Posts Tagged ‘texas’
Firefall Concert Review, Austin, TX, July 25, 2014
I’ve been a Firefall fan since the 70s. AM Gold from Mom’s car radio or in the house. I love a lot of this 70s rock and obviously Firefall is no exception. I’ve never seen them although I’ve had plenty of opportunities over the years. It needs to be stated that Strange Way is one of my favorite songs ever. The simple keyboard part in the chorus just makes that song intense for me.
Last night’s show was at the One World Theatre on the outskirts of Austin. It’s a small venue (400ish?), all seated and not a bad seat in there. It’s a non-profit venue and I love seeing shows there, although they are always a bit more expensive. I didn’t make the decision to go last night until just a few hours before the show started. After doing some quick research of the band members, I saw that their bassist, Mark Andes, was in Heart during the 80s, and Spirit and Canned Heat in the 70s. I looked him up in The Book and he’s listed with Randy California, so that solidified my decision to go to the show.
The band hits the stage and I was a curious as to how they’d sound vocally with all of them being in their 60s. That curiosity was quickly satisfied. Those dudes can still sing. Non-original guitarist/singer, Steven Weinmeister, nailed the high vocal singing duties. He’s been in the band since 93. Original members Jock Bartley, David Muse and Mark Andes all sounded great vocally and Jock’s guitar solos were killer. Solid drummer, Sandy Ficca, has been in the band since 85. The band just nails it.
I was happy to finally hear Strange Way live, but also Cinderella and Mexico. They told cool stories about playing Austin in the 70s as well as playing on Austin City Limits. I had a huge smile on my face the whole show, albeit it was a short set. At the end, they said to hang out and they’d meet everyone afterwards. Everyone came out except for David Muse. I did speak to him at the stage right after. That guy is a killer saxophonist and flutist. Sitting in on percussion with Firefall was One World Theatre executive director, Hartt Stearns. That was obviously not his first time playing percussion and was quite impressive.
After the show I met Mark Andes and as usual I get, “What book is this?” and “Why am I listed in here?” haha. I showed him the Randy California page and he smiled and said, “Wow, that was a long time ago.” He signed the book, we spoke for a minute about his years with Heart and I moved on. The rest of the band was sitting at a table signing autographs and taking pics and I had the rest of them, sans Muse, sign my ticket. Cool dudes and they were all in good spirits.
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- My view from the 10th row
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- Firewall
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- Mark Andes with Randy California
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- One World Theater
Motley Crue & Alice Cooper Concert Review, Cedar Park, TX, July 15, 2014
Last night marked the second time I’ve seen Motley Crue (1989) and Alice Cooper (1996). Crue was OK that night…better to say that the band was just fine, but Vince Neil wasn’t. He’s been awful the 2 times since then that I’ve seen him with his solo band. Cooper’s show back then was awesome as expected. I’m not the biggest Crue fan and really only like the first 2 albums, but they do put on a decent show. I pretty much love all Alice Cooper.
Crue announced recently that they were calling it quits for good and that they signed some sort of silly contract stating that there would be no more Crue shows after this tour. We’ll see. I probably wouldn’t have gone to see this had it not been announced that Alice Cooper was opening. DONE AND DONE. I got the presale code from Alice’s website and scored decent seats in the front center section of the relatively new Cedar Park Center.
My close friend, Trans Am (TA), and I arrived around 6PM and I was surprised at how small the venue was from the outside. It’s pretty small inside, too. But it’s really cool. Not really many bad seats in the place. We hung out in the parking lot for a few then made our way in. We both ran into a ton of folks we know, of course. This is the type of show that you’d see pretty much everyone you know. We found out last minute that there was an opening band. They weren’t worth mentioning. zzzzzzzz.
Cooper’s front curtain goes up and his intro music begins. We rush back into the venue, the curtain drops and they open with Hello Hooray. Alice sounded great. He’s not young but he still moves around like he is and his voice is still quite strong. Since he was the opener, his set wasn’t that long but he played some of my faves like Billion Dollar Babies and Ballad of Dwight Fry. Killer and I love the Dead were only partials which is unfortunate. With From the Inside being my favorite Cooper album, of course I wanted some songs from that, but such is life. His band was solid and his drummer, Glen Sobel, was awesome. That’s no surprise since Alice never hires any slouches for his band. They close with School’s Out and that was that. The crowd was into it and Cooper just sounded so good. I really hope he does another headlining tour. I’ll travel for it if I have to.
Crue hits the stage and opens with Saints of Los Angeles. Lots of lights for this show. They move right into Wild Side and Primal Scream. I will admit that Vince sounded better than I had heard in recent years…at least for the first 3/4 of the show. The band sounded solid although I thought their mix was a little muddy. I think that may have been on purpose. Mick was relatively mobile, surprisingly. The show was obviously done with backing tracks as I heard lots of rhythm guitars that weren’t being played by Mick. Lots of additional vocal tracks beyond Vince and Nikki and the newer version of the old Nasty Habits backing singers. On With the Show, Too Young To Fall In Love and Too Fast for Love were highlights for me. By the time they started playing Shout at the Devil, Vince’s voice started to give out. He’s always been good at letting the crowd sing a lot for him and last night was no different.
They had lots of pyro which was pretty cool. Nikki had a flamethrower bass set up that was fun…and hot.
Overall the show was good and we had a blast. What a great venue, too. Next month I’m seeing Chicago and REO Speedwagon there.
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- sheesh. FINALLY
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- TA and me
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- Hello! Hooray!
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- Photo by RocknrollaStyle
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- Lots of pyro. Photo by RocknrollaStyle
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- Pentagrams are always cooler when they are on fire, right?
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- Flame on!
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- Home Sweet Home (final song) at the end of the show in the middle of the arena
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- Mick handing out guitar picks at the end of the show
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- Walking off into the sunset. Adios Crue.
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- Killer photo by Photo by RocknrollaStyle
Lionel Richie Concert Review, Austin TX, July 10, 2014
Lionel Richie came back to Austin last night to play the Austin360 Amphitheater at the Circuit of the America’s racetrack. Last time I saw him was during SxSW 2012 at the Moody Theater. Last night’s show blew it away even though the SxSW show as a bit more intimate.
CeeLo Green opened up and put on a good set with a great mostly female back up band. The drummer was incredible. He did a lot of covers, but only seemingly doing parts of them. He did Rod Stewart’s Do Ya Think I’m Sexy but not the whole thing. Mid set, he tells the band to just jam on something and everyone looked a bit confused and just started jamming. We could see CeeLo side stage sitting down and he looked sick. You could tell something wasn’t right. After a few minutes, he came back out, put on his game face and finished the set. It was enjoyable, I was surprised.
Then came Lionel. He’s still got it. His voice sounds amazing and he’s in physically good shape. Running and jumping around. Add to it his between song banter, obviously scripted, but still effective. He’s a pretty funny guy. They were about to go into Endless Love and he said he had invited Diana Ross to come sing it with him. The band motion towards side stage and started clapping and had everyone duped that she was coming out. He stated that the two of them had actually never performed the song live together but I found a vid or 2 of it on YouTube. They played the song, but only the first verse and chorus with the crowd doing Ross’ parts. And while the whole set was great, highlights for me were Truly and Sail On. They closed with We are The World and I’m pretty sure there was a typo on the lyric banner overhead (see pic below).
It was a fun show with a gorgeous friend. Can’t wait to see him again!
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- Beauty and the beast
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- Where? I’m pretty sure the lyric is “we’re”
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- Ceelo feeling so low
Devo Concert Review, Austin Tx, July 2, 2014
Admittedly I’m not a big DEVO fan, but I’m not an un-fan. I had Freedom of Choice and Are We Not Men on vinyl but they never got much play. That being said, friends said that the last few shows here in Austin were great so I decided to get tickets and go.
After a few songs I realized some of the quirky genius behind what they were doing. This tour was touted as the Hardcore DEVO Tour 74′-77′. The early stuff they were playing was noisy but still very much controlled chaos. The band was entertaining and everything was pretty scripted, but we had a blast.
The donned blue jumpsuits and hardhats early in the set and bounced and danced around a lot for guys in their early to mid 60s. The lineup consists of original members Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale and drummer Josh Freese who has been in the band in 1996. They were solid and a lot of fun and just what I needed this week.
One cool thing was seeing Mark jump off the stage into the photo/security pit during Jocko Homo and half jump into the crowd to have people sing “We are Devo!” with him.
All of my iPhone pictures look like crap, so nothing really to share. Once of these days I’ll buy another decent small camera.
On meeting Cheap Trick (Concert Review), May 16, 2014, Austin, TX
Tonight was the 4th time I’ve seen Cheap Trick in the last 2 years and the 5th time overall. As always they put on an energetic show and it was a ton of fun.
Earlier this week I took the decision to buy the VIP/meet and greet pass to hopefully get The Book signed. Immediately after paying for it, I received an automated email stating the details and rules of the meet and greet. In bold letters, “NO AUTOGRAPHS” was written halfway down. Wait…what? It was the WHOLE reason I paid for this. I honestly didn’t give a rat’s ass about a photo op. You also get a shirt, VIP laminate, poster and a “special tour gift”, all of which will be mailed. Upon receiving the email, I fired an email back asking for a refund and got denied. I please my case one more time and the rep from the company who puts on the meet and greet said, “just bring the book and see what happens.”
Show day arrives and I get to the venue at the stated time and get in the line with the others. Several folks said, “no autographs, you know” after seeing my bag with the book strapped over my shoulder. “I’ll take my chances.” We’re let inside and reform a line by the backstage door and they let us in 5 at a time. One person at a a time was then let in to stand in front of the band and get a picture taken. I was the 5th in the first group, walked up to the band, pulled out the book and said, “They said no autographs but I’d forgo the photo if you’d sign this book.” Rick asks what the book is and I explain that it’s a book about metal bands but they’re listed and pictured in it as a reference. Robin just smiles and says, “Weird.” Tom says, “Hey, let’s play one of our metal songs tonight!” Rick then asks who said no autographs and I told him the rules in the email. “Well fuck them, they’re not here. Where’s your pen?” I hand him the Sharpie and he signs the Cheap Trick page and Robin and Tom sign their picture. Then Robin says, “Now let’s do this photo, man.” So we did the photo which I assume will be emailed out. It was pretty cool. Before walking away, I asked if they were going to play Southern Girls and Ricck says, “We’re not far enough south for that one.” I love that song and they’ve played it on the recent tours in just about every city but Austin for whatever reason. Rick’s son, Daxx (drums), smiled and looked at me and mouthed. “we’re playing it.” Rick and Tom each hand me a guitar pick and that was it. Out the back door. But SUCCESS! It’s a great addition.
Then the show started. Austin’s own Ume opened and it wasn’t my thing at all. I’d seen them before a while back.
Cheap Trick comes on and just does their thing. They are a well oiled machine that has fun on stage. Their setlist is different every night and that’s great. It keeps things a little loose on tour. They played their hits mixed with other stuff for the hardcore fans as well as a new song from their upcoming album. The Flame always takes me right back to the 80s. Tonight one of the Dixie Chicks did a duet with Robin on it. They’re always a treat and I look forward to the next time I can see them!
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- Success!
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- Goodnight
The Metal Files 
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