Posts Tagged ‘dirty dog’
Stephen Pearcy Concert Review, Austin, TX, June 24, 2016
Last night was the third time in the last 2 years that I’ve seen Stephen Pearcy and those first 2 times weren’t that good. I had met him last year in Irvine, CA and had him sign The Book then. The main reason I went to last night’s show was to meet some of the guys in Pearcy’s band. More on that in a bit.
The Boley’s from Florence, TX opened. I believe they’re all siblings. It was a solid rock set.
Super Vato was up next which features my pals Yayo Sanchez on guitar and vocals and Chris Alaniz on drums. Omar Vallejo rounded the band out on bass. Musically the band was a bit all over the map, but I think this may have been their first show.
DeniroSmith, an Aerosmith tribute band featuring Jason McMaster on vocals. They only plays songs from the first 5 albums and do it well.
Pearcy and crew hit the stage opening with Wanted Man and Drive Me Crazy. His voice sounded really good throughout the whole set and they pretty much played everything I’d want to hear minus Morning After. I could have done without Way Cool Jr but oh well.
After the show, I got the opportunity to spend a few minutes with the band. I saw Stephen first and he asked if I wanted anything signed. I mentioned that he took care of all that last year. So he just gave me a hug and thanked me for coming. I was stoked to learn a few weeks before the show that Matt Thorne and Chris Hager from Rough Cutt. I had seen them in ’87(?) with Alcatrazz and Zebra. I mentioned that tour and they both said they only did a few shows with the other 2 bands. Great guys. Matt asked Pearcy to take the photo of us. Pearcy complained for a moment and Matt told him to just do it. It was funny. Greg D’Angelo from White Lion was on drums. I had him sign as well, but he was pretty disinterested overall.
Fun night overall.
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- Greg D’Angelo
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- Matt Thorne and Chris Hager
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- Stephen Pearcy and Monkey Boy
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- A picture of Pearcy taking a picture of Monkey Boy, Matt and Chris
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- Photo by Pearcy of Monkey Boy, Matt Thorne and Chris Hager
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- Stephen Pearcy
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- DeniroSmith
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- Super Vato
The Obsessed & Karma To Burn Concert Review, Austin, TX, June 7, 2016
In general I’m not a big stoner rock/stoner doom fan. I don’t think it’s because I’m not a stoner as I have a lot of friends who love that music but don’t get high. Too much droning and not enough melody for me.
I was on the fence about going last night as I was still tired after the Whitesnake show the night before. The Obsessed’s mgmt offered me a guest list slot so I sucked it up and went downtown.
As I arrived to the venue, Wino and co. were hanging out and I got a chance to speak with him one on one for a few minutes. I showed him The Book and he was surprised by the entry in it. “Where can I get a copy?” I had met him several times before and didn’t realize until yesterday that they were in the book. I should have known that at least based on their inclusion on Metal Massacre VI. Duh. I had him sign his entry and the CD cover. In a rush to leave the house, I had forgotten the first Hidden Hand CD (my favorite Wino project ever) and the last St. Vitus album he was on.
My friends in Crimson Devils opened the show with a solid 30 minute set. Jake and Curtis are fantastic musicians, good dudes and always a pleasure to watch.
There were 2 bands coming up next and I left to go get dinner. By the time I got back, West Virginia’s Karma to Burn was getting ready to start. My memory is a bit hazy but I think I saw them in Virginia in the late 90s, but can’t confirm that. Almost all the way to the end of their first song, the growing crowd was standing at least 5 feet from the stage. I walked right up front to help entice the rest of the crowd to move up and it worked. Their set was solid, heavy and instrumental. Highlight for me was their unrelenting drummer. Although much of their stuff started sounding the same to me after a few songs, that drummer was damn near flawless.
Up next was The Obsessed. Admittedly I’m not familiar with their stuff at all. From what my friend told me, the first 3 songs were all Obsessed songs, then they played a Spirit Caravan song. I’ve seen them before but again, I’m not familiar with the material. After a couple more songs, I went home. I was dog tired. The band was solid and Wino’s guitar playing was good. He looked confident playing it. I will say this, though, and a few others noticed the same thing, Wino looked tentative when he was singing. They’re midway through their tour right now so I don’t know if it’s just my perception or if he’s having some nervousness. The guy is a seasoned veteran so I’m thinking it’s just my perception.
By the time I left, it looked like there were about 70 or so people there, which isn’t bad for a Tuesday night downtown.
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- Crimson Devils
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- Karma to Burn
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- Wino and The Obsessed
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- Wino’s sig in The Book
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- Wino signs Metal Massacre VI
Holy Grail & Night Demon Concert Review, Austin, TX, December 7, 2015
My good friends in Night Demon rolled back into Austin this week as direct support for LA’s Holy Grail. With it being a Monday night I was a little concerned as to how well attended this show would be, but it did better than I expected.
The ND guys got to my house around 4:30PM after a long drive from Albuquerque and promptly unloaded their bags and started taking showers and just relaxing a bit before we head to the show for load in. This is the 3rd time they’ve stayed here and they now have their own key to my house. Great guys.
The show had 4 openers going on before ND. Fortunately I liked two of them already, Blood for Master and Widower. Both bands put on solid sets as usual. Blood for Master played some new stuff from their latest disc. Widower pretty much destroyed everything in their path. Love seeing both bands. I went elsewhere during the other 2 bands. A few seconds into each of their sets and I knew I didn’t need to be there.
Night Demon comes on shortly after 10PM with their Conan the Barbarian intro and bust right into Screams in the Night and Full Speed Ahead. The crowd of about 75 or so was very into it. They played 7 more songs closing with Night Demon. Great set as always and it seems like they picked up some new fans.
After about a 20 minute break, Holy Grail comes on and while the crowd thinned out a little, the faithful remained and stayed right up front. They were really solid and I like their guitarists a lot. The only thing I don’t lik.e it the occasional death metal growls. They don’t need it but I guess it’s what the kids want these days. They also played a decent cover of King Diamond’s No Presents for Christmas. Solid set.
After load out and coming back to my house, I made tacos…again. Night Demon loves my tacos. haha
BulletBoys Concert Review, Austin, TX, November 21, 2014
I will go on record to say that most of the music from this genre of hard rock/metal didn’t do it for me in the 80s. I found the hairspray and makeup quite silly and still do. There were a few bands that did stand out and I took a liking to, but BulletBoys were not one of them. Smooth up in ya? Puhleaze! That over the top, bombastic pretty boy type stuff just made me want to puke. I had even seen them a few years ago when from pal in Arsis was in town on tour and freaked out knowing that BB was playing next door, so I subjected myself to it and didn’t pay any attention to the show at all. “Another shot please!?”
Fast forward to 2014. My friend, Shawn Duncan, who plays drums for DC4 and Odin (yes, that Odin), let me know that he was touring with BB this year and that they were coming to Austin and Houston. Shawn’s one of the nicest dudes out there and I was stoked to be able to hang out with him again. We didn’t get to hang out on my last couple of trips to LA so I was happy to get to see him here in Austin. He let me know that for the Austin and Houston shows, Odin bassist, Aaron Samson, was also playing.
I work near a Guitar Center and the band’s manager had asked me to pick up some sticks and strings for the band if I was near one. Luckily I work right around the corner from one so I grabbed their stuff and went right downtown after work to catch them at sound check and to try and grab dinner with them. There were several issues related to the promoter in getting an actual backline, hotel, food etc and the band decided to just go back to their hotel until showtime. Fine by me, I needed a nap anyhow!
After getting some rest, I catch my ride back downtown and get ready to see the band. Again, I am not a BB fan and was only there to hang out with Shawn and Aaron.
But I got surprised big time. I thoroughly enjoyed the set besides Smooth Up In Ya and For the Love of Money. Those still give me an MTv hangover. But the band was as solid as they could be. Marq Torien’s voice was strong and he handles most of the guitar solos these days. Homeboy can play and he’s a really good front man. I love watching Shawn play drums. I always get a Cozy Powell vibe.
There were about 50 or so people there, with a lot of them being fans of the band singing every song. That was good to see and I could tell that the band was having a good time. I had a great time as well and would definitely go see them again, even if my friends aren’t in the band. I’m still tired as that was night #1 of 3 straight shows.
Hellion Concert Review, Austin, TX, October 24, 2014
Hellion was a band that was always just in my peripheral in the 80s. I owned their album The Black Book and liked it, but still never listened to them that much. When I saw that they were playing downtown on Friday, I had to go. I was absolutely exhausted from the events of the week with Kelz, who I had dropped off at the airport earlier that day. I tried to get a nap in before heading downtown but it wasn’t a good one. Normally I take a ride via Lyft downtown because I know that I’ll be drinking. I didn’t have the energy or wont to drink that night so I drove my car.
San Antonio’s The Blitz Krokus tribute band played right before Hellion. I love Krokus and was excited to see that my pal Chris Cronk (Karion/SA Slayer/Fates Warning/Jag Panzer) was on vocals. They were fun but their set got cut short.
Hellion had a stacked lineup in the band backing Ann Boleyn. Georg Dolivo from Rhino Bucket on rhythm guitar, Maxxxwell Carlise on leads, Greg Smith (Wendy O Williams/Nugent/Alice Cooper/Rainbow etc) on bass, Scott Warren (Keel, DIO, Heaven and Hell) on keyboards and Simon Wright (AC/DC, DIO) on drums. This made for some great signatures in the book!
The band was rock solid and Ann’s voice sounded good. The whole band was great but I was especially drawn to Greg’s bass playing. That guy is just a beast of a player. One of the best I have ever seen. The whole show was fun and after getting the sigs in the book, I went straight home and straight to bed. Highlight for me was Living In Hell from the Black Book. Great song.
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- The Bltiz. Krokus tribute band
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- George from Rhinobucket
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- Ann and Monkey Boy
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- Hellion’s Ann Boleyn
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- Simon Wright formerly of AC/DC and DIO.
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- Scott Warren formerly of Keel
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- Greg Smith, bassist for Hellion and was in Wendy O Williams’ Kommander of Kaos album
The Metal Files 
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