Flashback Rik Emmett Concert Review 2/10/07
Rik played in a rather large pool hall/sports bar that had a really nice stage and held about 300 people. I am pretty sure it was sold out as it was 
packed in there.
I got there around 6 and the doors were open at 7.
The opening band was metal cover band from San Antonio called Incoming. It was one of the worst things I have ever witnessed. The singer was awful and so was the drummer. I couldn’t wait for them to leave. For their final song, the singer says, “Anyone want to hear some Metallica?” Of course a lot of people cheered. He said, “Sweet. We’re gonna play Am I Evil.” In the brief part of silence after he said that, I shouted, “That’s a Diamondhead song, not Metallica!” I was 3 feet from the stage. He turned around and shot an evil glare at the crowd. Funny. I was just glad that they were leaving.
Rik comes on about 45 minutes later. He walks on stage to cheers, grabs a Yamaha Pacifica guitar, walks to the mic and sings, “It’s the same old story, all over again.” The crowd went crazy, including me. I adore that song. He played almost all Triumph songs which was a bit of a let down for
Rik Emmett and his signature Dean guitar
me as he has some great solo work to choose from. I was a bit surprised that they played Allied Forces as it was a song that Gil Moore sang. The bass player took the vocals duties on this one and sounded great. I was really surprised to see that there were that many Triumph fans still around. I was very close to the stage for the first 5 songs of the show and then decided that I wanted to go and find a seat for a little while. My legs were killing me from standing all night the night before and from the wait that evening.
After the show, we were allowed backstage with our handy-dandy passes. I saw Rik’s drummer when I was walking back and said, “Great set, Randy.” The dude hugged me. “Thanks, man!” hahahaha. I let the crowd attack Rik for a while then went up to get him to sign my book and some CD covers. I asked him to sign the book first and if he felt like it, sign some CD covers. Of course I brought 21 CD covers with me. He signed 4 of them and we chatted a bit about seeing him in 86 with Malmsteen opening up. I thanked him, hugged him and got a photo with him.
Triumph is one of my all-time favorite bands and to be able to see Rik up close and personal like that was awesome.
When I walked away, his drummer, Randy Cooke, caught me again. “You have Rik’s solo CDs with you? I want to sign them.” Of course I obliged
Me and Randy Cooke
and we talked for a long time. He is an incredible drummer and a really nice guy. One of my best friends wanted to come to the show but his job sent him to India for 2 weeks and had to miss it. I had Randy leave a message on my friend’s cellphone voicemail so that he’ll have a nice surprise when he gets back. It was a pretty funny message.
It was a great night but the drive home was getting harder as it was getting late and I was still worn out from the night before.
Setlist, in order:
Lay It On The Line
Somebody’s Out There
Saved By Love
Allied Forces
Fight The Good Fight
Midsummer’s Daydream
Acoustic jam with his guitar player
Blinding Light Show
Hold On
Clouds Across The Moon (from Swing Shift)
Drum solo
Extended electric guitar jam between Rik and his guitar player
Encore: 10 minute version of Magic Power
Rik Emmett and Me
Rik Emmett
Flashback Yngwie Malmsteen Concert Review 5/7/06
So, the promoter called me Sunday afternoon to let me know that Yngwie was going to be brought in to our record store. Of course I dropped 
everything, grabbed all my Yngwie related CD covers and flew up there. I got there about 5 minutes before Yngwie and was just hanging out talking to the 4 NAVY guys who were there buying tickets. They had just gotten back from a tour in the Middle East that morning at 5AM and were excited to see Yngwie. As they were going on and on about how happy they were to see the show, Yngwie walks in and I said, “Hey guys, look who just walked in.” They fell silent and looked almost scared. They wouldn’t speak to Yngwie except to say, “Hey man, we’ll see you at the show tonight.” Yngwie shook their hands and went looking through our DVDs selecting a bunch of Deep Purple and DIO era Rainbow stuff.
It was Yngwie and the drummer and I started talking to drummer while helping Yngwie find a few things. The drummer, Patrick Johansson, played on the 2 recent Yngwie albums as well as toured with WASP in the last year. We were chatting and Yngwie was just having a good time talking to the owner about Rainbow and Blackmore. He was all smiles and his arrogance was at a minimum. The store owner, Steve, mentioned that he had a ’74 Strat in the store and Yngwie instantly said, “I’ll buy it. Right now. Give it to me. $4000. Where is it?” Steve said it wasn’t for sale as it was his very first guitar. Yngwie said, “Fair enough, I can respect that.”
So after buying the DVDs we snapped a few pics with Yngwie and he was in good spirits saying, “This is the first place on the tour where we have been treated so well. Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Patrick was so very cool and gracious as well. I pull out all of my CD covers and Yngwie signs them all commenting on each album. “Steeler? Man, what a dreadful album!” He then looked at me and said, “Sean, are you coming to the soundcheck? You should really come by, it’ll be cool, yeah?” So of course I went. As I am walking in, the promoter gives me 3 all access passes. You can read about the soundcheck and stuff here.
As we arrived at the theatre I called Patrick to tell him that I have the WASP DVD that he wanted and we hung out for a little while backstage. He asked for my cell number to keep in touch and told me to program his number into my phone book. Very cool. He also gave me a copy of one of his other bands called Kinlin. “Call me and let me know what you think of it.” Of course I agree. He heads back to bus and I head back into the main area of the theatre as the opening band is about to start.
They were called Orange Sky. They are from Trinidad and were OK overall. They were very tight but I didn’t really care for their style. Very nice guys though. The whole crowd was sitting down during their performance. As soon as they finished, I just walked up front and stood on the edge of the stage in front og Yngwie’s pedals to secure my spot. My 2 cohorts were up there as well. I found it odd that until 5 minutes before showtime, everyone stayed in their seats. Maybe they thought you couldn’t stand in front of the stage. Who knows? Didn’t matter, I was up there and everyone followed suit.
Right before everyone came up out of their seats, my friend Shelly and her friend rolled in and we talked for a bit. They stayed next to us on the edge of the stage all night. It was very cool.
The lights start to dim and you can hear Yngwie soundchecking for a minute ripping some serious shred. I forgot my earplugs and knew I was in for a loud night.
Then the lights went all the way down and the keyboard intro to Rising Force came on. The show has now started. For the first few songs, Yngwie looked a little stiff in his playing but seemed to loosen up by the 3rd song. He was awesome, of course. He threw out a ton of picks, of course. He somehow cut open the pinky finger of his picking hand but it didn’t phase him int he least. He was just incredible. Derek Sherinian was on keyboards, Doogie White was on vocals and Mick Cervino was on bass. It was certainly Yngwie’s show. If Doogie wasn’t singing, he stood in the back with the rythm section. The only one seemingly having fun other than Yngwie was Patrick. Unlike the last time I saw Yngwie (2001), he really looked like he was having fun.
The show over all was really good. He played several tracks from the new album which is very good and threw in some oldies as well as a few covers. During one of his solos, he crouched down in front of me and asked me to hold my hands out. People kept trying to grab his Strat but he set it down on my hands and played his solo while I held it. That was pretty cool.
After the show ended, we all hung out in the lobby until it was time to go backstage. There were about 20 of us and the whole band came in except for Derek and the bassist. Yngwie sat and signed everything that everyone had with them but made it a point to come up to us and say how happy he was to have been treated so well and to have met such nice folks. I was still amazed at how humble he seemed. They said that the night before was a disaster in northern Virginia.
I basically hung out with Patrick and Doogie until it was time to go. We all had a great time and it was great to get a few new connections. Patrick asked me to come to Miami this summer after the tour. I told him, “We’ll see.”
Then we went home.
Setlist:
Rising Force
Demon Driver
Bandiniere
Cracking the Whip
Crown of Thorns
Exile
Adagio
Star Spangled Banner
Far Beyond the Sun
Paraphrase into Dreaming
Gates of Babylon(!!!)
Baroque and Roll
Revolution
Demon’s Eye (Deep Purple!!!)
Trilogy Suite
Red House
Fugue (from the Concerto album)
You Don’t Remember, I’ll Never Forget
(Encore)
Black Star
I’ll See the Light Tonight
Never Die and Locked & Loaded were on the list but they skipped them.
Flashback Loudness Concert Review April 2, 2006
Flashback to July 1986. I’m 16 years old and decided to use some of the money that I made from bagging groceries during my Summer job to buy a cassette. So I go to Roses department store and am just flipping through their stuff and I see Loudness’ Lightning Strikes tape. I had read about them in Circus magazine a time or two and thought I’d try em out. So I pay $7.99+tax and I am on my way out the door.
Not so fast…A plain clothes police officer grabbed me by the arm and said, “Come with me.” So I called to my older brother who was a few steps ahead of me to come back. So as this police officer was walking me to the back, I am raising hell with her. “What the hell is this all about?! I’ve done nothing wrong!” etc etc. We get to the back room of the store and she starts questioning me about my shoes. “What about them?” She accused me of stealing them from the store. They were a pair of Converse Chuck Taylor high tops off white in color. Apparently someone stole a pair of the same size and color from the store earlier that morning. Oddly enough, I bought this pair that morning but from another store in the same shopping center. She wouldn’t let it go (no pun intended for the Loudness fans in the room). Kept asking me for a receipt. So I told her to call my house, ask my mom to look on my bed and the receipt will be there. So she called, the receipt was there, the Chief of Police got a call shortly thereafter from my mom. That day started my love affair for Loudness.
Fast forward to last night in Fayetteville, NC. This is a huge military town and many parts of it reminded me of Norfolk. The main drag leading 
into the base was nothing but titty bars and pawn shops. I get to my hotel around 2:30PM and my best friend who lives in Raleigh got there shortly thereafter. So we hang out and decide to go get some food and jibber jabber and catch up. Another friend of mine was supposed to go with me but he got sick the night before. I sold the spare ticket I had to another friend I ran into there.
The venue opened at 7 and the first band was to start at 8. We hung out with a few folks we both knew and I saw Danny Stanton walk in and walk to the merch table. So I go back up and shake hands with him as I have known him for a while. He has been the tour manager for Thin Lizzy, WASP and Twisted Sister and other over the last 5-6 years. He also used to be the singer for NYC metal band Takashi in the mid-80s.
So the first band comes on promptly at 8. HellRazor. I was told that they have only been together for a few months and it showed. Sloppy, horribly sloppy. All original pseudo-thrash. They did a cover of Ozzy’s Breaking All the Rules and it was an absolute train wreck. I was glad their set ended quickly. Frexon Zo was supposed to open but not sure what happened to them. I think they would have been a bit more interesting.
Anyway, Widow played next. I had seen their disc on a few websites and saw they were on the same label as Tim Aymar’s Pharoah. Here’s the CD cover:
Yes, female fronted. And yes, that is the actual album cover. The cover is horrible! Ugh. I’m not a fan of 99% of the female fronted metal acts. To my surprise, she was booted out of the band about a month ago and the 2 guitarists. So they start and I was thinking they would decent from what a few folks have said and judging by the label they are signed to. Needless to say I was not impressed. The one guitarist who sane the clean vocals sounded good voice-wise, but his guitar kept crapping out. The drummer was obviously a huge fan of Robert Sweet and Scott Rockenfield and it showed from his drum set up. He had great backing vocals. The bassist was good. Overall I wasn’t impressed. I mean
they weren’t terrible, but I would not go out of my way to ever see them again.
Up next…Loudness! What a shock it was to see them on stage. I never realized how tiny they were. Minoru and Akira may have been 5’1″ at the most. Masayoshi was about 5’5″ and Munetaka was the tallest at about 5’8″. I have a few DVDs of them playing in the 80s with the over-the-top hair and such and they came out last night just wearing track suits and such, short hair and Akira looked like he was raised in Compton. He bounced around the stage like he was in RUN DMC. They played 16 songs and played them well, but the stuff from the last 5 years is a lot different. They tuned down as most bands from that era have to do to allow for the singer to sing in key to the music. Minoru’s voice still sounded pretty good and he was pretty funny when speaking between songs. “Being from Japan, trying to pronounce some English words can be difficult. I’ve been working on this one all day: North Car-o-lina.” He then went on to say, “I don’t even know what I am saying in Japanese half of the time.” Funny stuff. Masayoshi’s bass playinog was top notch. We were on his side for the evening and he made it a point to give my friend and I a bass pick each when the show ended. Very cool. Munetaka did not look comfortable behind the kit and it appeared that he was in pain. He seemed to play very conservatively.
Now we get to Akira. He’s always been one of my favorite guitarists and last night definitely solidified his place in my rankings. I can’t say I have ever seen anyone who is so comfortable on a guitar and seemingly be able to make it do exactly what he wants. He can be so fast and precise and then switch gears and hit some notes that just ooze with feel. Absolutely incredible. He only used Killer Guitars, which I believe are owned by EPS now.
After the show, some of us just hung out in the club as it was still early, only 11:30 or so. The Loudness guys all came out for some drinks and met and signed stuff for folks. I got to have some good conversation with all of them and they were so very gracious.
The downside to the show was that only about 90 people showed up. Fayettevile is not the most central location and this club does no real promotion. It would hold about 400 on a full night. They sold out Jaxx the night before.
There were about a dozen Japanese folks there who were behind us singing all of the Japanese parts along with Minoru, which was pretty cool.
All in all, it was a great time and well worth the 20 year wait to see them.
Photos from the show can be viewed here.
It’s Black Friday, Paint the Devil On the Wall
It was 12th grade (87-88) in Portsmouth Catholic High School. I was in Ms. Harlow’s typing class and we had 
an assignment one day to type out something from memory be it a song or short story or anything. She just wanted us to be typing. I was heavily into Peace Sells by Megadeth.
I had decided to type out the lyrics to Good Mourning/Black Friday as it was fresh in my head and I knew it by heart.
We turned our papers in and the next day mine was redlined with some comments and corrections and a B- as a grade. Ms. Harlow wrote at the top by my grade, “Do we need to discuss this?” HAHAHAHAHA. It was awesome. I had that piece of paper forever but lost it in one of my many moves over the years.
Killer, intruder, homicidal man
If you see me coming run as fast as you can
Blood-thirsty demon who’s stalking the street
I hack up my victims like pieces of meatBlood-thirsty demon, sinister fiend
Bludgeonous slaughter’s my evil deedMy hammer’s a cold piece of blood-lethal steel
I grin while you writhe with the pain that I deal
Swinging the hammer, I hack through their heads
Deviant defilers, you’re next to be dead
I unleash my hammer with sadistic intent
Pounding, surrounding, slamming through your head
Yeah!Bodies convulse in agony, and pain
I mangle their face till no features remain
A blade for the butchering, I cut them to shreds
First take out the organs, then cut off the head
The remains of flesh now sop under my feet
One more bloody massacre, the murder’s complete
I seek to dismember, a sadist fiend
Bloodbath’s my way of getting cleanI lurk in the alley wait for the kill
I have no remorse for the blood that I spill
A merciless butcher who lives underground
I’m out to destroy and I will cut you down
I see you and I’m waiting for Black Friday
Turn me loose!Killer, intruder, homicidal man
If you see me coming run as fast as you can
A blood-thirsty demon who’s stalking the street
I hack up my victims like pieces of meatBlood-thirsty demon, sinister fiend
Bludgeonous slaughter’s my evil deed A merciless butcher who lives underground
I’m out to destroy you and I will cut you downIt’s Black Friday, paint the devil on the wall
I don’t know why she was worried. haha. RIP Ms. Harlow.
John McLaughlin – Austin, TX – Nov. 24, 2010
Back around 1985/86 one of the guys from my church had given me and a few of us metalhead kids some records to listen to. It was jazz stuff. The 2 that stood out for me were John Macey’s Eclipse (would love to
The Master.
find this somewhere) and Mahavishnu Orchestra’s Birds of Fire. Bird’s of Fire quickly became an album near and dear to my heart and still listen to it often. I really like a lot of that early 70s jazz/fusion stuff and thanks to Pat, it opened my mind up to some other music outside of hard rock and metal. Hell, just throw some distortion in some of this stuff and it would be metal.
About 2 or so years ago I saw an advertisement on Stubb’s website for John McLaughlin and freaked out. I nabbed 2 tickets and the day of the show Doug and I were walking up on the venue and noticed that the crowd was very young. I was a bit perplexed. Why would all these kids want to see John McLaughlin? Then I saw the show poster stapled on the outside wall. “Jon” McLaughlin was playing that night. Some young kid and an acoustic guitar. D’oh! I felt pretty stupid. What a monkey! We ended up just giving our tickets to someone in line. They were pretty inexpensive so it was no big deal. The 2 kids were appreciative.
A month or so ago I was fortunate enough to see Mahavishnu’s Billy Cobham at the beautiful One World Theatre. It was quite awesome as was the venue. Even prior to buying my Cobham tickets, my guitar player had snagged us 2 tickets to see John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension. In case you didn’t know, John created Mahavishnu Orchestra after playing with Miles Davis (Bitches Brew). Miles told him to form his own band and he did. What a band he formed!
We get to the theatre around 7 and hang out for a bit. It’s pretty rare for this venue to have an opening act on stage but they did for John’s 2 night stand. It was 2 Argentinian brothers who call themselves Seis Cuerdas (6 strings in English). They played a short set of latin/flamenco/jazz/almost metal stuff on 2 acoustic guitars. They were pretty damned good but I was there to see John and his band.
The band comes out to a standing ovation and John greets the crowd an the music starts. My God. For as blown away as I was by Cobham’s show, this was even more intense. John’s playing was awesome and having never watched any video of him before, I was blown away by his playing style. His fretting and picking style reminded me a lot of Tony Iommi in that it was very limited motion. You hear a lot of things being played but you don’t see them. No wasted motion. It was quite awesome to see. John didn’t talk much between songs nor did he need to. The music surely did the talking.
His backup band was great as well. He had Etienne Mbappe on bass. This dude was awesome. First time I had seen a bass player wear gloves. There were some great moments where he and John were playing off of each other and playing the same runs together. Just awesome. Gary Husband handled the keyboard duties and did a great job. He also did some drums trade-off stuff with main-drummer Mark Mondesir. Holy hell, this dude was quite possibly one of the most incredible drummers I have ever seen live. It could have easily been a clinic in power-jazz drumming. He was awesome and I enjoyed his performance even over Billy Cobham’s. This guy is just awesome and seemingly can play anything. I recommend looking him up on YouTube. For as awesome as the bands was as a whole, Mark’s drumming made the night for me. I’ll always be a drummer on the inside even if I am unable to play them nowadays. Just awesome.
I was really hoping that they would do a meet and greet after the show like Cobham did, but no luck. It was another great experience watching a stage full of great musicians doing their thing. Next up there for me is Al Dimeola. That one will be my “freak out” show. Al is in my top guitar players of all time. Having only seen him with Return to Forever a few years ago, I am pretty excited to see him up close (2nd row center aisle seats…same ones for Cobham and McLaughlin).
Thank you and goodnight!
The Metal Files 
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