2010 SuperBowl: THE WHO

First off…it was a great game! Both teams played very well and congrats to The New Orleans Saints.

But what I was really waiting for was the halftime show with The Who.  I had some serious consternation about how they were going to pull off a live show without John Entwistle and Keith Moon (both are dead).

The Who were probably the best and most powerful live band in the world in the mid to late 1970’s. And of course a big part of that equation was the fact that they had a monster rhythm section in Keith Moon and John Entwistle. Even after Moon passed away, Entwistle was such a fucking heavy bassist that the band STILL kicked ass with Kenny Jones on drums.

Well, as I feared…Daltrey and Townsend could not come in packing that kind of power. BUT, I still thoroughly enjoyed them. Technically, Townsend sounded GREAT on guitar! Better than I’ve ever heard him. And those new Fender amps he used were astounding. I was a bit surprised as he used to use HiWatt amps.  But those Fender amps had a crunch tone that sounded like a wall of Marshalls on steroids. Not sure which model amp it was as I could only make out the Fender logo on them. 

He played some damn good lead licks and I guess he’s been practicing for this gig.

Both Daltrey and Townsend sounded pretty bad vocally right out of the gate with Pinball Wizard. It had me worried. Daltrey was weak and scared on Baba OReilly and didn’t go for any of the high notes. But he finally regained his confidence on Won’t Get Fooled Again and even nailed that massive high scream in it. (though that could have been done by someone else behind the scenes for all I know)

But what really saved the whole performance was the songs themselves. The music of The Who is just as relevant today as it was 35 years ago. Baba O’Reilly is just a masterpiece. The words are open enough to interpretation to allow the listener to feel the meaning of the writer while still being able to have enough space to add their own spin on the characters and the story. Just like a good song or book or poem or play should. 

And of course Won’t Get Fooled again…what can I say? That song fits PERFECTLY with what just happened in our elections. Our country felt that Bush had led us down the wrong path. So we elect Obama who is full of promise and hope.

And what happens? Well to quote the song: "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss"

Speaking of which…I was listening to The Who song "We’re Not Gonna Take It" yesterday. What a great song! "We’re not gonna take it, Never did and never will. Don’t want no religion. And as far as we can tell. We ain’t gonna take you. Never did and never will. We ain’t gonna take you. We forsake you. Gonna rape you. Let’s forget you better still"

It reminded me of what a tremendous piece of work the Rock Opera Tommy is. So I rented it from my online BlockBuster account and I’m going to sit down and watch that movie again for the first time in years this next week.

HEART IN CONCERT AT VEGAS HILTON 1-29-2010

Claudia and I went to see HEART at the Las Vegas Hilton. I didn’t even know that they were touring again until a couple of months ago when I saw a billboard on the strip advertising them. Last I had heard the Wilson sisters were doing an all acoustic show with just the two of them doing new music. So when I saw the tickets go on sale I jumped at the chance to see the sisters back with a full band doing their classics.

And they didn’t disappoint. They kicked off the show with "Barracuda" and you knew right then it was gonna kick ass. Ann Wilson was the size of a blimp…but she still has that voice. When she was talking to the crowd I could hear the she had a cold and was hoarse…but she is a SINGER and she still wailed.

Here is a little bit of footage of their encore for the evening: Doing Led Zep’s "Going To California" and then a snippet of "Magic Man"   I recorded it with my new Droid phone so it’s not great quality:

HEART CONCERT FOOTAGE CLICK HERE

ROCK-N-ROLL HALL OF FAME CONCERT PART 2

You can read the first part I wrote here: http://tptrash.com/blog/

Here are some highlights from the rest of the show:
Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel…Jesus they are so damn good. "Sounds Of Silence" scared the hell out of me when I was a little kid, and it still spooks me to this day. The talent of these two is just so awesome. They ended their set with "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and I have to tell you that Art Garfunkel’s incredible tenor voice has not lost ANYTHING.  After watching this I had to go to YouTube and look up some vids of them. Seeing them as two young kids playing The Monterey Pop Festival and sounding so damn good just reminds you how talentLESS some of the contemporary "musicians" are in comparison.

As a guitarist my favorite part of the show was Jeff Beck’s segment. He does things with his hands that are out of this world. He’s in his 60’s now, but he still looks exactly the same. Jet black dyed hair, same hair style. And when the man plays his strat…it isn’t even a guitar anymore. It’s an extension of his body. I’ve long thought he is the best electric guitarist in the world, and watching him play on this show just reinforced that thought. He doesn’t use a guitar pick just his fingers. And his use of the tremelo bar is like NOBODY else.  Then he brought out Buddy Guy and HOLY SHIT that guy can still tear it slap up!

Bruce Springsteen also had a segment. And of course it kicked ass. He brought out Tom Morello to play and sing "Ghost of Old Tom Joad"   Then he brought out John Fogerty. That guy has found the Fountain Of Youth. He looked 30 years old at the most. Sounded FANTASTIC!

Bruce brought out Sam of "Sam And Dave" and they kicked out several of his hits.

Fabien came out and did "The Wanderer" with them too.

He ended up with Billy Joel doing "New York State Of Mind" and Bruce’s "Born To Run"

THE ROCK-N-ROLL HALL OF FAME CONCERT ON HBO

Just watched it on TIVO. Wow!!!

First up was Jerry Lee Lewis doing “Great Balls Of Fire” by himself. He can’t sing worth a damn anymore, he couldn’t keep time and kept speeding up, he was missing half the notes on his piano playing, and he looked like he was already dead….And yet the man kicked ass! I don’t know how to explain it. The nostalgia factor perhaps? I don’t know. But I had NO problem with watching “The Killer”. During the performance they cut to some old footage of him from over 50 years ago…slinging his long hair, playing and singing like a madman. And then at the end of his performance, old Jerry Lee stood up slowly and then kicked the piano stool across the stage! LOL!  Awesome!

Next up was Crosby, Stills, and Nash. NOBODY can sing harmonies together better than these guys. Simply great. And Stephen Stills is a tremendous guitarist and made that stratocaster sound like it should…all the junk in the neck pickup just sounding so woody and great. They had Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Brown both play and sing with them on some songs as well.

Then it was the Stevie Wonder segment. Holy fuck.
The man is a genius. I saw him being walked through The Venetian Casino earlier this year and I could feel that I was in the presence of greatness. Songs In The Key Of Life baby! He brought out BB King and they did “The Thrill Is Gone” and I have to tell you that BB can STILL play the fucking guitar. 
After BB, they brought out Sting to play bass with the incredibly tight band Stevie has. Syncopated with plenty of breaks and stops that were executed just perfectly.
Stevie Wonder then welcomed out Jeff Beck to play with him on “Superstitious”
I can’t say enough about how damn good Jeff Beck is. He is one of the greatest guitarists in the world. Just his strat and a Marshall amp and his fingers. The guy is out of this world talented.

A Metallica segment was next. It wasn’t anywhere near as good as what I had just witnessed but how could it be?  They played a couple of their songs and then brought out Lou Reed and they played “Sweet Jane” with him.  Goddamn I love that song. But of course Lou couldn’t sing it worth a damn so it sounded like an abortion. But it was still cool to just SEE Lou Reed onstage.
Then they brought out Ozzy. He did Paranoid with them. It was okay. But Ozzy wasn’t exactly in fine singing voice either.
Finally they brought out Ray Davies of the Kinks and did “All Day And All Of The Night” with him. I LOVE The Kinks, but Ray was looking REAL old. And he sang horribly off key as well.
Metallica made the save by finishing their set with “Unforgiven”. EDIT: I don’t know why I said “unforgiven”  I meant they finished it with: “Enter Sandman”

Final segment of the night was U2
And as you would expect, it was EXCELLENT. Bono is just a monster singer and the band sounded really tight since they just came off tour. They did “Vertigo” and then “Magnificent”. Then they brought out “The Boss” Bruce Springsteen who did “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” with them. It sounded REAL good.
Then they did one of Bruce’s songs: “The Night Belongs To Lovers” and welcomed out Patty Smith (who had a hit with it)  It was okay, but Patty Smith is really talent-less and sounds like shit.
Then after Bruce and Patty left the stage, The Edge started playing what sounded to me like the guitar intro to “Gimme Shelter”. Bono welcomed Will I Am and Fergie from The Black Eyed Peas to the stage. But they took positions behind the band on back-up vocal mics. They started singing the eerie “woooo” part of the beginning of “Gimme Shelter” and then the band kicked in.
Suddenly the crowd starts going crazy (it was in Madison Square Garden) and with no introduction….Mick Jagger came dancing onstage and kicked in the song! He’s 66 years old and he hadn’t missed a step. Dancing and twirling and just FULL of energy and power. His voice sounded great as well. Fergie came out from behind at the end of the song to do the female part on Gimme Shelter and her and Jagger did some cool stage stuff.
After the song was over they said goodby to Fergie and Will I Am and Jagger and Bono dueted on a U2 song.

What a great show. And what tremendous personalities, musicianship, and talent were on display.

KISS Concert Review

Well we went and saw what’s left of KISS on 11-28-2009 at The Pearl theater at The Palms Casino in Las Vegas.

Opening the show was Buck Cherry. Claudia pointed out to me that their name is an anagram for "Chuck Berry" 
Hell I had never thought of that!

Anyway, Buck Cherry was sort of "okay".  Nothing to write home about. You get the feeling watching them LIVE that the singer probably thought it was a good idea to scream all his vocals in that cool throaty voice in the studio…but trying to do an hour onstage every night, probably NOT such a good idea. He couldn’t really hit all the notes, which left the songs kinda weak. The only songs that really got a response for them were of course: "Lit Up" and "Crazy Bitch" 

Other than that it was pretty much polite applause and the crowd getting restless to see KISS.

Finally KISS hit the stage and I was completely….UNDERWHELMED.
First off…they were like half the volume of Buck Cherry! And the drum mix was just horrendous. REAL weak. No punch to the kick drum and the snare and toms were non-existent. It was mostly a guitar mix. But the guitar sounds were so thin they were like mosquitoes.

And then there was Paul Stanley’s "voice". Or should I say what was left of it. The guy has pretty much lost his entire high range. But he still insisted on trying to scream high notes like he was Sebastian Bach. Needless to say…it didn’t sound too good.

And therein was the problem with KISS. First off, they just don’t play and sing their own songs very well. Surprised the hell out of me. Reading all of Gene Simmons’ interviews you would think they were musical Gods. But they really, really did not play their own songs all that good. And with Paul’s voice a shattered shell of itself, that pretty much took the vocal firepower out of the mix.

But hey…it’s still KISS!!! Right?

Wrong.

It’s just Gene and Paul. And then they had two guys in the same makeup and costumes as Ace and Peter. Very lame. At least back when Peter first left the band so long ago…they came up with a different "character" and didn’t use "The Cat". But looking onstage it APPEARED you were seeing the "real" KISS. Some guy named Tommy was dressed EXACTLY like Ace Frehley. Same costume, same makeup, same guitars, same stage moves and gimmicks. Same with the drummer.

And the show just did not flow very well.

Over the last 3 years I saw The Rolling Stones, Motley Crue, Aerosmith, Van Halen with David Lee Roth, and most recently Alice Cooper. At every one of those shows the crowd was going crazy. But at the KISS show, you could just feel it in the air.

The band didn’t sound good, and the nostalgia factor of seeing them just was taken away by having the new drummer and guitarist made up to look like Peter and Ace.

So instead of a rabid crowd, you had people applauding for each song…and then dead silence while Paul Stanley would talk between EVERY song.

It wasn’t a BAD show. I’m just saying it wasn’t very good. And it was very disappointing to me after finally getting a chance to see them after all these years. Watching Paul Stanley in a jet black wig onstage with a very non-scary Gene Simmons and two imposters just didn’t cut it for me.

Maybe somehow, some way, Ace and Peter will come back one more time and then I can experience the real thing.

After the show Claudia and I went to FEELGOODS. That’s a local club here in Vegas that is owned by Vince Neil of Motley Crue.

And The Bullet Boys were playing.

I always thought The Bullet Boys really sucked. To me there big hit of "Smooth Up In Ya" was a joke as was the hit they had with the remake of "For The Love Of Money"

But I was in for a shock.

They kicked ass! And the singer for the band CAN SING HIS ASS OFF.  The guy has some serious vocal chops and if he wasn’t in The Bullet Boys, he could very well be singing soul music or blues. He sounded like a soulful black man! He even did a solo version of "I’ll Be There" by Michael Jackson that had the entire club on it’s feet! They ended the show of course with "Smooth Up In Ya" which had the house rockin’.

And then after their show ended at about 1 a.m., an all female metal band called "Dangerous Curves" hit the stage and played hair metal for the rest of the night. They weren’t very good…kept fucking up songs. But they did have a lot of enthusiasm and desire onstage which made up for their lack of technical proficiency.

Overall it was a good night of music and fun. Many beers and jaegarmeisters were consumed and I got my fix of LIVE music.

Claudia and I went to see Alice Cooper on Sat. Oct. 24th on his "Theater Of Death" tour.

The show took place at the intimate Showroom at the Orleans here in Las Vegas. The entire show took me back in time. From the quaint merchandise table to the "general admission" "seating" which meant old school standing! I loved that part. Felt more like a concert when you just go in and walk wherever you want and stand to watch the show. I hate going to a concert and having my seat assigned to me.

Anway, the lights dimmed…the crowd roared…and then a loud school bell rang and it was SCHOOLS OUT!

Alice looked like he has for time immemorial. It was like the guys face looked old in the late 1970’s and then froze in time as he looked exactly the same!

You know, the last time I saw him play was at the Lakeland Civic Center in Fla. in 1991. He was the ultimate showman then…and still the ultimate showman now.

Yes, he still has an entire cast of extras who tell a "Scary" story to go along with the songs…including zombies, exectutioners and a sexy "dead" nurse played by a hot blonde.

And yes he played the hits and made the crowd very happy.

"I’m 18"  "Under My Wheels"  "Poison"  the ever funny necrophilia song "Cold Ethel" and he even did some more obscure songs from his first albums like "Dept. of Youth"  And of course "Welcome To My Nightmare" is still one of the best songs ever.
He did a great "Only WOmen Bleed" that segued into "I’ll Never Cry"

Got to thinking about that song "I’ll Never Cry" this mornging. It came out when I was in Junior High School. And it has that one line that says: "Sometimes I drink more than I need, until the T.V.’s dead and gone…I may be lonely, but I’m never alone" 
You know, as a teenager I thought that was a cool line. But I never understood it. Last night at the show…I’m about to turn 48 years old and that line FINALLY made sense to me. lol

He encored with replaying "Schools Out" so the show started and ended with that song….which made perfect sense.

If you see this tour coming to your town…by all means go and see it.

He has a great young band, and he personally hasn’t lost a step. And as ridiculous as it seems for a guy in his 60’s to be onstage singing songs of rebellion and teen angst like "I’m 18"…it actually worked and has a ton of power.

Alice Cooper just plain out kicked ass and his show was a tutorial on entertainment, musicianship, acting, and timing.

KISS!!!

 Well it had to happen. Sooner or later I had to get the chance to see KISS in concert. When I was a teenager in the 1970’s all my friends were in the "Kiss Army"   But by the time I got old enough to go to see them…I was playing professionally in bands 7 days a week.

But now…I just bought tickets for Nov. 28th to see them at THE PEARL theater at The Palms casino here in Vegas with Buck Cherry opening the show!  This is gonna be real cool as The Palms is an intimate theater setting so I’ll be up close to see ‘em.

http://www.palmspearl.com/

Let me catch everybody up on things over the last year.

On Sept. 25th, 2008 I boarded a plane and headed to Las Vegas.  I had come here a month earlier and closed on a new home.

One year later: I LOVE living here! Here are just a few things I’ve done since I’ve been out west….

Back in April I attended one of the last performances of Elton John’s "Red Piano" show at Ceasars Palace. It was great! I had seen Elton live with Billy Joel in Clemson Stadium in the mid 1990’s.  But to get to see him up close in a theater with his full band playing all of his hits was something I’ll never forget. From "Benny And The Jets" to "Your Song" all the way to having the crowd join him ONSTAGE while he and the band blasted through "Saturday Night’s Alright For Fightin" it was one hell of a show!

I’ve also attended the Beatle LOVE show at the Mirage. Wow. What can I say? The Beatles music and the Cirque D’ Sole performers combine to make it an experience unlike ANY that you can see anywhere else on Earth. I have to admit that having that music and those visuals encompassing my senses left me with a little tear in the corner of my eye.

Went and saw Penn And Teller at The Rio here. What a FANTASTIC show these guys do. That little Teller guy is without a doubt the slickest and best slight of hand magician in the world. During their show he will do some slight of hand while Penn is describing what you are seeing. Then he will turn the "hidden" side to the audience and perform it again and show you HOW he did it…but at the end he puts in a new twist that seems impossible too! Tremendous show.

At the other end of the spectrum..I went and saw Chris Angel "BELIEVE" at the Luxor.  HORRIBLE.  Live in person he is a very average magician. And the show is the worst thing I’ve ever seen. Everyone in the audience was muttering how bad it was.

In my next post I’ll run over some of the local bands I’ve seen.

I’m going backwards…

Leaving Pro Tools behind. And I’m about to take possession of a used Roland VS 2480 multi track recorder.

Here’s one that will drive Kenneth James Swanger absolutely crazy back in South Carolina.

The SUPER BOWL WAS FANTASTIC! What a great game.

My NEW HOMETEAM…The Arizona Cardinals came within a whisker of winning it all..