Posts Tagged ‘la guns’
LA Guns Concert Review, San Antonio, TX, December 3, 2015
LA Guns rolled into San Antonio last night to what was seemingly a last minute show, or at least I had only heard about it within the last 5 days. Surprisingly, there were only 3 opening bands. Most shows I am seeing in San Antonio has 4 or more, which is pretty annoying to be honest. San Antonio is a weird beast for local bands these days compared to the acts coming out of there in the 80s, but that’s neither here nor there. The majority of the less than 100 person crowd was there for LA Guns.
I rolled down there after work to grab my old friend, Don. We were in our first bands together in 1986 and I like that he lives nearby-ish now. Prior to the show, we hang out and catch up a bit, talking shit about the olden days, current life and the whole gamut.
Upon arriving to Kapone’s after getting a quick bite to eat across the street, I run into some other Austin friends. The opening act was one of the 2 local Krokus tribute bands. I said that correctly, 2. Or maybe there’s only one now, but not too long ago there were 2. I’d seen the ones that played last night before but we got there too late to see them this time. No biggie really. I spent most of the time outside on the patio during the next two bands, Minister Fiend and Days Gone. It was the right decision although Days Gone did do a decent cover of Budge’s Breadfan.
Right as LA Guns was going on, I saw a post about some incident that happened right after they had arrived to the venue. I’d like to find out the lowdown on that. Here’s Michael Grant’s post:
Right as they were going on, someone showed me the Scott Weiland had died. I shrugged and kept singing along to No Mercy, their opening song. They went in to Showdown and Sex Action. As always, the band sounded great. Phil’s voice never seems to change at all and watching Michael Grant’s guitar playing is always a pleasure. That guy is really good. I’ve seen LA Guns several times since 2001 and they are consistently good.
Rip and Tear!
Cathouse Live Concert Review, Irvine, California, August 15, 2015
A while back, former MTV host, Riki Rachtman, announced a one day festival celebrating the now defunct (and purely dysfunctional) Cathouse in Hollywood. Let’s be clear, back in that era of the 80s, I was not down with hair bands, silly ballads and much of the stuff associated with that hairspray and makeup. There were a few acts, however, that I did at least like a few songs from. But whatever.
This show was set up with a limited number of VIP passes and I was able to score one for the main purpose of the meet and greets to get my Book signed. Supposedly all bands that were performing were suppose to appear. More on that later.
I got into LAX around noon on Friday the 14th and got my rental car (1.5 hour wait) and headed down to Irvine to get checked in to the hotel. I unpack, grab some dinner and head to a club in Anaheim called Chain Reaction. It’s an all age club that didn’t serve alcohol so no beers for me. I caught the last 3 bands which in order were Tower Guard, Toronto’s Crimson Shadows and Nekrogoblikon. I really liked Tower Guard. Younger power thrash with some good potential. The singer could stand to do less talking between songs, though. Crimson Shadows, while technically proficient musically, were about as boring as I could have wanted. Tight Gothenburg style metal with cookie monster-esque vocals intermingles with clean vocal harmonies from the two shredder guitarists. Nekrogoblikon came on and had a large band and some dude dressed as a “goblin” that runs around on stage. I was totally annoyed less than a minute into the first song and left.
The next day I slept in a bit to save up some energy for the long day ahead. Parking lot opened at noon and I went to get my VIP swag which included the meet and greet wristband. I ran into some friends of friends and hung with them until 2PM when the gate was opened. It was pretty damned hot and I was in jeans, black SA Slayer shirt, denim vest and the shoulder bag that I carry the book. It was hot, but not quite Texas hot. Opening band, Swamphammer, was playing as I walked into the venue. I made a bee line right into the VIP tent and downed 2 bottles of water. I was drying out quickly.
The meet and greets were set at 2 different times to have the later playing bands come out early to meet the fans and vice versa for the early playing bands to come out later. In the early one, I got Stephen Pearcy, Tom Keifer and Steve Riley to sign the book. Riley had been an elusive one for me over the years. Phil Lewis recognized the book and said, “I remember this. You’re carrying this around all day?” Ugh. Yes. Faster Pussycat came out and it was good seeing those guys. Good friends, Dangerous Toys came out and as always when I see any of them around town, it’s just friends hanging out together. Great guys. During this meet and greet, Bullet Boys, Enuff Z’Nuff, Trixter, Autograph, Black N Blue all played. I only got to hear them play and all of them sounded great, Especially Black N Blue and Autograph. I was hoping that Don Dokken, Mark Boals and Mick Brown would come out but they never did. Bummer.
After this, I went down into the VIP pit and watched part of Junkyard’s awesome set and the beginning of Saigon Kick, which bored me as much now as back in the day. I went to the merch/food area to grab a taco and caught some of Pretty Boy Floyd’s set on the side stage. Kristy Krash Majors was back in the band and they sounded pretty good. I moved back to the pit and caught LA Guns, Dangerous Toys and the beginning of Pussycat’s set. They had a bunch of original members join them on stage which was cool.
By this point it was time to hit the other meet and greet. At this one we got Autograph, Black N Blue, Junkyard, Extreme, Sebastian Bach, Bullet Boys, Jetboy and Trixter. I got the 2 guys from Autograph, 2 from Black N Blue and Bach. I didn’t know Extreme had come out until they had already left, so no sigs. I hung with David Roach from Junkyard for quite a while and with my old pal, Rowan Robertson (DIO). Guys from Trixter, Jetboy and others that I had no idea what band they were in signed my VIP pass. I really hated bands like Trixter, Jetboy, Little Caesar, Bullet Boys, Cinderella and Extreme back in the old days. Modern day, I do at least like the old Cinderella.
So let’s get to the band performances that I saw/heard.
- Bullet Boys – I only heard them but they sounded good. I’ve seen them several times in the last year and when their singer saw me he jumped up and gave me a big hug. Nice guy. I got to see their drummer, Shawn Duncan (Odin) briefly and his wife, which is always a pleasure.
- Trixter – Heard them only. They were solid but I just couldn’t care.
- Black N Blue – Heard only but they may be my faves of the day. They were solid, great vocals and heavy. Chains Around Heaven!
- Autograph – Sounded great and I wish I would have seen them to watch Steve Lynch play. He’s a great guitarist. It was cool hanging out with him as we have a good friend in common.
- Junkyard – ROCK AND FUCKING ROLL. They were great. It was hot as hell up there and they rocked their set.
- Saigon Kick – zzzzz
- LA Guns – As solid as ever
- Dangerous Toys – Jason McMaster and company sounded great and the crowd was really into them. Always fun to see live, especially seeing “hometown” boys away from home.
- Faster Pussycat – Sounded great and cool having the originals on stage again
- Stephen Pearcy – Only heard him. It was about like it was last year. He’s having a tough time these days.
- Sebastian Bach – He sounded great as did his band. Great show.
- Dokken – Only heard but they sounded much better than I expected. Having Boals on backing vocals is a good idea.
- Tom Keifer – He sounded great. Utterly impressed.
- Pretty Boy Floyd – Solid. Nothing different than what I expected.
I didn’t catch any of the other bands. I tweaked my back somehow during Dangerous Toys and it got progressively worse throughout the evening, so bad that I left before Extreme came on. That meant that I missed the Gilby Clarke all star jam with Ace Frehley. I was in incredible pain. Absolutely horrible. It was better by morning, thankfully, but not great.
All in all this show was fun and well organized. The bands on the main stage were on a rotating stage and no set times were missed. It was impressive seeing all bands start and finish on time. The only negative thing I can say is that it sucked not getting to meet a few of the bands, but oh well, herding rockstars is like herding cats. I had a blast.
Stephen Pearcy, LA Guns, Faster Pussycat, BulletBoys Concert Review, November 22, 2014
Night #2 of the eyeliner and hairspray weekend took me to Houston, TX to see Stephen Pearcy, LA Guns, Faster Pussycat, and The BulletBoys at the sold out Warehouse Live. I had booked a room at the famed Sam Houston Hotel in downtown. What a nice hotel. The rooms have been fully modernized and while small, they are very comfortable. I’ll likely stay there again when the opportunity presents itself.
This show was a free show and all you had to do was RSVP tickets. I was supposed to be on the VIP list as well (thanks to Faster Pussycat) but it didn’t happen. No big deal. One of the reasons I was going to this show was to get The Book signed by Phil Lewis and Steve Riley of LA Guns and hopefully Stephen Pearcy. More on these developments later.
My friend from Houston picked me up and we went to grab a quick dinner near the hotel and ended up at Frank’s Pizza in downtown which was delicious. From there we went to the venue and got in about halfway through BulletBoys’ set. This place is open and spacious and the sound was probably as good as you could get in a giant concrete room with very high ceilings. Bulletboys sounded good again and the crowd was very into it. I ran into some other Austin friends there and we all hung together for most of the night.
Next up was Faster Pussycat. They are one of the few bands of this genre that I’ve always liked. I think their scenes in The Metal Years softened it up for me. I had played with them back in Virginia about 12 years ago and always love seeing them live. Taime is a character and does his job as front man very well. They opened up with Cathouse and blew right into Slip of the Tongue. They played 9 songs including 2 covers (Supersuckers and Betty Blowtorch). They were very tight, which is no surprise as this unit has been together for the better part of 18 years. It’s always a good time seeing them.
After a quick set change LA Guns took the stage opening with Show No Mercy, Sex Action and Never Enough. Their set consisted of everything you’d want and expect to hear from Phil and the guys. Their lead player is a total badass, too. That guy shreds. Phil’s voice sounded great. I was super glad to see them since I missed them in Austin a few months ago as I was going out of town very early the next morning. Twelve songs total and it was a lot of fun.
Then Stephen Pearcy comes on. Look, I’m a pretty big Ratt fan and it was never really about his voice. I love the riffs and solos those guys used to lay down (minus the silliness of songs like Way Cool Jr). Pearcy never had a great voice although it was unique. I saw Ratt with the Scorpions in 2010 and his voice sounded pretty good. Saturday night not so much. I want to be careful to not dog him out as I don’t know if he was just having a bad night, can’t sing anymore or just didn’t care to try. He seemed to be phoning it in. His backup band sounded good but the voice was killing me and many others. We decided to leave about mid-set during I’m Insane. We weren’t the only ones. People were rolling out steadily and you could hear lots of people saying how poorly Pearcy sounded.
During Pearcy’s set, I went to the merch booth to see Shawn and the Bulletboys guys as Marq hadn’t signed the book yet. He thought it was great and cheerfully signed it. Hanging out with him 2 nights in a row did change my perspective a little bit. Aaron Samson (Odin) was also at the booth and while both he and Shawn had signed the book a few years back at an Odin show in LA, he hadn’t signed my rare Odin Caution! EP. Shawn and Jeff signed it for me a few months ago before sending it to me. Aaron was glad to see it. I still needed Phil and Riley from LA Guns though. I went over the VIP area to chat with Sean a bit while Pearcy was still playing and Phil came out. Chad Stewart, Pussycat’s drummer, grabbed Phil to come over and meet me to sign the book. He signed the band photo and flipped though it a little bit and asked where he could get a copy. I told him I’d send the link. Pussycat’s guitarist, Xristian Simon, was looking backstage for Riley and couldn’t catch him before he bailed out to the hotel. No biggie. Guns come to Austin every couple of years and I’ll be sure to get them next time.
All in all it was a great night with my friend, Myra, and my Austin friends. I was tired, so tired, and just needed to get back to the hotel to crash out and that’s exactly what I did.
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- My view at the hotel
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- Faster Pussycat
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- LA Guns
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- Aaron on the Caution! EP
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- Marq Torien signs The Book!
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- Phil signs The Book!
Here are some great photos taken by Jamie Miller! Please visit his page!
The Metal Files 
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