Posts Tagged ‘2012’
Lita Ford Acoustic Concert Review, Austin, TX 9/4/12
Lita Ford is still out there rockin’. Later tonight she’s playing on the outskirts of Austin with Def Leppard and Poison. No way in hell would you catch me at that show. But today at 1PM, she played an acoustic set at Waterloo Records. I first heard about this last week and was hoping I could catch it, but wasn’t quite sure. We happen to eat lunch downtown and were about to ride by the record store. I called a friend that I knew would be there and asked if he’d take me back to work afterwards. “Yes!” I told my boss to pull over and let me out. “See you later!”
I get in and see some good friends (don’t any of us have day jobs? – hahahaha). There were 2 acoustic guitars and 2 mics set up on the stage. Lita comes out with a second guitarist and they go through 4 songs. She talks a little between songs, does a little Q&A and tells some insight about the Runaways and Joan Jett. When she introduced her guitarist, Mitch Perry, my mind started running as I knew that name. The dude played in Talas, Asia, Schenker and some other stuff that we are all familiar with.
After her set, half of the crowd left and the other half of us stayed for the autograph session. I think there were about 100 or so people there. I was near the back of the line and purchased her new CD while waiting to have something to sign. I really wish I had brought the book. Lita’s signature would have been great in it, but a more obscure guy like Mitch Perry would have been great! I love getting the obscure ones as much as the mainstream artists. When it came my turn to shake hands and get my CD signed, I was talking to Mitch about the book and he asked me to send him a link to where he could pick one up. I got to Lita and before she could say anything, I may have stammered a bit and said, “July 1988, The Boathouse, Norfolk, Virginia opening for Yngwie. I was there.” She replied with, “Holy fuck!” Not much more needed to be said. I was 18 at that show. During one song, one of her boobs came out of the corset looking thing that she was wearing. She was mid-solo and just looked down, smiled and shrugged it off and fixed it after the solo. We were all cheering. “Lita’s titty!”
She was really nice and snapped a picture with me. Her voice sounded good and she still looks like “Lita.” No Back In The Cave…that’s my jam.
I’m really glad I went. No question.
Iron Maiden Concert Review, San Antonio, TX 8/15/12
It was twenty-four years and 5 days ago that I had first seen my favorite band in the whole wide world. That was on the Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour. Last night in San Antonio, Iron Maiden was reliving much of that tour on their Maiden England – North American Tour 2012. This was only my 5th time seeing them, which to me seems sparse seeing that they’re my favorite band and all. After Seventh Son, they didn’t come through my part of Virginia and I didn’t travel for many shows throughout the 90s. Plus Bayley was singing for them through much of that time and I didn’t care. I did miss a chance to see them with friends at Madison Square Garden with DIO and Motorhead. I’ll always regret not going to that one a bit. So be it.
Last night was my third time seeing them since moving to Texas and Maiden has always made it a point to take good care of Texas on their tours. Back on the Beast tour, they played EIGHT different cities here. That’s crazy! And quite awesome.
I bought 8 tickets on the pre-sale as I knew that I could always sell them to friends, which I did. One of those tickets was for my friend, Don. We’ve known each other since about 85, played in our first band together in the 80s, worked together after high school for a bit, acted as the best man in each others’ wedding etc. We have some history obviously. He moved to San Antonio 2 years ago with his company and it’s great that he’s close by again. He actually paid for my ticket as a birthday gift. What a droog! He visited in 2008 to see Maiden with me on the Somewhere Back In Time Tour and we also hung out for a bit at the 1988 show. Fitting that we’d see yet another Maiden show together. Burney and Vanessa rode with me and it was the same four folks sitting together as in the recent Scorpions show. Good times.
After doing some heavy metal parking lot, we decided to all go in, the 8 of us, and see what was going on inside. Fortunately we missed every note of Coheed and Cambria. The first leg of the tour got Alice Cooper and we get this band. Ugh. I got in the t-shirt line to hopefully snag a handful of the Texas only shirts that Maiden always does but they were already sold out. DAMN! Hopefully a friend in Dallas or Houston can hook me up.
I grabbed a Coke and heard UFO’s Doctor Doctor come on and knew that the show was about to start. I shot a quick text to the others to let them know that Maiden was about to hit the stage. They quickly came and we were st our stations waiting for the show.
There were no surprises for the setlist as they’ve been playing the same list this whole tour. They opened with Moonchild and went right into Can I play With Madness. Now, I didn’t like Seventh Son when it came out and to this day I still think it’s a wimpy album, but it was a heck of a lot better than their 90s era. It was good to catch the songs live again. The Prisoner came next and it was the first time I had seen them play that since 1988. It was also the first time I had ever seen them play Phantom of the Opera. They did 2 Minutes which is one of my faves by them and just played a solid set in general.
Adrian and Dave are probably the greatest guitar duo in metal in my opinion. They’ve still got the chops. Steve was spot on and Nicko was mixing it up pretty well. His style has changed a little over the years and I only wish we could actually see him behind his massive kit and not just hear him. Jannick Gers is still a waste of space. Fortunately he seemed a wee bit less animated last night and mostly stayed on his side of the stage. And then there’s Bruce. His live voice has seemingly grown stronger over the years and last night he was on his game for sure. I am still impressed with how strong he is live. He has also changed his singing style over the years.
They went through lots of stage prop and background changes and it was nice seeing some of the old Seventh Son stuff again. There were a few moments where I felt like I was back at the Hampton Coliseum in 1988. Hearing Wasted Years always gets me right in the heart. Steve and Adrian’s backing vocals sounded really good, too. It really makes me long for Another A.S.A.P. from Adrian as I love his voice. That’s not going to happen though.
They were just great overall. If I had to complain about anything (shocking, eh?), it would be The Trooper (always hated that song), Afraid To Shoot Strangers and Fear of The Dark. I couldn’t stand that album and those 2 songs are my least favorites off of it. Oh well. Small price to pay to see my favorite band again, eh?
One observation that I will make is that many of the songs seemed to played slower than normal. Getting old or just trying to control tempo?
When is the next tour already? Let’s go!
Thank you and goodnight!
Meeting Harlan Glenn of Juggernaut 08/04/12
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I LOVE TEXAS METAL…but let’s clarify (again)…classic Texas Metal. Since moving to Austin in 2006 I’ve been fortunate enough to meet a lot of guys from a lot of those classic bands thanks in large part to Jason 
McMaster (Broken Teeth, Watchtower, Dangerous Toys etc). Jason’s still one of the hardest working guys in the business and it’s not difficult to catch one of his several bands playing around town. Last night was one of those nights as I popped into the Red Eyed Fly to see Jason’s Metallica tribute called Killa Maul which only plays the first Metallica album in its entirety. As a bonus, San Antonio’s Martyrhead was opening up. They’re a Motorhead tribute which features Bob Catlin (SA Slayer, Juggernaut) and Art Villareal (SA Slayer, Karion). Definitely some Texas metal legends. As I was talking to Jason during Martyrhead, he pointed out that the guy in front of us was Harlan Glenn of Juggernaut. Of course I asked Jason to introduce me and he kindly obliged.
After talking with him for a few minutes, I asked him if he was going to be around for the night as I wanted to run over to my apartment to get my book and Juggernaut CD for a signature. He said he was there for the night and would sign anything. I run home and return quickly and we started talking again and he signed the book and the CD. It was cool hearing stories from the old days in San Antonio with Juggernaut and his life now in Los Angeles. Quite interesting. I always liked the album he did with them (Baptism Under Fire) and their song on Metal Massacre VII, In The Blood of Virgins.
It was a nice random meeting and I love it when I am able to get the book signed by someone from the old “underground.”
All photos by David Prewitt/DaveTV (another Austin legend in his own right).
Harlan and a happy dude
Harlan signing the book and CD
Cheap Trick Concert Review, Austin, TX 7/29/12
Let’s face facts. I was never really a big Cheap Trick fan although at some point or another I owned their debut album and Dream Police. It’s not that I didn’t like them, to be honest, I think I’ve liked every song I have ever 
heard by them. But for whatever reason I just never got in to them. I believe part of that was due to my brother Robert’s lack of interest in them in 70s and I pretty much drew my musical tastes in those days from what he fed to me. However I do remember myaunts Diane and Debbie liking them but we only saw them once a year when we’d visit Pennsylvania.
I saw Cheap Trick one time before in 1999 at the Hampton Bay Days Festival but I was pretty far back in the crowd and couldn’t really grasp the energy. I also don’t remember the crowd being that excited either. When tickets went on sale for last night’s show at The Moody Theater / ACL Live, I had to get tickets for it. That venue is awesome and has been bringing in some great shows so far.
In the early 2000s, I was playing in a band called The Renegades of Sluts (this is not a typo) and we did She’s Tight and Hello/Goodnight in our set sometimes. Good fun. I’ve always loved She’s Tight and was hoping we’d get to hear it. Perusing recent setlists for Cheap Trick’s Global Warming Tour. Last night was an off night for them while on tour with Aerosmith and they played Dallas the night before.
When I can, I try to buy extra tickets to shows. Sometimes to resell for profit and sometimes just to go ahead and get them on presale when maybe a friend isn’t able to do it at the time. I bought 2 for this show and ended up asking my dear friend Molly to come with me a few weeks ago. Perfect!
We get to the show and the opener is on. I had no interest in seeing them after listening to a few tracks on Youtube earlier in the day. Not my bag at all. We hung around the lounge until they were finished. Signs were posted around the venue stating that Cheap Trick would be on at 9. We went and found our seats and were getting excited for the show. Molly wanted to hear Southern Girls but they ended up not playing it. I did get to hear She’s Tight, though.
The lights go down right at 9 am the band hits the stage opening with Clock Strikes Ten. Zander was wearing a band leader type uniform and hat for most of the show. Nielsen is dressed like he always dresses. I don’t know what Peterssen was dressed like, but it was out there. He had an Elton John thing going for sure. Unfortunately Bun E. Carlos no longer tours with the band, but Rick’s son, Daxx, has been handling the live duties for the last 2 years and did a fine job.
They played a good set and the highlights for me were certainly She’s Tight, Oh Candy, The Flame (always loved this song), I Know What I Want and Borderline. I was a bit surprised as to how many songs I recognized. The great thing about their music is that every song is right around 3 minutes long, old rock and roll style. The Beatles influence on them is overt and it’s a wonder I even like them due my my disdain for the Beatles.
Robin’s voice started a wee bit rough but got stronger and stronger as the night went on. In The Flame, he nailed the high note at the end. I was truly shocked. He still has a lot of power in his singing. While I’ve never looked at Rick as a stellar player, he’s certainly solid and entertaining. He jumps around a lot for a man who is 65. Tom Peterssen apparently invented the 12-string bass and he used a few different ones all night. Of course Rick used about a dozen different guitars and an 8-string bass for one song. The whole band was really good in general.
I did notice from our balcony set that there was a piece of paper taped to the floor in front of Zander’s mic that said “AUSTIN TEXAS”. Rick wasn’t sure where he had played last night as he stated, “Where did we play last night? Atlanta?” Funny. But I guess when you’re touring that much, things get blurry. What a wonderful problem to have, eh?
During Surrender, Rick grabbed the hand of a little kid with a mohawk and yanked him on stage. They handed him a ton of guitar picks and he was tossing them out to the crowd. He also helped to sing the song with Robin and knew all of the words. It was pretty neat thing to see.
After Surrender, they left the stage. After about 2 minutes they came back on and played 3 more songs: Dream Police, Gonna Raise Hell and Goodnight.
It was a great show and hopefully I’ll have another chance to see them again. I also wish I would have taken the opportunities to have seen them more in the 80s and 90s. Such is life.
One thing I thought was weird was that during the main part of the set, security made the people in the floor seats stay at their seats, no one was allowed at the stage at all. They were hardcore about it. If you don’t want people rushing the stage at a rock show, put up a barricade. Easy. I’ve seen them used at this venue before (Megadeth anyone?). After the encore started, everyone rushed the stage and security didn’t try to gain control again. I also noticed that the venue was barely 3/4 full, which I found a bit surprising seeing that the place only holds a few thousand folks. I guess they’re just not that popular here.
Go see them if you get a chance, you won’t be disappointed.
“AUSTIN TEXAS” on the paper in front of the mic
I will be the the flaaaaaame
beauty and the beast
Karion – Iron Shadows CD/DVD Review
There’s no secret that Texas had a legendary metal scene in the early-to-late 80s with the likes of Watchtower, Militia, Wyzard, Syrus, SA Slayer, Juggernaut, Sentinel, Obliveon Knight, Assalant, Helstar, Pantera, Rotting Corpse, Gammacide and a ton of others.
Another band that deserves mention and praise from that era is Karion which featured Art Villarreal (SA Slayer), Chris Cronk (Jag Panzer, Fates Waring, Talisphere, SA Slayer), Pete Perez (Riot, Reverend, Spastic Ink) and Frank Ferreira (Helstar).
Starting sometime last year, Art and friend Bob “Dog” Catlin (Juggernaut, SA Slayer) began the process of cleaning up some Karion demos and the result is the 2-disc set entitled Iron Shadows.
Disc 1 contains 6 tracks which I believe are compiled from their 84 and 87 demos, although not all of the songs from the 87 demos are on the CD. Karion brings that great style of progressive power thrash that was well-known in south central Texas at the time. Good clean higher ranged vocals, solid guitar riffs and killer solos, great bass work and fine power drumming made this disc a valuable addition to your collection of true 80s metal, especially for the fans of Texas metal.
Disc 2 of a live DVD of a 1986 Karion show filmed from the balcony of the Villa Fontana. The audio/video quality is much better than I expected and shows that the band had a really good fan base at the time. Their performance is solid and makes me wish even more that I had lived in the area at the time.
One interesting thing that I found while doing a little extra reading about Karion is that vocalist Chris Cronk recorded 2 different demos with Fates Warning in 86 and 87. I haven’t listened to them yet but a quick search will lead you to a download of those.
I can’t recommend this set of discs enough. It’s been kicking my ass for a week now. I recommend that you pick it up from Rockadrome Records in San Antonio. Keep it local!
The Metal Files 
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