Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Goodbye Room 710
I’ll never forget the very first time I walked in there. Jasmine was behind the bar and Mercyful Fate was playing on the jukebox. I repeat…MERCYFUL FATE WAS PLAYING ON THE JUKEBOX! I knew that I had found a home. I had just moved to Austin from Virginia and was checking out some of the places on Red River St. It was early in the evening so there really wasn’t anyone else in there. So I had a few beers, talked with Jasmine and commandeered the jukebox with 2 or 3 dollars. Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Celtic Frost, Thin Lizzy. Judas Priest, Mercyful Fate etc etc.
I love that place. They staff was always the best in town. No matter if a band was playing there that I liked or not, if I was downtown, I would always stop in for a drink.
They had some great shows there from all of the local rockers (including both of my bands) to some national and international acts. I got to see Vicious Rumors and Witchcraft there. Both great shows for me.
The new owner apparently owns One Eyed Jacks in New Orleans. I’ve heard good things about that place. I’ve also heard that they will remodel Room 710. Probably not a bad idea but I hope that they can retain the Red River vibe and even more importantly I hope they can retain some of the staff.
That place is special…to me anyways. So thanks to Room 710. I have a lot of great memories and even some fuzzy ones.
This is from the first show I played there:
RIP Michael Jackson
Sure he turned into a freak but it still doesn’t negate his great contribution to music in the 70s and 80s. Once upon a time he could sing and dance like no other. Thriller…Off The Wall…Beat It…classics.
Maybe now he has found piece in that tormented mind of his.
Thanks for some great tunes.
The Metal Years
I simply love this movie. I watched it again yesterday for the billionth time. It’s interesting seeing many of the people in the movie that I’ve met a time or 2 over the years and seeing how much they’ve changed.
I’ll always love the section on ODIN. Sure, Randy O. was pretty wasted and said a few outlandish things, but at least the guy believed in the dream. And he had guys with him who believed it as well…his bandmates and Gazzari (RIP).
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to spend a weekend with Shawn and Jeff Duncan of ODIN. Those guys are legends to me. And to no surprise, they are very cool dudes. They latest band, DC4, was here in Austin for the SxSW festival and I got to help them around town a bit. They completely kick ass. It was a pleasure for me to assist in every way that I could. Especially since I’ve been a fan of their debut since it came out. After watching the Metal Years again yesterday, it was cool to see them back then and compare them to the now. They seemed so familiar to me when I finally got to meet them.
The Chris Holmes section of the movie was always a bit weird to watch for me with him being completely tanked in the pool with his mom sitting there. I recently read on the Wikipedia page about the movie that the bottles of vodka that he was drinking and pouring all over himself were full of water.
I love the section on London as well. I had the cassette of their 2nd album way back when and liked it a lot. Would love to see this stuff come out on separate CDs…official or not.
One of the best bands featured on there was Detroit’s Seduce. A former friend from high school and I used to listen to them all the time back in the olden days. They looked glammy but were pretty damn metal IMHO.
The Faster Pussycat stuff was cool. One of my bands opened for them about 6 years ago and it was almost scary to see how much taime had changed. That dude’s a freak.
All in all it’s a fun movie to watch, even if it did focus more on the glammier side of LA. At least Lemmy and Alice Cooper got some good footage in there. It seems that this is coming out in an official DVD version sometime as well according the the Decline Movies website.
All the dreams we held so close seemed to all go up in smoke
It’s no secret that I am a huge Stones fan. I practically love everything up to and including Steel Wheels (minus that horrid nightmare Dirty Work). I think that Goats Head 
Soup is one of my favorites, if not my #1 from their 70s era. The album is a bit mellow and smooth and very different from the albums before it and after it, Exile On Main Street and It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll, respectively.
Silver Train, Star Star, Hide Your Love, Dancing With Mr. D, Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) and even Angie are all great tracks.
This album has Mick taylor all over it. He was a great guitarist and arguably a better writer than Keef. My opinion of course.
I really wish I had some sort of life story to attach to this album like I do with many others from my collection, but I don’t. I will say that this is a fun album to play bass too and one of the first ones I put in to learn how to play when I started bassing in 2000. Nothing majorly difficult, just cool progressions.
The Metal Files 
You must be logged in to post a comment.