Posts Tagged ‘red eyed fly’
Jack Russell’s Great White & Broken Teeth Concert Review, Austin TX, 12/30/2012
The last time I saw Great White was in 1991 with Scorpions and Trixter (blech!). They played a short set, but I remember them being enjoyable even thought they didn’t play anything from their first 2 albums. A close high school friend had originally turned me on to Great White by loaning me their first EP in 1986 and I was hooked (pun intended). By the time Twice Shy came out in in 1989, I was done with them. Their cover of Ian Hunter’s Once Bitten, Twice Shy was the catalyst. To this day, that song still makes me want to hurl.
About a month or so ago I caught word that Jack Russell’s Great White was going to be playing a smaller Austin venue so of course I bought a ticket. Not to mention I wanted Jack’s signature in The Book.
Broken Teeth opened the show with their new bassist and played a revamped set which included a new song called “Devil On The Road”. They also played a couple of songs live for the first time including “All Hail The Altar” and “Spitting Nails”. The band was in fine form and this was the first show in about 6 months since the sudden passing of their now former bassist, Travis Weiss (RIP). It was great to have them back!
Great White used Teeth’s backline and opened the show with Call It Rock and Roll. I was pleasantly surprised to hear how good Jack’s voice was. He’s been dealing with some health issues in recent years and he looked a little on the frail side…but he got on stage and did a great job. Three songs in and they played On Your Knees from their first EP. That was certainly the highlight song for me. They also played Face the Day, Save Your Love and Rock Me, all songs that I do like a lot. They also mixed in some later Great White songs like House of Broken Love, Mista Bone (ugh) and Desert Moon. They of course closed with Once Bitten, Twice Shy.
The show was lightly attended, maybe 125 max but the band rocked it. Most everyone cleared out immediately after the show. I hung around for a bit to see if I could get Jack to sign the book. He came out for a minutes, signed the book and my friend’s poster then high-tailed it to his bus/van. The tour manager said he wasn’t feeling well.
It was a fun show and it brought out some folks that I hadn’t seen in a while. It was a fine closing to a year of seeing a ton of concerts.
Happy New Year!
Jason McMaster
(photo by Dave TeeVee)
Jack Russell
Jack Russell
Concrete Blonde – Concert Review – 061910
CONCRETE BLONDE
LIVE AT EMO’S, AUSTIN, TEXAS
JUNE 19, 2010
So let’s go back to 1990/91. I was working part time at an independent record store in Norfolk, VA called The Music Man. Pretty legendary place for a store that was in a mall. Between them, Skinnie’s Records and Unicorn Records, there were none better in the area as far as indie stores went. Skinnie’s is the only one to still be alive. Awesome!
At The Music Man there was a girl named Teresa that worked there. Tall, dark hair, black leather jacket, seemingly pissed off at the world and would likely kick your ass. We weren’t friends by any means but were amicable. Concrete Blonde’s Bloodletting had come out and any night that we were working together, she spun it in the store. I neither liked nor disliked it, but I became very familiar with it. She was a Concrete Blonde fanatic. So for the year or so that I worked there, the album was force-fed to me.
A month or 2 ago it was announced that they were going to tour for the 20th anniversary of Bloodletting and were coming to Austin on the tour. I figured what the hell, never seen them, liked some of the stuff I remembered by them, so why not go? As I am apt to do, I bought 2 tickets. I mentioned the show to my stunningly gorgeous friend, Christine, and she accepted. This is the same Christine that went to Iron Maiden with us last weekend.
So I pick her up, we go eat some awesome sushi at Mushashino, grab a margarita at my favorite bar in Austin which shall remain unnamed) and head downtown. Jason McMaster’s Killa Maul was playing early at Red Eyed Fly and we wanted to catch some of their set. Killa Maul is Jason’s Metallica tribute band which plays only the Kill ’em All album. It’s a fun show to watch, mainly because you can see him having so much fun with it. We only caught 2 or 3 songs and had to head to Emo’s for the Concrete Blonde show. They were playing the outside stage and it was hot and muggy and slightly uncomfortable with such a large crowd. It seemed that no matter where we stood, some dude wanted to take his shirt off right in front of us. We ran into my friends Sean and Jen and found a decent spot to catch the show.
An announcement came on before the band took the stage dictating that there is to be no filming of the show and no flash photography. So, sorry…I have no photos or video to share.
The band took the stage which was purposely poorly lit on Johnette’s side. They opened with Bloodletting (Vampire Song). Her voice sounded good and really got better as the night progressed. Next song was their hit “Joey”. They botched the intro and I noticed on a vid or 2 on YouTube that they had done this a time or 2 already on the tour. Hey…it happens. We’re musicians, we’re not always perfect! ha
Overall they sounded really good. I was quite impressed with their guitar player. He had a cool style, switching between using a pick and just fingers and sometimes a combo of the 2. Drummer was solid. Towards the end of the set, Johnette really belted out some lyrics.
Overall it was a good show and my friend seemed to enjoy it as well. The one thing I could have done without was the cover of Little Wing. I’m not a Hendrix fan in the least. That being said, not too many people can do his stuff justice. Their version wasn’t bad, but, well…ugh. Hendrix. ’nuff said. I would have rather heard their version of Thin Lizzy’s It’s Only Money. That would have been bad ass. But alas, no. I knew the Hendrix cover was in the set thanks to the interwebz, so it was expected.
Instead of doing encores, they just played through to the end of their set. Four of the last 5 songs were done with no bass. Just vocals, acoustic guitar and drums. Sounded pretty cool. They closed with Still In Hollywood.
As expected, this was a mostly “older” crowd and it’s obvious that some of these people don’t get out much these days. It was great people watching for sure. I was a little surprised to not see much of the goth crowd there.
In the end, nice job to Concrete Blonde. We had a great time and they sounded really good.
This setlist may be a little jumbled up. I’ll fix it later if I can find the correct order.
1. Bloodletting
2. Joey
3. I Don’t Need a Hero
4. Days and Days
5. Lullabye
6. Scene of the Perfect Crime
7. Ghost of a Texas Ladies Man
8. Someday
9. Everybody Knows (Leonard Cohen cover)
10. Caroline
11. When I Was a Fool
12. God Is a Bullet
13. Run Run Run
14. Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix cover)
15. Heal It Up
16. Your Haunted Head
17. Mexican Moon
18. Happy Birthday
19. True
20. Tomorrow, Wendy
21. Still in Hollywood
Paul Di’Anno – Concert Review – 2/10/10
So Paul Di’Anno played last night at the Red Eyed Fly in Austin, TX. I had expectations but they weren’t set too high as I 
know of enough about Dianno these days to not expect miracles.
A few weeks back I went to the Red Eyed Fly to get an advanced ticket. When I asked the booking guy for the club about it, he said they weren’t on sale yet and he didn’t know the price. So he created his ticket list and I just handed him $20 and said let me know if it’s more or less. The guy knows me so he had no worries of me paying if it ended up being more than $20. Ultimately it was $12. $12!
There really wasn’t that much buzz around town about the show but I tried telling everyone as much as I could. I’m moving in a block away from the venue so after taking a load of stuff to the new place, I decided to walk over to the venue and see if they were hanging out. Icarus Witch was the opening act and they also served as Paul’s backup band. Paul was back at the hotel. Jason McMaster and I hung around for a bit and watched the soundcheck. Jason and Paul’s tour manager are old pals so they got to catch up for a bit. We left to grab a bite to eat and came back right before Icarus Witch was about to take the stage.
Now…I think the club had only sold about 15 pre-sale tickets and I didn’t think many more would show up. i think they ended up with about 100 or so which was cool.
Icarus Witch hit the stage and while I am not a fan of theirs, they are competent players. I think they would be better served with 2 guitar players but that’s just my opinion. They were tight and did a good set.
About 30 minutes after the IW set, the lights dim a little and the music for the Godfather starts playing. Paul is led through the crowd. He was in pretty bad shape as apparently he fell on the ice a few times in the last few days, not to mention that he’s always been a bit stiff and gimpy. To be honest he looked like hell. He looked old and beaten. It actually saddened me a bit.
The band opened with Wrathchild and Paul’s voice was obviously worn out from the rigorous touring schedule and from his still very apparent rock and roll lifestyle. Hey, good on ‘im if he can still do it! I had seen the setlist a few days earlier so I knew what to expect. I was happy that one Battlezone song was in there as I really loved the first 2 albums. I was also surprised when he played Alex Harvey’s Faith Healer. I forgot that he covered that on the Murder One album. It was a cool version. I didn’t know any of the other songs but Marshall Lockjaw was pretty damned good.
His voice improved a bit throughout the night but he was very open about his voice sounding “like bullocks”. I didn’t think it was that bad in general. He sounded better on his solo stuff than he did on the Maiden songs, all of which were played waaaaaay too fast.
After the show most of the crowd left and there were a few of us left who wanted to meet Paul. They were letting people in 2 at a time to meet Paul and get stuff signed. All of my CDs were still packed up and I didn’t feel like digging out the Maiden and Battlezone ones. So I brought “the book”. Paul signed it in the Battlezone section instead of maiden at my request. Don’t get me wrong, those 2 Maiden records are some of the greatest records ever, but those 2 Battlezone albums are pretty special to me as well. I mentioned seeing him with Obsession back in 87 in Norfolk, VA and his face lit up…”Oh wow, Vescera and I are still good pals and talk often.” Then I mentioned seeing the Murder One tour in Va Beach, VA with Solitude Aeturnus and he remember the show well…”More people here tonight than showed up there at the beach, eh?” I mentioned that we hung out and shot pool together for a few hours and how grateful I was for that experience.
Paul seemed pretty humble throughout the night. It was a bit tough seeing one of the “originals” sketching by on a low-dough tour but I’m glad I got to see it. Paul is still all about the party and I am sure he is doing his share of it on the road again. He mentioned since he can get a visa with no problem now that he wanted to tour again next year. I’d surely go.
Wrathchild
Prowler
Marshall Lockjaw
Murders In The Rue Morgue
The Beast Arises
Children Of Madness (Battlezone)
Faith Healer (Alex Harvey Band)
A Song For You
The Ides Of March
Killers
Phantom of the Opera
Running Free
Encore:
Transylvania
Iron Maiden
He had been closing with the Ramones’ Blitzkrieg Bop…I’m so glad we didn’t get to see/hear that.
Here’s the vid for Wrathchild that I shot. I’ll try and get Children of Madness and Faith Healer posted soon. I’m using a new camera and am not figuring out how to get really good shots with it yet.
Paul Dianno is coming back the the USA?!
According to published reports, Paul got his visa cleared to do a US tour. I guess I will try to go since he will be playng a few blocks from my apartment.
My history with seeing Paul live is pretty interesting, well to me it is.
The first time was Battlezone/Obsession in 1987 at the Boathouse in Norfolk, VA. I loved the Battlezone records and got stoked on seeing 2 bands that I loved. The whole time Battlezone was on stage, we were hanging out with Obsession and I never really got to check them out. Pity.
The second time was in 1993. The bill was Paul Dianno’s Killers and Solitude Aeturnus at the original Peppermint Beach Club in Virginia Beach, VA. At this point, I was a HUGE Solitude fan and was more stoked on seeing them than seeing Paul. I thought his Killers stuff was terrible. I get to the venue early that afternoon as I was always prone to do to get some stuff signed and Solitude was inside hanging out. I had them sign both of my cassettes(!!!). Super cool guys. Shortly thereafter Paul and his band came in and I had him sign my Battlezone LPs, Iron Maiden’s Live +1 (Greek pressing) and a compilation called The Best of British Rock which featured Dianno’s first post-Maiden band “Dianno” doing Antigua which was a great song. That album also had Persian Risk on it which featured some of the guys that were in Battlezone/Killers. Paul called his bandmates over and they all signed it and we hung out for a while. Paul asked me if I played pool and drank beer. Yes! We shot pool together and drank a few pitchers of beer and just talked about stuff. I never talked about Maiden with him other than to say that I was a big fan. He was pretty cool. Now, if you’ve read his book “Beast”, you’d see the other side of Paul that it seems most people saw and I got to see later than evening.
After Solitude Aeturnus played to a crowd of a whopping 30 people or so, I helped them get their gear offstage and ended up hanging out backstage with them during Dianno’s set, missing him play one more time. About ¾ through the set we hear the music stop suddenly and one of the Solitude guys opens the backstage door. On stage you see Graham Bath holding his jaw and Dianno says, “We’ll start playing again as soon as my guitar player stops playing like a c*nt!” I remember looking at John Perez of Solitude and thinking WTF? John said it was a common occurrence. Paul talks about his habit of fighting people over stupid stuff quite a bit in his book. I feel lucky to have survived my few hours with him unscathed!
So…2 times I’ve gone to see Paul play and missed him both time. Hopefully in February I’ll actually get to see him play.
The Metal Files 
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