Posts Tagged ‘winger’
Whitesnake & Whitford-St. Holmes Concert Review, San Antonio, TX, June 6, 2016
Last night was quite a night. I had just seen Whitesnake a year ago in Austin and I’ve never seen Whitford-St. Holmes, only Whitford with Aerosmith several times. Whitesnake is doing a greatest hits tour and I do like them enough to continue seeing them when it’s convenient. When Whitford-St. Holmes was announced as the opener, it made my decision to go even easier. Especially since they added an affordable meet and greet option.
I arrived in San Antonio around 5ish, parked and found a bar to grab a drink and a bite to eat prior to the meet and greet. The tour manager called me told me when/where to meet, which was at the backstage door at 6:30PM. I got to that spot around 6:15 and there were about 7-8 people hanging out that I thought were all part of the meet and greet. Come to find out, none of them were. They were all there to try and meet Coverdale and they all knew each other. Autograph seekers. I asked if they were going to the show and got a resounding “hell no” from all of them. Apparently they all just hang out before shows to see who they can meet. One of the guys, easily 60 years old, got a call and said, “He’s about to pull up in a black SUV.” I asked if they had a spy network and was told “yes.”
As Coverdale got out of the SUV, the security guy tried to usher him in the backstage door and he said, “Give me a minute, let me take care of these people.” As he walked up, he said, “Just one item each, make it your best one and I’ve got to go.” I was last and asked him to sign The Book. “This is different,” he said. I asked for a picture, he obliged. I hit a wrong button and he saw the screen go black and thanks everyone and walked away. No photo. I was a bit bummed to not get that photo but super stoked to get him in The Book. Immediately after that, the autograph seekers all left. One dude walked up after and he was the only other person there for the meet and greet. I was a bit surprised that there weren’t more.
A few moments later the tour manager escorted us through the door and into the basement to the dressing rooms area. He stated that Brad was finishing dinner and to just hang out in the hallway until it was time. No problem. All of a sudden, there’s Coverdale walking by us and the guy next to me asked for a picture. He obliged and I mentioned that the one I tried outside failed. “Well let’s make that right, then.” The dude took a few pics of us and I said, “Thanks, Dave. It’s quite an honor to meet you.” He replied very politely with, “Please call me David, alright? It’s much better than Dave. I don’t like that name.” I apologized, thanked him again and called him Mr. Coverdale. He smiled, shook my hand and said, “Enjoy the show, gents” and walked away. Down the hall I heard one of his roadies call him “DC” and he said, “Why can’t you bloody just call me David?!” haha.
Right after that we were escorted to the Whitford-St. Holmes dressing room. Since there were only two of us, it made things nice and casual. I spoke with Derek for about 10 minutes as we discussed his time in Blood of the Sun and I asked him about the time he spent in The Michael Schenker Group in 1983. You can see some vids of him on rhythm guitar and backing vocals from that ’83 tour. He told me some great stories and asked what I had to sign so I showed him The Book. He was really into that thing and read the entire sections for Nugent and MSG. I got the impression that he and The Nuge weren’t friends nowadays based on some comments he made. I had him sign my Blood of the Sun CD and the two tickets I had, the other being for my friend, Rodney. Derek was a super guy.
Then we switched and I got to talk to Brad for about 10 minutes. Let me tell you, it was almost difficult to say anything as I was just humbled to even be next to that guy. Aerosmith runs deep in my rock and roll history thanks to my brother, Robert. I was a bit miffed that I couldn’t find my Draw the Line CD, my favorite album by them. He, too, was interested in The Book and asked how to find one. I told him about seeing them a few times in the late 80s/early 90s. He was so laid back and extremely friendly. I was really just blown away. He signed The Book and those 2 tickets and then we did some photos.
Derek made it a point to show Brad the MSG section that he was in
They both thanked us and were escorted back out. Reb Beach was standing on the sidewalk and I just shook his hand and said, “Have a great show tonight.” I got him in The Book a couple of years ago in Houston.
I walked around to the front entrance, met up with Rodney, passed off his ticket and in we went. The tour manager found me and handed me the swag bag from the meet and greet which included a copy of the latest album. It has a bonus disc of the first album on it, too. Whitford-St. Holmes came on right at 8PM and they sounded great. Unfortunately they didn’t play anything from their debut album. I was hoping to at least hear Sharpshooter. The played a partial version of Aerosmith’s Last Child with the keyboardist on vocals. That was my brother’s favorite track. Then a partial version of Nugent’s Hey Baby followed by a partial version of Train Kept A-Rollin’. They closed the show with Stranglehold.
After about a 20 minute stage change, Whitesnake came out to Bad Boys and Slide It In. They sounded as good as they sounded last year and the backing vocals helped carry Coverdale throughout the show. They played everything you’d expect them to play on a greatest hits tour. I totally could have done without the guitar and bass solos and especially Tommy Aldridge’s boring ass drum solo. Double bass, double bass, quads, quads, ohhh some triplets, more triplets. Wait, more quads! Look, ma! No sticks. Hands-only solo now! Quads with the hands! Double bass! Wake me when it’s over, please. But overall the band sounded great. It was a fun show. Coverdale is the consummate front man.
I will say that in meeting him, it was quite intense. He exudes so much personality and energy all the while remaining a gentleman.
The “covers” listed in the Whitesnake set were taped intros/outros, not anything performed live.
Winger Concert Review, June 6, 2014, Houston, TX
It’s cool. Go ahead and make the jokes. I’ve heard them all. Whatever. Winger is a great live band. I first saw them in 1991 with Tangier and Extreme. To this day I still can’t remember why I went to that show, but it was probably to watch Rod Morgenstein play drums. I’ve been a big fan ever since seeing his drum clinic in 90/91. He was also a partial reason why I bought a Premier drum kit in the early 90s, although I didn’t get a white one. That 91 show was great and I was shown that everyone in that band were top notch musicians. Kip caught a lot of grief over the years for being “pretty”, but that dude can play bass and piano very well. He played on 2 Alice Cooper records in the 80s, that speaks volumes about his abilities. I saw them years later with some other hair bands and again, they were great. Oddly I’ve never owned any of their albums, it’s just a live thing for me.
When I saw that they were playing the Concert Pub North in Houston on a Friday, I decided to go. I had no plans that night anyway. I listened to some of the stuff from the new album and was quite impressed. After looking at the band lineup I saw that John Roth was in the band. His name wasn’t familiar but I check The Book just to see if he was in there. Boom! He played on the Medieval Steel debut EP. That solidified me going and for buying the VIP to make sure I got him in there as well as the other guys in Winger.
I got to the show and ran into my buddy, John, who does security for a lot of shows in the Houston area. I first met John through a mutual friends a few years back when he was working with Motorhead here in Austin. Through that meeting I got to have a few drinks with Mikkey Dee. John walks me right by the lines and gets me to the booth to get my VIP creds. Easy peasy.
I sat at one of the VIP tables with 2 cool girls that I met right when I walked in. One of them had just moved to Austin this week and the other was a Houston local. I sat there through both of the openers but neither band caught my ear. Mid-set of the second band the meet and greet happened and I got in towards the end of the line. The band was very nice and personable with each person that came through the line. They signed whatever anyone put in front of them. Kip was inquisitive about the book as most folks are when they see it. Kip, Rod and Reb signed it and I flipped over to the Medieval Steel page and said to John, “You’re not off the hook. You’re in here, too.” “Really?!” He said he was surprised that anyone remembered that band. I didn’t realize that Roth has been a part of Winger for almost 20 years. Reb looked at Kip and said, “What’s Paul (Young) doing now?”
I then pulled out a photo of Rod and me from 1990/91 taken at a drum clinic. He laughed and just said, “Wow! Long time ago.” He signed the photo. For the photo op, I chose to stand next to Rod to try and create the then and now photo below. All of the guys thanked me more coming and that was that. So very worth it. Off to the car to put the book away and enjoy the show.
Shortly after, the band comes on and opens with a new song called “Midnight Driver of a Love Machine.” They were tight and pretty much played all the hits. I’ve always liked Heading for a Heartbreak. Watching Rod play was enjoyable. He’s so damned good. The whole band was great. Kip’s voice sounded great and he had no problem hitting the high notes. Roth and Beach also had great backing vocals.
One cool thing happened at the end of the show. Kip asked if there were any bass players in the crowd and they brought some dude up on stage. “It’s 2 notes, you can do it. Unless you suck. Do you suck?” They closed with Van Halen’s Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love. It was pretty damned cool to do that. The guy was OK, I could have done better. ;)
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- 24 years later…fewer curls and more forehead
I’ve seen Poison 3 times? What the hell is wrong with me?!
As I’ve been digging through all of my old ticket stubs recently I noticed one thing that has not left me at ease. Yes. I’ve been to 3 Poison shows. I mean, what the hell? I detest that band. I find their style of music to be of the utmost poseur category. I have a lot of friends who like them and that’s fine, but I don’t. Looking up who they were on tour with, it all starts to make a little sense.
The first time was in 2002 and they had Cinderella, Winger and Faster Pussycat as openers. Prior to this I had only seen Winger once in the late 80s and they were great live. I hated Cinderella back when they came out but over the years grew to appreciate them a little more. Faster Pussycat always sat well with me, even though they did some silly stuff too. But Poison? Blech! I will admit that they are entertaining live to a degree, I only wish I could have just turned their sound off completely. Their music and Brett Michael’s voice annoys me to no end. The other three bands put on a great show. It was worth the $10.
Poison Hollyweird World Tour 2002
Next up was 2003. Wait…what? I saw them 2 years in a row even? Shoot me now! At least I got free tix to this one. Vince Neil and the Bach-less Skid Row opened up. Awful. When I saw Skid Row in 1991, they were great but then again they had a great frontman at the time.
Poson Harder, Louder, Faster Tour 2003
Finally I saw them again in 2006. What is my f’ing problem? Ah, Cinderella opened up. Since seeing them a few years prior, I knew they were likely to put on another great show…and they did even though Kiefer’s voice was having troubles. Poison? Blah…again. My ticket says $10, but I think I got these for free.
Poison 20th Anniversary Tour 2006
If any of you ever see or hear me inclined to go see Poison again, please berate me and talk me out of it. I promise it wouldn’t take much to do. :)
The Metal Files 
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