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Nicko McBrain’s Titanium Tart / Velvet Sky / Maximum Friction, Sanford, FL, July 25, 2025
Haven’t posted in a while but this one was important enough to share here…
Let’s flashback to about 1983. I wasn’t playing drums yet but I wanted to learn and a big reason for that was hearing Piece Of Mind and Nicko McBrain. They were becoming and still are my favorite band of all time, not matter that I generally haven’t cared about anything they’ve put out since No Prayer.
Flash forward to early 1988. I’m 17, a senior with terribly poofy hair and acne and local music store Abbey Music announces that Nicko, my favorite drummer ever, was doing a drum clinic and of course I had to go.
There were only about 30 people there as Whitesnake was in town touring for the ’87 LP. I was one of 2 people who actually got to get up on stage and play his drums with him standing right there. It was awesome. I still have the pair of his signature sticks! During one of his rambles, he mentioned the size of the crowd being small due to Whitesnake being in town. Under my breath from the front row I said “Fuck Tommy Aldridge.” Nicko stopped his speech and said, “Steve, give that man a beer!” So his tech handed me an ice cold Heineken which I had Nicko autograph after the show as we were getting a photo taken. I still have that bottle, unopened and it’s all chunky inside. I didn’t drink at the time so there was no reason to open it. It was an incredible night.
Flash forward to just a few weeks ago and I see a post online about Nicko’s Titanium Tart playing 4 Florida shows and offering a meet and greet. I had to do it. I sent the info to Kelz and we got on a long phone call to discuss logistics. Just based on price point, I decided to fly into Raleigh where he is and we’d drive down to Sanford, FL. BUT…we wanted to make sure we were able to purchase the meet and greet which was to go on sale a couple of days later. We got the tix dnd I booked my trip and that was that.
Thursday July 24
Kelz picks me up mid afternoon at the airport, we chill at his place a bit then run out for dinner at a coney dog place called Cloos’. It was excellent. Back to his place to chill for a bit and watch a movie. We planned to leave at 7AM on Friday.
Friday July 25
We did leave at 7AM and because of some traffic issues along that way, we got to our crash pad right at 5PM. Luckily we were just a couple of blocks away. We dropped our stuff, freshened up and walked over to The Barn. That humidity was no joke. Once there we checked in and got our meet and greet swag and do our obligatory pre-show shot. Mine was just Coke.
First band, Maximum Friction, opened up the evening. They’re all young high school kids and play as a 3pc with the bassist handling vocal duties. They played all classic metal covers by Ozzy, Megadeth, Sabbath, Pantera etc and one original. They were pretty solid and reminded me of School of Rock type kids. Good on em.
Another 3pc called Velvet Sky played next. Both bands played a side room and I didn’t watch any of Velvet Sky.
Nicko’s band started just before 8PM on the main stage and we grabbed a spot near the front stage right in the VIP section. You couldn’t really see Nicko because of his kit size but we could hear him fine. In general I’d call the song selection meh but I’m sure they’re doing the songs that best fit his physical condition. He did as well as I’d expected, especially after seeing three shows from that last tour. I was stoked to hear Infinite Dreams. Partially disabled by his stroke or not, the man’s right foot is still devastating as he proved throughout the night.
He’d come out from behind the kit every few songs and talk, tell jokes, introduced the band etc. I stayed up in that area for about the first third of the show and moved to the back of the room. Knees were stiffening up and I needed to loosen em up and walk around a bit. Kelz left the VIP shortly after and we watched the remainder of the show back by the soundboard. Looked like about 200-250 folks.
Immediately after their set, the meet and greet folks were told to wait by the stairs to the upper level. They sold 50 of those packages at $75 a pop. We were in the last 10 or so to cycle thru.
It was billed as getting “one on one time with Nicko” and only one item to get signed. Uh yeah. I was gonna try and work some mojo and get two items signed: The Book and the photo of us from 1988 for framing purposes. Nicko would engage with the folks almost as much as anyone wished to. Some folks opted for a quick sig and a photo and some engaged with him more. It was nice to see altho it slowed things down a bit. We had nowhere to be, right?
Kelz is up first and I filmed their interaction. He got his main two things signed: a cool old Sonor ad from Modern Drummer and his Powerslave cd which already had sigs by Bruce, Adrian and Steve. Pretty sweet.
I’m up next and lay The Book out in front of him and he signed it. He was pretty indifferent about it but was digging our photo. I started recounting the events of that night and mentioned his former drum tech (RIP) and the Heineken. That affected him a little and he said he missed that guy. He said, “this must’ve been from 89” and I showed him the announcement flyer and explained it was Feb 1, 1988 pre-Seventh Son and that night was the first time I’d heard the title of the upcoming album. I asked if he’d sign the photo and he obliged. They had someone taking pics using our cameras and Kelz filmed most of my interaction with the man. We did the one main photo and he shook my hand and I asked him for a hug. He obliged and I told him in his ear how much I loved him and thanked him for a lifetime of music. He thanked me back and that was that. I was hoping to recreate our original photo as much as we could’ve but it just didn’t play out that way and I’m good with that.
My San Antonio buddy Ruben and his lovely wife Jasmin were right behind us and get their stuff signed. He also had Nicko sign his leg which hopefully got tattooed in today.
We collected ourselves after the surreal moments with Nicko and Ruben gave us a ride back. Our adrenaline was still up and we ordered in a couple of sammiches, talked about the evening a bit more and crashed out. It was a perfect night.
We drove back Saturday the 26th, it was a little over 9 hours coming back and traffic was light for the most part. We got back here at 6PMish and just chilled out for the evening with a couple of movies.
The expense and time of this trip was worth every minute and dollar spent. Getting Nicko in The Book was a pinnacle moment and I’m considering retiring it. As I’m writing this eating breakfast tacos Sunday morning here in Raleigh with Kelz, we’re still quite a bit in awe of meeting Nicko. Glad we got to share the experience together as Iron Maiden has been a major part of our friendship for over 40 years.
All hail Nicko and always Up The Irons! Forever.
Video of Nicko and me:
Setlist: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/titanium-tart/2025/the-barn-in-sanford-sanford-fl-4b4283ae.html
New Kids On The Block, Paula Abdul, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Austin, TX, July 12, 2024
Friday night in Austin, TX marked the 3rd time I got to meet Paula Abdul. When presale tickets went on sale a few months back I snagged a front row aisle seat and hoped that a meet and greet would eventually be advertised, which it was.
My good friend, Amparo, who is also a client also bought the meet and greet and accompanied me to the show. We got parked and walked over to the VIP tent and got checked in. There were only about 9 of us while NKOTB had at least 150. That was nuts. We walked through the venue down to the backstage area where there was a Paula backdrop. Her meet and greet manager, Mitch, gave a few instructions and shortly after Paula walked out. She’s so preciously tiny and beautiful. I got all giddy seeing her again.
Most of the line got their stuff signed and photos taken then it was my turn, which went something like this:
“What are you getting signed?”
My arm again if you don’t mind.
“Oh, I remember these now. How are you?”
*passes out. Gets back up quickly*
One of her assistants says, “hold on, I want to film this” and he airdropped the video to me after we did our photos together.
When I had her in my arms for the photo, I mentioned that I may come up for her headline tour in Calgary and asked “can a brutha get a hookup?”
“You’d come up there to see me?”
So many responses ran thru my head but I only said, “yes ma’am, of course.” After the photo she called her assistant over and said, “get his contact info and put him on the list for Calgary.” *swoon* Purposely I had a business card with me. 😄
It was a great few minutes with her. After the meet and greet ended, we were walked back out to the main area of the venue and got to check out the merch and grab a drink before the crowd was let in. I wanted a Paula shirt but not having tour dates on the back killed it for me. We grabbed a drink then went to our seats to check out DJ Jazzy Jeff’s set. He had a rapper/hype man with him to keep the crowd involved and he did a good job. Jeff spuns stuff from the likes of OPP to the Cheers theme song to some dance hits that I have no idea who they’re by to Don’t Stop Believing. It was a very white girl crowd and and during the journey song I looked at the super white girls next to me and said, “he definitely knows his audience” and the girls said, “you’re not wrong!” Haha
He finished up and the changeover was about 15 minutes and Paula’s show started. She opened with Straight Up and went into Vibeology. No surprises in the set and there was a medley towards the end of the set that included pieces of some deeper cuts. Also no surprise that she’s not singing through most of the set, but mainly because she’s dancing and moving around a lot. At 62, she’s more mobile than most people I know. Impressive.
Neither Amparo nor I cared about NKOTB so we left during the second song. Meh.
Even though this is the third time I’ve met her, I always forget how tiny she is. She’s perfectly dainty at 5’0”. While this was a very expensive day, it was really worth it to me and I hope to see her again in Calgary, hooked up or not. She is and always will be forever my girl.
Paula Abdul setlist here: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/paula-abdul/2024/germania-insurance-amphitheater-austin-tx-b54814e.html
Mercyful Fate/Kreator/Midnight, Atlanta, GA, November 16, 2022
Mercyful Fate played Dallas on the opening night of their current tour a couple of weeks ago and unfortunately work got in the way. Things loosened up a bit and I decided to catch the final show of the tour in Atlanta and I’m glad I did.
I’d seen enough clips from the tour to see that King was on his game, especially for a 66 year old. On recent King Diamond tours he’d been using a female backup singer to help with the higher notes but apparently she wasn’t needed for this.
After an hour or so delay leaving Austin, we’re off to Atlanta on an east flight. A quick walk to the MARTA rail and I was off to my hotel which was a block off of the rail stop and a block from the venue. Perfect.
Doors were at 6 and around 5 I grabbed dinner at a little steakhouse between the venue and hotel. The burger was meh but the asparagus was good.
Once collecting my ticket at will call, I went straight into The Tabernacle. It’s an old church that’s been converted into a music venue. This place was great. I went downstairs to the basement to glance at the merch and grab a drink. The line was long so I went back upstairs to see Midnight.
The room sounded great and Midnight put on another great show. I’ve seen them a few times this year already with the last time being the night before the Fate tour started. No surprises.
Kreator was up next. I’m not a huge fan in general and only watched their last few songs. During their set I met up with some old friends and jumped in the merch line to hang out.
After Kreator finished, I moved up a little closer and waited for Fate to come on. They opened with The Oath and Corpse Without Soul and sounded fantastic. Their new single, The Jackal of Salzburg, was next. It was ok but I’d definitely need some more listens. The rest of the set never went past Don’t Break the Oath and they never deviated from the same list for the whole short tour. It would have been cool to hear some stuff from In the Shadows but oh well. The band was fantastic, too. Of course Hank Shermann and Mike Wead are beastly guitarists and fill-in bassist Becky was fantastic. My only issue was with the drummer. The dude is a total badass but was not doing some of the cool Kim Ruzz licks that I feel are signature things on those old Fate songs. No matter, I thoroughly enjoyed the set.
After the show I hung out with the Midnight guys. We went backstage for a “dummy check” to make sure they had all of their stuff and as we were leaving, I got scolded by Fate’s security for being back there without a pass. We were already on our way out, relax Ricky.
Rodney, Midnight’s road dog and merch guy, was staying in the same hotel so we went back and snoozed for a few hours before meeting up on the lobby at 5AM. Ugh. We both had 8AM flights. We jumped on the train and headed to the airport where I am writing this from. It was busy but we got through pretty quickly.
It was a short but great trip with no regrets. If/when Fate tours again, go. You won’t be disappointed.
WASP/Michael Schenker/Armored Saint, Dallas, TX, November 5, 2022
As you may have seen and heard, WASP didn’t play. I’ll get to that later.
When this tour was announced, I had 2 viable options to see it…San Antonio and Dallas. My friend Lisa and I decided that we wanted to do the Dallas show so I grabbed tickets for us.
I’ve seen both Armored Saint and Schenker several times in recent years but haven’t seen WASP since 2000 at Jaxx in Springfield, VA. That was an awful show as Blackie was lip synching the whole time and all bass and rhythm guitars were canned. It really left a bad impression. Prior to that show I had only seen the Crimson Idol tour, which was incredible. I was super excited to catch them this time and the setlist looked good, although doing medleys is annoying to me.
On the day of the show a group of us headed up to Dallas for the easy ride and got checked into our hotel. We had a view of the venue and saw that a huge line had already been forming. We had VIP balcony tickets so I didn’t worry too much about trying to wait in that line.
Around 7 we walked over and got right in and went upstairs. While it wasn’t packed up there at all, we determined pretty quickly that if you didn’t have a spot right on the rail, you were going to be able to see anything…NOTHING. Ugh. Worst sight lines ever.
We squeezed Lisa into a spot so she could see and I just hung back and listened to the Armored Saint deliver another quality show. They are so fucking good.
Schenker was up next and as expected, he was great. He’s in his 67 and still shreds. The singer and the band were perfect. During Schenker’s set, I saw a Fire Marshall walk through the balcony with a counter in his hand. The downstairs area in front of the stage and the side patio areas were packed in like sardines. No question in my mind that they had oversold and seeing the Fire Marshall there confirmed that. In my head I thought that we’d not see WAS, but I wanted to stay positive.
While waiting for WASP to come on, Armored Saint’s Jeff Duncan strolled the balcony and seemed to try to be a bit incognito. As he passed by me, I said, “Got a minute to say hello to an old friend?” He smiled and hung out with me and another of his friends from the 80s for a bit. As we were standing there, he got a text from someone in Armored Saint that said, “WASP isn’t playing. Over capacity.” He quickly said his goodbyes and headed back to the backstage area as he didn’t want to get caught up in the mess that was about to happen.
It was getting to be 11PM at this point and being an outside venue, I figured there was a 12PM curfew on shows. No way were they going to get on and play a shortened set. Then all of the lights came on and an announcement came on through the PA. People were understandably livid and disappointed. They said we’d receive full refunds but I have my doubts.
The venue had also been selling $10 tickets leading up to the show and just recently started charging for parking. Sounds like they were trying to make up the deficit of booking an expensive show in contrast to the ticket prices and capacity. The promoter, the venue and WASP all have a responsibility in this. Based on the other much larger venues they had been booked in, this place was far too small to handle such a show. Not that it really matters, but I can’t see myself ever attending another show there. I heard a ton of horror stories about that place that night and it all made sense.
We were all pretty disappointed but life goes on. Lisa and I are considering flying out to another show on the tour as we both really want to see WASP. We just went back to the hotel, had a couple of drinks, some pizza and played some dice games for the rest of the night. Overall it was a great trip with great friends, but it could’ve been just a bit better. Fuck that venue in general.
Elton John, San Antonio, TX, October 29, 2022
Concert season is upon us and everyone is on tour, including Elton John; but his run is coming to an end. He said “that’s it, I’m done and want to spend time with my family” and rightfully so. He’s 75.
My love for Elton’s music goes back about as far as I can remember thanks to my brother Robert (RIP) who was a big fan and used to spin Goodbye Yellow Brick Road all of the time when we were kids. He was 6 years older than me and really influenced my musical tastes at a very young age. He died in 2012 and I miss him more and more in recent years.
When tickets went on sale for this show seemingly years ago, I didn’t want to wait until the last minute nor did I want to be in the stands, so I paid the price and got pretty decent floor seats, but I did poor planning on getting a date for the show. Fortunately at the last minute my friend Stephanie accepted my offer and drove up from the valley to accompany me for the show.
She was running behind schedule because of traffic etc and we decided it was best just to meet up in San Antonio and head to the show from there. As we got close to the Alamodome, traffic was stacked up trying to find parking. To be honest it was a total shitshow. We were able to find a lot a few blocks away from the venue but it was a pain in the ass just trying to get to it. Once parked, we got our stuff together and walked to the venue. The line to get into the floor area was ridiculously long and by the time we got to our seats, Elton was just starting. I was relieved to just get in there on time.
I had watched some recent vids of the show on YouTube recently and to be honest the show seemed a bit dry and by the numbers…in person that ended up not being the case.
He opened the show with Bennie and the Jets and Philadelphia Freedom (I never cared for that song). His voice sounded great and the band was on fire. I didn’t realize that Nigel Olsson and Davey Johnstone were still in the band which is pretty impressive, especially Nigel who had been there since 1969! The set just kept getting better throughout the night and he told a great story about Border Song that Aretha Franklin had covered in 1972: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzY45mZNIHU
Even though I had known the setlist already, it was great seeing/hearing Have Mercy on the Criminal from 1973’s Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player LP. It’s a great tune. It was just hit after hit and the whole show I had my brother on my mind. Music can be a bit emotional for me and Someone Saved My Life Tonight hit me pretty hard. There are a few lyrics in that one that punch me in the gut.
Then came Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding, which opens the Yellow Brick Road album. So many memories and a wave of emptions came over me, but I maintained. Then Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word was played 2 songs later. This may be one of my all-time favorite non-metal songs ever. It was followed up with Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me and for whatever reason I always think of the live version with George Michael and the part where he says, “Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Elton John!”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsKqMNDoR4o
He blasted through more hits and I really couldn’t believe how great his voice still sounded. Sure, he can’t hit those falsettos anymore, but he’s still incredible. Crocodile Rock (awful song) and Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting closed out the main set of 20 f’n songs.
For the encore they played the PNAU remix of Elton and Dua Lipa doing Cold Heart (a mix of several different songs), Your Song and finally Goodbye Yellow Brick Road…that was when I really couldn’t hold back from shedding a few tears for my brother. At the end of the song Elton walked onto a lift and walked out through an opening in the brick wall and that was that.
As I stated earlier, the band was on fire but I noticed that Nigel wasn’t doing a lot of his signature licks in some of the songs. For me some of that minutia needs to be there, but hey, he’s also in his 70s so I guess he gets a pass. Dave Johnstone, on the other hand, was absolutely badass.
Overall the show was 10/10 and while there were certainly other songs I would love to have heard, I have no real complaints.
Upon leaving, I had trouble finding our parking lot which took some extra time and was a bit frustrating but eventually we got there and I took Stephanie back to her car and I headed back to Austin. My friends Kyle and Dave were also there and we were texting before and after the show. They were headed to our favorite watering hole in Austin right after and I wasn’t going to get there until about 1:20AM. I was super hungry as I hadn’t eaten since lunch so I had him order some food ahead of my arrival as they were getting there before me and it was waiting for me when I arrived. I pretty much inhaled it and we all shared our thoughts about the show. A good time was had by all. Also, I hope I never have to see another big show at the Alamodome ever again.
Thank you, Elton (and Bernie), for the lifetime of quality music that will stick with me until my last day.
The Metal Files 
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