I just got back from the 2017 Monsters of Rock Cruise aboard the Royal Caribbean Brilliance of the Seas. I'll be writing a full review but first want to upload all the videos and I'll link to them in the full review. I'll do a quick separate post for each band I shot video of. Here's four videos I took of Faster Pussycat. These first three are from their show in the tiny (way too small for FP's crowd) Colony Club which took place at 8:00pm during the Super Bowl on February 5, 2017. They opened up with "Jack The Bastard" which was the only song in their 11 song set they didn't play less than 24 hours earlier at the "Infamous & Never Boring Faster Pussycat Pool Show" the night before:
Their set also included "The Power and The Glory Hole":
as well as their cover of Betty Blowtorch's "Shut Up and Fuck":
Plus here is one video from the night before where the boys did their cover of Carly Simon's "You're so Vain" with a little help from Oni Logan of Lynch Mob and Dio Disciples:
More videos coming very soon!
If you dug this go to the MostPeopleAreBlank Facebook page by following this linkand click the "Like" button to join (as shown below) to be kept up to date on future posts, to comment, share and take part in our giveaways and contests!
We last left off after starting the day with some Iron Maiden adventures, then Paradise Kitty and D-A-D starting up the Sunday night party. If you'd like to read about that before we get started with the rest of the night, click here.
So D-A-D were amazing and we started noticing a lot of band members hanging out in the audience which is a big part of what the whole Monsters of Rock Cruise experience is all about...the hang.
John Nymann of Y&T was one of the first I noticed (and as you may have read in the full D-A-D post, it turns out they're his favorite band) and then we went over to get a beer and saw Brian Vollmer, lead singer of Helix, hanging out with his Whitesnake album. Evidently a bit of a fanboy himself, he was hoping to get Steve Vai to sign it later that night. Like just about all of the artists (with very few exceptions) he was happy to chat and take photos with us.
If you've been following along with this tale, you know our buddy Kevin T. was with us, but I have another buddy Kevin M. who would have given anything to be joining us, at home in New York. He gave me one bit of advice - I needed to check out Saigon Kick.
They were up next and the place was really filling up at this point. We decided to take a load off and grab some seats in the bleachers straight back from the stage for their set.
Saigon Kick are one of those bands I only know from their hit "Love is on The Way" (video below) and it was very surprising to see how varied the rest of their tunes were. Elements of everything from 90's grunge/alternative ala Soundgarden to vocal styles that at times reminded me of Suicidal Tendencies. Very unexpected, but oddly, I just didn't feel it. The audience dug them, it was just a performance I didn't connect with. (I would catch them later on the ship where they were a highlight and we'll talk about that a few days down the road)
We stayed for most of it...through "Love Is On The Way" and then decided to head out for a little bit to get a bite to eat. According to setlist.fm, the full setlist was:
New World
Down By The Ocean
Ugly
Coming Home
All I Want
Suzy
Peppermint Tribe
World Goes Round
Love Is On The Way (video below)
What Do You Do
My Dog
The Lizard
Hostile Youth
As we headed outside, who do we run into but Ace Von Johnson of Faster Pussycat. Always great to see Ace and we chatted for a bit. He was excited to see Michael Monroe, whose shirt I was wearing, and we compared notes on the recent shows of his we'd seen (which were amazing and reviews of those both on and off the ship are coming soon).
Ace gave us the lowdown on his part in the MotorBowie Jam that looked to be one of the highlights of the cruise - that he would be playing on "Born To Raise Hell" and "Killed By Death". (Sadly the latter never happened, but I have awesome video of the former actually already posted and will be doing a full report on the MotorBowie Jam when we get to that day's report...ah hell, it's already on youtube, so here you go below.). We would run into Ace throughout the whole cruise (often with his pal and official Faster Pussycat wrangler Gina - who I give a shout out to here as she is one of the coolest and lives the Rock n Roll Lifestyle mere mortals such as myself dream of...rock on!) where he was always ready with a rock on and raised drink for cheers. Looking forward to FP's return to the NY/NJ area the week of M3 in about a month or so...and yes...there of course will be a report on that as well.
Motorhead's "Born to Raise Hell" - with Ace Von Johnson, Doro, Courtney Cox, Marty O'Brien, Johnny Dee and Izzy Presley
So after the wonderful home cooked meal at Hooters the night before, we decided on a quick dinner at another local restaurant across the street. The owner named it after his daughter and we figured they could use the business and Wendy's treated us right. You should give it a try if you're in the area. Then back over to the Casino where of course the first order of business was beer and we ran into most of the rest of the Faster Pussycat guys including Danny Nordahl who appears to have the coolest T-shirt collection of anyone.
Oh and how could I forget the Monsters of Rock Police. Never have so many been so willing to be frisked. The gals were selling raffle tickets to upgrade to one of the suites on the ship. Our crew threw in $100 for 4 chances...when they pulled the winning tickets later that night, we were two numbers away from the winning number. Oh so close...
So while all this was going on, we had walked in during Winger's set. I've seen Winger quite a few times and they are normally on the "whatever" list for me. I'll bop my head to the hits and that's about it, but I must say this was the best I've ever seen them. Just an added level of excitement and enjoyment on stage during this gig. We caught the last half of their set, but according to setlist.fm, their full set was:
Midnight Driver of a Love Machine
Easy Come Easy Go
Pull Me Under
Down Incognito
Tin Soldier
Rat Race
Drum Solo
Headed for a Heartbreak
Can't Get Enuff
Madalaine
Saint Solos
Reb Beach guitar solo
Seventeen (video below)
They ended the set with this great cover of Van Halen's "Ain't 'Talkin 'Bout Love" with special guests Andy Timmons of Danger Danger and Courtney Cox of Paradise Kitty.
And a few more photos for your enjoyment:
I was gonna put the whole rest of the Party in here, but damn, this is alot already and I think the end of night All Star Jam / Rush Tribute "Hurry" featuring Sebastian Bach and Steve Vai needs it's own post so to be continued in MORC Day 2 part 3 which you can see here.
Faster Pussycat owned 80's In The Park or as lead singer Taime Downe fittingly dubbed it, "80's in the Swamp"
Yes, the whole story of the humidity and heat, rock and roll, mayhem and mud will follow shortly, but right now I'm going to get up some quick reviews and photo sets of the bands I caught over the three days last weekend.
Faster Pussycat (also made up of Xristian Simon and Ace Von Johnson on guitars, Danny Nordahl on Bass and Chad Stewart on drums) hit the stage shortly after the sun went down on Friday and played a fifty minute ten song set that would be one of the highlights of the weekend.
The setlist was as follows:
Jack The Bastard
Cathouse
Slip Of The Tongue
Number 1 With a Bullet
Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll
House of Pain (with Chip from Enuff Z'Nuff on backing vocals)
Bathroom Wall
Pretty Fucked Up (Supersuckers cover)
Shut Up and Fuck (Betty Blowtorch cover)
Babylon
Straight through non stop rock and a great lead in for headliner Jack Russell's Great White.
Later on we went back to the hotel for the after party for VIP ticket holders and got to hang and meet the whole band (except for Xristian who we did not see). Great bunch of guys who chatted, took photos with and signed autographs for all their fans. I don't think anything can top this great autography by Danny though! He's a goddamn hoot.
AUTOGRAPH CONTEST: I got an extra 8"x10" photo of Ace Von Johnson signed for another giveaway. All you have to do is visit our Facebook page and click "Follow" (if you aren't already following) AND click "Like" on the review post on the page. I'll do a drawing in about two weeks of all followers who clicked "Like". I'll post the winner's name on the page and send them the signed photo (The photo is one I took at Dingbatz in NJ that Ace used for a while as his profile pic on Facebook). I pay shipping, no cost at all to the winner. Good luck to all!
As always, click on any of the photos to supersize them. Also feel free to use them in your articles or blogs, I just ask you give photo credit and let us know where they are being posted so we can share the links. More photos from 80's in the Park to come soon. Rock on and Enjoy - Paul.
Didn't expect to be heading to this one since I started the day in another country... Woke up about eight hours north in Montreal after spending the weekend at the Heavy Montreal festival (don't worry...review and plenty of pics coming soon) and knew some of my pals were probably heading down to Blackthorn 51 in Elmhurst to see the always killer Faster Pussycat. Well traffic was light and the border crossing was quick and non-invasive so I found myself in a position to hop a ride and forego sleep for most of another night... Arrived and hung outside as my friends were waiting for some other friends. Heard a band doing a pretty killer version of The Stooges' Search and Destroy and I Wanna Be Your Dog. Wish we had gone in to check them out as the band was called Sexxx Dolls and we met Satyr of the band later between sets and he was entertaining as all hell, regaling us with tales of Stiv Bators who he used to be neighbors with in better days...we look forward to your next gig Satyr... We did go in for the next band on the bill, The Bowery Boys, who put on a rockin set highlighted by some appearances from some of the Faster Pussycat fellas...bassist Danny Nordahl (along with guitarist Ace Von Johnson on backing vocals) joined them to take lead vocals on a cover of Johnny Thunders "Chinese Rocks" and back later in their set for a Ramones cover.
AfterBurn was up next with a set of hard rockin tunes including of all things a Bob Seger cover. I was enjoying numerous PBR's throughout which goes well with the all american Detroit rock of a Seger cover. So before we talk about Faster Pussycat's set, let's talk about Blackthorn 51 as this was my first time being there. I dug it. Low stage up front right inside the door, bar along one wall. Could hold I'd guess 200 people. Nice outdoor area in the back. I hope to be back for more shows.
But we're here to talk about Taime Downe, Xristian Simon, Chad Stewart, Danny and Ace - Faster Pussycat.
The boys hit the stage just after midnight and as always just kicked ass straight through for just over an hour with a set that included a new song and a cover we had not heard them do before. Here's a bunch of pics and the set list:
Where There's A Whip There's A Way
Cathouse
Slip of the Tongue
Number 1 With a Bullet
Sex Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll
House of Pain
then a new tune called from what I can tell "Pretty Ugly" which is pretty damn good
Don't Change That Song
Bathroom Wall
Danny took over lead vocals for the next two songs starting with a cover of the Ramones' Pet Sematary which none of us (who combined may have seen Faster Pussycat well over fifty times at this point) have ever heard them do before
then a cover of The Supersuckers' (another always killer band) Pretty Fucked Up
Taime came back on lead vocals for another cover that is a mainstay in their set, Betty Blowtorch's Shut Up and Fuck
Babylon
And that was it...a full blown hour of rock. We ended up hanging out for about another hour during which we got to meet and chat with most of the band (all except Taime who retired to the bus). It was also cool to meet Ricky Byrd, of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts among others, who was there and even got a guitar pic from him after chatting and taking a few photos.
It was a helluva fun night and I look forward to seeing the boys again soon...in about 6 weeks at the 80's in the Park festival down in Florida where most of the crew I went with this night will be joining me as well.
Click on any of the photos to blow them up to supersize and if you could, click this link to go to the Facebook page for MostPeopleAreBlank and join. Lots of great stuff to come and want to build up a following to try and get some photo passes to share more great shows with you. Also please feel free to comment. Share this post as you like and I always let anyone use my photos, please just ask, let me know where you are using them and give us credit and we'll do the same and share your links. As always...Rock on and Enjoy!
Posts
