Posts Tagged ‘stubbs’
The Cult Concert Review, Austin, TX, October 28, 2015
I first saw The Cult almost 3 years ago to the day of last night’s show. I got in for free that night while walking home to my old apartment that was next door to the venue. I remember being pretty bored and that their performance was pretty lackluster. I liked their studio stuff, the radio hits at least, mainly because a band that I played in from 92-95 covered several of their songs. It was easy yet fun stuff to drum to.
Not sure exactly why I bought a ticket for last night’s show when they first went on sale. Maybe I wanted to see that they improved from that show 3 years ago. Who knows what my mind frame was that night in 2012, but whatever. I got the ticket and went.
The opener was the pseudo local band called Leopold and His Fiction. They classify themselves as garage rock, blues and folk. I generally withhold getting negative about bands on here, but fuck it. That band was absolutely fucking horrible. I got there with three or four songs left and just kept thinking, “what the fuck is going on here?” The crowd was very unresponsive to them. After each song, I swear I couldn’t hear one person clapping or cheering. When they finished their set, they didn’t say anything and just walked off stage. No goodbye, see ya, thanks, fuck off, nothing. Maybe that’s part of their shtick? I can’t care. I just hope they’re never on another bill of a show that I go to.
The Cult was scheduled to play from 9:10 to a hard curfew 10:30 because of Austin’s sound ordinance. They hit the stage on time and opened with Horse Nation from their 1984 debut Dreamtime and went right into Rain. Ian Astbury’s voice sounded pretty good, better than what I remembered from 2012. They mixed their set up with what you’d expect to hear like Love Removal Machine, Fire Woman, Lil’ Devil, etc. I enjoyed hearing Spiritwalker and Sweet Soul Sister quite a bit. They played a couple from more recent albums and those sounded really good.
The band was very solid, as expected, and I didn’t realize that John Tempesta was their drummer. You might remember him from such metal bands as Testament, Exodus, White Zombie and being part of Anthrax’s tech crew. Midway through the set Ian’s vocals got a little rough and he stated that he had a “nasal infection”. It didn’t seem to phase him too much as he sounded really good overall.
I hung back by the soundboard for the show, which was about 2/3 full. Plenty of space to move around and I could have gotten closer had I cared to. I could see the setlist from the lighting tech’s rig. They had about 4-5 more songs listed than what they played. They ran over their curfew by about 10 minutes. Stubb’s was quick to get people out afterwards.
I enjoyed the show and enjoyed seeing some folks that I hadn’t seen in too long as well. Only thing I wanted to hear that I didn’t was Edie (Ciao Baby) and Peace Dogs would have been cool, too.
Billy Idol Concert Review, Austin, TX, October 1, 2015
I’m not a huge Billy Idol fan and I don’t think I’ve ever owned any of his albums, but I liked most of the radio hits and what little bit of Generation X stuff I’ve heard over the years. I do like Steve Stevens quite a bit though. His Atomic Playboys album was really good as well as the first Bozzio, Levin, Stevens album.
The setlist was pretty much as expected mixing up the hits, a few Gen X songs and some new stuff. Stevens rocked it. Idol’s voice seemed out of key through much of the set and in some spots it sounded perfect. Too perfect really. I’m pretty sure that some of his vocals were pre-recorded. I’m not the only one who noticed it as others around me were making the same comment.
That being said, I had a good time and he did play Blue Highway, which is one of my faves.
The Black Crowes Concert Review, Austin, TX 4/27/2013
It was 1990 and The Black Crowes were all over the radio and rightfully so. Shake Your Money Maker went multi-platinum. I’m a big fan of their first 3 and like a handful of songs from 3 Snakes and a Charm and By Your Side, but they lost me throughout the 2000s. In 1990 and 1991 I was drumming for a country band because I couldn’t find a metal band that played what I wanted to play. The country band had She Talks to Angels in the setlist regularly and I think we did Hard To Handle a few times as well…of course with a country twang to it. It was an enjoyable gig and I was making decent money as we were the house band in a club for quite a while.
For whatever reason I had never seen them live. It always seemed like something came up that had me miss them. Finally last night I got to see them and it was worth the wait. The brothers Robinson were on their game last night for the sold out show at Stubb’s in Austin, TX. I had been watching the setlists from this current tour and they do like Cheap Trick where every night is a different list. That’s really cool and tough to do, but it keeps the band fresh and they were fresh last night.
About 4 songs into the set it started to rain a little and I looked at the radar on my phone and saw that a huge storm was coming through so I went and stood under an awning. Then the bottom fell out. some folks crowded under the awnings where they could, some just left soaking wet but the majority of the crowd just stood there in the rain. And it kept raining heavily. I couldn’t see the band from where I was but I could hear them perfectly and it was still great. When the lightning started, the band was apparently advised to cut it short. They did an encore of 2 songs and that was it, unfortunately 30 minutes short. Right after it ended, the rain stopped. I met up with some friends who were also there and carried on with our night. One friend I ran into said that they were surprised that I was a fan of the Crowes. For me the explanation is easy. While I’m not a big fan of the blues and bluesy rock, I am a Rolling Stones fanatic and The Black Crowes remind me of them so much. For me it just seems natural to like them.
Fun show. I look forward to their next trip to town.
Motörhead Concert Review March 8, 2011 – Motörhead Day!
We are Motörhead and we don’t have no class!
As many of my lovely readers may have heard from my previous post or via Blabbermouth, yesterday (March 8, 2011) was declared Motörhead Day in Austin, TX by our mayor. Read yesterday’s post to get the precursor for this one.
I got off work and rushed home to get things together for potentially meeting Motörhead before their show. I’m waiting on Dave and his son in front of Stubb’s and see awesome photog Jay West. I tell him what’s going on and said I’d try to get him back there with us to get a photo of those guys with the Motörhead Day Proclamation (click for photo). Dave and his son walk up and I send a message to my pal who works security for Motörhead. He finds us outside and escorts to the “backstage” area of Stubb’s where Lemmy, Mikkey and some of the crew were hanging out. This was right after their soundcheck.
Lemmy’s sitting at the door flipping through a food magazine and Mikkey stands up to greet us. Phil was nowhere to be found, unfortunately. Mikkey reads it then Dave tells me to give it to Lemmy for a read. I explained what it was and he sat and read the whole thing. He stood up and said something like, “This is neat. I love playing Austin. Thank you very much” We shake hands and Jay snaps a few quick photos. I mentioned to Lemmy about meeting him after the movie premier last year and mentioned my Another Perfect Day tattoo backpiece. He said, “Ah yes, I told you that you should have picked a better album, right?” haha. “Yes sir, you did.” Lemmy seemed tired and later that evening during the set, Phil mentioned on mic that he wasn’t feeling well, so Phil did much of the talking between songs. Also, if you’ve seen the movie, read interviews or ever met Lemmy, he’s pretty much indifferent about stuff like this, but it was great that he and Mikkey allowed us to come back for a few minutes and share our joy with them. Added bonus for me was getting Lemmy and Mikkey’s signatures in my book. FINALLY!
So that was that. Mikkey gave Dave’s son, Kameron, a can of Coca-Cola as we were leaving and he says, “I’m never opening this can…ever.” Awesome. I understand that sentiment as I still have an unopened bottle Heineken that Nicko McBrain signed for me in 1988.
Good times. All of us were elated after this. It was fun and glad that it all worked out for all of us. I ran the book home and went to dinner with some friends. I had no interest in seeing Valient Thorr again or in seeing Clutch. I got back to the venue with about 4 Clutch songs left. BORING. I hadn’t listened to them in years and remembered why last night. Oh well. It was Motörhead Day and all I cared about was seeing Lemmy and the boys tear it up like they always do.
They hit the stage right at 9PM. Lemmy opens by saying, “We’re Motörhead…and we play rock and roll.” Then they go
Photo by Jay West
right into a great version of We Are Motörhead. Great song to open with! The band was tight throughout the whole show. Phil was more animated than I had seen in the last few shows. Lemmy’s tone and playing were awesome. He’s very unique. If you’ve seen the Lemmy movie DVD there’s a bonus section in there about how he plays his bass. He’s usually playing power chords and it just gives his sound that much more grind. At 60+, the man can still kick ass. His voice sounded better than last year as well. Then there’s Mikkey. All you see is hair and hands and cymbals moving. He was awesome as always. Easily in my top 5 drummers of all time. Motörhead rules live, period.
The highlight of their set for me was I Got Mine. It’s from my favorite Motörhead album and it’s just a great song. Of course they closed the main part of their set with Ace of Spades and Overkill was the encore.
Metal Dave from 2Fast2Die said before they went on, “What a crusty looking crowd.” Definitely. Motörhead draws folks from a lot of different crowds. They are also one of the bands where it seems to be ok to wear their shirts when you go see them live. It’s always been stated (right or wrong, silly really) that you shouldn’t wear the shirt for the band you are going to see. Motörhead and Maiden seem to be exceptions to that rule. I saw some nice vintage shirts there as well.
It was a great show and I’m glad it sold out. Lem’s not getting any younger and no telling when his juice is going to run out…hopefully never! Go see this tour!
There was one major thing missing…Their front of house sound engineer Hobbs! Where was he? Talk about a crusty old bastard. He rules!
Setlist as I remember it and a bit out of order:
- We Are Motörhead
- Stay Clean
- Get Back In Line
- Metropolis
- I Got Mine
- Over The Top
- The Chase Is Better Than The Catch
- Rock Out
- I Know How to Die
- In The Name of Tragedy
- Just Cos You Got The Power
- Killed By Death
- Going To Brazil
- Ace of Spades
- Overkill
All photos below by Jay West Photography. Click to enlarge.
Kameron, Dave, Lemmy, me, Mikkey (holding Motorhead Day Proclamation)
Phil and Lemmy
Lemmy and his signature Rickenbacker 4004LK Bass.
Lemmy
Phil Campbell
Happy Motorhead Day Austin, Tx! March 8, 2011
A week or so ago Dave S. told me that he had asked an Austin City Council member to see if they’d be open to doing a proclamation of some sort 
for Motorhead, who is playing Stubb’s BBQ March 8, 2011 (tonight!). What a great idea! I didn’t know if the Mayor of “The Live Music Capital of the World” would go for it, but apparently he did. A gave a proclamation that March 8, 2011 is Motorhead Day in Austin. How cool is that?
This city is probably the only one I could think of in the States that would do something like this. It does show that they do care a little bit about keeping the music going here, even though they seem to try and find ways to keep it down.
Once Dave had let me know that everything was a go, he sent a copy of the proclamation and I sent it in to Blabbermouth who posted it pretty quickly after getting some confirmation that it was real. I worked for a while yesterday evening to figure out just how Dave (and I!) were going to be able to present this to the band and after last night’s encounter with Mikkey Dee downtown, it looks like we can make it happen.
It was great spending a few minutes with him again. I spoke to him for 5 seconds last year at the premier of the Lemmy movie but have hung out with him in years past (twice with Motorhead 92 & 2000) and once with Dokken in 1991. He’s always a super cool and we talked about some of his past adventures with Dokken where he said, “We were so awful.” I disagreed. I had always assumed that he was on the Geisha album “Phantasmagoria” but he said he’d left to join King Diamond prior to the recording. I had mentioned that his joining Motorhead was the reason I ever decided to give their music a chance. he smiled and said, “Me too!” It gave us a good chuckle. We snapped a quick photo and he was off to another place to see some music and I needed to get home and go to bed.
Lemmy loves Austin and anytime he goes on the road in the US, he always seems to make a stop here. That’s great for us! Tonight is the show with Clutch and Valient Thorr. It’ll be great to see Motorhead live again, they never disappoint. I’ll get a review of the show up ASAP and hopefully will also have a story about delivering the proclamation to the band.
Me and Mikkey Dee
The Metal Files 
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