When A Train Wrecks
No, I am not referring to the Olympics...hur hur hur.
Last night, Mike, Jeff, Roxy, Debbie, and I went out for an evening of rock and/or roll. We started the evening at Four Peaks for some Thai Hummus and drinks - though my drink consisted of naught but aspatamaliciousness. Anyhoo, after "dinner", we made haste for the Marquee Theater in Tempe. The concert: Extreme with special guests King's X and Rock N' Roll Fantasy Camp. The latter is exactly what it sounds like. If you have the money, you can play live with rock stars. Though we caught the tail end of the janitors, exterminators, accountants, etc playing with none other than Kip freakin' Winger (remember Winger?), the impression I had was quite positive. For a bunch of non-professionals, they played pretty well. After they got off stage, we were treated to the "counselors" of the camp doing a short set of covers. It took me a second to recognize some of them because I was not expecting to see them. The only person I was expecting was Kip Winger (the prick ages all too well). Some of the others I have never heard of. All of them I never expected I would ever see in person, so I took it as a little treat. So here is the star-studded lineup of this supergroup. Their band affiliations are parenthetical:
Gilby Clarke (Guns N' Roses)
Mark Slaughter (Slaughter - I took him for Anthrax's guitarist for some dumb reason)
David Ellefson (Formerly Megadeth, now F5)
Earl Slick (David Bowie, John Lennon - kinda looked like an old Izzy Stradlin)
Glen Hughes (Deep Purple)
Chris Slade (AC/DC)
Mark Hudson (songwriter and producer for Aerosmith and a fantastic performer).
Kip Winger (Winger)
After their set, it was time for King's X to take the stage. They performed better than I have ever seen them (this being my second time). One thing that strikes me dumb is how music that sounds so terrible as a studio recording sounds so amazing live. I do like the band, but I can't listen to their studio stuff. This makes lyric memorization difficult. I would have had even more fun had I known the lyrics. Ah well.
Next up was Extreme. They put on a fantastic show as one would expect, but they ran into a snag. During the opening song - maybe 30 seconds into it - I noticed something was amiss. Oh, it was the guitar. About 30 seconds of no Nuno later, the band stopped playing the song altogether. The roadies quickly fixed the problem, and the band resumed playing...the next song. No - they didn't just start again or even pick up where they left off. There was a show to put on, so on they moved. This is one of the worst kind of train wrecks a band can experience, and the audience could see the embarassment. It's okay - things happen, right? So on the show went. They played all of the songs a fan would want them to play. "Play With Me" was my highlight. And you know they played "More Than Words". The band effectively got everyone to sing along with them. At first, I felt a little ghey doing it, but as I looked around, so was everyone else. I felt confident that what happens at an Extreme show, stays at an Extreme show. So on the show went. Then, in the middle of another song, Nuno drops out again. Now the boy is pissed. He gets on the mic and tells us that he has blown two heads. For those of you who don't know what a head is, it is the aparatus that supplies the power, volume control, and all else to the speakers of an amplifier. So the roadies had to put another on. Judging by the time it took for it to appear, I am guessing they had to fumble around the gear bus to find it. We now find out this head is the last one. During the interim, Extreme tried to keep the dead air down by telling jokes (they do have a decent sense of humor). Gary Cherone made it a point to plead with us not to blog about it. Sorry, Gary. Again - train wreck. Finally, they were able to finish out their set without any other hicups. All in all, the show was great. The equipment failure actually enhanced the experience to a degree. I think it has to do in large part to the band not getting their panties in a bunch over it. They laughed it off, and so did we.
On the way home, I learned that a rectal tounge-bath after defecation is the epitome of decadence. And no, I was not given said bath. But I trust my source has which must be why he knows.
As I was on my way to dreamland, I was thinking about all the bands I have seen. The number is quite high, but there are so many more I still want to see. For your boredom, I shall list the bands I have seen:
Rush
Dream Theater
Metallica
Guns N' Roses
Faith No More
Mr Big
Candlebox
King's X
Godsmack
ZZ Top
Ted Nugent
Journey
Styx
Foreigner
REO Speedwagon
Extreme
Whitesnake
Scorpions
Dokken
Spin Doctors
Screaming Trees
Soul Asylum
Phish
Iron Maiden
Dragonforce
Joe Satriani
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
I may have seen more, and I know there are meaningless opening acts whose names I don't care about. As impressive as that is, Mike and especially Jeff can list much more.
This morning I was dragged out of bed to operate the chainsaw and groom my mesquite tree. The heat sucked and it most certainly was no good for my back in its present condition, but chainsaws are \m/, so I suppose my morning was a wash. Now I have a 7-foot pile of mesquite branches (some weighing close to 50 pounds) in my front yard awaitinfg bulk trash in a week and a half. After that, I mowed the lawn which took all of 15 minutes.
Tomorrow night there is a pool party at Michael and Lori's which should be fun. I will be going alone because it starts an hour before the baby goes to bed. I will be having a gathering back at my place in September so my wife can participate. All you folks here in AZ will be notified when a date is set.
Last night, Mike, Jeff, Roxy, Debbie, and I went out for an evening of rock and/or roll. We started the evening at Four Peaks for some Thai Hummus and drinks - though my drink consisted of naught but aspatamaliciousness. Anyhoo, after "dinner", we made haste for the Marquee Theater in Tempe. The concert: Extreme with special guests King's X and Rock N' Roll Fantasy Camp. The latter is exactly what it sounds like. If you have the money, you can play live with rock stars. Though we caught the tail end of the janitors, exterminators, accountants, etc playing with none other than Kip freakin' Winger (remember Winger?), the impression I had was quite positive. For a bunch of non-professionals, they played pretty well. After they got off stage, we were treated to the "counselors" of the camp doing a short set of covers. It took me a second to recognize some of them because I was not expecting to see them. The only person I was expecting was Kip Winger (the prick ages all too well). Some of the others I have never heard of. All of them I never expected I would ever see in person, so I took it as a little treat. So here is the star-studded lineup of this supergroup. Their band affiliations are parenthetical:
Gilby Clarke (Guns N' Roses)
Mark Slaughter (Slaughter - I took him for Anthrax's guitarist for some dumb reason)
David Ellefson (Formerly Megadeth, now F5)
Earl Slick (David Bowie, John Lennon - kinda looked like an old Izzy Stradlin)
Glen Hughes (Deep Purple)
Chris Slade (AC/DC)
Mark Hudson (songwriter and producer for Aerosmith and a fantastic performer).
Kip Winger (Winger)
After their set, it was time for King's X to take the stage. They performed better than I have ever seen them (this being my second time). One thing that strikes me dumb is how music that sounds so terrible as a studio recording sounds so amazing live. I do like the band, but I can't listen to their studio stuff. This makes lyric memorization difficult. I would have had even more fun had I known the lyrics. Ah well.
Next up was Extreme. They put on a fantastic show as one would expect, but they ran into a snag. During the opening song - maybe 30 seconds into it - I noticed something was amiss. Oh, it was the guitar. About 30 seconds of no Nuno later, the band stopped playing the song altogether. The roadies quickly fixed the problem, and the band resumed playing...the next song. No - they didn't just start again or even pick up where they left off. There was a show to put on, so on they moved. This is one of the worst kind of train wrecks a band can experience, and the audience could see the embarassment. It's okay - things happen, right? So on the show went. They played all of the songs a fan would want them to play. "Play With Me" was my highlight. And you know they played "More Than Words". The band effectively got everyone to sing along with them. At first, I felt a little ghey doing it, but as I looked around, so was everyone else. I felt confident that what happens at an Extreme show, stays at an Extreme show. So on the show went. Then, in the middle of another song, Nuno drops out again. Now the boy is pissed. He gets on the mic and tells us that he has blown two heads. For those of you who don't know what a head is, it is the aparatus that supplies the power, volume control, and all else to the speakers of an amplifier. So the roadies had to put another on. Judging by the time it took for it to appear, I am guessing they had to fumble around the gear bus to find it. We now find out this head is the last one. During the interim, Extreme tried to keep the dead air down by telling jokes (they do have a decent sense of humor). Gary Cherone made it a point to plead with us not to blog about it. Sorry, Gary. Again - train wreck. Finally, they were able to finish out their set without any other hicups. All in all, the show was great. The equipment failure actually enhanced the experience to a degree. I think it has to do in large part to the band not getting their panties in a bunch over it. They laughed it off, and so did we.
On the way home, I learned that a rectal tounge-bath after defecation is the epitome of decadence. And no, I was not given said bath. But I trust my source has which must be why he knows.
As I was on my way to dreamland, I was thinking about all the bands I have seen. The number is quite high, but there are so many more I still want to see. For your boredom, I shall list the bands I have seen:
Rush
Dream Theater
Metallica
Guns N' Roses
Faith No More
Mr Big
Candlebox
King's X
Godsmack
ZZ Top
Ted Nugent
Journey
Styx
Foreigner
REO Speedwagon
Extreme
Whitesnake
Scorpions
Dokken
Spin Doctors
Screaming Trees
Soul Asylum
Phish
Iron Maiden
Dragonforce
Joe Satriani
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
I may have seen more, and I know there are meaningless opening acts whose names I don't care about. As impressive as that is, Mike and especially Jeff can list much more.
This morning I was dragged out of bed to operate the chainsaw and groom my mesquite tree. The heat sucked and it most certainly was no good for my back in its present condition, but chainsaws are \m/, so I suppose my morning was a wash. Now I have a 7-foot pile of mesquite branches (some weighing close to 50 pounds) in my front yard awaitinfg bulk trash in a week and a half. After that, I mowed the lawn which took all of 15 minutes.
Tomorrow night there is a pool party at Michael and Lori's which should be fun. I will be going alone because it starts an hour before the baby goes to bed. I will be having a gathering back at my place in September so my wife can participate. All you folks here in AZ will be notified when a date is set.
posted by Aaron \m/ at 5:06 PM
2 Comments:
At first, I felt a little ghey doing it...
trust your instincts.
You don't like King's X studio stuff, huh? They sound exactly the same as they do on their cd's... and are a way better band than Extreme with that dinner theater lead singer of theirs...
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