Posts Tagged ‘concert reviews’
Satan Concert Reviews, San Antonio and Austin, TX, October 21-23
Days 2-4 of Mitchfest with Kelz consisted of 3 straight shows with Satan in San Antonio and Austin and it’s just easier to 
combine the reviews all in one post.
We mess around Austin for a little bit before heading back to the house to rest up for Tuesday night’s show with Satan in San Antonio at The Korova. We got there a little before Satan showed up and helped them load their personals from the van to Korova’s green room. They looked pretty good after playing Houston the night before. They recognized us from the Richmond show earlier in the year. Satan was being backlined on this tour by the venue and/or the opening acts. Seemed that there were a few compatibility issues with guitar heads to the effects that Ramsey/Tippins used but those quickly got fixed with the arrival of a couple of Marshall amps.
Austin based Firestarter ’82 opened the show and I stuck around for their set as their bassist is a good pal of mine. She did a fine job as always. Local thrashers, Aggravator, played next but we missed them as we were having a couple of drinks next door.
We get back right before Satan hits the stage and as expected, they delivered an awesome set to about 40-45 people. The crowd size was quite unfortunate, especially for a city that often touts itself as the metal capital of the USA. Things change I guess. And it was a Tuesday night…but still. How often are you going to get the chance to see Satan? Satan played flawlessly as expected. They were great when we saw them in Richmond this year and I expected no less this time. They did not disappoint. It really can’t be stated enough how great of a guitar duo Russ Tippins and Steve Ramsey are. Ross’ vocals are stellar, especially for a 61 yr old man who can still belt out the falsetto with no problem. Sean and Graeme held the bottom down as Satan rolled through a mostly similar set to earlier this year with only a few changes. They were awesome and have become one of my favorite live bands. Brian’s not a big talker between songs beyond introducing the next song and I’m fine with that.
It was also great seeing some old pals that I hadn’t seen in a while, namely Rob Doom, Jaime, Mando and of course Rodney who was the show promoter. A new friend, Henri, came in from Holland just to see these shows with Satan and Militia. Pretty cool!
Kelz and I left promptly after the show for the 75 minute drive back to Austin. Of course it was full of conversation about the show and old times.
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- Graeme English
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- Brian Ross
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- Steve Ramsey
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- Russ Tippins
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- Sean Taylor
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- Steve and Russ putting on a clinic
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- Firestarter ’82
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- the backline
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- Eternal Champion
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- 3/5 of Satan loves meat! Stiles Switch BBQ rules all.
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- Satan and Monkey Boy.
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- Kelz impatiently waiting for Satan
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- Kelz and Russ
Blaze Bayley Concert Review, Austin, TX, October 20, 2014
I found out last minute that former Iron Maiden singer, Blaze Bayley, was coming back to Austin again to play a couple of shows at the Anderson Mill Tavern. I’m still confused as to why he plays that far away from downtown, but I believe this was the third year in a row that he’s played there. I saw him last year at another strange place on the outskirts of town. With even a little bit of minor promotion they could easily have had a crowd at a downtown bar.
My lifelong friend, Kelz, got to town that night for a week long MitchFest and he was down for going to see it. We left straight from the airport to the bar. When we got there, the lady at the door said, “You came late but it’s still $20.” Ouch. There were maybe 20 people there. We walked in as he was talking to the audience and they went right in to Man On The Edge followed by The Trooper…and that was it. Wait. What? After a few short minutes, they came back out and played an obviously unrehearsed version of Wasted Years and that was that. It was similar to the version that they played last year, which was to say that it wasn’t good. Sorry. It was horrible. I’ll give Blaze credit that he works the crowd pretty good, like he’s playing in front of a huge amount of people.
The only real bright spot to the show was that AJ Pero from Twisted Sister was playing drums for these few USA shows. So of course I had The Book with me as well as the first 3 Twisted Sister CDs. We got to speak with him after the show and was in good spirits. We talked about the Sister 2004 show in Richmond, VA at an open air venue when a violent storm came up and they cleared the place. Sister came back out to about 1/3 of the original crowd and just killed it. He signed out stuff, took some pics with us and Kelz and I headed downtown for a beer at Jackalope before finally heading home. We had a busy week ahead.
I doubt I’ll see Blaze again if he comes to town unless he brings someone else that’s in The Book with him.
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- Blaze Bayley
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- Monkey Boy and AJ Pero
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- Mitch (aka Kelz) with AJ Pero
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- And so ends the first night of this Mitchfest at Jackalope. These pints were way better than the show.
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- AJ Pero is now in The Book
The Eagles Concert Review, San Antonio, TX, October 15, 2014
Throughout the 70s, the Eagles were everywhere. You couldn’t get away from them at all. They were played on the country and rock stations. They made millions. Snorted and drank away millions as well. To say I was a huge fan back then would be a big exaggeration. I’d easily say I like them more now than I did back then. My oldest brother, Mark, was more into country and southern rock than the heavier stuff that Robert and I were in to. In 79 or 80, I remember him bringing home The Long Run LP. Something about that album caught me. It’s easily my favorite by the band and I spun Mark’s copy dozens of times over the years. I Can’t Tell You Why is my favorite Eagles song of all time with King of Hollywood, In The City and Take It To The Limit rounding out the top list. I knew In The City from The Warriors movie which I saw in a drive in theater a year or so prior to this album coming out.
I never saw them live before and when they toured in 94-96 for Hell Freezes Over, I was pretty much disinterested in seeing anything non-metal related.
Then The History Of The Eagles documentary started airing on Showtime. I watched it a good 10 times. I love band documentaries and this is one of the best I’d ever seen. It rekindled my interested in the band and I went back through and started listening to the back catalog again, pre-Long Run as that one is always in rotation with me.
When they announced the “History” tour, I missed getting tickets to the Dallas show and was a bit disappointed until the second leg of the tour got announced and they scheduled a date at the AT&T Center in San Antonio. Sweet! I got tickets a little later in the day that they went on sale and didn’t get good seats at all, but I didn’t care that much; I just wanted to be there. So I got 4 tickets for my friend Gordon, his wife and whatever friend I decided to take. For this show it was Margarita. She’s a good concert companion and lives on the way to the venue.
We get to the venue around 7:15 but it took us almost 40 minutes to just get into the parking lot. It was a pain in the ass but we got in the venue, hit the bathrooms, grabbed a beer and went up to our seats, side stage damn near the top of the venue. I’m not afraid of heights, but these seat locations were a bit up there. One wrong move standing up and losing balance and you could easily roll down some rows over people. I wonder how often it happens during Spurs games there. The seats up there weren’t comfortable in the least. We were right on top of each other with zero leg room. I’ve sat in lower sections there and it’s much better. Lesson learned.
Then the lights go down and there’s Glen Frey on stage with an acoustic guitar. He goes right in Saturday from the first album. Bernie Leadon comes out and sings Train Leave Here Tomorrow Morning and little by little the other remaining members come out…Don Henley, Timothy B Schmidt and Joe Walsh.
They played 12 songs to start with ending that set with Take It To The Limit with Frey on vocals as Randy Meisner is obviously not in the band now. The entire band sounded 100x better than I expected a bunch 65+ year old guys to sound. I was utterly blown away by that. Guitar playing was spot on as well. During the break I decided to grab a tshirt. They had 2 designs that I liked so I bought them both. Expensive but whatever, I love black concert shirts with tour dates on the back. BUT WAIT. Where’s San Antonio on this list? I got back in line to get a refund as SA was not on there. The lady looked through all of the other shirts and couldn’t believe SA wasn’t listed. Then she refunded my cash. Unfortunately during that time, they played I Can’t Tell You Why. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan! Schmidt sounded incredible; I just wish I had seen it. *sigh* My buddy was working one of the other merch booths and apparently some of the shirts did have SA listed. I think he grabbed one for me.
Best as I could tell, the band didn’t sound tuned down at all to help with the vocals. Even if they were a half step down, it was still impressive. Timothy, Don and Joe all sounded like they hadn’t lost anything. Glen’s voice was a little hoarse when they started and he even mentioned it at the beginning, but he still sounded fine. If there was a high note he knew he couldn’t hit, he just didn’t try. Respectable. But the other guys were nailing the high harmonies.
I never realized how big Joe Walsh’s hands were. I swear they looked like gorilla hands and they just swallowed the guitars he was playing. He’s listed online as 5’10” but looks a lot bigger. They played Pretty Maids All In A Row, In The City, Life’s Been Good and Funk 49 in the 2nd set and it was impressive. First encore was Hotel California and we took the decision that in the 2nd encore (after looking at the setlist online) to leave. They started Take It Easy and we bailed. We missed Rocky Mountain Way (blech!) and Desperado (the reprise was played earlier, so we got a taste of it). It was a good decision. We got out and onto the highway home fast.
Side note: walking in, security staff said no pictures or video allowed and it was announced a few times before the show started. It was nice not staring into everyone’s cellphones all night.
Another great show with great friends.
Lizzy Borden Concert Review, San Antonio, TX, August 16, 2014
Last night marked the third time since 2001 that I’ve seen Lizzy Borden. I’ve been a fan since being introduced to them via their first EP. They’re currently touring on the “30 Years of American Metal Tour” and last night was the 3rd of three shows in Texas. One of my lifelong friends lives in San Antonio so I picked him up before the show and we headed to Fitzgerald’s after grabbing some Thai food. We missed the first band and stayed outside on the patio during the second band. Not my thing.
James Rivera’s Metal Asylum came on next playing songs from many of the bands that’s been involved in over his career as well as some of his favorite cover songs. The sound in this venue was horrible and I’m not sure that it was equipment issues. Beyond the huge shows at the AT&T Center and Alamo Dome, every bar gig that I see in San Antonio sounds like shit. Last night was no different. Rivera sounded good through most of his set, but it did seem that he was having trouble hearing himself. Between going in and out during most of his set, it was enjoyable.
While on the patio during the second band, I saw Lizzy and his bassist, Marten, by their RV and spoke to them for a minute. Lizzy asked how the crowd was and I told him, “Maybe 100, probably a little less.” He looked disappointed. By the time that they came on stage, a lot of the crowd had already left. I figured that would happen as a lot of the crowd was there to see Rivera as he’s still very popular in Texas.
Lizzy came on and the sound issues continued through his set. I stood up front for much of the show but moved around to gauge the mix and it was just awful. Nonetheless, the band was solid although I was surprised to see them with only one guitarist which happened to be Ira Black who has notably played with Metal Church and Vicious Rumors as well as being on the last Lizzy album. He played well but some of the guitar harmony stuff was noticeably absent. Lizzy did costume and mask changes between every song which got a little tedious. I’d love to see him just do a tour with no makeup. Maybe I’m just getting old but I don’t need the theatrics to keep me interested in a band or their show. His music stands on its own for me. But that’s his thing, so be it. It was good to see them again and I really liked watching Marten’s bass work. He’s good.
It was a fun show and a great night with one of my best friends. And for the record, Lizzy and drummer Joey Scott (Lizzy’s brother) signed The Book in 2001 back in Norfolk.
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- Ira Black
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- Marten
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- Give ’em The Axe!
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- Marten Andersson’s bass pick
Motley Crue & Alice Cooper Concert Review, Cedar Park, TX, July 15, 2014
Last night marked the second time I’ve seen Motley Crue (1989) and Alice Cooper (1996). Crue was OK that night…better to say that the band was just fine, but Vince Neil wasn’t. He’s been awful the 2 times since then that I’ve seen him with his solo band. Cooper’s show back then was awesome as expected. I’m not the biggest Crue fan and really only like the first 2 albums, but they do put on a decent show. I pretty much love all Alice Cooper.
Crue announced recently that they were calling it quits for good and that they signed some sort of silly contract stating that there would be no more Crue shows after this tour. We’ll see. I probably wouldn’t have gone to see this had it not been announced that Alice Cooper was opening. DONE AND DONE. I got the presale code from Alice’s website and scored decent seats in the front center section of the relatively new Cedar Park Center.
My close friend, Trans Am (TA), and I arrived around 6PM and I was surprised at how small the venue was from the outside. It’s pretty small inside, too. But it’s really cool. Not really many bad seats in the place. We hung out in the parking lot for a few then made our way in. We both ran into a ton of folks we know, of course. This is the type of show that you’d see pretty much everyone you know. We found out last minute that there was an opening band. They weren’t worth mentioning. zzzzzzzz.
Cooper’s front curtain goes up and his intro music begins. We rush back into the venue, the curtain drops and they open with Hello Hooray. Alice sounded great. He’s not young but he still moves around like he is and his voice is still quite strong. Since he was the opener, his set wasn’t that long but he played some of my faves like Billion Dollar Babies and Ballad of Dwight Fry. Killer and I love the Dead were only partials which is unfortunate. With From the Inside being my favorite Cooper album, of course I wanted some songs from that, but such is life. His band was solid and his drummer, Glen Sobel, was awesome. That’s no surprise since Alice never hires any slouches for his band. They close with School’s Out and that was that. The crowd was into it and Cooper just sounded so good. I really hope he does another headlining tour. I’ll travel for it if I have to.
Crue hits the stage and opens with Saints of Los Angeles. Lots of lights for this show. They move right into Wild Side and Primal Scream. I will admit that Vince sounded better than I had heard in recent years…at least for the first 3/4 of the show. The band sounded solid although I thought their mix was a little muddy. I think that may have been on purpose. Mick was relatively mobile, surprisingly. The show was obviously done with backing tracks as I heard lots of rhythm guitars that weren’t being played by Mick. Lots of additional vocal tracks beyond Vince and Nikki and the newer version of the old Nasty Habits backing singers. On With the Show, Too Young To Fall In Love and Too Fast for Love were highlights for me. By the time they started playing Shout at the Devil, Vince’s voice started to give out. He’s always been good at letting the crowd sing a lot for him and last night was no different.
They had lots of pyro which was pretty cool. Nikki had a flamethrower bass set up that was fun…and hot.
Overall the show was good and we had a blast. What a great venue, too. Next month I’m seeing Chicago and REO Speedwagon there.
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- sheesh. FINALLY
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- TA and me
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- Hello! Hooray!
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- Photo by RocknrollaStyle
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- Lots of pyro. Photo by RocknrollaStyle
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- Pentagrams are always cooler when they are on fire, right?
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- Flame on!
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- Home Sweet Home (final song) at the end of the show in the middle of the arena
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- Mick handing out guitar picks at the end of the show
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- Walking off into the sunset. Adios Crue.
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- Killer photo by Photo by RocknrollaStyle
The Metal Files 
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