Posts Tagged ‘concerts’
Alice Cooper Concert Review, San Antonio, TX, February 11, 2015
To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who has said, “I don’t like Alice Cooper.” Sure, you may not be into his music, his politics, his religion, but how can you not just like the guy? He’s a class act. Intelligent. Funny. Consummate front man.
I’ve been a fan since as long as I can remember thanks to one of my older brothers. One of my favorite Cooper moments ever was his appearance on the Muppet Show in the 70s. I met Alice last year in Dallas and those few moments talking together will forever be special to me. A few months later I saw him with Motley Crue and it was great. Shortly after that show, it was announced that he was doing a solo tour, an evening with Alice Cooper. I bought tickets for the Austin show as soon as they went on sale and got one for the San Antonio show and scored second row 2 weeks after they had gone on sale, which I thought was odd.
I rolled down to San Antonio right after work and picked up my friend, Rodney, who had a close seat in the section next to mine. I had never been to the Majestic Theatre before but wow, what a beautiful venue.
Alice was scheduled to come on at 8PM but didn’t hit the stage until about 8:15. The lights went down and The Underture started. The open up with Hello, Hooray and roll right into House of Fire and No More Mr. Nice Guy. The crowd was going crazy and I was smiling ear to ear. Alice and the band, as expected, sounded great. He is pretty active on stage, especially for a guy who is 67 years old.
He played most of what I expected to hear. Of course I want to hear songs from From The Inside but he’s been ignoring that album for quite some time. I was a little surprised he didn’t go deeper into the catalog since he was doing the longer set but he decided to play 4 covers which apparently he’s been doing often when he’s headlining.
His band is always top notch and last night was no different. Everyone is extremely talented and are each a show within the show. Drummer Glen Sobel is a beast of a drummer. Veteran guitarist, Ryan Roxie and bassist, Chuck Garric, were positioned on my side for most of the night. Ryan slapped 2 picks in my hand throughout the course of the night. While I started out in the second row, the security girl motioned for me to come right up front and there I was stationed for more than half of the show. I didn’t realize until after the show that guitarist, Tommy Hendriksen, was the bassist for Warlock, who I had seen in 1988. He and third guitarist, Nita Strauss, also handed picks to me during the show. Score!
Alice threw out 2 of his plastic canes, a ton of Cooper dollar bills and some plastic bead necklaces (during Dirty Diamonds). At the end of the show during the School’s Out encore, tissue paper feathers and streamers fell from the ceiling and the crew threw large balloons filled with confetti out on the stage and into the crowd. The ones that got near Alice were pierced with his sword.
It was a great show and I can’t wait to see it again tonight!
Tesla Concert Review, Austin, TX, January 28, 2015
Happy 2015 everybody. Seems like it’s been forever since I’ve written. There just haven’t been that many touring shows since December but that all changed starting last night.
Tesla. To be honest, and I’ve stated it before, I’m not a fan. While I like Modern Day Cowboy and Heaven’s Trail, I just don’t get into them at all. A big part of it are the vocals. Just a bit too whiny for me. So why did I go? Free tickets! Good enough reason to go and to hang out with some friends who were going.
A little history. Back around 1990, the metal band I was in wanted to play Love Song. I was completely against it. NO BALLADS! I was happy sticking with the heavier covers we were doing and not pussing out to wimp rock, and this song qualifies as wimp rock. I’m pretty sure it was because of the bassist we had who had a new girlfriend and he was all goo-goo over her. The rest of the band didn’t seem to mind playing that song but I was adamant about not playing it. I had to maintain some integrity after all, yes? After the second or third practice of them trying to introduce the song and me bucking against it, someone stated that it was time to find another drummer. DONE AND DONE. I packed up my gear and rolled on. No muss, no fuss, no hard feelings.
We got there right as the opening band was going on and quickly went out to the patio. We stayed out there for most of the second band, too. To be honest, they weren’t memorable enough for me to care about their names, but hey, they were up there and I wasn’t, so good on ’em, eh?
Tesla comes on and opens with a song from their latest album, Simplicity. They ran through most of their catalog and the crowd responded accordingly. They played pretty much everything you’d expect to hear. We stayed near the back of the venue and I was quite surprised as to how many people were there. The venue holds about 1700 and there were roughly 1200 in attendance.
The band was tight and Jeff Keith’s vocals were hanging tough (sorry, I had to). Frank Hannon is a beast of a guitarist. Brian Wheat’s bangs were in full effect, too. Holy cow!
This was a great show for people watching, too. Saw some sights that I’ll never un-see, that’s for sure. Overall it was a good time and it felt great to catch another live show and to spend some time with good friends. It’s also nice when a show ends earlyish (1130PM) since I have to get up early for work.
Lots of things in the hopper in the coming months like Uli Roth, Doro, Krokus, Alice Cooper, The Who and Bob Seger.
High Spirits Concert Review, San Antonio, TX, December 1, 2014
Chris “Professor” Black is a busy fella. Along with High Spirits, in which he writes and plays everything on their releases, he’s also in Superchrist, Pharaoh, Dawnbringer, Metalusafer and Aktor. High Spirits has been getting a lot of buzz over the last couple of years over their listenable brand of hard rock/metal that slightly teeters on the AOR style. I like them a lot and am basically a latecomer to the HS as I just started listening to them around May of this year. It’s great melodic hard rock that’s got all the hooks. Chris has perfectly crafted it to be accessible to just about anyone’s ears.
I went down to San Antonio last night and stopped off at my friend, Rodney’s, house. As always, I have to peer into his insane room of metal. We go grab dinner then dinner then head down to Limelight on the north side. High Spirits was scheduled to go on at 11:30 so we weren’t in a hurry to get down there. I’m not really a fan of the 3 openers so didn’t care to see them. Unfortunately, when we arrived right at 11:30, the 2nd band was mid-set. Ugh. I was already pretty tired.
I met Chris and talked to him for a while. Very nice guy. It was right around 12:30AM when they finally took the stage and opened with the song High Spirits. Much of the crowd had left by the time HS went on, but a few of the faithful hung in there. They were pretty tight and the folks that stayed there were familiar with the material, which was nice to see. I really like his voice. Other than a few drunkasses up front, it was a fun show and worth the late night drive home. I hit the sack at 3AM…exhausted…happy.
Supersuckers Concert Review, Austin, TX, November 26, 2014
This is not the Supersuckers of yesteryear, but that doesn’t mean it was a bad show. It was a fun show as Supersuckers are always fun, but it seems a little more tame these days. It may be that I am a bit more tame these days. Who knows? Who cares, right? On top of anything, this was a free show at The Belmont. It’s not a bad outdoor patio venue at all, even better when it’s free.
Eddie and the boys take the stage, all with with Gibson Les Paul Goldtops. That looked killer and they rolled thought an enjoyable set, notably leaving out Doublewide, which is one of my faves. It was a decent crowd for it being the night before Thanksgiving, maybe 100 people.
Had a great time with pals Mark, Angelica, Mitzy, Ray, Sophie, J, Kristen and Ami. The drinks were flowing for sure.
Faster Pussycat Concert Review, San Antonio, TX, November 23, 2014
Night #3. Oh man. I got home from Houston yesterday and just flopped. I got a decent nap in and got in touch with Xristian to see what time they were going on in San Antonio at Fitzgerald’s. He gave me the word that 11PM was the time and that I was on the guestlist. Sweet. I contacted a friend in SA and let her know about the show and that she could be my +1 and she accepted.
I got there around 930 after driving just over an hour to San Antonio and felt the wave of tiredness coming over me. I didn’t know anyone there and the FP guys hadn’t shown up yet and the openers didn’t do anything for me. Xristian arrived with his awesome girlfriend, Melanie, and we have a beer while waiting outside for the last opener to finish. They finish and the band gets on stage around 11:15. They open up with Jack the Bastard from the Whipped album followed by Cathouse and Slip of the Tongue.
The sound out front was absolutely terrible and it was obviously bad on stage as well. There was a terrible hum coming from the mains and absolutely horrible feedback all night. It was the same way during the Lizzy Borden show there a couple of months ago. This place has notoriously bad sound. The whole band was obviously having issues with the sound on stage. They played 7 more songs and at the end of Babylon, they walked. The sound was just f’n awful. The soundman didn’t seem be trying. It totally sucked for them but I don’t blame them.
Most folks there didn’t seem too phased by the show being cut short. It was a small crowd, maybe 40 people. Tough draw for a Sunday night in San Antonio, especially when the Cowboys had the late game. Although a short set with bad sound, it was fun…it was also a very late night. I’m running on fumes now, so goodnight!
The Metal Files 
You must be logged in to post a comment.