After 1000 concerts...why not a Beatle - Ringo Starr Bethel NY June 26,2010

I've never seen a Beatle.

I've been going to concerts for about 25 years now...seen in the area of 1000...had opportunities, (including actually winning tix to see Ringo at this very venue two years ago - but they couldn't make it over the Canadian border and had to cancel - Ringo apologized to all those who showed up two summers ago to find themselves Beatle-less) so this summer seemed right.

I also thought...what a great first concert this would be to bring my niece Abigail to. So it was settled.

As the show approached, I asked an awesome friend of mine if she and her son would like to go to...not only was there a yes, but her cool 12 year old son actually knew the name of Ringo's newest album ("Y Not") which easily 99% of the attendees at the show had never heard of (Ringo actually joked about this and seems to take it all in stride...he knows what the people want). So it was going to be an extra cool time until an ER/ICU stay put a top to that this week...so while I was quite bummed they could not attend, I did hear right before typing this that he is being moved out of ICU today...so we will have other concert adventures this summer for sure...

So the show...Saturday morning was BEAUTIFUL sunny and clear sky...until we hit the road in the late afternoon and it became majorly overcast...The 75 minute drive had us hitting a few light showers...luckily, overall, the rain was not an issue...there was very light drizzle here and there through out the show (actually starting the exact moment Ringo and band hit the stage precisely at 8pm - but quickly dissipating). Other than that, a great night for lawn seats at Bethel (of course, home of the Original Woodstock festival).

If you're wondering if the Beatles fans came out...this painted bus, parked 15 feet from us, should give an idea of the average attendee



So this was Ringo's 11th All Starr Band tour where he takes some musicians who each have a couple of hits...they all play the whole show together mixing all their hits up in one setlist...it's an excellent format and was very enjoyable...you literally know every song just about (Ringo threw in a couple of new ones, but they're so damn catchy that it seems as if they're old faves.)

As I said the show started precisely at 8pm (no opening act) and the band made up of Ringo, Rick Derringer, Edgar Winter, Gary Wright, Richard Page of Mister Mister, Wally Palman of The Romantics and drummer Gregg Bissonette (who I previously only knew from David Lee Roth's solo band in the 80's when he left Van Halen) came out playing "It Don't Come Easy." The song I was looking forward to hearing more than any other all night! Rock On Ringo!

Ringo stood at the mic and led the band through two more - Carl Perkins' "Honey Don't" and "Choose Love" - the title track of his 2005 Solo Album.

Ringo then introduces guitarist Rick Derringer who busted out his official Ohio state song "Hang On Sloopy" recorded 45 years ago(!) with his band at the time, The McCoys. It makes you realize how many CENTURIES of Musicianship are on the stage tonight (Ringo will be 70 next week - and let me tell you, that fella is in amazing voice and shape...he's was doing jumping jacks during the end of the show that tired me just watching!)

The crowd loves the singalong and Rick then introduces the VIP (In my not at all humble opinion) of the night - Edgar Winter. Edgar and Rick are so key to this band, especially Edgar with not only his own songs, but his keyboards and sax throughout the set. So Edgar lays out the crowd with "Free Ride." Such a great summer song (and always reminds me of the great film "Dazed and Confused" every time I hear it.)

Edgar then introduces Wally Palman of the Romantics. Wally, to my ears, is the let down of the night...I saw the Romantics about 7 years ago At Little Steven's Garagefest and they were okay...about the same here - just so so. We get the huge early 80's hit "Talking In Your Sleep", but his voice is very different than it was back in the day - It's still a toe tapper, but just doesn't have the original sound that all the other players tonight have kept. Edgar though, kills a mean sax solo in the middle that really saves the song for me...so fair enough.

Oh here's a picture of the stage...



So Wally says he wants to re-introduce his favorite drummer doing a song from his favorite band and Ringo comes back to the mic to rock out the Beatles classic "I Wanna Be Your Man" - Great Stuff!

Ringo then introduces Gary Wright who tells a story of his friend George Harrison and how George introduced him to Mid Eastern religion and philosophy from which he got the name for his biggest hit - "Dream Weaver" which he played. This was my chance for beer run and t-shirt run...If you like the song...it sounded great...I just have to say I've never liked this song...

It's about 8:45 at this point and I go to the beer tent and they tell me they've stopped selling beer?!?! Holy Shit Kids...wha???

But I go to another one where I spy a fella being handed a brew...I ask if they're still selling and they say yes...until 9:05...phew! I'll take TWO Shock Tops then please (I figured the show would be over by 10 anyway...but c'mon...they should give some warning!)

So Gary ends his tune - and the crowd loved it - and Richard Page is introduced and plays the Mr. Mister hit "Kyrie" which I've always loved...sounds great!

Ringo is back on mic and introduces a song off his new album called "The Other Side of Liverpool"...I have to say I get a kick out of the fact that the three recent solo songs Ringo played at this concert all have either Peace, Love or Liverpool in the title...Ringo knows the lyrical fields he plays well in for sure.

This leads into one of the big sing-alongs of the night "Yellow Submarine". I actually thought Ringo seemed bored playing this one - somewhat understandably considering he's had to do it for so long...but it was the only time I got that vibe from him or the band all night.

Next up a huge highlight...Edgar Winter does "Frankenstein!" Just awesome and funky and rockin...a nice long version and everyone is diggin it!

My niece by the way was rockin out to this one...her she is doing a whirling dervish while possessed by the music...

Ringo is back and does another song from his latest called "Peace Dream"....followed by 1972's "Back Off Boogaloo"

Now the show goes into overdrive...let's rock the hits...We get the other hit by the Romantics "What I like About You" (I dig it)...Rick Derringer's "Rock n Roll Hoochie Coo" (including a 3 or 4 minutes guitar solo - not within the song....a full on the rest of the band takes a break and Rick does a guitar solo - very 80's hairband-ish...but what the hell - it was a quickie)

Ringo back with "Boys" from his pre-Beatles days with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, then Gary Wright, who I forgot had another hit in 1976, with "Love Is Alive"

We get the other Mr. Mister hit at this point "Broken Wings" and then it's all Ringo.

"Photograph" into "Act Naturally" into "A Little Help From My Friends (with "Give Peace A Chance" outro).

And that is it...10pm...2 hours....no encore breaks - which comes as a bit of a suprise as some wonder where is "Octopus' Garden" and "You're Sixteen" which seem like HUGE setlist leave-outs. (not to mention "No No Song" "Oh My My" or "Only You" which were all top ten hits in the 70's...)

So there was a little grumbling in the crowd....but it was a nice solid two hours show...If he tours again next summer - I'll be there Mr. Starkey

Been a Long Time Since I Metallica 'd - Albany NY Nov. 12, 2009 concert review

Like many an older fan of Metallica (I discovered them with the release of Master of Puppets when I was 15 in 1986) who had fallen from the fold over their last few albums, I came back after I heard their latest, "Death Magnetic".

I've seen Metallica well over a dozen times, but it's been a decade (Woodstock '99) since I last saw the boys live...until last night.

Bought my brother in law a ticket as his early Christmas gift and he, along with a gal pal from work, headed up to Albany looking forward to what Metallica now has to offer in a live setting, although much of their set list was already known to me.

I'm absolutely one of those people who checks recent set lists to see what can be expected. On this current leg of the tour, Metallica is playing a slightly over two hour structured set with seven spots where they mix it up a bit. In a day where the majority of arena touring bands play a standard set night after night, mixing up more than a third of your set each night is pretty good and can leave every level of fan with hopes of getting to hear what they want. Did I get my picks? Read on and see what happened as the band hit the stage.

The Times Union Center (Formerly the Pepsi Arena...Formerly the Knickerbocker Arena...) in Albany is a relatively small arena and there's never really a bad seat in the house. That holds more than true for this tour as Metallica are playing "in the round." Their large rectangular stage takes up most of the floor, so those fans who got general admission tickets were almost all within 15 feet of the band at any time (and as close as three feet if against the rails). Lars' drum kit is centered on the almost barren stage and is rotated 90 degrees to face a new section of the audience after every few songs. As for James, Kirk and Rob, they are all over the stage through out the show with microphones placed strategically at every corner of the stage as well as in various spots along the edges.

Next to both sides of the drum kit are two flame shooting boxes blast concentrated fire fountains into the air during appropriate moments in the show. There are also flame throwers in the stage floor which produce many large mushroom clouds of fire into the air throughout the night.

The lighting rigs which hang above the stage are in the coffin motif of the album cover and are raised and lowered and rotated on virtually every axis through out the show. Don't forget to throw in unabashed laser usage, yet even with all these effects, the focus, with the exception of the first song, as I'll describe below, is fully on the band, with the effects usually enhancing and not overwhelming the performance.

So the scene is set...our seats were at the short end of the stage, second level, row P (I think there were about 4 more rows behind us and that's the top of the arena). So as stated, we as well as everyone had a clear view of the whole stage throughout the night.

My first (minor) complaint was that it was ridiculously hot! I learned in grade school science that heat rises, so maybe it wasn't so bad on the floor, but if it was the same temperature for those folks packed together in front of the stage as it was for me sitting in my seat, glad I was up here. Really not a big fan of the sweaty drunk guy in the pit slipping and sliding against me to get 6 inches closer to the stage.

So a little after nine...the lights go down...and the familiar sounds of Ennio Morricone's "The Ecstasy of Gold" (The theme from "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly") come through the speakers. The song builds and peaks and we're off...here's the set:

That Was Just Your Life - The opening track from "Death Magnetic" opens the show, but is held back from being a great opener for two reasons. First of all there is a slow intro to this song before the fast riff and drums really kick in 80 or 90 seconds in. This is fine, but the problem was that Metallica, the band ONSTAGE, didn't play the slow opening, it was pre-recorded and the band kicked in when the song kicked in. It was very odd, but would happen during at least two other songs during the night...it took a little away from the song each time they did it, but especially this one as it's the first song of the night! Secondly, this is the only song of the night where the lighting effects hamper the band. As the intro plays and the band is led onto the stage (I was on the side of the stage where we saw them led out), the houselights are all out and the lasers come on...it's very cool looking, but the lights stay out onstage for the whole song! So basically it's like going to see "Laser Metallica" where you're watching this big stage and the lights and lasers are making cool designs, but you just get dark glimpses of the band here and there.

Before I go on with the rest of the set and the biggest problem with the evening, let me say I enjoyed the show a lot. It's just you realized all these things right when the bad came out, so it might sound like I'm going to bitch about the whole show...but read on...I actually dug it...but this has to be said...

What the fuck was up with the sound?! I'm assuming the sound was great on the floor because the soundboard was also at the end of the stage where we were and it was impressive. Metallica are also one of those bands who record every show for download and yep I downloaded it. At the show, what I heard all night was MASSIVE bottom end. It got better as the night progressed...but during the first two songs, almost all you heard were bass, drums and vocals, could not make out any intricacies of guitar work or solos. By the last song of the night, it was better, but still very bass heavy. The download sounds great though so I'm assuming those lower to stage level would not have this complaint. For a headlining arena band, the sound was very disappointing.

The End of the Line - The second song of the night...the stage lights come up and stay up for the rest of the show...you really get to see how much these guys are loving playing...this was over the 100th show of this tour and there's no road weariness and James vocals as well as everyone's playing sounds great. This second song is also the second track off "Death Magnetic"...there would be a few one two punches of songs off the same album throughout the night. These two tracks are opening every show on this leg of the tour.

Ride The Lightning - This is one of those seven slots where you're not sure what you're gonna get until they start playing. I'll actually bold these for the rest of the review as they are the most interesting parts of the night. This was a big surprise for me and I loved it. The title track and one of the most brutal songs from Metallica's second album (now 25 years old or so! good lord!). I was expecting Creeping Death or For Whom The Bell Tolls which are the most common tracks played in this slot. Glad I got the hear this one, but would not have been disappointed in either of those Metallica classics. My only complaint - this would be the ONLY song from "Ride The Lightning" performed tonight...

The Memory Remains - This fourth song slot is another of the ones where they play what they want and I would NEVER have chosen this track from "Reload" as I really don't like the studio version. (The Marianne Faithfull singing/moaning just kills me). But I have to say live it's really pretty good...it's heavy groove works well for a big crowd and the big singalong of the Marianne Faithfull parts by the crowd is a huge improvement. A big surprise and opposite of my comment above, I was very glad this was the ONLY track they played from what for me are Metallica's lost years of say 1994's "Load" through 2005's "St. Anger". It was also a wake up call for me to realize that while many Metallica fans at least somewhat gave up on the band during this period (and really starting in 1991 with the release of "The Black Album"), WAY more of the fans who go to see them today much prefer this 1991 and on "newer stuff". Proof of this was that, without a doubt, at this point only four songs into the set, The Memory Remains got a massive roar and huge cheer when played...much much much more than "Ride"...and just wait until the encores...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

One - This slot is one I consider a mix it up slot, but in actuality it isn't, because they basically seem to flip a coin here and play either One or Fade To Black. While I bitched above about only hearing a single track from "Ride The Lightning", and if they played Fade, that would have been another, I'm glad they chose "One" for a couple of reasons. While I love "Fade", I love "One" more, especially live where it just destroys. The band left the stage during the sounds of war while the stage lit up explosion after fireball. During the machine gun riffing/drumming in the middle, the flame boxes on either side of Lars' drums shoot choreographed fountains of different colored flame. Very cool and just a headbanging masterpiece. My complaint - this would be the ONLY song from "...And Justice For All" performed tonight...(also Marla, my pal from work who came with us, really really really was hoping to hear Fade, but she loved this too)

Broken, Beat & Scarred - This and the following two tracks go back to the structured set list, so I knew we'd hear this third track off the new one. A great fist pumper and who doesn't love to shout "We Die Hard" at the end of the chorus with thousands of friends.

Cyanide - I think this is the catchiest tune from the new album and totally dug it live (Evidently when Metallica play two shows in the same venue for two nights in a row, My Apocalypse from the new album takes the place of this, I dig this tune way more)

Sad But True - The heaviest song from "The Black Album" got possibly the biggest reception of the night ("Enter Sandman" maybe edged it out later in the set). I was still really into Metallica in 1991 when this album was released. Hell I went to Madison Square Garden where me and about 10,000 other fans sat for an album listening party...no, not to see the band play the album (although they came out and waved at the end), but to sit there for an hour while the screen showed the name of the current track (this was in the days before albums being leaked on the internet) and just listen. So I'm not a huge "Black Album" hater, although it was a definite turning point for me. I was on the alt.com.metallica message board at the time and did a big review for it. I'm pretty sure I remember stating this was the heaviest song of the album, but it was never my favorite (I would probably give that to "Of Wolf and Man.") It's one of those songs I just don't get why so many people love it...it's slow and plodding, and I like me some heavy slow and plod, but Sad But True evades me. It sounded fine and will probalby always be in the setlist and why not...the other thousands of people attending LOVED IT. Another blatant example of the pre-1991 vs post-1991 fans losing ground this evening.

Welcome Home (Sanitarium) - Well first of all...HELL YEAH! This and the other two tracks from "Master of Puppets" played this night where the highlights for me. As epic as always. So glad they played this because this spot is also a semi-mix it up. Seems if they play "Fade to Black" earlier instead of "One", you would get "One" here. So if they played "Fade", I would not have gotten this, and this was amazing. Now when they play "One" earlier instead of "Fade" (like they did tonight - how many of you have I lost with this setlist logic bomb) they would usually play either "The Unforgiven" or their cover of Bob Seger's "Turn the Page" here. I really don't need to hear The Unforgiven again and their cover of "Turn the Page" is a who cares for me...so using the Metallica method of picking a setlist...I definitely got the best deal in this slot!

All Nightmare Long - Another semi mixup slot, but here the choices are always either this one or "The Judas Kiss" or "My Apocalypse", all from "Death Magnetic". I like them all equally, but this song seemed to push the limits of the crowd's acceptance of so much of the new album. I would say this was the only lull in the show in crowd excitement. It's not because this song is any better or worse than the other new ones, it's just at this point, we're about an hour in and this is the FIFTH new song and we've yet to hear anything off their classic first album "Kill 'Em All." Actually this is the thought running through my head. I'm not making up the crowd lull, I'm just thinking, based on the other song reactions, the majority of the crowd was probably saying "what the hell...this is the FIFTH new song and we've yet to hear anything off "Load" or "St. Anger" or maybe something like "Play (Enter Sandman or The Unforgiven or Nothing Else Matters)." Again though, this song is good and it rocked, but it also was another one where they let the prerecorded track play the slow intro until the song kicked in.

Kirk Hammett Solo #1 - The rest of the band leaves the stage and Kirk goes into his electric guitar solo...I'm kinda done with the guitar solo at concerts, but this was short and tasty and just a couple of minutes long.

The Day That Never Comes - The band comes back out and gets back to it's preset setlist with this monster of a new song. "The Day That Never Comes" is the closest thing to classic epic Metallica. Starts out slow, builds up and rocks out the second half in major headbanging fashion. Love this one and it's a great lead in to...

Master Of Puppets - To me probably the ultimate Metallica song. It has as much power as it did when released over two decades ago and the crowd loves this one...they are back with the boys.

Battery - Holy hell...what a great double shot. The title track of "Master of Puppets" followed by this bludgeoning opening track from the same album...oh boy am I a happy head banging camper at this point. While they always play "Master" at that point in the set, this spot is always a tossup of their more brutal songs. If not Battery we would have gotten Dyer's Eve or Blackened from "Justice", Fight Fire With Fire from "Ride" or "Master's" closing track Damage Inc. No complaints really on any of those, but the double dose from Master worked great. (Again though a case where they used prerecorded music from the slow intro)

Kirk Hammet Solo #2 - This section of the show is paced very well as we need a calm down after those last three. The band leaves the stage to Kirk again, this time playing a semi acoustic solo which leads right into

Nothing Else Matters - from "The Black Album". This one brought the lighters out all over the arena, and yes, real lighters...I know holding up a cell phone is the more modern mode of appreciation, but glad to see the bic being rocked old school. This one gets played every night as does this next one to end the set...

Enter Sandman - Well of course, the song that put Metallica on the biggest bands in the world list. It's a catchy toe tapper. The crowd goes absolutely ape shit having waited all night and loving the "Black Album" double shot. When the song ends and the lights go out for the encore break a pretty good number of people start to leave...they were here for the hits and got what they wanted...me I'm crossing my fingers...

Encore - The boys slowly come back out one at a time for a little Jam and riffing - they do the "Oh Dee Oh" thing from Wizard of Oz then James goes to the Mic and says this is the slot where they play a cover song of one of the band's that influenced Metallica...

Stone Cold Crazy - This is the slot in the show where you really might get anything, Metallica have done ALOT of covers...MANY are fantastic and some kinda suck balls...In my perfect world we would have gotten "The Prince." Instead I hear, "this one is by Queen"...I can dig me some "Stone Cold Crazy." Fast and Furious and I loved it, but now I'm in row P right and probably a third of the people in rows A through O in front of me have left after Enter Sandman, but there's still a good sized crowd left in my section I can see...if FOUR people dug Stone Cold Crazy in my section I would be amazed. I'm rocking out, but the motionlessness of almost everyone else shocked me. Things have really changed in the Metallica crowd since I used to go, although It looked like those on the floor were totally into it.

Motorbreath - This next to last slot is a semi mixup as well. We know almost always we're gonna get something from "Kill 'em All" ( FINALLY!) and Motorbreath is a great thrasher. Again those in my section gave this the same treatment as Stone Cold Crazy...a few people loving it, most not caring (Section 219 by the way in case you were there). Well we're about at the end...and I know we'll end with...

Seek and Destroy - So a nice little double shot from "Kill 'em All" to end the night and suprisingly this one everyone loves (Do people just want the big singalongs?! I guess so!). All the house lights are up and the whole crowd does the call and response with James as hundreds of regular and supersize black beach balls with Metallica's logo drop from the rafters (pretty cool keepsake if you got one!) Rockin way to end the night and send everyone home happy.

So how was my 15th or so Metallica concert - overall it was great...sure it wasn't my dream setlist, but when any band is around over 25 years, you're just not gonna get that anymore. If Madison Square Garden wasn't sold out the next two nights, I'd probably go again. I ask only one thing - Fix the fucking sound...my tix were around $65 a piece after service charges and for that I expect not only a great band, great stage show and great songs, but the ability to hear them clearly as they are playing and not wait until the next day for the download to go oh they sounded REALLY GOOD!

Next blog - I'm finishing my long ass New Orleans / Voodoo write up and hope to get back into the swing of things with the old blogger. Talk to you soon and feel free to comment away!

The Germs - Mercury Lounge, NYC - July 2, 2009

Your singer dies - should your band ever go on? In my experience I say yes.

I realize my yes is based on the fact that I never got to see the originals.

I saw "The Doors of the 21st Century" a few summers ago with Ian Astbury of the Cult filling in for Jim Morrison who died (or did he?!?) when I was a mere babe of 6 months of age. I'll go on record and say I thought it was a great show, I've seen them lambasted, but goddamn it, I thought Ian was the perfect Jim and the band was hot.

I was a bit older when Darby died (about a week before my 10th birthday - the same night as John Lennon was shot and killed) but still years before my first concert and I'm pretty sure the Germs never made it anywhere near the East Coast. I love the music and when they came around to B.B. King's in 2005 I checked it out and thought they were great. I think they've been back through the area on a Warped Tour, but haven't seen them in four years until a few nights ago when they returned to the Big Apple to play the tiny Mercury Lounge.

As far as I could tell, I wasn't the only one who didn't care that it wasn't Darby Crash up there with Lorna Doom, Pat Smear and Don Bolles - this was as close as we were going to get and the band absolutley delivers. Lorna is still a punk queen holding down the rhythm with wildman Bolles pounding the skins (I know Keith Moon is often compared to Animal from the muppets, but Bolles is the current living embodiment). Pat lays out the raw speed guitar through all the songs - often looking as if he's in a trance while playing the mostly one to two minutes classics, but then smiling widely for the brief seconds of breaks between tracks. Shane West looks and sounds the part, but is not acting the role. You don't feel like you're watching a show - this isn't Germsmania, in these past years since he got together with this classic Germs line-up while filming "What We Do Is Secret" (which I finally saw a few months ago and highly recommend) he has become the current lead singer, he knows and loves the songs and delivers them with immense energy. Three years ago I felt he was almost there, but was still doing a few Darby lines and antics - the slurred yelling of "Somebody get me a beer" or spraying ketchup all over himself. It was parlor tricks which took away from the immediacy of the music and the show. This band is a punk rock machine and I hope I get to see them again soon.

They played damn near everything off the MIA collection...here's the setlist mixed with some pics I took right up against the stage. The opened with

Media Blitz



What We Do Is Secret



Circle One



No God



Lexicon Devil



Victim



Throw It Away



Manimal



Our Way



Strange Notes



We Must Bleed




American Leather



Vile Babies



Let's Pretend



Communist Eyes



Now I Hear The Laughter



Land Of Treason



My Tunnel



Lion's Share



Richie Dagger's Crime



And encored with: Forming, Out Of Time, The Slave

So Will I be going to see Alice In Chains with their new guy - probably not...I saw the real thing. What About Nirvana again some day? I'll probably pass...but a Joe Strummer-less Clash? I don't think that one will happen, but if it does...what the hell, I'll give them a listen.

"What Up 1991?!" - Jane's Addiction (and some NIN) Holmdel, NJ June 6, 2009 concert review

In a recent email to my pal Melissa telling her I was attending the NIN/JA 2009 tour featuring Jane's Addiction and Nine Inch Nails (with openers Street Sweeper Social Club) she responded with the humorous and very accurate "Wow! What Up 1991?!"

Accurate because 1991 was not only "The Year That Punk Broke" (according to the Sonic Youth / featuring Nirvana documentary of the same name), it was also the year Mr. Perry Farrell created Lollapalooza which would feature his band Jane's Addiction's final tour and also feature up and comers Nine Inch Nails in a hot and sunny early day slot (I've always heard NIN sold more T-Shirts on that tour than either anyone else or all the other bands combined...it would be three more years before they took over the world with their mud covered set at Woodstock '94 bringing them to the attention of the masses - happy to say I was there for that one...but did miss Green Day's mud set).

I caught Lollapalooza at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center that year and enjoyed Nine Inch Nails (in what would be the first of about a half dozen times I would see them over the years including just this past October headlining Saturday night at The Voodoo Festival in New Orleans) and LOVED Jane's Addiction.

Eighteen years later I finally got to see them again. I somehow missed them on the various reunion tours they've done (although I remember really trying to get tickets to the Halloween show in NYC for the first reunion, but it sold out too quick). I saw Porno for Pyros numerous times (including that '94 Woodstock as well) and Perry fronting various super groups at benefit shows, but there's nothing like the real thing as Pepsi might say (or is it Coke?)

So Welcome back 1991 indeed!

It had been on and off rain since Wednesday and by the time Saturday morning, June 6, arrived, it was looking overcast and rainy...not usually a problem for shows, but we had lawn seats for this one. Luckily by noon the sun was out and it was in the 70's, an absolutely perfect day for a lawn seat show!

We paid for a VIP parking pass which allows you to park right outside the entrance to the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ. If you don't buy one of these reserved lots passes you have to walk about a mile or further up hill to the venue...no thanks. It also allows you to hear when the bands hit the stage although this information is posted for all the shows on Jane's website. It would be Tom Morello's Street Sweeper Social Club at 7:30, Nine Inch Nails at 8:15 and Jane's Addiction at 10:00pm. While this is called a co-headlining tour, Jane's has been the headliner on every show so far. Perhaps on the second half of the tour they'll trade slots.

Monetarily this tour is a great idea for both bands as while there is obvious alt rock crossover, many fans seem to be die hard fans of either one or the other. I know I would have passed on Nine Inch Nails this summer without Jane's and I heard many with the opposite sentiment while waiting on the will call line which I'll get to in a minute.

I had seen SSSC do a short set at the Road Recovery benefit recently (see my past blog for review) and really truly was planning on seeing them here, but when you're with family and friends and doing the parking lot party...time just goes by and how can you leave those last three beers sitting in the cooler?

So needless to say, I missed their set which word has been for every show that they killed. They've been doing a standard seven song half hour with six originals and a great cover of M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes".

I know it's a great cover because there is an open taping policy on this tour! Not just audio, but video as well. Almost every show has been showing up immediately on the various bit torrent sites and YouTube. Actually this show I'm reviewing right now, less than 24 hours later is already on my hard drive...ah technology!

So Suddenly we're finishing our last beers and hear NIN hit the stage and decide along with the rest of the parking lot partiers (of which there were MANY!) that we should go to Will Call, pick up the tix and head inside.

Well I learned a lesson on this night, if you're at the show early, hit will call early to get your tix. There was one Will Call window open and HUNDREDS of people on line to get in. It was slow and kind of annoying listening to some of my fave Nine Inch Nails songs while waiting to get in (Damn...why did "March of the Pigs" have to be so early in the set!). It was while waiting that I heard many complaints from people who came just to see NIN whining about missing them, again I already saw them on this tour and was really there for JA, so it wasn't so bad.

As we get about four people away from the front, they of course open another will call window...so got my tix and then go walk over to the gates to go in.

This was where we noticed the weird security vibe at this show. As I stated it was open taping, so you could bring in audio, video, still cameras, but there was a major pat down on everyone. There was also a heavy police presence with one group of about eight cops standing around waiting for trouble. Someone was worried about trouble from this crowd for no apparent reason. First of all there was a good amount of "older" fans - I mean Jane's has been around 22 or 23 years...hell, Perry just turned 50...I don't think anyone was going to be forming a moshpit. All the cops were cool and I didn't see them hassle anyone drinking from glass bottles or anything...maybe there was a riot at a Nine Inch Nails show here in the past or something? The security issues continued somewhat inside when it came to lawn seating.

Here at Holmdel and most other ampitheatres with lawn sections I go to, they usually have an option to rent a chair for 5 bucks for those who don't want to sit on the grass or didn't bring a blanket. Every time I've gone to a show here in the past, I did this and we all planned on doing this tonight, but when we went inside, we saw the chair rental booths were there full of chairs, but no one renting. A security guard was stationed there and had to get sick of people (like myself) going up and asking him if we could rent a chair to which he would reply, "No, there are no chair rentals at this show." Very odd indeed considering they always rent out a few thousand chairs, so that's potentially tens of thousands of dollars the venue was giving up because why? Were people beaten with chairs in the past? Did they get destroyed? They just did not trust this crowd with anything. Oh well...I was REALLY glad at this point it hadn't rained so I didn't have to suffer muddy ass on the grass.

Although later in the night Perry would say this was a sold out show, it wasn't...but a real nice turn out. We were still able to get a nice spot on the right side of the lawn where we could view the stage and there were also screens on both sides to view as well. Sound was excellent as it always is when I've seen a concert at PNC.

So with the beer drinking, will call line waiting, patting down and rental chair searching, we missed about half of Nine Inch Nails set. They were rocking and excellent as always, with "Mr. Self Destruct" from "The Downward Spiral" being the first song we heard once settled.

They followed that up with a double shot from their 2008 free downloadable album "The Slip" playing "1,000,000" followed by "Echoplex".

The double shots continued with the third and fourth tracks from 2007's "Year Zero" in the way of "Survivalism" and "The Good Soldier".

Their set completed with a pair of singles, "The Hand that Feeds" from "With Teeth" and that 1991 Lollapalooza anthem "Head Like A Hole" from "Pretty Hate Machine" which had the audience screaming for more as the band left the stage.

They returned giving the crowd what they wanted, their biggest hit and another visit to "The Downward Spiral" with "Hurt." From what I saw a great career spanning set which made with the die hards and more casual fans happy.

What I truly came to see would hit the stage in about fifteen minutes, the return of the original line-up of Jane's Addiction!

So for fifteen minutes we wated the mad dash of thousand of attendees running for the beer line and/or bathroom line and then the lights dimmed and the stage lit up with a curtain in front of showing classic images of the band as we heard that acoustic opening with Perry telling us "Right Now you should be here with us..." as the band opened with their epic "Three Days" from "Ritual De Lo Habitual!".

This is such a monster of a song on album and live it reaches new heights. I had been following the setlists of this tour and when I first heard they were opening their set with this song I thought it was a bad idea. "Three Days" takes you on a musical journey of over 10 minutes and while it is a must have in the set list, I didn't know if it would work as the bring in. Well it works with the slow build into the psychedelic / tribal breakdown (with the amazing Stephen Perkins on drums) peaking two thirds of the way through as Perry screams of "Erotic Jesus...plays with his Marys..." and then the final Dave Navarro shredding road trip to the end... amazing and tight - sounding like these guys have been playing together for the last 18 years instead of the last month of this tour.

If you forgot that bassist Eric Avery is back in the mix, you're reminded immediately with his bassline intro to "Whores" from their self titled live debut album. It becomes apparent over and over through out the night what an important roll Avery's bass played in Jane's music. While Navarro gets the real notice as guitar hero, so many of the songs in tonight's set are based on the base line including "Ain't No Right" which comes next. As Perry sings the opening line "I Am Skin and Bones..." you realize he certainly is, but in excellent shape physically and vocally. The muscle tear he suffered early in the tour is no wear to be seen as he prowls and dances around the stage all night.

"Nothing's Shocking" album closer (and also featured on the debut) "Pigs in Zen" rocks out next and then another "Ritual..." epic with the second longest track after "Three Days" the very personal "Then She Did." Another song which shows the expertise Jane's has in slowing bring the audience into a song and building to an emotional peak.

While the boys do the epics well, they also do the balls out riff rock as good as anyone else. "Up The Beach" starts playing, but instead of going into "Ocean Size", it leads into their first real MTV exposure with "Mountain Song." This one brought everyone in the audience back on board and could only be topped with their biggest hit "Been Caught Stealing".

It was about 11:00pm at this point and a decent amount of the audience, having felt they heard most of what they came to hear, departed after "Stealing" as the boys took another dip into the "Ritual" pool with the one suprise song of the night - "Obvious."

The setlist has been standard for this tour with one open slot where they are switching things up. "Obvious" first appeared in the set only a week ago right after Stephen Perkins announced on the website that they were practicing this as well as "No One's Leaving" to work into the setlist. Considering the other choices of songs which have come in this mystery slot, I'm glad we got "Obvious" (the only song I know they've played on this tour that I would have rather heard would have been their great cover of The Grateful Dead's "Ripple" which I think they've only played twice live. At most of the shows they've been doing "Had A Dad" with "1%" as a close second and a really occasional "Standing in the Shower Thinking" - I do love that song too...I think I gotta go check out one of the few Jane's theatre gigs their doing where they probably get more time and play all of these!). Again I was amazed at how tight the band sounded on a song which was just added to the set.

While "Mountain Song" didn't get any hate, I'm sure there were plenty of people who wanted the massive guitar onslaught of "Ocean Size" and after "Obvious" they got it. Only one more song for the main set and it was another from "Nothing's Shocking", it's depraved epic "Ted Just Admit It..." with it's similar structure to "Three Days" with slow beginning to tribal middle and "Sex Is Violent" chant to guitar madness at the end...then the boys left the stage to return a couple of minutes later.

The next song was very fitting considering the beautiful weather as the encore set started with "Summertime Rolls." They had some rocking left to do so "Stop" the first track on "Ritual came next and then the night could only end with what has truly become the bands biggest song, the acoustic guitar and steel drum driven "Jane Says" which had everyone singing along and smiling wide as they left to find their cars for the ride home.

Amazing show and I hope to see them again at least one more time on this tour.

Classic Full Albums Live On Tour!

Has anyone else noticed how the trend of an artist/band going on tour to revisit a classic album and play it live, in order from start to finish, is becoming very popular? I, for one, couldn't be happier.

I was reminded of this phenomenan when talking upcoming summer shows and my buddy mentioned the ZZ Top / Aerosmith tour. I really didn't have any thought of going as I'm not the biggest ZZ fan in the world and I've seen Aerosmith numerous times in the last twenty years and they just dissapoint me more and more each time because I don't think I've loved anything they've actually released in those twenty years.

I first saw Aerosmith on the Permanent Vacation tour in the summer of 1988 with Guns n Roses opening (first of numerous times seeing GnR as well). It was probably the biggest rock tour of that year and by a miracle we were able to pick up scalped tickets (I think for either face value of like 5 bucks over face) outside the Orange County Fairgrounds for the sold out show in Middletown, NY. It remains one of the greatest concerts I've ever seen. Two great bands right around the peak of their powers. I love 70's Aerosmith and got to hear nuggets like "Rats in The Cellar" along with the obvious "Sweet Emotion", "Dream On" and "Walk This Way". Sure they played some new stuff and Permanent Vacation is actually pretty good...unfortunately, like other things in life, it would never be like the first time whenever I saw Aerosmith again. Loosing setlist space that once held classic rockers to the likes of "Pink" or "Jaded" just doesn't do it for me.

I can't really blame them - Aerosmith have had way more charted hits since the release of "Permanent Vacation" than prior, I just happen to like Aerosmith alot more when they were an album band as opposed to a singles band.

So yeah...that was a lawn seat I didn't expect to buy this summer, until my bud told me their playing "Toys In The Attic", my favorite Aerosmith album, in it's entirety! Sure I've heard the popular half of it live as it contains many of Aerosmith's biggest hits of the 70's (Sweet Emotion, Walk This Way and the title track are pretty standard from the shows I've seen - I think I've heard them do Big Ten Inch live as well), but the other half are great tunes too, so a summer night on the grass with some beers and friends for $20 sounds like a good time to me.

"Toys..." came out 35 years ago when I was but a lad of four, so if I had super hipster parents, perhaps I could have seen them on that tour. Alas my parents gave up on popular music around the time the Beatles started smoking weed, but I thank these bands that revisit these classic albums live for those of us who missed it or weren't born the first time around.

I've seen plenty of my favorite bands when they were just starting out and therefore more or less got to hear their early albums live, but today I'm talking about those that bring the classic back years later...the ones I've seen...and the ones on my wishlist.

The first band that comes to mind is The Who. On the first reunion tour in 1989 I saw the first and last nights of their four night stand at Giant's Stadium. Those performances were epic three and a half hours with all the hits and plenty of rarities, but the first 45 minutes of each night was "Tommy".

These were just about the first shows of the tour right after the band did "Tommy" at Radio City Music Hall so it was fresh in their mind and they brought it to the 70 thousand people who came each night to NJ. If I remember correctly it was about 90 to 95% complete...I think they dropped one or two tracks, but considering the Radio City Music Hall tix were $500, I was happy to save $475 and miss two minor pieces. I'm so glad they started that tour on the east coast as they broadcast the last show of the tour on the radio and by that time, Tommy had become a greatest hits suite and the band was down to playing two hours.

The who would strike again with the classic album live when they did their "Quadrophenia" tour around 1996. Caught one of the nights at Madision Square Garden on that tour which, as with every Who show I've ever seen, was fantastic. Some special guests too with Billy Idol and Gary Glitter. The whole album, a couple of encores, done - loved it!

I remember thinking at the time how I wish more bands would take this idea and run with it and two years later Cheap Trick brought it to town.

The Trick did a three night stand at Irving Plaza from October 29 to Halloween night in 1998 performing their first three albums, one a night, each night. My friend and I couldn't think of a better way to spend Halloween than seeing Cheap Trick do "Heaven Tonight". I remember Kiss were starting their tour on the same night in California and to start the show, a damn good Gene Simmons in full Kiss get up came out to introduce the band with typical Gene hyperbole only to be bum rushed off the stage by a group of dream police to much applause. Then CT came out and rocked the house.

Other shows I've caught in more recent years include Slayer doing the absolute metal classic "Reign In Blood" in full, Roger Waters on his last tour where the second set was "Darkside of the Moon" (with special guest for that night, Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason during the DSOTM set) and oddly enough W.A.S.P. doing "The Crimson Idol". I saw W.A.S.P. a few times in the 80's when Poughkeepsie was a key stop on any metal band's tour and decided to check them out for this gig. I didn't own this concept album of theirs from the 90's, but heard they had made a film to go along with it back in the day that either was never toured with anywhere or never toured with in the US. The film would play on a backdrop as the band played along explaining the images. I'll give them kudos, it made it interesting and the tunes were good, the only bummer was after playing this album of material I never heard before, we only got a one or two song encore - was hoping to hear a few more tracks I knew, but I'll just catch them next time around as they were still rockin.

The most recent classic album live shows I've seen have been part of the amazing Don't Look Back shows put on by All Tomorrow's Parties. I believe this series started in 2005 as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival and has since grown (as has the festival which is now held a few times a year in numerous countries). ATP specializes in "Alternative" Music from the mainstream to the quite obscure and almost forgotten but talented.

Usually as part of their festival, a few of the gigs will be "Don't Look Back" sets where a band will play an entire classic live. For example Devo recently performed their debut "Q: Are We Not Me?..." to the less well known to the public influential No Wave legends Suicide doing their debut at the NY ATP festival in September to the you really have to be up on your music Dirty Three and the Drones doing "Ocean Songs" and "Wait Long by the River" respectively.

I've never been the the All Tomorrow's Parties festival (I think last year was their first one in Monticello, NY), but I'm probably going to go at least to the first night this year (check out this Friday lineup - The reunited Jesus Lizard, Iron and Wine, the aforementioned Suicide, Dirty Three and Drones, The Feelies - also doing a full album "Crazy Rhythms" and probably my favorite standup comic David Cross! Plus Cinema by Criterion! Holy shit! - Hell I might just do the whole weekend as curators The Flaming Lips are there, Melvins, Boss Hog...and Monticello is a mere hour away...but back on topic)

So anyway, for the last four or five years, ATP/DLB concerts have brought some amazing shows around and I caught two.

Mudhoney doing all of their early singles plus "Superfuzz Bigmuff" and one of the greatest concerts I've ever seen - Sonic Youth doing "Daydream Nation at McCarran Park Pool in Brooklyn.

Mudhoney was a packed hot sweaty night at Bowery Ballroom. Great Fuzzy Guitar Madness (and also introduced me to openers Pissed Jeans who I quite dig) where as Sonic Youth was a beautiful outdoor summer night playing one of my ten fave albums of all time - sublime is a word that fits here.

So it bring it on bands...practice those great old tunes and get them on the road to NY.

Part two will talk about my hopes and dreams for this movement - who's out there that have enough band members still alive to pull off some of my favorite albums live front to back - I'll bring it after this weekend's NINJA Tour review from NJ. Maybe Jane's Addiction will play all of "Ritual de lo Habitual" or "Nothing's Shocking" oh boy would I dig that!

The Supersuckers - Kingston NY 5/29/2009 Concert Review

Sometimes things just work out...

On Tuesday, May 19, I wanted to be at the Fillmore at Irving Plaza in NYC for the Joey Ramone Birthday Bash featuring oodles of great music including the Supersuckers. Unfortunately somehow once again my Tuesday night dart league team made the playoffs and I couldn't let the team down...we won that night, but came in second for the season.

A few nights before I had checked the Supersuckers tour dates to see if there was anything else in the area and there really was nothing very close...looks like I would have to miss the boys supporting their latest album "Get It Together" and more importantly the 20th Anniversary Tour of the (aptly) self described "Greatest Rock n Roll Band in the World".

But as I stated above, sometimes things just work out...

So it's about a week later and I sign on to myspace (That's right, MySpace, I'm sticking with it, I'm not joining facebook or whatever the next flavor of the moment social network comes along...) and see a post from los 'suckers saying something about finalized tour dates...I figure lemme take a gander and WHOLE LEE SHIT Kids, what's this?! The Supersuckers are playing this Friday, May 29 at the Basement in

Kingston?! A mere 2 minute drive from my job and 30 minutes from home!? That Powerball virgin sacrifice paid off some dividends afterall!

So I call my buddy Kev who I turned onto the band soon after I discovered them around the release of "La Mano Cornuda" (their classic 1994 Sub Pop release) and suddenly, as the Easybeats sang, "I've Got Friday On My Mind"

So I actually had never been to The Basement, but I hear it's a small joint so we get their right before 8:00pm when it says doors open. A mere fifteen bucks and we get our wristbands for entry and check the joint out...oh yeah...this is gonna be good!

I've seen the Supersuckers at Maxwell's in Hoboken NJ and I thought THAT was a great small place to see a show...well the Basement takes it to another level. (Photo note - the photos throughout this review are ones I took of the Supersuckers about 15 years ago at one of those great Maxwell gigs - unfortunately I didn't bring my damn camera to this show for updated pics)

The joint is about 15 feet wide and maybe 60 feet long. You walk in and a bar is immediately inside the door for about 30 feet down the right side. Then there's about 20 feet of open space and then the stage which is about 2 feet off the ground and maybe 15 feet deep. Legal capacity can't be more than 100 people.

Oh yeah...bathrooms...well this place took a cue from CBGB and you have to walk across the stage to get to the bathrooms which are right behind the stage...and at a supersuckers show you know the beer is flowing and the bathroom traffic was pretty heavy through out the night, but "Rontrose", who was stationed directly in the bathroom path, handled it well.



So I'm really wondering who has the goods on Eddie Spaghetti (vocals and bass), Ron "Rontrose" Heathman and Dan "Thunder" Bolton (guitars) and Scott "Scottzilla" Churilla (drums) to blackmail them into playing such a tiny place, but I'm thankful. It was actually the grand re-opening weekend of The Basement so it looks like management went all out!



We were parked against the left wall about 5 feet from the stage and there was a slightly shaky start to the show. Eddie's mic was shocking him everytime his lips touched it and it's hard to rock to your maximum powers when your getting mouth tazed everytime you go to sing. Luckily the boys trusty roadie fixed things up after about three tunes and then the show truly began!

This being a new album tour as well as a 20th anniversary tour, we were treated to just the right balance of new tunes mixed with plenty of classics - the first of which was "Luck" off 1992's "The Smoke of Hell". "Luck" shows the hardest fastest punkest rockest side of the Supersuckers and it ruled. It came early in the set after somewhat newer tracks like "Rock n Roll Records (Ain't Selling This Year)" and "Rock Your Ass" the lead off tracks from 2003's subtly titled "Motherfuckers Be Trippin".

The majority of the night's selections from their latest studio album "Get It Together" came early on mixed in the set list with the likes of an amped up "Bad Bad Bad" (from 1995's Sacrilicious Sounds of...). The new tracks got plenty of racous applause but things truly went into overdrive when the classics starting emanating from the speakers right above my head.



My first taste of the Supersuckers was when I picked up "La Mano Cornuda" and to this day it's remained my favorite. I actually consider it one of those rare finds - the perfect album, great from beginning to end...imagine a sonic cocktail made up of 2 parts Cheap Trick, 2 parts Motorhead and 1 part Bon Scott era AC/DC. I still to this day listen to it and wonder how the hell the Supersuckers did not explode out of the Seattle scene with this and their other albums...but I digress...

From this must own long playergot the ode to slackerdom "On The Couch" (probably the highlight of the night for me), the revenge fantasy "How To Maximize Your Kill Count" and of course "Creepy Jackalope Eye". "Jackalope" was something of a strange slowed down version, not countrified (there was no acoustic country set tonight), more lounge, but with a last full speed balls out verse and chorus to get the crowd jumpin.

Close to the end of the night, before the "encore", we got treated to another two off "Smoke of Hell" with the bluesy "Hell City, Hell" and the full bore rock attack of "Coattail Rider" (which actually followed "On The Couch" if memory serves me correct for quite the one two puch to the ear drum).

I say "encore" in quotes as the Supersuckers have a motto of once they leave the stage, the show is over, so there is a few second fake encore break while the band explains this and then the night ends with a great last batch of songs starting with a cover of the Ramones "I Believe In Miracles", a holdover from the Joey Ramone Birthday Bash of a week earlier and done to perfection.



Next up is what would probably be the closest thing the boys had to a hit - "Born With A Tail." Again, this song should have been massive - hard commercial rock you can't help but sing along too and won't leave your head for days. "Born" led right into "Pretty Fucked Up" and was immediately followed by "I Want The Drugs" which led back into a reprise of "Born" and suddenly the show was over.

About 80 to 90 minutes, 25 or so songs, 90 or so degrees, 100 or so very happy fans! Sometimes things just work out!

Opening the show was a great local band called Rented Mule. They play both types of music - Country AND Western (and Blues - hell they play CBGB - Country Blue Grass Blues). The core of the band is the husband and wife team of Jeff and Kate McCoy on bass and sultry vocals/sexy stage presence/guitar respectively. Jeremy Boniello on just right less is more drums and Mark Primoff on stellar clean and tasty lead guitar. For those who came to the show hoping for the country Supersuckers, Rented Mule should have sated their appetite. Excellent originals and a cover or two (a Lynyrd Skynyrd song I didn't know, but my buddy Kevin did) - this is the type of country music I like - the good old Hank Williams Johnny Cash type. I look forward to seeing this band playout again locally

A Neat (Neat Neat) Time - THE DAMNED Poughkeepsie NY May 9, 2009 concert review

Got to cross one off the list when The Damned came through Poughkeepsie for a stop at the Chance on Saturday night.

Love them, but somehow never saw them before - almost did back on December 30 when this gig was originally scheduled, but the tour was cancelled at the time. Luckily, they decided to include the rescheduled Poughkeepsie gig in this very short seven city, eight day tour of the Northeast US.

Boasting original members Captain Sensible (eclectically dressed in red beret and zipper pants on guitar) and Dave Vanian (impeccably dressed in tailored suit and perfectly styled hair on most vocals), the band is filled out with Monty Oxymoron on Keyboards (plus great afro-esque hair and crazed dancing), Stu West on bass and Pinch on drums - they are a tight knit rock machine!

Opening at full speed with the fan fave "Love Song", it was a full blast greatest hit set with some new tunes thrown in. Soon followed by "Neat Neat Neat" (my all time fave which featured a killer solo by the Captain including a little taste of Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile") and a cover of the MC5's "Lookin at You", we also got other bounce off the wall pogo ragers like "Disco Man" and of course their first single ever "New Rose." (and the first UK punk single ever to boot!).

Here and there they slowed things down with the likes of their great cover of the Alvin Lee and Love song "Alone Again Or" and my personal faves off their new album "So, Who's Paranoid", the epic tale of "Dr. Woofenstein".

Encore wise we got their pop punk perfect excellent rendition of Elton Motello's "Jet Boy Jet Girl" with it's can't get it out of your head "ooooo-ooo-ooo-oo" chorus and that is NOT a bad thing. (If you've seen National Lampoon's European Vacation, you've heard Plastic Bertrand's "Ça plane pour moi" which is the same music but different lyrics and in French, but the "ooooo-ooo-ooo-00" 's remain). The night ended with "Smash It Up" which did nothing short of destroy!

Fantastic show and if you have the chance to catch them this week on one of the few remaining dates in the US (in DC, Philly, NYC and Asbury Park), DO SO - one of the best pure rocking good time shows I've ever seen! I hope Poughkeepsie becomes a regular tour stop in the future.

If you do decided to go, get their early to check out their openers - on all the other dates I believe it's Electric Frankenstein and The Bellrays. The Bellrays are one of those bands I totally dug years ago and lost track of some how and was happy to see they were still together - problem was Poughkeepsie was the one show on this tour that they didn't do, they had a headlining gig in NYC, bummer.

As a fill in we got two local bands, the first of which I missed, but the second was Kingston's White Knuckle Rodeo who did a great short set of hard edged rock/punk ala Social Distortion or The Supersuckers. Good stuff and a great showing for their first show on the stage of the Chance. I'll have to catch them next time they play Snapper Magee's in Kingston.

Electric Frankenstein did play this show and were great - again hard edged but catchy punk. This New Jersey band has quite a following and alot of fans showed up to show their support - great head banging, fist pounding, beer drinking rock. (well for me at least, you can drink soda if you prefer).

Triple threat of good rock is my kind of way to spend a saturday, I'll be seeing all of these bands every chance I get.