MORC Day 2 part 2: Faster Pussycat, Winger, Saigon Kick and "The Hang" begins - Photos, Videos, Review

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.

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Sammy Hagar - Foxwoods Grand Theater - August 2, 2014 Concert Review and Photos

"Oh what a feeling...when we're dancing on the ceiling!"

No I haven't mixed up my concert reviews...I expected to be singing the above song on the lawn at Bethel Woods on Saturday, August 2...but sometimes plans change...

So the plan was for the crew to go check out Lionel Richie's greatest hits tour (c'mon...you don't wanna hear "Brick House" live or air-sculpt a bust during "Hello"?!) but around Wednesday the weather was looking like complete crapola and I wasn't interested in getting soaked for the former Commodores front man.

Then I got a tweet from Foxwoods telling me to text "HAGAR" to try and win front row tix to the Red Rocker on Saturday.  Well I enter and didn't win, but Foxwoods offered half price tix to those that entered.  I've never seen Sammy and the Grand Theater at Foxwoods is perhaps the most comfortable theater there is to see a show...so sorry Lionel...the crew splintered...some went to this...so went to Lionel (where the weather ended up being beautiful) and some went to check out the Winery Dogs.

I SO made the right choice.

Got to Foxwoods with a couple of hours to spare before the show.  Hit up some Fuddruckers for some burgers and headed over to the MGM part of the casino where the Grand Theater is located.  

I stopped at the players club kiosk to get a new copy of my rewards card to scan it and try and win a prize.  I was sporting my Iron Maiden "Killers" shirt and the nice older lady asked me if "that was my new girlfriend?" pointing to Eddie on the shirt.  Heheh...I gave her a brief history of Iron Maiden and their mascot Eddie and she said she would look for that shirt because her grandson liked heavy metal and his name was Eddie.  Rock on Grandma!

So on with the show...headed in and went up to our seats.  Aisle center balcony.  About 6 rows from the top, but this is a small theater (I think holds about 3,000 and it appeared to be sold out) and every seat is great (and did I mention comfortable?!  Extra leg room in front and seats a little wider than standard.  Also great sound in this room).  

The lights went down a little after 8 for a quick video montage through Sammy's career (There was no opening band tonight for Sammy's stop in Mashantucket, CT on his "A Journey Through The History of Rock" tour) and then he and his stellar backing band came out to open with "There's Only One Way To Rock".

Stellar is not being overused in this case.  On bass there's Michael Anthony of Van Halen, Vic Johnson on lead guitar and Jason Bonham on drums.

The show would be a history of Sammy's career mixed with a Led Zeppelin tribute...it was...yeah, I'm gonna say it...the best of both worlds!

I'll give the setlist below mixed with photos from the show (and a video of "Heavy Metal), but have to say this was a great show you should see if it comes to your town.  I've never seen Sammy before and the thing that stands out more than anything is the fun this band has on stage.  You can't fake the smiles and appreciation for the fans that was apparent through out.  

Sammy, I'll be looking forward to your next pass through the area...Lionel, you too..."Hellooooo....Is it meeeee you're looking for......"

As stated they opened with There's Only One Way To Rock and followed it up with Rock Candy from Sammy's days with Montrose

Good Times Bad Times was the first of the Led Zeppelin tunes of the night

Poundcake, from Sammy's Van Halen days was next

I Can't Drive 55

Michael Anthony's bass solo

When It's Love (VH)

Whole Lotta Love (LZ)

Little White Lie

When The Levee Breaks (LZ)



Moby Dick (LZ)

I haven't seen any of Jason Bonham's various Led Zeppelin tribute tours, so maybe he's done this before, but he basically played the beginning of Moby Dick, then the triple screens above him lit up with his Father playing it live and he played along totally in sync.  It was very cool and both father (on the video screen) and son got a standing ovation at the end.

Why Can't This Be Love (VH)

Finish What Ya Started (VH)

Heavy Metal.  I shot video of this one.  Love this tune.  Click here to view it.

Vic Johnson's Guitar Solo

Best Of Both Worlds (VH)



The band left the stage for a very short encore break and came back with Right Now from Van Halen and ended with Led Zeppelin's Rock and Roll



The band left and the lights stayed down for a couple of minutes while the crowd yelled for more (at other shows on the tour the band played all of the above along with Van Halen's Dreams and Sammy's All We Need Is An Island) but then they went up and that was it.



A damn good show, but I was surprised at the number of hits Sammy didn't play like Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy and Three Lock Box (and I would have loved to have heard Fast Times at Ridgemont High), but I guess that is just more reason to catch Sammy on his next tour.

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