Lor and Cin's Rock N' Roll Adventures

Monsters of Rock

2012-03-03T17:08:00.000-08:00

We started in Hollywood, Florida for a couple days before the Monsters of Rock cruise. We went to the Hard Rock Hotel on Thursday night. It is enormous! There was a lot of shopping, bars, and restaurants. They had some pretty amazing music memorabilia.

http://www.seminolehardrockhollywood.com/

Friday night we went to the Monsters of Rock VIP pre-party to see Atomic Punk and KIX at Exit 66. KIX is one of our favorite bands and they did not disappoint. Steve Whiteman is a perfect front man with a lot of energy to really get the crowd going, he is also hysterically funny. There was extreme excitement in the air; everyone was so excited to get on the boat.

We got on the boat on Saturday, and got our favorite black rock t-shirts on for the group photo at 6:00. Then the Monsters of Rock cruise began! There was a lot of overlapping of bands, so it was really hard to choose. The first night we had a chance to see Cinderella and Eric Martin from Mr. Big. Cinderella was delayed by technical difficulties for an hour, but they were so worth the wait. Tom’s voice is as strong as ever. Eric Martin did an acoustic show in the Monster Café and was spectacular. We ended up catching a couple of Bang Tango and Black and Blue songs as well.

Sunday we went snorkeling at Key West. Again there were some scheduling issues. Some of the VIP meet & greets and some bands played while we were on our excursion. We made it back in time to see KIX again. There was no backstage so we saw Taime Down, Fred Coury, John Corabi, etc in the audience. We also caught a few Helix songs. Tonight we saw John Corabi’s acoustic show and a few late night songs by Firehouse.

Monday we went to the Atlantis Resort in Nassau, Bahamas. We missed some of the cool things on the boat that day. Again, hopefully that will be worked on next year as it is supposed to be a longer cruise. We made it back for Night Ranger, Tesla acoustic, Lynch Mob, and Faster Pussycat. It was well done that there were jams everywhere and opportunities to meet musicians even if you missed the meet and greets. John Corabi got up and sang with Lynch Mob and Eric Brittingham got up and played with Faster Pussycat. We still met people that we never got to see play like the members from Stryper and Black ‘N Blue.

The cruise was a quite the experience. The music, the atmosphere and meeting rockers from all over the world equaled one of the best weekends of our lives! We met so many people at the shows, at the bars, restaurants and on the excursions! We also met some friends that we have met at Rocklahoma, Rock N America, and M3. We also got to meet other regular’s like Eddie Trunk and Mark Weiss. We would definitely go again!

We decided to stay in Florida for a couple days after the cruise to recuperate so we went to Nicko McBrain from Iron Maiden’s Rock N Roll Ribs in Coral Springs.

http://www.rocknrollribs.org/

We also went to Dr. Feelgoods in West Palm Beach. We were a little surprised to hear dance music and a very young crowd there. It was still a great time. It really was a ‘Hooligan’s Holiday’!

http://www.feelgoodswestpalm.com/

Sebastian Bach

2012-02-21T20:46:00.000-08:00

We went to see Sebastian Bach play at the Deerfoot Inn in Calgary. Sebastian hasn’t changed at all. He has an amazing larger than life stage presence and still sounds spectacular! He still spins his microphone in circles. It is hard to get a picture of him on stage because he has so much energy and his hair is flying!

The show was the day that Whitney Houston passed away and they did a Whitney medley and then he sang ‘I Remember You’ to us. He then wore one of our friends’ hats and joked about looking like a French Brian Johnson from AC/DC. He also grabbed a girls’ phone and was singing in to it and put it in his mouth. He then joked that we were seeing the best of Skid Row on stage and laughed and told people not to put that on you tube. And he of course cracked jokes about being Canadian and his guest appearance on Trailer Park Boys. He is so entertaining with a great sense of humour.

We had an opportunity to meet him after the show. He was shocked when we asked why he didn’t sing “Most Powerful Man in The World’; he said no one had ever requested it before. The set list was a good balance of old and new. He sang ‘Here I Am, and ‘Piece of Me’ and sang some new songs off his new album ‘Kicking and Screaming’ ‘My Own Worse Enemy’, ‘I’m Alive’ and ‘Dirty Power’. He of course finished with ‘Youth Gone Wild’.

LA/NAMM

2012-01-29T12:06:00.000-08:00

Our first stop from the airport is always Barney’s Beanery at 8447 Santa Monica Boulevard. It is one of our favorite restaurants. Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin used to drink here, as a matter of fact; Janis Joplin’s vehicle was left here the night she passed away.

We walked up a block to see the Alta Cienega Hotel where Jim Morrison lived in room #32 from 1968-1970.

We made time to hit our favorite store Shrine of Hollywood at 7305 Melrose Avenue. They have some amazing rock ‘n’ roll clothing there! And of course Shoes for the Stars. There are so many great stores on Melrose and Robertson.

After Melrose we went to pay respect to Dee Dee & Johnny Ramone at the Garden of Legends in Hollywood Forever at 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard.

Day 1 of NAMM was amazing! We met David Ellefson (Megadeth), Glen Hughes (Black Country Communication), Eric Bass (Shinedown), Charlie Benante (Anthrax), John Tempesta (The Cult), Ritchie Falkner (Judas Priest) and Bruce Kulick (KISS).

Friday night we went to the Dean Guitars 3^rd Annual NAMM Jam at the Grove of Anaheim. Wayne Static (Static-X), Vinnie Moore (UFO), Jackyl and Testament played! It was a very diverse sound and diverse crowd. There was a band playing the outside bar called Metalachi - the world’s only heavy metal mariachi band. There was also a Coffin Case and Dean girl fashion show. It was a very entertaining night with a great many musicians in the audience. We finished the night off at the lobby in the Hilton.

Day 2 of NAMM was sensory overload. There was mass line-up’s to meet Tommy Lee, Lita Ford and Rob Halford. We had the opportunity to meet Lita Ford, Warren DeMartini (Ratt), Steve Stevens (Billy Idol), Dean Roland (Collective Soul), and Vinnie Moore (UFO) and Rikki Rockett (Poison).

Saturday night we went to the House of Blues in Anaheim to see Steel Panther. It was a sold out show. We have seen them a great many times, but this show seemed to top them all! Vivian Campbell got up on stage and they played “Rainbow in the Dark” by Dio and “Rock of Ages” by Def Leppard. It is all over youtube!

Back to Hollywood!

We had lunch at one of our favorite restaurants’ El Compadre. This place has a lot of rock ‘n’ roll history. It is across the street from the Guitar Center that has the Rock Walk. We always stop here to see if there are any new handprints.

We then hit Hollywood Boulevard for shopping at the Hard Rock, Betty Page and a few rock shops including Hot Rock at 6717. The shops are filled with Lip Service, Tripp, and any band t-shirt you could ever think of. We also found a few stars on the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard – Alice Cooper at 7000, Kiss at 7080, Motley Crue at 6752, and Ozzy Osbourne at 6780.

We went to our favorite store in the world, Amoeba! There is always rare finds of books, cd’s, and dvd’s. The place has 2 levels they have bands at night!

We made a stop a block up from the Whiskey A Go Go to see the old apartment of Guns ‘n’ Roses at 1114 N. Clark and the old Motley house at 1124 N. Clark. Then we hit the Rainbow! It was a rockstar-filled evening as everyone was still in town for NAMM. Members from Lita Ford’s band and WASP were there. And of course Lemmy was there in the corner playing his game. It was an epic night, good way to end a trip!

Tea Party

2011-11-20T11:57:00.000-08:00

We went to see the re-united Tea Party this weekend. It was amazing to the original members together again. We have seen Tea Party a great many times over the years, it is an experience. Jeff Martin, Jeff Burrows and Stuart Chatwood disbanded in 2005. We had also seen a Jeff Martin solo show and it was spectacular, he is the Canadian dark poet. He is so multi-talented and plays so many instruments.

They played all of our favorite songs, ‘Walking Wounded’, ‘Temptation’, ‘The Messenger’, ‘Fire in the Head’ and of course, ‘Heaven Coming Down’. They also did ‘Release’, the song they donated all the proceeds to the White Ribbon Campaign http://www.whiteribbon.ca/ against violence towards women. Jeff Martin said “We’re back!” and that they are currently working on a new album and that he now lives in

Australia

The Tea Party currently has their website domain http://www.teaparty.com/ for sale and it could go for millions in the political climate. For now, it is still their website and it says “No politics…Just Rock and Roll”.

Night Seeker - Deaner from Fubar

2011-11-08T23:01:00.000-08:00

We saw Deaner from Fubar’s band Night Seeker at the Starlite in Edmonton. Deaner came out on stage wearing a Darth Vader mask and a cape. Night Seeker has an old school AC/DC sound. They played a combination of their songs and played a few cover's of Iron Maiden and AC/DC. The crowd was crazy as Fubar 1 & 2 were filmed in Alberta, so it felt like a hometown show.

It didn’t take long and Deaner was drinking Pilsner and saluting his partner in crime Terry. At this point he only had his underwear and his guitar. It is by far one of the most original shows we have ever been to. After the show we asked for a sandwich picture and he was happy to oblige, in his British underwear.

http://www.fubar-themovie.com/

Jane's Addiction

2011-10-22T01:11:00.000-07:00

We went to Sonic Boom to see Jane’s Addiction. It was incredible to see Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro share the stage together again. It was also pretty cool to see Perry’s wife Etty dancing in the background after seeing her on ‘Married to Rock’.

They played a long set with all of our favorites ending the show with a great acoustic of ‘Jane Says’. This was quite possibly a once in a lifetime experience to see them together and in Canada!

Gene Simmons

2011-10-22T01:10:00.000-07:00

We went to see Gene Simmons talk about ‘Sex, Money, Kiss’. He had fantastic clips on Kiss, their marketing, and ‘Family Jewels’. He explained how to make money and how to market yourself to be successful in any sort of business. He gave some good advice.

Because he was in a Canadian audience; he got a lot of flack that he has not married Shannon Tweed. He said at that time that she has not said ‘yes’ yet to his proposal.

It was exciting to see him as we had just seen Kiss a few weeks before. Gene seems to love Edmonton, he has been in town a few times over the years.

Vince Neil

2011-09-25T21:44:00.000-07:00

We went to see a couple of Vince Neil solo shows. He was in great form. He sounded and looked remarkable. It is always good to see his solo shows. You get to hear some Motley Crue and some of his solo songs. You also get to experience Jeff Blando singing Led Zeppelin and playing his guitar like Jimmy Page. And Slaughter’s Dana Strum is always amazing to watch, he is a very talented bass player. Zoltan Chaney is one of the most entertaining drummer’s we have ever seen!

Rob Zombie with Slayer

2011-08-02T20:16:00.000-07:00

Rob Zombie was as usual very entertaining singing his great songs from White Zombie and all of his solo material. It was a visual overload with 3-D skulls, fire, and confetti. There were clips on the big screen from his movies and old horror movies. There were also half-naked women from the 60’s playing guitar and Charles Manson. He played his “Werewolf Women of the SS” that he produced that starred Nicolas Cage.

Mr. Zombie dedicated ‘Pussy Liquor’ to the girl who couldn’t keep her shirt on and he said it was their most popular song and he ‘really wasn’t sure why’. It was also John 5’s birthday and he had the audience sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to him. The band came out for the last few songs wearing red and white Canadian maple leaf outfits.

Slayer had a very basic stage, it had stacks of Marshall amps, and 2 large hanging Slayer eagles lit up. The audience screaming for Slayer was almost as loud as the band themselves. Any person could appreciate the musicianship of Kerry Kings’ guitar playing whether you are a thrash-metal fan or not. He is unbelievable! Tom Araya did not say too much in between songs, but he did dedicate ‘Mandatory Suicide’ to the freedom fighters. He said ‘You don’t have to wear a uniform to fight for freedom’. This was by far the loudest show we have ever been too!

The Trews

2011-07-31T14:15:00.000-07:00

We always love to see The Trews! They are from Nova Scotia and they really exude that East Coast feeling while they are on stage. They always have smiles on their faces and look like they are having so much fun. They are so in-sync with eachother with the vocals and back-up vocals. The sound carries through the air perfectly when it is an open air show.

They played ‘Hold Me In Your Arms’, ‘Tired of Waiting’, Paranoid Freak’, ‘Not Ready To Go’ and ‘Hope and Ruin’. Before they came up for the encore, they called up a guy from the audience. The guy came up to the stage and asked his girlfriend to come up as well. He explained that a Trews show was their first date and got down on his knee and proposed to her. She said yes. The Trews played ‘Stay With Me’ and dedicated the love song to them. They finished with our favorite song 'Fleeting Trust'. The Trews are on of our favorite bands to see live!

Kiss for Canada Day

2011-07-16T14:31:00.000-07:00

Kiss played Fort McMurray, AB at Macdonald Island Park on July 2^nd for their Canada Rocks Festival! It was the only Alberta date for this tour, and resulted from the thousands of fans requesting or "demanding" that Kiss play Fort McMurray. The show started with an amazing introduction video of their infamous 7 inch boots coming towards the stage, as the Larger than Life characters prepared to rock the crowd. We have seen Kiss several times. Even though this was an outdoor show, Kiss seemed to go all out with more fire, pyro, lights, and fireworks than usual. There were also jumbo screens to ensure the 10,000+ fans in attendance didn't miss a thing. Even with an over-zealous general admission crowd, we lucked out and managed to secure spots in the front row.

Kiss Set List:

Modern Day Delilah

Cold Gin

Let Me Go Rock N Roll

Firehouse

Say Yeah

Deuce

Do You Love Me

Calling Dr. Love

Shock Me

Tommy Solo (where Tommy shot fireworks out of his guitar).

Eric shot out fireworks out of a cannon at the end of Tommy's solo.

The Demon spitting blood.

God of Thunder

Love Gun

I Love It Loud

100,000 Years

Black Diamond

Detroit Rock City

Encore:

Beth (performed by Eric with the band behind him on guitars)

Lick It Up

Shout It Out Loud

Rock And Roll All Night

Towards the end of the encore Gene and Tommy were escalated on risers approximately 30 feet in the air while playing. As they came down; Paul shattered his guitar and gave it out to the audience.

There were mass amounts of confetti shot out to the audience once 'Rock And Roll All Night' started, and the crowd went wild! We had confetti everywhere it seemed there was way more of the white shredded tissue-like paper than usual! We feel sorry for whoever is responsible for cleaning up that mess!!! As at most Kiss shows, many of those in attendance wore make-up like Paul and Gene. What an incredible way to wrap-up a Canada Day weekend!

New York Dolls, Poison, and Motley Crue in Las Vegas

2011-07-16T14:29:00.000-07:00

We saw the legendary New York Dolls, Poison, and Motley Crue in Las Vegas on June 18 at the Red Rock Amphitheatre.

The New York Dolls came on at 7:00 just as people were just starting to enter the Amphitheatre. David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain were as energetic as ever! We have seen them before; but it was spectacular to see them in this sort of setting with a large crowd. It seemed strange that they are the band that started glam, and they were opening up for bands that (influenced by the New York Dolls), continued and perfected it a decade later.

They performed all of our favorite songs, as well as some newer ones from 'Dancing Backwards in High Heels' and 'Cuz I Sez So'.

New York Dolls set-list:

Personality Crisis
We're All In Love
'Cause I Sez So

Talk To Me, Baby
Fabulous Rant

I'm So Fabulous
Kids Like You

Dance Like a Monkey
Pills

Trash

Jet Boy

At first we were shocked to hear that Motley Crue and Poison would even be touring together given their tumultuous history, but we are elated they did!

The show started at 8:00 pm with Bret storming onto the 'Poison green' stage above the drum riser and in an instant, everyone was on their feet! The only difference was this time the stage was adorned with wording celebrating Poison's 25th Anniversary. Poison is always highly entertaining & energetic and love to dazzle the crowd with pyro and fireworks.

Poison set-list:

Look What The Cat Dragged In
Ride The Wind
We’re An American Band
Your Mama Don’t Dance

CC Guitar Solo

Fallen Angel
Unskinny Bop
Rikki Drum Solo

Every Rose Has Its Thorn
Talk Dirty To Me

Nothin’ But A Good Time

Motley Crue took the stage at 9:30, and the show started with a mass exposion of pyro! It is always fun to see Vince Neil at a 'home show' playing to his friends in Vegas. Crue entertained us with a set-list ranging from old to new hits and crowd favorites. We know we will never leave a Motley Crue show having heard all of the songs that we'd hoped to hear, only because there are far too many.

Vince's voice sounded awesome, Mick was moving around the stage and (looked healthier than we'd seen him in years), Tommy played drums in 360 (rollercoaster-like loop) and played piano for 'Home Sweet Home', and Nikki, as always, was the spokesperson for the band - led the crowd in a prayer (praying that the band stays together many more years) and threw blood out on the crowd at the end of the show.

Every year, every show, they never cease to amaze us by coming up with something new and totally different. This is why they are one of our favorite bands of all time and we'll never get bored of seeing their shows!

Motley Crue set-list:

Wildside
Saints Of Los Angeles
Live Wire
Shout At The Devil
Same Ol’ Situation
Primal Scream
Home Sweet Home
Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)
Drum Solo (where Tommy Lee drummed in his 360 degree roller-coaster).

Looks That Kill
Dr. Feelgood
Too Young To Fall In Love
Too Fast for Love
Girls Girls Girls
Smokin In The Boys Room
Kickstart My Heart

Motley Crue are the 4th Annual Sunset Strip Music Festival 2011 Honoree's August 18-20.
http://www.sunsetstripmusicfestival.com/

Vince Neil will also be honored August 21 at the Hilton for the Vegas Rocks! Magazine Lifetime Achievement in Rock 'N' Roll.

We also went to see our favorite Las Vegas based band the Sin City Sinners after the show at Chrome at Santa Fe Station. Check them out if you are in Las Vegas!
http://www.thesincitysinners.com/index.html

U2 360 Tour

2011-06-04T15:04:00.000-07:00

Top 5 moments at the show:

1. Bono singing “Walk On” and talking about Amnesty International and how there are 3000 people that are imprisoned in

Burma

. http://3freedoms.amnesty.org/

2. Bono acknowledging his global awareness and asking everyone to light up their phones for the fire disasters in Slave Lake.

3. U2 performing “One” and Bono thanking the crowd for joining the One Campaign that he co-founded and ‘giving a shit’. http://www.one.org/international/

4. Bono explaining the story of how he was hitchhiking in Vancouver the day before the Edmonton show; and how Gilbert Brule (Edmonton Oiler) rescued him.

5. Seeing the largest stage ever built and old footage of U2 in 360 degrees.

New York City

2011-05-26T21:33:00.000-07:00

We love New York City! We didn't have alot of time in New York after the M3 festival; but we took in some important rock n' roll sites while we were there.

We went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square. They have one of the largest collections of music memorabilia we have ever seen.

We also went on a walking rock n' roll tour, that took us to sites in the East Village. We were educated in the rock history of the neighbourhood and visited sites and venues. Bobby Pinn took us to a great many sites including Joey Ramone's apartment, St. Mark's Hotel, and the Gem Spa that the New York Dolls made famous. We highly suggest the tour, he has various walking rock n' roll tours around the New York City. http://www.rockjunket.com/

After the tour we stopped off at our favorite place to shop, Trash and Vaudeville at 4 Saint Marks Place. Jimmy is amazing! Here is a picture of Marky Ramones Video Music Award in the store. http://www.nycgoth.com/shops/trashnvaudeville/

We stopped by Manitoba's for some cocktails. It is owned by Richard 'Handsome Dick' Manitoba from the Dictators. http://manitobas.com/

We also went to our favorite New York City bar Motorcity. The bar has an amazing atmosphere and has a lady dj that played our favorite songs all night! They have great drink specials too!
http://motorcitybar.com/home.html

Visiting Joey Ramone's resting place was our final stop. It is in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, approximately 15 minutes away from Newark airport. The Hillside Cemetary has a Jewish section 'New York Social Club' and that is where he is laid to rest. Gone too soon.

M3

2011-05-21T17:39:00.000-07:00

In the past few years, we have been to Rocklahoma in Pryor, OK, and Rock N America in Oklahoma City, OK. This year we decided on M3 in Columbia, MD. The set up is perfect for the VIP section, the covered pavilion, and vendors. They even had a National Pinball Museum with a Guns N Roses and a Kiss pinball machine. There was also a book signing with Eddie Trunk for this new book 'Eddie Trunk's Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal'. It was great that there was only one side stage, but some of the bands over-lapped. But otherwise, we will definately go back next year!

Friday, May 13 was the kick off party. First up was L.A Guns with Phil Lewis. We love Tracii Guns, but it was nice to see this version as it is the one with the voice. Who else could sing 'Sex Action' and 'Never Enough' like Phil Lewis?

Warrant was up next. It was strange to see them play without Jani Lane. Robert Mason (ex Lynch-Mob) has an amazing voice, but nothing is like the original vocalist. They were promoting their new album 'Rockaholic', but nothing will compare to 'Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich'.

KIX was the final band for Friday night and they were amazing! It was a hometown show for them "Long legged Rosie from Baltimore Took me farther than I've been before" - Girl Money... The crowd went wild. Steve Whiteman is hilarious, and quite the frontman. He has an insane amount of energy! We got to meet them after in the VIP section.

Saturday, May 14 started with Danger Danger at 12 pm. We made it on time, and were so happy to catch them live! They are one of the few bands we haven't seen in the past few years. Ted Poley sounded great, they did all of our favorite songs. We got to meet them after the show in VIP. They said they love the shows and then they just go on with their regular lives for the rest of the year, so it is pretty exciting for them.

Pretty Boy Floyd was next. We love them and have been fortunate to see them the past couple of years. They for some reason can never make it over the border to Canada, so we have to go to the US to see them. They were throwing their cd "Kiss of Death - A Tribute to Kiss" to the audience. It is always great to see Steve Summers and Kristy Majors on stage together.

Firehouse was next. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the entire set with the overlapping of bands. We still heard our favorites songs. C.J. Snare can still hit those incredibly high notes in "Don't Treat Me Bad".

Slaughter was next. We have seen them a few times over the years and they are always great. As usual, Mark Slaughter went deep into the crowd for all the audience to see and they finished with 'Up All Night'.

Next was Great White. The last time we saw Great White was in Rock N America. Jack Russell was not well, he has just had back surgery. They had Jani Lane from Warrant covering for a short time, but now they have Terry Ilous from XYZ is filling in until Jack's return after another major surgery. He was excellent, but it will be great once Jack returns, no one can replace him.

We ran over to the second stage to catch some of Black N' Blue just in time to hear Jaime St. James sing 'Miss Mystery'.

And to see our Edmonton/Calgary friends 'Killinger' on the jumbo-tron. http://killingerrocks.com/

Next up was Mr. Big. We were pretty excited, we had never seen them play! We never thought we would see Eric Martin, Paul Gilbert, Billy Sheehan and Pat Torpey on stage together for a reunion! They performed all of our favorites and looked and sounded spectacular!

Faster Pussycat was next. The only original member is Taime Downe. He sang the songs as they sounded originally which was nice, he doesn't always do that. It is unsettling to see him in his goth wear singing glam songs.

Big Noize, the all-star band event was next. What a treat to see Carlos Cavasso from Quiet Riot, Joe Lynn Turner from Rainbow and Deep Purple, Phil Soussan from Ozzy and Jimmy Page and Vinnie Appice from Black Sabbath and Dio on stage together!

Sebastian Bach was next! We had seen him a couple nights earlier on the way to M3 at the famous Crocodile Rock in Allentown, PA. He was very entertaining as usual, he has such an incredible voice. He told the story of how he hit his bassist in the head with his microphone swinging and scarred him. We met him at the after party at Clyde's.

Tesla was next! They always put on such a good powerful show. I remember when they used to open up for almost any show that came to Canada. They still hold that energy and musicianship that they did 20 years ago.

The finale of the night was Whitesnake! They were spectacular. They played all of the old songs and also played alot off the new album 'Forevermore'. The new songs sound alot like Coverdale/Page, sexy and bluesy. David Coverdale is still an astounding frontman, one of the best!

Can't wait for next year!

Slave Lake Fundraiser

2011-05-19T23:11:00.000-07:00

Motorhead

2011-05-19T19:39:00.000-07:00

We were very excited to see Motorhead shortly after seeing the Lemmy movie (which was just voted one of The Seven Best New Music Documentaries of the Year)! They played all of the songs that we wanted to hear. This tour was supporting their new album 'The World is Yours'. We were in awe of Lemmy and so was the audience! Lemmy is a Heavy Metal God! There is nothing like a crowd at a sold-out Motorhead show!

http://www.imotorhead.com/

Mosh Potatoes

2011-03-19T16:03:00.000-07:00

Mosh Potatoes is a cookbook with recipes from some of our favorite musicians.

Some recipes of Mosh Potatoes include:

‘Opening Act’s’ (appetizers)

Rock ‘n’ Rolly Guacamole from Jeff Pilson (Dokken/Dio), and Party Potatoes from Tyler Connolly (Theory of a Deadman).

‘Headliners’ (entrees)

Rock ‘n’ Roll Sandwich from Bruce Kulick (Kiss/Union), and Lips’ Pizza Fries from Steve ‘Lips’ Kudlow (Anvil). The most interesting recipe is from Lemmy with his Krakatoa Surprise, it has an editor note to prepare at your own risk because it involves eating while still on fire!

‘Encores’ (desserts)

Vancouver Lasagna from Burton C. Bell (Fear Factory) and Star Cookies and No-Bake Cookies from David Ellefson (Megadeth).

Along with recipes, the book has some entertaining stories and liner notes.

http://www.moshpotatoescookbook.com/

Blind In Texas

2011-01-30T22:41:00.000-08:00

We decided to go visit our friend April in Dallas, Texas in January. We had an amazing time, here is a summary of our trip!

We arrived in town and went with our friend's to the Texas Theatre to see the Lemmy Movie. The Texas Theatre was opened by Howard Hughes in 1931, and is infamous for being the location in which Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the murder of John F. Kennedy.

The lobby had a concession with unusually cheap prices as well as a bar!

The Lemmy movie was awesome. This rockumentary is all about Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister, the founding member of Motorhead. There were interviews with Ozzy Osbourne, Slash, Metallica, Alice Cooper and Dave Grohl all praising Lemmy. The movie is an intimate behind the scenes look at the life of Lemmy both at home and on tour.

http://www.lemmymovie.com/

We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch and to celebrate Cindy's Birthday. We browsed the rock n' roll memorabilia that graced the walls including a Motley Crue guitar, furry ZZ Top guitars, a Dimebag Darrell chrome guitar etc..

Later that night we went to see Slash and Ozzy Osbourne at the American Airlines Centre. It was great to see friends Brent and Todd play in front of such a huge crowd with Slash. They started their set at 7:20pm so that they could squeeze in a few more songs. Their set-list included "Rocket Queen" "Nightrain", "Paradise City", "Sweet Child O Mine", "Slither", "Back from Cali", "By the Sword" and "Ghost".

Ozzy started with his usual comical movie montage. This time, it featured clips of him superimposed in scenes from Jersey Shore, Twilight (in which he proclaimed "Vampires are pussies, I'm the Prince of Fucking Darkness" LOL) and as Iron Man...

Ozzy played a wide range of songs which included "War Pigs", "Iron Man", "Flying High Again" "Shot In the Dark" "I Don't Know" "Crazy Train" "Let Me Hear You Scream" and finished with "Mama I'm Coming Home" and "Paranoid".

We went to the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. In 1963, it was the Texas School Book Depository. It exhibits the life and assassination of JFK and the affect it had on the world. It is the building where Oswald worked in when he shot JFK and where his rifle was found. We stood on the grassy knoll were many witnesses claim they heard the additional (4th) shot fired. There are still x's on the street where the shots that hit the president were fired. It was very surreal.

Later that day, we went to see the gravesite of Darrell Dimebag Abbott from Pantera and Damageplan. On December 8, 2004, a man burst on the stage and shot him at the Alrose Villa Club in Columbus, Ohio. We were fortunate enough to see Damageplan May 11, 2004 at the Starlite Room.

We headed over to Fort Worth Stock Yards and looked in the various shops and markets. We then went to Billy Bob's the Worlds Largest Honkeytonk. It's a huge country bar with a restauarant, bar, concert hall, bull riding venue, and games room. We enjoyed browsing the framed signed burgers, signed guitars, backstage pass wall, and handprints of country and rock artists that have played there.

We had an amazing time in Dallas, TX and Cin hand an awesome Birthday! :)

A Year in Review

2011-01-09T20:47:00.000-08:00

We started New Years Eve 2010 off with a Shinedown show in Edmonton at 100.3 the Bear's New Year's Eve bash at the Shaw Conference Centre! A highlight of the night was when they performed their version of Lynyrd Skynards' "Simple Man" as a tribute to Dimebag Darrell.

We also saw the rock opera 'Jesus Christ Superstar' with Ted Neely who was the original Jesus in the 1973 film!

In mid-January we were ecstatic to attend the NAMM convention in Anaheim with our friends. We had the pleasure of meeting some of our faves such as Slash, George Lynch, Ratt, Phil Varone, Steven Adler, Joe Satriani, Rikki Rockett, Andy Timmons and many more. In the evening, we attended the Guitar Players Ball 5 with George Lynch (Dokken, Lynch Mob), Chris Holmes (WASP), Carlos Cavazo (Quiet Riot, Ratt) and Brent Fitz (Union, Alice Cooper, Vince Neil and currently Slash) on drums! Gilby Clarke (Guns N Roses) was supposed to play as well, but he was in a motorcycle accident and unable to attend.

Also as part of NAMM, we saw Ratt at the House of Blues in Anaheim! It was packed to the rafters and we were pleasantly surprised to see Stephen Pearcy on vocals. He had been playing some solo shows so we assumed he wouldn't be fronting Ratt that night! We had alot of fun (and drinks) hanging out with Steve Brown and PJ Farley from Trixter!

After a fabulous day of shopping on Melrose; we took in the Steel Panther show Monday night in LA at the House of Blues on Sunset. Mark McGrath (Sugar Ray) got up on stage and jammed with them. We were surprised to see Pearl opening up for them. Pearl Aday is Meatloaf’s daughter; and Scott Ian’s (from Anthrax) wife. Scott Ian was playing with the band!

We attended the Motley Crue shows in Vancouver and Edmonton for the Dead of Winter Tour. Although they played a bare bones type show with way less theatrics than the last couple of tours; they were still spectacular! The Joe Perry Project opened up for them. It's just not the same seeing Joe up on stage without Steven Tyler singing and grooving beside him.

We saw Megadeth with Testament in March at the Shaw Conference Centre, in Edmonton. It was historic to see Dave Mustaine and Dave Ellefson playing on stage together again. Dave and Dave were two of the musicians we had the pleasure of meeting earlier in the year at NAMM.

In April, the Gruesome Twosome Tour came to town! Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper both put on very entertaining shows. Rob Zombie showed movie clips on the huge screen behind him and Alice Cooper entertained with his Rock N Roll horror show! Alice was recently inducted in to the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame!

We took a much needed trip to Las Vegas to celebrate Lor's birthday. We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel for the first time, and loved it! We checked in at the front desk as the sweet sounds of Poison's "Talk Dirty To Me" billowed throughout the hotel! It felt like home. We saw Benji Madden get escorted through the hotel on his way to fight Riki Rachtman in a sold-out match which Benji won. We also saw Drowning Pool play at Wasted Space!

Our trip also included watching our friends the Spazmatics play a couple of shows while enjoying big Vegas drinks. We also went to the Steel Panther show at the House of Blues. We saw the new Cirque De Soleil show "Viva Elvis" on our last night in Sin City! It was a short but enjoyable trip!

In May we saw Slaughter at Century Casino in Edmonton. We talked to Mark, Dana, and Blando and told them how excited we were to see them again at Rock N America in July! In May, we also saw The Trews and Buckcherry at the Rainmaker Rodeo! There was a massive snow storm, but Buckcherry put on such an amazing live show, they're worth it!

In June we saw the legendary Iron Maiden. They played a lot of new songs and Eddie looked a little different than normal; but they still rocked Rexall Place as usual.

In June, we went to Toronto for NXNE and got to hang out with some old friends Johnny Rude & Lydia, Stacy Stray, Joy and Sammy. We shopped alot and checked out various gigs at bars including Tattoo Rock Parlour, The Hideout, Cherry Cola Rock & Rolla, Bovine, and Oh Boy. We also saw the rock/jukebox musical "Rock of Ages" and had seats in front of the first row! While in Toronto, we saw Iggy Pop and the Stooges play Dundas Square which was jammed pack with unbelievable amounts of people. We also saw the New York Dolls at the Burlington Sound of Music! It was a mind-blowing weekend!

July was an exciting month. First show was Fear Factory at the Starlite Room! Next up was Bon Jovi with Kid Rock at the Stadium! We also saw our friend Tommy Mac and his band Hedley play to tons of screaming fans at Capital Ex.

July 23-25 we attended Rock N America Music Festival in Oklahoma City! The days were unbelievable, so were the after-parties at the Garden of Evil!

On Thursday at RN'A we saw: Sweet, Bulletboys, Trixter, Faster Pussycat, Great White, a Tribute to Dio, and Twisted Sister.

Friday at RN'A brought us: Steelheart, John Corabi, Firehouse, Pretty Boy Floyd, Michael Schenker, LA Guns, Cinderella, and Scorpions.

On Saturday at RN'A we saw: Warrant, Texas Hippie Coalition, Slaughter (with a special appearance from Vince Neil), Lillian Axe, Lita Ford, Gilby Clarke, Dokken, Lynch Mob, and Ratt.

August was another great month! We saw Keith Urban at the Big Valley Jamboree, and one of the Scorpions final shows in

Canada

We saw Blondie for the first time ever. Deborah Harry she looked and sounded amazing! We were also elated to see Buckcherry again, this time at Edmonton Event Centre. We attended a meet n' greet before hand at Bourbon Street at West Edmonton Mall. We finally got to meet Josh Todd! Yay! They were all so nice! It was a much better show, indoors - with no snow! :)

We were happy to see our friend's Killinger play Edmonton Event Centre with Lynch Mob. The vivacious Marq Torien (Bulletboys) was on vocals and James Lomenzo (White Lion and Megadeth) was on bass. George Lynch is a Guitar God. It was such a fun night! We ran into friends we hadn't seen in many years!

In September we saw the Aerosmith 40^th Anniversary show! We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Aerosmith! Joan Jett opened the show, and played a lot of songs from her days with the "Runaways"!

We also caught a couple of Slash shows in Calgary and Edmonton and were proud to see long time friends Todd Kerns & Brent Fitz up on stage with the Guitar Legend. (see earlier blog for review on Aerosmith as well as Slash).

In October we saw Collective Soul play at River Cree Casino! We were also ecstatic to see one of our faves, Bret Michaels, headline the Halloween Howler. (see earlier blogs for reviews of both Collective Soul and Bret).

The November Grey Cup festivities in Edmonton were fun-filled. We saw Helix, Bif Naked, Ian Thornley with Big Wreck, Fozzy with Chris Jericho, Trooper, and Big Sugar. All Canadian, All weekend! (see earlier blog).

The last show of the year was Keith Urban at West Edmonton Mall. It was intimate and interactive (see earlier blog)!

Can’t wait to see what 2011 has in store for us!

Brent Fitz - All Access Music Tour - Edmonton, AB

2011-01-02T10:38:00.000-08:00

We were happy to hear our good friend Brent Fitz was coming to town to speak (and play a bit of drums) at Long & McQuade's new South location. Brent was there as part of the "All Access Music Tour" which allows successful Canadian working musicians to speak and share their experiences with the public. Brent told stories and shared pictures of various experiences throughout the years of him being a drummer.

Some of the highlights of the evening:

-Brent showed the crowd a picture of young version of him with Gregg Bisonette at a drum clinic when he was younger.

-He showed a picture of him as a teen with Tommy Lee. He explained that when he was a young teen and his parents suggested he get a job, he answered an add to teach drums at a music store (instead of working at somewhere like a fast food place). He said this allowed him the opportunity to meet some of his influences like for example when the store needed someone to deliver drum equipment to Tommy Lee (when Motley Crue was in Winnipeg playing a show that night) he volunteered!

-He displayed a very polite rejection letter from Ozzy Osbourne that he received in the early 90s after sending in a package to audition to be his drummer. The humbling experience taught him that you have to put in you 10,000 hours and work your way into the circle before any acceptance and success can be achieved.

-He showed a clip of playing with Vince Neil, Kerri Kelli and Jason Hook.

-He talked about playing with Union, Alice Cooper, The Guess Who, Theory of a Deadman, Econoline Crush, and Harlequin. And how important it is to always be prepared, and explained how he prepares with short notice.

-He showed an awesome montage 'Back from Cali' video of the Slash shows in Europe this summer.

-He talked about getting out of his comfort zone and the importance of being a well rounded musician to achieve success. He filled in for our friend Todd Kerns playing bass when he had to fly home from Moscow to have emergency surgery as his retina had detached. He only had a few hours to rehearse and they played in front of thousands of people. The drum tech filled in for Brent.

-He played drums along to songs by bands he's played with such as Slash, Harlequin, Econoline Crush and the Guess Who.

Brent was a very entertaining and inspirational.

Brent's official page:
http://www.brentfitz.com

Check out Slash's page for upcoming tour dates with Ozzy!
http://slash.ultimate-guitar.com/

http://www.long-mcquade.com/page/eventshome/

Grease

2010-12-05T01:09:00.000-08:00

We were pleasantly surprised to see Eddie Mekka 'Carmine' from Laverne & Shirley take the stage and warm up the crowd. We didn't know he was in the musical. He sang and announced that next year is the 40th anniversary of Grease. The show is timeless and we were ecstatic to finally see the musical version of Grease!

For the most part, the scenes were very close to the movie. The first scene featured the theme song 'Grease' with the whole cast including T-Birds & Pink Ladies. Second scene was 'Summer Nights' which introduced us to Danny and Sandy at Rydell High.

The 'Greased Lightning' scene featured a rocking red convertible with flames on it which the T-Birds restored on stage. However, (unlike the movie), the song was lead by Kenickie instead of Danny. The choreography was spectacular and exceeded our expectations.

Eddie Mekka played two characters. The first was Vince Fontaine from the WAXX radio station at the dance as well as the Teen Angel who sang ‘Beauty School Drop Out’ to Frenchie (with pink hair). Our favorite cast member was Rizzo. She had Stockard Channing's character traits of a bad-girl down pat. She exuded attitude as she sang ‘Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee’ and ‘There Are Worse Things I Could Do’.

The musical ended similar to the movie with Sandy getting a fabulous makeover by Frenchie to the ‘Tell me about it…stud’. Like the movie Sandy and Danny and everyone are together in the end. The final two songs were 'You're the One that I Want' and 'We Go Together'. They received a standing ovation.

Keith Urban

2010-12-04T11:30:00.000-08:00

Keith Urban performed a free concert at West Edmonton Mall to promote his new album “Get Closer”. It was the only Canadian promotional show. There were 3,000 people in attendance and a lot of screaming women. He joked that the last time he did a free show in 2001, only four people showed up; he was glad more showed up this time! He had his acoustic guitar and a drum machine; not everyone is talented enough to pull that off.

He played 7 songs. His set list included ‘Days Go By’, his new single ‘Put You In a Song’, ‘Making Memories of Us’, ‘Kiss a Girl, (where he brought up a teenage fan to come up and do a duet with him), ‘Stupid Boy’, a cover of ‘The Joker’ by Steve Miller band, and ‘Somebody Like You’. He was supposed to do 5 songs, and said twice, “This is my last song”.

He did a meet and greet after the show for the 200 fans that went to buy his new album the day before at HMV. Some loyal fans stayed overnight just to have the chance to meet him. His upcoming Canadian September 2011 tour was announced for shows in Ottawa, Toronto, London, Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver. Tickets go on sale March 4 at 10:00 am.

http://www.keithurban.net/

Hard Core Logo Live

2010-11-30T21:46:00.000-08:00

We saw the musical Hard Core Logo Live at the Roxy. It is a stage adaptation of the 1996 Canadian cult-classic mockumentory that is based on the book by Michael Turner, ‘Hard Core Logo’. The movie was loosely based on the punk band D.O.A from Vancouver; it starred Hugh Dillon (the former lead singer of the Headstones). The movie had cameo appearances by Joe ‘Shithead’ Keithley of D.O.A, Art Bergmann, and Joey Ramone.

The musical started with a “Punkerland Who’s Who” featuring Joe Keithley, ‘the Godfather of Canadian punk’. The musical is very similar to the movie. A punk rock band ‘Hard Core Logo’ – Joe Dick, Billy Tallent, John Oxenberger, and Pipefitter reunite to do a fundraiser for their friend who has been shot; and it turns into an eventful tour across Western Canada. There is a lot of live music and they included the song ‘Who the Hell Do You Think You Are?’ which won a Genie Award for ‘Best Achievement in Music – Original Song’. The Musical Directors of the play were Joe “Shithead’ Keithley and Corinne Kessel.

The Director of the movie Bruce McDonald has stated that there is a Hard Core Logo sequel in the works! Until then, the punk opera is in Edmonton until December 5.

http://www.theatrenetwork.ca/

Canadian Music at the Grey Cup 2010 Festivities

2010-11-28T12:44:00.000-08:00

The City of Edmonton built a stage for Canadian bands to play on for the 2010 Grey Cup Festival. There was Canadian music all over the city all weekend outdoors and at all of the parties.

The first band we saw at the Huddledome was Helix. Brian Vollmer said they just about didn’t make the show as their plane was late, the door wouldn’t open, their vehicle didn’t arrive on time, and they got lost and the GPS didn’t work! They were happy they made it to be able to take part of the festivities! They played a lot of new songs; but still played favorites like ‘Make Me Do Anything You Want’, and ‘Rock You’! They also played ‘Heavy Metal Love’ which was the wedding song played for Ricky in the Trailer Park Boys Movie. They were filming for their new Helix-based reality TV series.

http://planethelix.com/

The second band we saw was Bif Naked. She is one of the best female talents of Canada. She has an amazing voice and has such star quality. She sang some of our favorites like ‘Space Man’, ‘Moment of Weakness’, and ‘Lucky’. Before she started ‘Tango Shoes’ she said that her tango shoes are now in the Bata Shoe Museum in downtown Toronto! Bif finished the set with ‘I Love Myself Today’. She was excited to be part of the celebration!

http://www.bifnaked.com/

The third band we saw was Ian Thornley with Big Wreck. This was part of a reunion tour! They played some solo Thornley songs ‘Come Again’ and ‘Make Believe’, and played Big Wreck songs ‘That Song’ and ‘The Oaf’. Ian laughed when some girls asked him to ‘take it off’, it was too cold; but he said he loved the Rock Winter! They finished the set with an ‘Oh Canada’ guitar solo.

http://thornleymusic.com/

We went to see Dave Navarro & DJ Skribble at the Underground Huddle. Dave played guitar while the DJ played songs, it was similar to when we saw Tommy Lee DJ and play drums. It was rock mixed in with some dance. Dave played guitar along to Rush, Black Sabbath, Queen, etc. but surprisingly; no Red Hot Chili Peppers or Jane’s Addiction. He has a very cool stage presence; he has mind-blowing talent with his guitar playing.

The fourth band we saw was Fozzy with Chris Jericho. We actually only got to see a couple of songs as we had to stand in line to go zip lining. We could hear people screaming Fozzy! Fozzy! as we were zip lining across the Huddledome and we saw Fozzy with Chris Jericho on the stage 90 feet below!

http://fozzyrock.com/

The fifth band we saw was Trooper. They are a staple of Canadian music; they have been playing music for 35 years. They are very entertaining on stage and Ra McGuire is hysterically funny. They did a great many songs that every Canadian knows like ‘Raise a Little Hell’, ‘We’re Here For a Good Time, (Not a Long Time)’, and ‘Hand Grenade’.

http://www.trooper.com/

The final band we saw was Big Sugar. They have been ‘on a break’ for 6 years, so everyone was excited to see this Canadian blues-rock band perform again. Gordie Johnson came out with a double neck guitar with a Canadian flag on the back and started with ‘Red Rover - Brothers and Sisters, Are You Ready?’ and they played all of their hits including ‘Diggin a Hole’, and ‘Dear Mr. Fantasy’.

http://www.bigsugar.com/index.php

Other Canadian bands that played around the city and for the parties were Matt Good, Theory of a Deadman, Streetheart, Tom Cochrane, Wide Mouth Mason and The Trews. We had to pick and choose who we wanted to see as it was all packed in one weekend for the Grey Cup 2010!