Posts Tagged ‘san antonio’
Juggernaut Concert Review, San Antonio, TX, January 2, 2016
First show of 2016 and wow, what a way to get started!
About a month ago I got a heads up that Juggarnaut would be doing a short reunion show in San Antonio and I made sure my calendar was cleared. I had met singer Harlan Glenn in 2012 and he mentioned to me about a year ago that some sort of reunion was in the works.
Weather was shitty on Saturday but I headed down to San Antonio to pick up Rodney, grab dinner then head to the show. The venue, Boozehounds, is more of a pool hall than a venue, but they do have a stage in the corner and they were set up in front of the headliners.
The lineup consisted of almost everyone from the first album: Harlan Glenn, Eddie Katilus and Scott Womack. I imagine Bobby Jarzombek is out on tour. The crowd was decent for a cold, rainy night right after a holiday and some of the San Antonio/classic Texas metal legends were on hand to witness like Art Villareal, Ron Jarzombek, Rodney Dunsmore and a few of the guys from Wicked Angel.
Juggernaut opened up with a snippet of House of the Rising Sun and then went into Impaler. The sound could have been a little better out front. The vocals weren’t coming through very well, but you could still hear them alright. The band was pretty solid but as Harlan noted, this was the first show in about 30 years. The followed up the rest of the set with Slow Death, Cut Throat and All Hallow’s Eve. Between songs, someone shouted out, “Where are the rats?” Apparently at one of their legendary shows back in the day, they tossed live rats out into the crowd. Harlan explained that his mom cried when she found out about it and promised to never do that again. She was in the crowd on Saturday. He said that there would be a full show in the spring of 2016, so here’s hoping!
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!
Cheap Trick Concert Review, San Antonio, TX, November 27, 2015
Last Friday night I saw Cheap Trick…AGAIN. I think it was the 5th or 6th time in the last 5 years or so and I am 100% OK with that. Nothing new or extra special about the show, really, but they put on a great performance.
I scored a 2nd row ticket on the aisle at stage right, Rick’s side. If you’re within the first 5 rows of a Cheap Trick show, you’re likely to catch one of the 100s of guitar picks that he throws out every show. Right before the show started, I was already standing up and someone walked by and said something like, “Make sure you don’t block my friend’s view behind you. She’s in a wheelchair.” I found a spot I could stand in without being in the aisle that kept her view to the stage open. About 2 songs in, Rick looks at me and throws a guitar pick which landed at my feet. I picked it up and handed it to the girl in the wheelchair. She was pleasantly surprised. I ended up catching another from him later in the show.
The few photos I took sucked, so my pal, David Castillo, let me use some of his as you see below.
Loudness Concert Review, San Antonio, TX, November 6, 2015
Loudness returned to San Antonio last night touring for the 30th anniversary of Thunder In The East. I’m really surprised by that based on what happened last time and knowing it was the same promoter. Seeing that they had slated 8 openers (again) and I’m pretty sure all were ‘pay to play’, I was worried about the show running late into Loudness’ set again. Lots of people were. While the last opener was playing, they were getting no respect from the crowd. People were yelling “pull the plug!”
Loudness was supposed to be in by 1130PM but it was closer to midnight. Barring anything stupid, they had enough time to play their full set.
They opened with Crazy Nights, Like Hell and Heavy Chains, all three from their most popular album, Thunder In The East. The band sounded and looked great. The crowd was very into it as well. They followed up with the title track of the new album, The Sun Will Rise Again. It sounded great and I bought the CD prior to their set along with a bandanna and tour shirt.
Their set was mixed up pretty well with 2 songs from the new album and everything else from the classic era, including Street Woman from the first album. They also played 2 from my favorite album, Lightning Strikes.
It was a great set and the venue looked about half full, which I find odd from the once metal capital of the USA. For their encore, they re-played Crazy Nights with Riot’s Don Van Stavern on bass and backing vocals. That was fun but it would have been cool to have had them do a different song with him. But oh well. Great night! There were no lowlights to their show.
I did buy the meet and greet to make sure I could get The Book signed. I forgot to bring it with me in 2006 like and idiot. They were all super nice and I wasn’t even too bothered that the new drummer signed the book and my Disillusion CD. I mentioned to Yoshi and Akira about seeing that NC show and Yoshi said he remembered that one and the poor attendance. After snapping a quick foto, I was walking away and said, “Arigato Loudness!” All four of them stopped signing stuff and looked right at me and individually nodded and said, “Arigato!” right back at me. That was pretty cool.
Riot V & Helstar Concert Review, San Antonio, TX, September 26, 2015
I will start out by saying that Riot V is pretty much one of the best live bands out there right now along with Satan. Last time I saw them was last year in Chicago at the Ragnarokkr Metal Apocalypse and was completely blown away. Prior to that I had only seen them one other time at Scout Bar in San Antonio which was Mark Reale’s last USA show before his death.
A couple of friends and I headed down to 210 Kapone’s last in the afternoon, get parked and head in. As always at a show like this one, we ran into a lot of friends from both San Antone and Austin and elsewhere.
There were 5 local openers for this show. FIVE. As seems to be pretty typical in San Antone and I imagine some or all of them paid to play. Helstar was also a later addition to the show. That’s 6 bands before Riot if you’re keeping track here. The schedule was set as follows and was a recipe for disaster:
DOORS 6PM
METALRISER 6:50 – 7:15
SA TERRITORIES 730 – 7:55
JESSIKILL. 8:10 – 8:40
SEANCE. 8:55- 9:25
LOS WICKED WAYS. 9:40 – 10:10
HELSTAR. 10:25 – 11:10
RIOT. 11:30 – END
The show ran late I’m told because Riot’s soundcheck started late. We didn’t get there until right before Jessikill was going on.
Helstar came on about 30 minutes later than their scheduled time and delivered a solid set as usual that I think was cut short, or at least during Run With the Pack their sound got cut and they finished it with just their stage sound. Rivera was spot on with his vocals and I always enjoy watching Larry play guitar. I’m not sure who the bassist is, but he’s good. Unfortunately, they seemed to be getting hit with poor sound as I couldn’t hear the drums that well at all through the PA.
Riot finally hits the stage a few minutes after midnight opening with the instrumental Narita and then Ride Hard Live Free from their latest album. Up next were two songs from Thundersteel and the crowd roared for Fight or Fall and Johnny’s Back, a personal favorite. The rest of the set was mixed up with songs from all eras of of the band but didn’t touch the last Tony Moore album which was really good. I guess they can’t play everything.
Former guitarist, Rick Ventura, who played in the band from 1979 to 1982 sat in for a handful of songs and it was really cool to see one of the almost originals on the stage. He rocked it alongside Mike Flyntz and Nick Lee and looked like he was having a good time. Don Van Stavern is from SA so he’s got an automatic contingent in the house when he plays shows. Frank Gilchriest laid down a powerhouse set of drum work as he always does. And finally, vocalist Todd Michael Hall. Dude looks 25, turned 46 last night and sings like a lark. Pretty much the best singer out there right now in my opinion. The only thing missing last night was Tammy’s backing vocals. She’s in another band with Flyntz and sometimes provides live backing vocals. Look up the Bloodstreets video from this year’s Keep It True festival. They’re perfect.
All in all it was a great show and I can’t wait to see them again…again. RIP Mark Reale. Riot V is keeping your spirit alive.
Because of shitty lighting, I couldn’t get a decent picture of Helstar.
The Metal Files 
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