the night before in downtown Austin. The drummer was a beast, but I could have done without the drum solo. They were slated to do Long, Long Way From Home in the encore but it got nixed for a little love fest tribute to Prince. They had a local high school choir doing backing vocals in I Want to Know What Love Is and ended it with Hot Blooded.
Overall an enjoyable night.
Chick Corea & Bela Fleck Concert Review, Austin, TX, April 15, 2016
I’m a pretty big fan of the late 60s/early 70s heavy fusion jazz movement that Chick Corea was a huge part of. I caught the Return to Forever reunion show weveral years ago and it was great. I’d also seen Bela Fleck and the Flecktones several times back in Virginia as his bassist, Victor Wooten, was from my hometown area. They played there often.
When I first saw the show announcement I jumped on tickets, not paying attention to the fact that it was just Chick and Bela and no backing band. Oh well. Man, was I surprised when the show started. It was incredible.
Two master musicians whose respective instruments worked well together. Perfectly even. It really was a great show. I stayed through half of the second set as I had some late night dinner plans and yet another show to see closer to my house.
I highly recommend going to see this tour if you like either musician. Thankfully no pictures are allowed inside the venue during performances. I was able to just zone out and listen to some beautiful music.
Night Demon & Visigoth Concert Review, Austin, TX, April 12, 2016
Round 2 of the Night Demon and Visigoth tour takes us to Austin’s Beerland. At the request of Beerland’s booking manager, I was asked to find some opening acts for this show. That proved to be a little more difficult than I had anticipated but my friends in Think Lizzy, a local Thin Lizzy tribute, stepped up and were the only local presence for the show. Both Night Demon and Visigoth are huge Lizzy fans and were excited to have the tribute as an opener.
Think Lizzy hit the stage and played their good mix of Lizzy classics. The band is really good and the singer is from Dublin and does a great job vocally and on bass. Armand John Lizzy from Night Demon plays in a Lizzy tribute back in Ventura and got up and played Emerald with the band. It was pretty sweet. Somewhere mid-set, Steve asked me to join them for Motorhead’s Ace of Spades. He asked me if I’d do it a few days before the show and I said it’s not Thin Lizzy but apparently they’ve had it in their set for a while. Since I occasionally do a Motorhead tribute in Austin, he wanted me up there so it happened. I strapped on his Ibanez bass on and we went into a pretty loose but good version. The crowd seemed to like it.
Visigoth was up next and everyone was looking a lot healthier. The energy in their show was a lot better than the San Antonio show from the night before. I think it helped that they had a good opening act and that there was a better crowd. The played the same set as the night before with Demon’s The Spell added in. For the folks there who weren’t familiar with Visigoth I think they gained some new fans.
Night Demon’s set was also the same from the night before and like Visigoth, the energy was up. The crowd was into it and the majority of the folks in the venue stayed near the front and rocked out. Night Demon has gained a many fans in Austin since they first came here with Raven. The band was so solid and as I’ve stated before, the addition of Armand adds a new vibe to the band’s live show.
There were a lot more folks in attendance and I think both bands have a lot of new fans.
By the end of the show I was pretty wiped out. This was my third show in a row this week and I flying out at 6AM to Denver to see Iron Maiden. I decided to just stay up the whole night with the bands back at my house before heading to the airport.
It was great having both bands stay with me and I’m glad I was able to help them out. They’re always welcome. Also, they stayed at my place until Thursday while I was away and took great care of the house and my cat, Taco. In the group show below, right as Andrew was taking the picture, Taco had jumped into a paper bag. It was a perfect candid moment where instead of trying to be super tough metalheads, we were just cracking up over my silly cat.
The Metal Files 
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