RSS FeedCross Canadian Ragweed in Utah & Mustache May
This past Friday I left work a little early with the intention of heading to St. George Utah to see Cross Canadian Ragweed in concert. The plan was to leave the house around 3PM. But, thanks to another lengthy visit from the air conditioning company from hell, we didn’t get on the road until nearly 5PM.
We arrived at the venue at about 8:15 local time. Yes, I forgot to calculate in the time change. We were able to find a spot to park about 50 feet away from the front door. I found this odd, but it would wind up to be just one of the many oddities of concerts in Utah.
We headed to the front door to pick up our tickets at Will Call. We gave the guy our name and he looked us up on a printed sheet and hands us our tickets. We walk past the security guards (a guy in his 50s and his two teen-aged kids) and head inside. This is so different than going to a show in Vegas where they basically give you a body cavity search before entering the arena.
Now that we are inside it’s time to grab a drink. We walk up to the bar and see that there are a couple teenagers working this section, too. Oh, looky there… no alcohol on the menu. Bottled waters were only $1.00 which is unheard of at any concert I have ever been to. We could have ordered a Frazzle, which is like an Icee, but we decided against it.
Now we head toward the stage. That’s a short trip. This entire place can hold no more than about 350 people. But, the opening band is already on stage and there are no more than 100 people in the place. We find a spot up front and settle in. Then, we start to notice it. Almost everybody has snuck in their own alcohol. Some had flasks, but most had something mixed in a water bottle that looked faintly like piss. With no access to alcohol, I was a bit jealous of the piss drinkers.
During the show the lead singer mentions that the management has made it VERY clear that he is not supposed to curse on stage. Uh, OK… He kept to that rule basically all night. Though, he did let slip an F-bomb at one point. Another thing that he spoke about was the fact that it’s “Mustache May.” If you don’t have any facial hair, for the month of May you are supposed to let your mustache grow. If you have a goatee you are supposed to shave the bottom and keep the top. So, in the spirit of being a team player, I’ve shaved half my facial hair and now look like a cross between a 70’s porn star and a used car salesmen. Enjoy!
Softball, Social Distortion and Love
What a busy day yesterday! I got up and headed over to the park for the first softball practice. It was a perfect day for it. It wasn’t nearly as cold as it had been the previous few days and the park was basically empty so we had no trouble securing the baseball diamond to play on. About 18 of us showed up. For the first 30 or 40 minutes we were taking turns batting and fielding. When it was my turn to hit I realized that it was probably the first time I swung a bat in more than 10 years. After a few warm up swings I belted a few of them deep in to the outfield. That felt really good.
We broke up in to two teams and played a few innings. The other team ended up being stacked and they basically destroyed us. But we had a good time and got some exercise in the process. Win Win. We are supposed to hit the batting cages one night this week. I sure hope I can find a left handed bat.
More than anything, I’m just glad to be able to report that after hitting, fielding, running and throwing, I’m not injured. I am a little sore today after using some muscles that I haven’t used in quite some time. But other than that, I’m fine!
After baseball I came home and worked for a while and then took a nice nap in the afternoon. I don’t know if there is anything better than an afternoon nap. I seriously think they should be mandatory. After the nap it was time to get dressed and head over to the House of Blues to see Social Distortion.
Technically speaking this was our second time seeing Social D in about 45 days. They played 3 nights at the HOB back in December. We went and saw them in concert the same night as the Las Vegas half-marathon that we ran. Thanks to being overly exhausted and sore that night, we saw them do about 3 songs and then we had to head for the door.
For the show last night we met up with Jake and Diane (and Diane’s brother, Mark). We found a decent spot to stand near one of the bars and chilled out through the opening band. By the time Social D hit the stage, the place was absolutely packed. They sounded great and the crowd was really in to it.
One thing I did find funny, though. If you take a look at the average Social D fan at the show, they are pretty hard core. Both guys and gals alike are heavily tattooed and just a bit rough around the edges. But so much of Social D’s music, and especially their concerts, are filled with country music. I’ll bet if you ask all the fans in attendance, away from the show, if they liked country music, I’m sure you’d get way more “Hell No” responses than anything else. I dunno, to me, that’s funny.
But tonight we are heading out to the Mirage to see the Cirque Du Soleil show, Love. Our daughter is a Beatles fanatic and we are taking her to see the show for her 15th birthday. I’m sure she’s going to love it.
Good bye bass, hello Les Paul
For Christmas we got our son a guitar. Since Christmas he’s had it out of the case and plugged in to his amp less than 5 times, I’m certain. I asked him last week how it was going with learning to play. He explained that the guy on the instructional DVD was boring. Sigh. I guess I can’t complain too much since it’s been over a year that I have owned my bass guitar and I have still yet to learn how to play it.
So last week I had an idea. Since I haven’t learned to play the bass yet and he’s unlikely to take the initiative to learn to play guitar on his own, I decided to trade in my bass and buy a guitar so that we could learn to play together. Genius, huh?
After a (not so) quick trip to Guitar Center, I am now the proud owner of the Les Paul you see here.
So when I got home with the new guitar, he was pretty excited to check it out. He then suggested that we compare our guitars. So upstairs we went and out came the amps. We both plugged in goofed around for at least 30 minutes. It’s probably too early to call my plan a success, but it sure is encouraging!
Near the end of our “jam session” I asked him to bring me the instructional DVD. We threw it in to the computer and started watching a few minutes of it. Ya know what? The dude in that video IS boring! Not to mention that he moves too quickly between steps. No wonder he lost interest so quickly!
Cross Canadian Ragweed at HOB:LV
Last night was about the 6th time we’ve seen Cross Canadian Ragweed in concert. I have to say, the definitely DO NOT disappoint!
We got to the show about 10 minutes before the doors opened. While picking up my tickets at will call I asked who the opening act was going to be. The lady informed me that there wasn’t one and that CCR would be playing for about 2 hours. SWEET!
We found a spot on the left side about 4 feet from the stage. We had about an hour to kill so we had a few beers and just basically hung out. The lights finally went down and CCR took the stage. At the end of their first song the lead singer announced that they were audio and video recording the show for a possible something or other. If the video does end up getting used, we’ll most likely be in it as we were right in front of the guy who kept taking shots of the crowd.
The band ended up playing for 2 hours and 20 minutes including playing Primus’ Wynonna’s Big Brown Beaver. But, this is the second show in a row where they have removed Carney Man from their set list which is a bummer.
I was stoked to be able to take my buddy Sean to the show and turn him on to CCR. I had let him listen to my CDs of their music, but they don’t hardly compare to how great the band is live.
Last night’s show did have an extra twist, though. About 20 minutes before the show ended, two young girls (early 20s) pushed their way in front of us and stood between us and the stage. They had obviously been drinking a lot. They immediately started making out. There was a lot of boob grabbing, ass slapping and your basic, run-of-the-mill girl-on-girl tonsil hockey. While it was definitely distracting, the guy standing next to me summed it up perfectly when he said, “Too bad they aint perty.”
Indeed.
Flashback time: The year is 1990
After work tonight I stopped off at the bar to have a beer with Carl. We hung out and chatted for a bit and then I headed home for some dinner. When I got home the family had decided they wanted In ‘n Out Burger for dinner. I jumped in the car with Chris and we headed out. We hit the drive-thru and were on our way home in no time.
As we cruised down Warm Springs we saw the marquee in front of Sunset Station that read: Skid Row 8 PM tonight. I turned to Chris and said, “Do you wanna go?” Of course she wanted to go.
We returned to the house, ate dinner and got dressed to go. We arrived at the casino around 7:40. We walked over to the club and tried to purchase 2 tickets. “Sorry, they’re sold out.”
WTF?? How could they be sold out?
Luckily my wife works with one of the guys works at the club. We gave him a call and he was able to score us a couple tickets. Sweet.
We headed in the show started only a few minutes later. They played all the old Skid Row faves; Monkey Business, Slave to the Grind, 18 and Life, I Remember You (a more rockin’ version of it), Get the Fuck Out and they finished with Youth Gone Wild. From start to finish they were on stage about 75 minutes.
The original lead singer is long gone. The current singer says he’s been with the band 9 years. I’m not exactly sure how that happened. I don’t think he was all that good. Regardless, we had a great time and it was cheaper than going to a movie.
I have a soft spot in my heart for hair metal bands. I love the music. I can go and sing along with most of ‘em. But Skid Row was one of my favorites back in the day. It was great to see them still out making music and rockin’ it like it’s the early 90’s again.
Van Halen FTW
Last night we went and saw Van Halen in concert at the MGM Grand Garden arena. I have been so jazzed about seeing this show, I was really hoping I wouldn’t be let down. I can definitely say, I was NOT let down at all. The show was great.
If you haven’t followed along with the rotating cast of players in Van Halen, Sammy Hagar is out and David Lee Roth is back in al lead singer and front man for the band. Long gone is his shoulder length blond hair, replaced by some massive sideburns. Michael Anthony is no longer playing bass, enter Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie’s 16 year old son. Not only does he play bass, he’s also doing double duty as a backup vocalist. The kid is good.
They played for over 2 hours and didn’t play a single song from the Sammy Hagar era. That’s a pretty big chunk of time to just cut out of history, but they played so many Halen classics that I didn’t really miss hearing the newer stuff.
One thing that I think Van Halen has perfected is the use of the jumbo video screen at their shows. Their stage setup is minimal leaving plenty of room for Dave to run around. But, they have an enourmous video screen that is as wide as their stage and about 20 feet tall. Even if you have horrible seats, you can still see the action.
At one point I was thinking how cool it must be for Wolfgang to be 16 years old and playing in front of sold out crowds. But then my parental instinct took over and I thought that it must be so fucking cool for Eddie to be on stage, look to his right and see his kid playing bass and singing back-up for one of the worlds biggest bands of all time. That has just gotta be cool.
It’ll be interesting to see if this newly reformed Van Halen line-up will put out a new album and go back on the road in a year or two. If so, I’ll definitely go back and see them again.
Oh, and here’s something that made me feel just a little bit old… The first time I saw Van Halen in concert was 23 years ago. Ugh.
If you want to see some video clips from the Van Halen tour, YouTube has a bunch. Here’s a link to some. Enjoy.