Yesterday started with a morning of rain making for very muddy grounds. Fortunately the clouds kept the temperatures down. I'll keep this brief and will detail sets later. We arrived during the middle of the Vain set. I had never heard any of Vain's music and their singer looked like an emo kid that was 20 years too old. The last few songs of the set were decent and Eddie Trunk was rocking out on the side of the stage for most of the Vain set. One of the few times we've seen Eddie enjoying a band on stage. With that said I don't see myself buying any Vain material.
Next up was Enuff Z'Nuff with Donnie Vie back out front. This was a highly anticipated set since last year didn't feature Donnie Vie, but they didn't deliver during their main set. Donnie looked healthy and had fun with the large crowd but the band didn't seem to have the band camraderie you hope to see. The changed things up by bringing out Steven Adler from Guns 'n Roses to play covers of The Beatles' Revolution and Dylan's Knockin' On Heaven's Door played GnR style. Joe Leste and Tracii Guns joined for the last song.
L.A. Guns came out next and played the best show of the day. They had a new singer, Marty Casey, from Rock Star:INXS fame. He had a great voice and lots of energy. They even did one of Marty's songs, Trees, which may have been the highlight of their set. I'll have to see this line up when they play LA again in the future. Let's hope they can keep this lineup in tact. They announced their new album would be out in March of 2009.
The band I was most looking forward to seeing was Dokken. Don came out with only the same guitarist as last year. It was odd to see Dokken without Mick Brown on drums. Dokken delivered a spectcular set last year but they were not able to deliver this year. It wasn't bad but it wasn't magical like it was last year. I had spoken to Don Dokken earlier this year after a show in Anaheim and he said last year's Rocklahoma was a 1 in a 1000 for them.
Next up was Sebastian Bach who earned the hardest working front man of the night. The sound guy was asleep during Bach's set so the mix wasn't great but that didn't stop Sebastian. Sebastian closed with Youth Gone Wild which has got to be one of the best hard rock songs from the late 80s. The new material he played off Angel Down went over well but I'm still hoping for a full on Skid Row reunion. Sebastian is in top form and ready for it.
The last act of the night was the Bret Michaels Poison cover band, I mean the Bret Michaels Band. They sounded like a sloppy Poison and other than playing the unnecessary Bret Michaels solo material the set was nearly identical to Poison's tour last summer with a couple of different covers thrown in. We only stayed for about 1/2 of Bret's set and headed back to the hotel early.
We are off to get some lunch and headed to Rocklahoma Day 3 and get to see a full day of acts that weren't part of last year.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Rocklahoma Day 2 - 2008
Monday, July 16, 2007
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Quick Day 2 Rocklahoma recap
It is Sunday morning and Terry and I are getting ready to begin day 3. I don't have time to do the write ups off all the setlists yet but will get them posted when I get back.
Yesterday we saw the following bands.
Faster Pussycat - with Taime Downe
Enuff Z'Nuff - I got a guitar pic
Firehouse - the surprise performance of the day
Warrant - unfortunately the worst set of the event so far, they really needed Jani Lane
Skid Row - no Sebastian but a great effort from Johnny Solinger
Winger - they lost the crowd and musically didn't fit in with the other acts, although they played a great set. I got a guitar pic from this set but it wasn't a signature pic
Dokken - Don's voice isn't as good as it used to be but the Dokken set with a replacement guitarist and bass player was much better than when I saw the original Dokken line up in '95
Vince Neil - This was probably the best performance I'd ever seen Vince give. He was great, his band featured Dana Strum and Jeff Blando, both formally of Slaughter, and the drummer was a monster and had more moves than Tommy Lee. I got a signature Vince Neil guitar pic and this was a great way to end the night.
Day 2 of the event didn't seem quite as crowded as the first day. Day 1 estimates were 50,000 people,. Yesterday many of the bands said the crowd was between 30,000 - 35,000. I'm expecting a smaller crowd today since some of the bands playing today don't have the wide appeal a Vince Neil or a Poison can bring.
It has been a great weekend so far, we even renewed our tickets for Rocklahoma 2008 so Terry and I will get to do this again next year.
We are off to last and final day.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Enuff Z'nuff
On Friday night my good friend Dean invited me out to see Enuff Z'nuff at Troubadour. Dean is friends with original lead singer Donnie Vie although Donnie is currently not part of the touring lineup.
We get to show just as the opening band was wrapping up. The venue was still pretty empty. About half an hour after we arrive the guys from Enuff Z'nuff get on stage and begin their set.
I didn't really know what to expect, I had their first cd back in the day and they just seemed like another glam rock band in the 80s, but through the years I've read many reviews comparing them to Cheap Trick and how Enuff Z'nuff have been creating great power pop for nearly the last 20 years.
The mix of the band was pretty bad, especially where we stood. However you could tell the band sounded pretty tight and the vocals were great. Chip Z'nuff was playing a 12 string bass and at one point played the bass riff of Cheap Trick's Gonna Raise Hell as an intro to one of their songs.
At the end of the set Donnie Vie showed up and jumped on stage for New Thing. Donnie sounded great. They played another couple of songs and these were by far the best sounding songs of the set. The band was relaxed and Donnie's voice was a much better fit on vocals. Donnie worked the crowd and convinced the band to play a couple extra songs. On the last go round it looked like he was over staying his welcome on stage with Chip Z'nuff, but they got through the last song with no problems.
Afterwards the band headed upstairs to the back stage area of club. Dean and I stayed on the floor waiting for the next band Britny Fox. I actually saw Britney Fox open for Poison back in 1988. I don't remember much other than their two hits Long Way To Love and Girlschool. They came out and the first thing I noticed was the band looks too young. All the guys looked to be in their late 20s or early 30s except for the bass player. Turns out the bass player is the only original member of the band. Seems wrong to pass off your band with only the original bass player but then Dean pointed out to me that Enuff Z'nuff's bass player is also the only original member.
About 3 or 4 songs into the set Donnie's wife comes and gets Dean and I and we head up to see the band. The backstage area had a ton of people crammed into this tiny space. The smoke nearly over took me. We were up there about 10-15 minutes and talked to a few people before we headed outside. On the way out I got to hear one of Britny Fox's hits Long Way To Love. Outside we ended up talking to Donnie and Chip and strangely Jerry Cantrell from Alice In Chains was hanging out on the street with his brother. He came by and said hi to Chip.
We heard a some of Chip's and Donnie's stories and had a few good laughs. We ended up talking to them for a few more minutes outside of Dan Tana's. Eric Stacy from Faster Pussycat also came over and ended up going in with the guys and a larger group of people for a late dinner. Dean and I passed on eating with them and ended up wrapping up the night back at the Troubadour.
