Rocklahoma Day 2 - 2008

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.

Poison, Ratt and Vains of Jenna in Irvine

Saturday night after Jacki and I returned from the movies I logged into Ticketmaster and saw they had just released a batch of tickets 7 rows behind the pit. This ended up being 12th row center. After a brief check that everyone could go I purchased tickets for the family. The very next night we headed down to Irvine to see the show. I had wanted to see the show in LA the night before but poor seat selection and high ticket prices kept me from going. We were able to get 3 tickets in Irvine for the price of a single ticket in LA.

Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Irvine is about 60 miles from where we live in Santa Monica. Never one to underestimate the unpredictability of LA traffic we headed out about 4:30pm for a 7pm show. Fortunately the traffic wasn't bad and we arrived at the venue around 5:45pm. A quick bite at Burger King, the only open restaurant near the venue, and then we were off to the show.

The venue was a nice outdoor venue. I assumed there would be covered seating, instead it was an open air venue with a pretty steep slope for the seats, a bit steeper than the Hollywood Bowl. Since the sun was already setting behind the hill we didn't have to worry about Jacki getting sun burned. We were sitting 7 rows off the floor nearly eye level with the bands. These were fantastic seats and a nice surprise considering the last minute ticket purchase.

First up was Vains of Jenna. Our expectations were set high for a band we had never heard. There is a good buzz in the LA hard rock scene for these guys from Sweden. Their set was short and sweet and even included a surprise cover of Tom Petty's Refugee. Now its time to order their cds.

Next up was Ratt. Stephen Pearcy's voice was much better than at Rocklahoma and the band seemed pumped to be playing to a full house. Towards the end of the night Warren broke a string right before starting You're In Love. One chorus in he finally had a break in the guitar parts to be able to do a quick switch out of guitars. Their set was non-stop hits. You can't beat the back to back combination of Lay It Down and You're In Love.

Ratt

August 12, 2007
Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Irvine California

Intro Music (We Will Rock You - Queen)
Dangerous But Worth The Risk
I'm Insane
You Think You're Tough
Wanted Man
Slip Of The Lip
Way Cool Jr.
Nobody Rides For Free
Back For More
Lovin' You's A Dirty Job
Lack Of Communication
Lay It Down
You're In Love
Body Talk
Round And Round

Next up was Poison. These guys know how to entertain a big crowd. The last couple of years I've seen them they have put on a consistently good live show. The crowd in Irvine stayed on their feet for the entire set. Bret mentioned that one of Poison's historic highlights was filming the Ride The Wind video at this venue when it was called Irvine Meadows. At the end of the Poison set I saw CC throw a guitar pic into the crowd. The crowd didn't seem to see it so at the end of the show I walked to the general vicinity of where he threw the pic and was able to find it. A nice score considering we were out of pic throwing range.

Our celeb sighting was when Jacki and Darian spotted Dilana from the RockStar Supernova show.

Poison
August 12, 2007
Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Irvine, California

Intro Music (Highway To Hell AC/DC)
Look What The Cat Dragged In
I Want Action
Ride The Wind
I Won't Forget You
What I Like About You (Romantics cover)
CC Guitar Solo (Ray Charles Tribute)
I Hate Every Bone In Your Body But Mine (CC on vocals)
Something To Believe In
Your Mama Don't Dance
I Need To Know (Tom Petty cover)
Rikki Drum Solo
Unskinny Bop
Every Rose Has It's Thorn
Fallen Angel
Talk Dirty To Me
Encore
Nothin' But A Good Time

Oddly both the Ratt and Poison setlists were slightly shorter than at Rocklahoma. Ratt cut three songs from their set but retained the same set list order. Poison had dropped the Marshall Tucker cover Can't You See, otherwise their set was identical. Another surprise at the show is who would have thought you would have heard two Tom Petty covers at a hard rock concert. Having Stephen nail the vocals for Ratt at this show made their set sound much better than Rocklahoma. Poison seems to never disappoint and put in another great effort. And thanks to the sound guys for making a great sounding show, I dread going to arena shows these days because the sound is often poor but they had this place set up as if you were listening on a great home stereo.

Day 1 at Rocklahoma (Part 2)

Here is the rest of the recap including set lists from Friday night.

July 13, 2007
Rocklahoma
Pryor, OK

Quiet Riot came out and did a very high energy set. The line up included Kevin Dubrow, Fankie Banali, Alex Grossi, and Chuck Wright. They focused heavily on the hits with a couple of tracks from their most recent release. The only complaint is their songs had many false endings where the band would do an ending, Dubrow would get the audience pumped back up, and then the band would re-do the ending. It was great to see Frankie on drums and I noticed that he was playing DW this time around.

Quiet Riot
Metal Health (intro only)
Put Up Or Shut Up
Slick Black Cadillac
Free
South Of Heaven
Mama Weer All Crazee Now
Red Light Mama, Red Hot ->I Don't Need No Doctor -> Whole Lotta Love
Drum Solo
The Wild And The Young
Let's Get Crazy
Cum On Feel The Noize
Metal Health

Next up was Ratt with one of my favorite singers, John Corabi. However John is playing guitar and is not singing lead vocals with Ratt. This line up included John Corabi, Robbi Crane, and original Ratt members Bobby Blotzer, Warren DeMartini and Stephen Pearcy. Stephen's voice sounded a little shot for the set but they showed how they can play to a large crowd. This was a great set and was very well received by the crowd.

Ratt
Sweet Cheater
Dangerous But Worth The Risk
I'm Insane
You Think You're Tough
Wanted Man
Slip Of The Lip
Way Cool Jr.
Nobody Rides For Free
Back For More
Lovin' You's a Dirty Job
Lack Of Communication
Over The Edge
Lay It Down
You're In Love
Walkin The Dog
Body Talk
Round And Round

Last up was Poison. They brought their big stage with pyro and confetti at the end of the night. Brett brought some military up from the crowd for Something To Believe In. It came across as very sincere and was dedicated to the soldiers. For the encore Gene Simmons introduced Poison over the PA. He made a joke about You Wanted The Best but we (KISS) couldn't be there, so enjoy Poison at Rocklahoma.

Poison
Look What The Cat Dragged In
I Want Action
Ride The Wind
I Won't Forget You
What I Like About You (Romantics cover)
CC guitar solo -> Georgia On My Mind
I Hate Every Bone Body In Your Body But Mine (CC on vocals)
Something To Believe In (Bret pulled military up on stage from crowd)
Can't You See (Marshall Tucker cover)
Your Mama Don't Dance
I Need To Know (Tom Petty cover)
Drum Solo
Unskinny Bop (with cool pyro)
Every Rose Has Its Thorn
Fallen Angel
Talk Dirty To Me
Encore
Nothin' But A Good Time