Ooh, how was Kaki King? Was she promoting a new album?

I think she's promoting her most recent album, from 2020, which for obvious reasons she didn't get to support after it was released. I had never seen her before and was really impressed. Her playing is outstanding, she's got a good sense of humor, and the visuals with projections on her guitar made for a great audio-visual experience. When she left the stage she had the Ukrainian flag colors projected on the guitar. Nice touch.

i was considering tears for fears tix at blossom music center, a shed outside of cleveland with loads of grass and dirt parking that can become a real disaster if rain hits. there is a concrete parking area that you have to pay extra for (the grass/dirt is free parking) and the last time we went (a few years ago) it cost $10 to park on the concrete up close in preferred parking.

so went online for tix, and clicked preferred parking and 2 tix tix were $40 + fees (about $98 total) and parking was $110.......you read that correctly....$110.

we are not going. and i am not a cheap person, i get that things cost money, but i refuse to be abused and used and shit on and $110 to park is abuse and mis-use and defecation as far as i am concerned.

That sounds like some kind of VIP parking thing but that is way too much. At Jones Beach we have free parking but you can upgrade to VIP for $20 and park close to the venue (and get to leave real fast).

Jimbo would love when I would park in the Police Reserve parking area (which is the VIP too) for free and we would book out of the venue and get him home real fast. He had a bed time he needed to keep.

Sabaton and Epica are going out on tour together this fall, but they're not coming to Toronto

Any metal fans would do well to go see this show though if it comes to your town; both bands are fantastic - probably the best of the European metal acts who aren't actually the founders of Power and Symphonic metal respectively.

https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/sabat ... ith-epica/

They are coming here, and I'm setting up for it.

Saw Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators at the Beacon Saturday night and they rocked the place. Always fun to watch Slash do his thing.

No GnR covers on this tour.

What made the night special was it was the first time I took the LIRR to the city in over 2 years. It was nice to get back on the horse sort of speak.

And the first time I was back in Penn Station too. The LIRR area is under massive construction and all the stores are gone (no Starbucks, Shake Shack, McDonalds, bars, restaurants etc) Long empty corridors with plywood everywhere. Jimbo would not recognize the place.

But if you walk about a quarter of a mile westbound past all the construction, you come out to Moynihan Hall, the new Amtrack area. They replaced the old Post Office with this new station. It looks gorgeous but one flaw is it’s not connected to a subway line without walking a great distance. You can jump down to the LIRR from there so that’s good.



Maybe one day it will all be fixed and old Penn Station will seamlessly connect with new Moynihan Hall.

I'm ecstatic that the Conspirators have dropped the GnR stuff from their set. With 4 good to great albums now, plus the Snakepit stuff, plus maybe a VR song or two, Slash has plenty of material to draw on without playing the same stuff with both bands. It was different when GnR wasn't a thing, but now that's it's proven stable, time to move on.

And Myles Kennedy is some kind of workhorse. Now he just needs a Creed reunion, because he definitely has too much time on his hands, obviously, with his solo stuff, Alter Bridge, and the Conspirators

I was enroute to see Bob Weir and Wolf Brothers in Chicago when they cancelled due to Covid way back when. We were in the car.
Going to see them Friday. Seems a bout right!

Opening for Slash was an all girl rock group called PLUSH. They feature a lead singer Moriah Formica (who was on The Voice) and has a vocal tone that is similar to Ann Wilson of Heart. As I heard them play I kept thinking that this girl must have fronted a Heart tribute band. Then they played Barracuda.
Googled the band and found out she ended up on a Voice team because she sang the heck out of Crazy On You.

If Nancy needs a lead singer, Moriah is her girl.

That’s Moriah (from Albany NY) to the left of Slash.

Check em out!

Upcoming tour that I thought I'd highlight for the board; not my cup of tea, but definitely a legendary act

https://variety.com/2022/music/news/rox ... 235216884/

Oh yeah, definitely seeing that one though surprised they are playing MSG. Usually they play the Beacon.

For the first time in 25 months, I was in a venue with a band on stage. While there was an aborted attempt to reopen Toronto in December, Omicron resulted in a bunch of smaller shows being cancelled. So it turns out the first post-Covid concert for me was the very first artist I’d spent my own money to see – Alice Cooper.

The thing for me with Alice is that they are just so professional now that it’s really taking on the feel of a show, instead of a concert. Everything is so finely polished and precise that there’s limited opportunities for exploration and improvisation. Most songs have elaborate supporting visuals, so the set list is inflexible within a given tour, and on this one, he’s emphasizing his late 80s content – we got 7 songs from that era. But we also got Escape, My Stars, and Devil’s Food – the first time I’ve ever seen those live. Of course, we got most of the classics – you don’t get all of them every time - and some of the gimmicks (this time it was Frankenstein’s monster, a dancing baby, and the guillotine), but Jason Vorhees killing an oblivious selfie taker felt new, and certainly fits the motif. The closer, as expected was his School’s Out mash up with Another Brick in the Wall Part II.

The bad was sharp, and Nita Strauss has kind of moved into a Steve Stephens level side person for Alice. Sexy AF, a wicked shredder, and fits together with the vibe of an Alice Cooper show perfectly. She draws the eye.

My highlight of the night musically was probably Under My Wheels – deep enough into the set to be past the “here we go vibe”, and fresh enough to still be full of energy. And I loved the performance of Roses on White Lace, from the long forgotten Raise Your Fist and Yell.

The opening act are usually mid-tier headliners in their own right. Buckcherry is one of the populist “but rock” bands (as in, we play nothing but Rock) that audiences love, and critics are less fond of. They also have the biggest support from 40+ housewives of any band I’ve ever seen (having never seen Bon Jovi). A good set from them, although I did have more fun when I saw them headline.

I've recently bought a bunch of tix, so Spring and Summer currently look like this, as far as big acts go:

Spinners/Trammps
Sammy Hagar/REO Speedwagon
Steve Miller Band
Doobie Bros
Eagles
Culture Club
Joe Jackson
Sting
Aerosmith
Rob Zombie, Mudvayne, Static-X, Powerman 5000
Australian Pink Floyd
Lost ‘80s Live: Flock of Seagulls, Wang Chung, Missing Persons, Naked Eyes etc

That looks like a good list, DanO

Guitar heavy weekend for me - Ace Frehley tonight (after three postponements, I think) and Buddy Guy Sunday.

And only one thing to wear to the Ace show tonight...

Looking forward to Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets in the fall.

Already missed two shows due to my health, but I’m hoping to make these:

The Yardbirds
Steve Hackett
Get The Led Out
Opeth/Mastodon
Kraftwerk
Doobie Brothers
Asia
Coldplay
Tears For Fears/Garbage
Roxy Music
Howard Jones/Midge Ure
Puddles the Clown Pity Party
Yachtley Crew
New Order/Pet Shop Boys

Great weekend of guitar. Two shows over three nights, four acts, three were fabulous, and the fourth - well, at least it was finite.

First up was Ace Frehley, sold out show at a smallish club. The opener was a three-piece from Youngstown, and...well, at least the set finally ended. Apparently there was supposed to be a third band, but that didn't happen, so these guys played a longer set. It's not that they were bad, they were just...there. Never really got the crowd engaged, nothing really caught the ear. Very generic, very forgettable. But Ace was...well, Ace. His voice sounded a little rougher than September when he opened for Alice Cooper, but his playing was good. The set started out strong - Rocket Ride, Parasite, Strutter, Emerald, and Rip It Out before the first downturn in the set, Rock Soldiers. That song has never worked live for me, especially because Ace insists on trying to get that crowd interaction on the "he's gonna play without an Ace in his deck" line, and as many times as I've seen him play it, I don't think it's ever gotten a good reaction. Things picked up again until the solo after Shock Me. He did the smoking guitar bit - always cool - but that turned out to be at most a third of the solo. It just went on and on and on...mostly him playing riffs from other songs like Daytripper and Funk #49. A couple times he even looked out at the crowd with a quizzical smirk like he was asking, "Are you really still buying this?" But the set finished strong with a nice Black Diamond quote at the end of Cold Gin, followed by a Love Gun/Deuce encore. Technically, most of the songs were from Kiss albums, but only four weren't Ace songs - Love Gun, Deuce, Strutter, and Detroit Rock City. The big highlights were Hard Times (!!!) and Strange Ways back to back. I loved that. My merch fail of the night - they had signed pics there for $50. I wasn't going to pay that, but one was the same pic as the smoking guitar poster. By the time I talked myself into it, they were sold out, so I went home empty handed. I didn't even try to console my self with the $500 signed guitar strap or the $3500 (you read that right) signed Epiphone guitar.

Sunday night, was Buddy Guy, still kicking it at 85. The opener was Colin James, and I'm somewhat chagrined to say I'd never heard him before and the name wasn't familiar. His band came out, and he started the groove of the first song offstage, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see my buddy kind of perk up and start paying closer attention. Dude and his band kicked it for a solid 45-minute set. Turns out his first album came out in 1988, and he just released his 19th (which we bought there). He came out w/Buddy Guy for a song as well. As for Buddy, what can you say? Living blues legend. He doesn't play full-time like he used to, but when he does, it still hits like a rock. It seemed like he toned down the schtick a bit this time around, but he was still more than entertaining. Quick, too - at one point, a guy in front of us yelled "Love you, Buddy!" and without missing a beat, he looked up and said, "I love you, too, sir, but that would have sounded a lot better from a woman." I'll see him when I can, because there aren't many like him left.

I'm jealous; Ace hasn't crossed the border since 2008.

Speaking of not crossing the border - got tix for two iconic Canadian Acts on separate shows; DOA is doing a 40th anniversary tour of Hardcore 81, including full play, and Voivod is doing a headlining tour to support a new album. And they remember the old times - less than $30 a ticket in both cases. Score!!

This past Sunday was a very special night, not only was Steve Hackett at the Beacon but it marked almost 2 years since I last saw him right before covid hit back in March 2020. The last band I saw was Steve Hackett and finally we meet again. As Steve said, it’s great to be anywhere now.

Fantastic show with some solo stuff, the entire “Seconds Out” album played and then the encore with Dance On A Volcano ending with Los Endos.

Steve was especially on this night with blistering solos at the end of a Firth Of Firth and Suppers Ready. He was on fire! I swear he is getting better with age (he is now 72). Always great to hear Carpet Crawlers done live too.

He has had this current lineup for a few years now (which includes monster drummer Craig Blundell) and they are tight as f*ck.






2 more shows this month for me and they are both good ones.

Transatlantic a week from Saturday in NJ, for it is very very rare to see that supergroup anywhere.

And then Micheal Sadler (Saga) brings in another supergroup called Progject to the Iridium later in the week.