Alice Cooper – Tacoma: November 15 2013

November 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Tonight Toni and I were finally able to see Alice Cooper in one of his world famous nightmare induced concert performances. I have been a fan of Alice Cooper since the early seventies, when I (as every teenager since) cranked School’s Out as loud as possible on the last day of school. He is the godfather of shock-rock, and he was everything you weren’t supposed to like when you were a kid, but couldn’t get enough of.

This isn’t the first time that I have seen Alice Cooper in person, only the first time I have seen him perform. Back in the late 80’s, one of my co-workers won a contest from a local radio station in Seattle, where Alice Cooper would come out to your work and you could meet him and have him sign some autographs. I was unprepared and didn’t have any standard, appropriate signing material like an album or poster. The company I worked for at the time was a big software company (and still is) so I grabbed something that was readily available (a 3 1/2″ floppy disk) and rushed out to meet him. All 5 of us (huh..what a bunch of losers I worked with at the time..it’s freakin’ Alice Cooper for crying out loud!)  waited in the front of the building when he showed up in his long stretch, white limousine wearing his iconic white coat and tails with top hat. I handed him my 3.5″ floppy disk, he took and looked at it for a few seconds and ask what the heck it was…funny…I bet if I handed him one today he would ask the same thing…doesn’t actually seem that long ago.. but I guess it’s been over 30 years. Another connection I had with Alice Cooper was a good friend of mine from High School (who was an incredible drummer and played in one of the most popular bands in high school Fifth Angel) happened to be Alice Cooper’s  drummer in the mid to late eighties and for a stint in 1999.. Small world.

The concert was great. He did not stop singing/performing once during the show other than a short break during the obligatory drum solo. My favorite Alice Cooper song has to be No More Mister Nice Guy which they performed flawlessly tonight. The whole first half of the concert was filled with the early mega hits such as Hello Hooray, No More Mr. Nice Guy, Under My Wheels and Billion Dollar Babies. in the middle of the show, they performed a great tribute to some of the great musicians who have passed on including Break On Through by the Doors, Revolution by John Lennon and the Beatles, Foxy Lady by Jimi Hendrix (which Orianthi – lead guitar just dominated!) and My Generation by Keith Moon and the Who. The show did not disappoint in the shock-rock department. It was filled with Pyrotechnics, Horror theatrics with guillotines, scary un-dead nurses and severed clowns heads. There were even bubbles, confetti, beach balls and streamers…the only thing missing was the boa-constrictors that he traditionally draped around his neck while performing.

Definitely a must see show once in your life, although I would personally see him again..He is a great performer, still can sing    and has a ton of energy that you can tell he puts every bit into the show.

Filed Under: Classic Rock

The BRYANSTARS Tour – Seattle: October 17 2013

October 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Last night we went to a new venue in Seattle called The VERA Project. This is a small little place on the grounds of Seattle center just north of the Key Arena. We have been going to concerts in Seattle for years and we never knew this place existed. Vera is an all-ages volunteer fueled music and arts venue. There are studios, classes and other areas for learning the music and entertainment production trade for young people in the area. Vera engages thousands in the arts, develops the future of the music industry and supports the vibrant Seattle culture. You can learn more by visiting their website at http://theveraproject.org.

The stage area was actually quite small and for a band with more than 3 members, quite confining and a bit dangerous when aggressively  expressing their musical vigor. Lighting was a bit dark making it difficult to take good photographs, but the sounds was decent when the instruments and microphones were leveled properly (it took a while).

Being a relatively small budgeted show meant more to expose these newer bands to audiences throughout the country, all bands with the exception of Ghost Town brought out and set-up their own instruments and did the sound checks live before the crowd. It was actually kind of nice to see the band members in this capacity. I am sure even the Rolling Stones must have started out this way fifty some odd years ago.

The crowd size was very small, with what we estimated were to be no more than 100-125 people on the floor at any one time. But they were no less excited to see the bands and showed the same level of verbal and physical passion to the music as any large arena. There was a small group of 14-17 year old girls who moshed heavier than most of the bigger shows that I have seen this year. I actually thought that they were fighting, but where looking at their faces, they all had huge smiles.

The show was opened up with a band named Say We Can Fly  followed by quite a surprising good band named Oh No Fiasco. The guys  came out dressed in argyle socks, cardigan sweaters and capri pants. The lead singer (Lindsey Stamey) was dressed like a very proper young lady.. huh? This isn’t the look of metal, but they were very good, with music reminiscent of 30’s retro splashed with rock and a flare of metal. Nicki and Toni actually bought two of their CDs at their Merch. table.  We actually met some member of the band and Nicki was able to get her picture taken with a few of them. Following Oh No Fiasco was Modern Day Escape.  The put on a great performance, very powerful and energetic. These guys are clearly an up and coming band with great potential. One of Nicki’s music idols (drummer – Sandra Alvarenga) is in this band, and she was able to meet them after the show, talk with Sandra and get her picture with the entire group.. quite an experience for Nicki. On next was Her Bright Skies, who I hadn’t heard before, but also were an incredible band. We also met and talked with them after their set. The final act and headliner for the night was Ghost Town, and of course they ROCKED!. It was clear that this was the band most in the audience came to see.

All in all, this was a great little, intimate show. We were very excited to be able to meet and talk with the bands after their sets. Not too many shows you can do that, even with the smaller bands. Bryan Stars did his thing throughout the show, introducing and presenting the bands (not sure how he got his gig, but I have to hand it to him).

Filed Under: Alternative

Bon Jovi – Tacoma: October 5 2013

October 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment

We took a break last night from all the metal shows we have been seeing lately and went to see some good time 80’s rock and roll with Bon Jovi at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma Washington. Definitely a different crowd at this show than what we have been used to over the past few concerts we have been to…more Toni and My speed. Ryan and Nicki felt a little out of their element for a change.

I was a little apprehensive for this show due to the issues the band are having and that Richie Sambora was not touring with them any longer and while in line for swag I over heard that not only was Richie Sambora not performing but Tico Torres (drummer) was also not going to be there due to medical issues, so Just John and David Bryan (keyboards) from the original line-up.

Even with Richie and Tico being absent and the vibe just not the same without their presence, it was a GREAT show as always. They played a good 2+ hour set with a fairly lengthy encore which was great. They did a few covers with one being Fire by Bruce Springsteen and sort of a tribute/ montage of Rolling Stones tunes with John strutting some iconic Jagger moves and all – pretty cool.

One thing I have to say about the venue however is “Tacoma your traffic control and planning for events like this SUCK!” It took us almost 45 minutes to get out of town due to police diverting traffic from major freeway entrances to back streets…let me clue you in Tacoma – no body lives in your town, so we do not know how to navigate through your back streets to find the freeway!

Filed Under: Classic Rock

Monster Energy Outbreak Tour – Seattle: October 2nd 2013

October 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Wednesday October 2nd we went into town to see the Outbreak Festival at the Seattle stop. The Showbox SODO is a much smaller venue that the Club Nokia in LA when we saw the show on Saturday. This was another special show in a couple of different  aspects, one was that we were able to meet Black Veil Brides prior to the show. The other being that William Control came out and sang with BVB during both the songs Shadows Die and In the End.

We arrived to the show a little early and had to pull the kids out of class to make it to Seattle by 4:00 which was the time we were told to meet in front of the venue for our meet and greet session with the band. We were second in line and we were all pretty excited to actually meet the guys we have seen already three times this year at various concerts. As we were waiting in line we heard Andy asked the other guys “we have to find out who Jenna is” and then CC spoke up and asked those of us in the front of the group “who is Jenna” which happened to be Nicki’s friend who came with us to the show. Apparently Andy looked through the list of VIP’s and chose her to make a personal call to. Unfortunately, she was with us on the way to the show when he called so he actually spoke to her mother who had no idea who and what he was talking about… she eventually clued in realizing who he was and gave him Jenna’s cell phone number… she is still waiting for him to call. One of the pictures above is of Ryan’s admit slip excusing him from class early that he had the guys from the band sign…Ryan figured this would get him excused for sure.

This show seemed a little better than the LA show maybe because of the size and relative intimacy of the venue or perhaps that the LA show was the first of the tour and they were getting the kinks out, not really sure but all the bands seemed cleaner and more polished. It was very cool to have members of all the bands including Michael Paget (lead guitar for Bullet for My Valentine) walking through the crowd and standing with us all enjoying the other acts. James Clark (lead vocals from Throw the Fight) seemed to spend more time in the crowd than he did on stage, and we even saw Becca from Stars in Stereo a few times.

This was another great show and we had an awesome time.

Filed Under: Heavy Metal

Monster Energy Outbreak Tour – LA: September 28 2013

September 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Went to LA from Seattle to see the first night of the Monster Energy Outbreak Tour featuring Black Veil Brides and Bullet For My Valentine.

We spent the morning and afternoon in downtown LA enjoying the sights and doing some shopping, arriving back to the hotel about an hour before the doors opened at 6:00.

This was out first time to the Club Nokia at LA Live and we were all very impressed with the layout, ease of entry and overall atmosphere. Our seats were on the mezzanine with only one row of seats in front of us separated by the aisle way. The mezzanine section had a pretty good incline allowing for an unobstructed view of the stage below, and as there was no one sitting in the row in front of us, we were able to relax and watch/listen without leaving our very comfortable chairs. We all agreed that we would definitely see another show at this venue anytime (actually planning our next trip now).

The show started promptly at 6:30 with a new band called Throw The Fight followed by a band named Stars in Stereo. Both were good heavy rock bands, however it was clear that the crowd was there to see BVB and Bullet. Black Veil Brides came on and put on their typical, awesome show. They started with Shadows Die, then I am Bulletproof followed by Nobody’s Hero then Fiend Club (cover of the 80’s Misfits song), Let You Down, Wretched and Divine, The Legacy then Fallen Angels with the last song of their set being In The End which was by far their BEST (according to me – Nicki thinks this is too overplayed and her favorite was The Fiend Club). Bullet For My Valentine came on about 45 minutes after BVB left the stage and tore the place apart. The place just roared, with moshes breaking out during every song. We even saw something we had never seen at a show before… we are used to the typical crowd surfing, but these people were crowd chucking. A couple people would somehow throw the person over about 6 rows of people toward the stage landing on the unexpecting fans who promptly surfed them to the rail.. Very amazing sight to see, except for one guy who got hurled in from the back and landed flat on the in an area devoid of people to catch him (he got up and started moshing, so we presumed he was OK). We didn’t memorize the set list for Bullet, but two that we remembered for sure were Riot and Tears Don’t Fall as their encore.

This concert was a great set-up for when we see the same show again in Seattle on Wednesday, October 2nd at the Showbox SODO. We have BVB meet and greet for this show, so are really looking forward to that.

Filed Under: Heavy Metal
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