OK I realize the title for this report is terrible. Apologies.
Last night I saw Vince Neil in Long Island at the Crazy Donkey. Besides noticing that the crowd was made up largely of people older than me, the majority of them were also oddly below average height. When my friend and I found our spot, I was delighted to be able to see most everything on the stage.
However, as usual, the tallest guy in the joint had to end up in front of me. And to make matters worse, he and the girl next to him frequently raised their fists to aid them in what seemed to be a crusade to keep me from seeing. So this morning, I have a bit of a neckache, from the amount of craning I had to do. But thanks to raising my camera above the crowd and snapping away, I was able to see what was going on when the big wall of a man was blocking my view.
Anyway, Vince looked surprisingly good. Obviously some facial plastic surgery has been had (which is public knowledge since he documented it for Vh-1). But he also looked physically healthy too, and seemed more trim then I'd ever seen him before. He smiled his way through the whole show, and appeared to be having a great time with all of us.
Vince played an all-Crue set, including "Piece of Your Action", "Livewire", "Wild Side", and "Dr. Feelgood." Surprisingly absent were "Shout at the Devil" and "Home Sweet Home." But it's ok, I've seen them live a few times already so I didn't feel too bad about it. Of course he did play "Girls Girls Girls". And of course in the middle of the song, a few ladies from the crowd decided to storm the stage and grind up against everyone onstage, including the go-go girl the club had hired to dance.
The highlight for me was "Teaser", a cover which I've loved since they recorded it for the Make A Difference Foundation album in 1989. A lowlight was when Vince took a break and let the rest of the band play a couple of covers which included "Whole Lotta Love" and "War Pigs." Um, alright...? That part went on a little too long and interrupted the momentum of the show. But I guess it's better than standing in silence waiting for Vince to come back.
Anyhow, the show was a lot of fun and I highly recommend it to Crueheads if he happens to make it to your town. Obviously it's not the stageshow you'll get if you see him with the Crue in an arena, but it's always cool to see any of my heroes in a small venue up close like that.
SETLIST:
Dr. Feelgood
Kickstart My Heart
Same Ol' Situation
Don't Go Away Mad, Just Go Away
Wild Side
Girls Girls Girls
Looks That Kill
Livewire
Piece of Your Action
Rock N' Roll (Zep cover)
Teaser
PHOTOS
Friday, December 28, 2007
Friday, December 14, 2007
Monday, December 03, 2007
What A Day
Yesterday was a typical New York winter's day: I was woken up a few times over the course of the morning by the snowplow scraping the driveway clean of our first big snow of the season. After finally waking up at the crack of 1pm (I'm on Official Slacker Time), I looked out the window to see that big gray sky hanging over the Hudson like the seasonal killjoy that it is. The weather reports said we'd have even more snow later in the day. Not something you want to hear when you're faced with an already hour+ drive to see a show that night. Luckily, the weather didn't punish me with any more precipitation until much later in the night, so I made it down to see the Great American Rampage Tour at Starland ok.
When I got there, I was surprised to see that the left and right bars at Starland were curtained off. That's disappointing to me, because I feel that Skindred and Nonpoint are so good they deserve to be sold out. But I guess they're not at that level. Worked out for me though, because due to the smaller crowd, I was able to get front row barricade even after arriving 2 hours after doortime. I was a little surprised, because the show was only $25 after Ticketmaster charges, a bargain for a 7-band lineup these days. But I guess the people of NY and Jersey would rather stay in than go see some cool bands for a good price.
I arrived in time to see Australian band Karnivool, who I didn't know, but ended up being a pleasant surprise. I found them to be very interesting musically, especially their last song, which I wish I knew the name of. After Karnivool was Ankla, described as Latin Metalcore. I've never really seen a metalcore show, let alone one that utilized a shekere. Plus, they not only have a drummer, but a percussionist as well, which is definitely something you don't see every day in metal. During Ankla's set, Jose from Sirius' Hard Attack channel came up to perform. Evidently he is a big supporter of theirs, so they wanted him to come up and join in.
Following Ankla was Skindred. I've seen them before as an opener on the Getting Away With Murder tour, so I knew that their show was going to be great. I didn't remember more than three songs going into this show, but I still had fun. The singer, Benji, has a great presence and is skilled at getting the crowd into it. He has a playful personality which I find, well, adorable. Their music is like reggae-slanted metal. Very cool. My favorite song of the set was Nobody.
Finally, Nonpoint took the stage. Saturday, the day before my show, singer Elias had injured his ankle at a radiofest show down in Florida. The fact he still got on a plane, flew up to NJ, and performed hopping around on one foot just to play for us, really impressed me.
Although Elias was hindered physically, the set was still as explosive as I'd remembered from seeing them in '05 and '03 opening for Papa Roach on their Lovehatetragedy and GAWM tour as well. I didn't know every single song, only owning the live CD, but I stayed into it from beginning to end.
The drummer, Robb, is really a show on his own. First of all, he has his set facing sidestage. I'm not sure what the reasoning is. I used to think it was some kind of anxiety issue, like he is afraid to face the audience or something. But he would constantly turn to face the crowd, so that isn't it. Judging from the amount of times he would get up from his set, either to mess with bassist Bastard or Elias, or simply just to walk around, I guess that's one reason. Another is that he attacks his drums like no one else I've ever seen and just needs the space. Sometimes he'd stand up and play, sometimes kneel as he would do a soft drum roll... crazy fun to watch. Also fun, is Bastard. I've never seen anyone so into their own music. I loved it. Apparently this was obvious by the smile on my face, which Bastard recognized and so he gave me a psychotic smile back, which made me laugh.
For me the highlight of the whole set was "Alive and Kicking." To say I went apeshit during this song would be an understatement. I'm not the type to jump up and down during a song, even when the band commands me to do so, but I found myself yelling "Sooo I'm tearing this and everything else between me and what I want to do to pieces!!!" midair so I guess I am still capable of surprising myself.
After the show various band members hung out at the Merch booth, with the exception of Elias, who I assume was already backstage resting his foot. I bought a cool Skindred shirt for $25 and made my way out to the cold rainy parking lot, satisfied with the show. I got to see some cool bands I didn't know before, saw Nonpoint sing one of my current favorite songs, and all for under $30. Good day.
Photos:
KARNIVOOL:
ANKLA:
SKINDRED:
NONPOINT:
MARQUEE OUTSIDE VENUE:
When I got there, I was surprised to see that the left and right bars at Starland were curtained off. That's disappointing to me, because I feel that Skindred and Nonpoint are so good they deserve to be sold out. But I guess they're not at that level. Worked out for me though, because due to the smaller crowd, I was able to get front row barricade even after arriving 2 hours after doortime. I was a little surprised, because the show was only $25 after Ticketmaster charges, a bargain for a 7-band lineup these days. But I guess the people of NY and Jersey would rather stay in than go see some cool bands for a good price.
I arrived in time to see Australian band Karnivool, who I didn't know, but ended up being a pleasant surprise. I found them to be very interesting musically, especially their last song, which I wish I knew the name of. After Karnivool was Ankla, described as Latin Metalcore. I've never really seen a metalcore show, let alone one that utilized a shekere. Plus, they not only have a drummer, but a percussionist as well, which is definitely something you don't see every day in metal. During Ankla's set, Jose from Sirius' Hard Attack channel came up to perform. Evidently he is a big supporter of theirs, so they wanted him to come up and join in.
Following Ankla was Skindred. I've seen them before as an opener on the Getting Away With Murder tour, so I knew that their show was going to be great. I didn't remember more than three songs going into this show, but I still had fun. The singer, Benji, has a great presence and is skilled at getting the crowd into it. He has a playful personality which I find, well, adorable. Their music is like reggae-slanted metal. Very cool. My favorite song of the set was Nobody.
Finally, Nonpoint took the stage. Saturday, the day before my show, singer Elias had injured his ankle at a radiofest show down in Florida. The fact he still got on a plane, flew up to NJ, and performed hopping around on one foot just to play for us, really impressed me.
Although Elias was hindered physically, the set was still as explosive as I'd remembered from seeing them in '05 and '03 opening for Papa Roach on their Lovehatetragedy and GAWM tour as well. I didn't know every single song, only owning the live CD, but I stayed into it from beginning to end.
The drummer, Robb, is really a show on his own. First of all, he has his set facing sidestage. I'm not sure what the reasoning is. I used to think it was some kind of anxiety issue, like he is afraid to face the audience or something. But he would constantly turn to face the crowd, so that isn't it. Judging from the amount of times he would get up from his set, either to mess with bassist Bastard or Elias, or simply just to walk around, I guess that's one reason. Another is that he attacks his drums like no one else I've ever seen and just needs the space. Sometimes he'd stand up and play, sometimes kneel as he would do a soft drum roll... crazy fun to watch. Also fun, is Bastard. I've never seen anyone so into their own music. I loved it. Apparently this was obvious by the smile on my face, which Bastard recognized and so he gave me a psychotic smile back, which made me laugh.
For me the highlight of the whole set was "Alive and Kicking." To say I went apeshit during this song would be an understatement. I'm not the type to jump up and down during a song, even when the band commands me to do so, but I found myself yelling "Sooo I'm tearing this and everything else between me and what I want to do to pieces!!!" midair so I guess I am still capable of surprising myself.
After the show various band members hung out at the Merch booth, with the exception of Elias, who I assume was already backstage resting his foot. I bought a cool Skindred shirt for $25 and made my way out to the cold rainy parking lot, satisfied with the show. I got to see some cool bands I didn't know before, saw Nonpoint sing one of my current favorite songs, and all for under $30. Good day.
Photos:
KARNIVOOL:
ANKLA:
SKINDRED:
NONPOINT:
MARQUEE OUTSIDE VENUE:
