Rocklahoma 2009 - Day 1

Terry and I made it to Rocklahoma 2009 yesterday. Nothing quite like coming back to the show and seeing familiar faces, and meeting up with friends we've made through the years at the event.

We arrived to the event around 3pm and once we got our wristbands
1. Age verification for drinking (check)
2. 4 day pass for event (check)
3. VIP Seat assignment (check)

As we walked into the venue Metal Church was wrapping up their set. We only saw one full song which ended up being a cover of Deep Purple's Highway Star. This also marked Metal Church's final performance as a band. It seemed a non event.

Next up was Anvil. I had seen their movie and although their music isn't the best I was looking forward to their set. Shortly before their show I bought their newest CD "This Is 13". The recording of this CD was featured prominently in their movie.

Sadly the Spinal Tap moments haven't ended for this group. Let's count.

1. They had no roadies and were loading their own gear onto the stage prior to their set. Spinal Tap moment #1.

2. Lips is their frontman and ran right out onto stage at the start of their set and then immediately tripped on a stair and fell on his face. Spinal Tap moment #2.

3. Lips is fairly chatty between songs, and he'd tell these stories that were a bit awkward. It's like the guy that tells a joke or story and the delivery is poor. Fortunately Lips is charming so although the stories were awkward you found yourself laughing anyway. Spinal Tap moment #3.

4. Near the end of their set Lips trips on the stage again, making for a total of 2 falls. Spinal Tap moment #4.


Anvil

Soundcheck - This Is Thirteen

Set
This Is Thirteen
666
School Love
Winged Assassins
Jack Hammer
Race Against Time
White Rhino -> Drum Solo
Metal On Metal

They were fun to watch and although their music isn't all that memorable I had a good time. However, I don't think Anvil did much for Terry.

Next up was Overkill, but we didn't see them. We were off to meet Saxon and Nigel their drummer. Out in LA one of the bands I'm in is called Spidersuit and features Pete on guitar. His sister married the drummer of Saxon a couple of years back so as we were driving up to the event and listening to music I noticed Terry had some Saxon on his iPod. A couple of emails and phone calls later we found ourselves backstage getting autographs and pictures with Saxon. A lot of fun and completely unexpected.

After the meet and greet we headed to the VIP tent and ate dinner and refreshed our beverages. Next up was Saxon!

I had maybe heard only 2 Saxon songs prior to the show, and I must say they put on a hell of a show. They gave the best performance out of all the bands on Day 1. Lots of double bass which was nice for me to see as a drummer and considering we had just met Nigel backstage, and since I'm connected via a couple of degrees of separation it was great to see them bring such a great show to the event.

Saxon

Battalions Of Steel
Heavy Metal Thunder
Demon Sweeney Todd
Strong Arm Of The Law
Valley of The Kings
This Town Knows How To Rock
Dallas 1pm (Last minute addition to set list requested by Anvil)
Wheels Of Steel
Crusader

Encore
Denim And Leather
Princess Of The Night

After the set Nigel texted me, and asked me how I liked the show. It was the surprise of the day for me and I had a great time. He said it was nice to meet me and Friday morning he heads back to England.

The final show of the day was Anthrax. Terry is a big fan but had never seen these guys live. I'd seen them a few times through the years so I knew they can bring a great show and this was the event I was looking forward to all day.

Anthrax's new singer is Dan Nelson and as the guys walked onto the stage Dan looked considerably different from the last time I saw him. He had a beard and looked a little more sinister, which is appropriate for metal. And Scott Ian had a full beard as well.

Their set had a slow start, the crowd interaction was poor and the guys in the band weren't hitting their stride. About 3-4 songs into the set they were getting into the rhythm of the show and Dan was working his best to get the crowd that had been out in the sun for as many as 12 hours to give some energy back to the band.

Anthrax

Indians
Got The Time
Madhouse
Antisocial
Fight 'Em (new song)
Caught In A Mosh
Safe Home
Room For One More
Only
What Doesn't Die
(Birthday celebration for Frankie Bello. The brought out a cake and had the crowd sing happy birthday to him.)
I Am The Law

Encore
Whole Lotta Rosie (AC/DC cover)

I was standing by some guys we had met last year and starting with Caught In A Mosh we started some very light moshing and banging into one another. Only 3 of us doing it but fun nonetheless.

After the set I was able to get a Frankie Bello guitar pic, a Scott Ian guitar pic, and Rob's setlist. Considering the drought of after show freebies through the day it was nice to get some Anthrax after concert swag. Terry walked up after the set and was as hoarse as could be. Nothing like singing at the top of your lungs for 90 minutes.

Once Anthrax's set was over they showed the Anvil movie on the big screens. Terry hadn't seen it before so we stayed for the movie and were on the road back to our hotel shortly shortly before 3am. After a quick shower, and the after concert wind down we were asleep by 3:30am. Approximately 13 solid hours of rocking. Not bad for day 1.

Sunday Rocklahoma 2008 - Setlists

Here are the setlists for Rocklahoma I documented for Sunday day 5. The first band of the day we saw was Zebra. They played their hits including Who's Behind The Door, Tell Me What You Want and The La La Song. Similar to Triumph I had high hopes for this band. They had a few technical difficulties and weren't able to connect to festival crowd so early in the day. However they did get people on their feet for Who's Behind The Door. I do give Zebra the distinction as having the coolest guitar pic at the festival. How cool a guitar pic is that!

UFO
July 13, 2008

Mother Mary
When Daylight Goes To Town
Hard Being Me
This Kids
Only You Can
Baby Blue
Too Hot Too Handle
Lights Out
Love To Love
Rock Bottom

The first set I documented was UFO. I had always enjoyed the song Lights Out but didn't know any of their other material. Watching their set was a bit mixed. At times they sound like two bands, one from the classic rock era of the early 70's and one from the hard rock era of the late 70's. Needless to say the hard rock material was my preference. Highlights from their set were Baby Blue, Lights Out and Too Hot Too Handle.

Ace Frehley
July 13, 2008

Rip It Out
Parasite
Snowblind -> I Want You (ending)
Rock Soldiers
Into The Void
Shout It Out Loud
New York Groove
Shock Me -> Solo (w/ She live ending)
Rocket Ride
Deuce
Love Gun
Cold Gin

I had high hopes for Ace, especially after the challenges of Saturday and I had been disappointed with the line up this year compared to last. Ace delivered and the KISS Army was in full force during his set. I was surprised by the heavy selection of KISS that Ace didn't sing on or write, but Ace knew how to deliver these hits to a festival crowd. Ace had the last day light performance and across the 5 days Ace had the best set during this time. Ace was reusing his KISS Farewell tour pics. He couldn't even spring for an event pic like Zebra did.

Tesla
July 13, 2008

Comin' Atcha Live
Into The Now
Gettin' Better
Hang Tough
Mama's Fool
Heaven's Trail (No Way Out)
Love Song
Little Suzi
Signs
Edison's Medicine
Modern Day Cowboy

Tesla was the breakout set for me on the mainstage at this year's Rocklahoma. They came out, blew everyone away and left the stage much too early. I would have liked to have seen them get an extra half hour in their set.

Queensryche
July 13, 2008

Operation Mindcrime

Encore
Walk In The Shadows
Take Hold Of The Flame
Jet City Woman
Empire
Silent Lucidity

I left the Queensryche set near the end of the Operation Mindcrime performance so I could catch Ron Keel and K2. I saw the Mindcrime performance in Los Angeles a yaear or so back and this was a tour I didn't enjoy. I enjoyed their performance better at Rocklahoma but would have preferred a rock concert as opposed to a theatrical performance. I listened to their encores while sitting at the North Tent. Great band and normally a great show but I'm ready for them to move past the Mindcrime theatrics.

K2 - featuring Ron Keel
Final North Stage (Tent)
July 13, 2008 - (actually July 14 Monday 1:30am)

American Thunder
Rock And Roll Outlaw
Evil, Wicked, Mean And Nasty
Sombody's Waiting
Becuase The Night
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
Give Me All Your Love Tonight
Tears Of Fire
The Right To Rock
Lick It Up (KISS)

The K2 set was one of the best shows for me at all of Rocklahoma. I was able to meet Ron Keel in the VIP food tent on Friday and after the storms knocked the side stages down I assumed that K2 would not be able to play.

On Sunday they put up two small tents to replace the fallen North and South Stages. Ron and K2 went on stage after Queensryche's set, the last act on the main stage. When Ron started the show there was just a few of us and by the end of the set he had nearly everyone in the tent right at the front of the stage with him. I never thought I would get to hear Keel songs performed live again and hearing songs like Tears of Fire, Somebody's Waiting and The Right To Rock were incredible moments for me. Ron added two songs to the set that weren't planned and he finished off his set and Rocklahoma 2008 perfectly when he closed his set with KISS' Lick It Up.

Rocklahoma is over

Its 3:30am and we are just now getting back to the hotel after the 5th day of Rocklahoma. I'll do write ups when I get back to LA but I have to say I just saw K2 featuring Ron Keel. And to top off a perfect performance he ended his set with KISS' Lick It Up. Awesome!

Rocklahoma Day 3 - 2008

We have made it past the halfway point and are getting a late start today. Yesterday was good, bringing Rocklahoma back to the levels of last year both with performances and crowd size. The attendance still seems a little lower than last year but it is hard to tell with the side stages evenly splitting audiences to different sides of the fair grounds.

Armored Saint was on stage when we arrived and we caught the last 3-4 songs of their set. John Bush sounded great and at the end of their set I was able to get a guitar pic from their bassist Joey Vera. I will need to keep my eye out for some old Armored Saint CDs.

Next up was Kingdom Come. I had no expectations and enjoyed their set. Back in the day many joked by calling them Kingdom Clone, due to a couple of their songs sounding like Led Zeppelin rip offs. They made reference to this controversy during their set. This was their first show on US soil in over 15 years.

We made it over to the VIP tents for some food and I was able to get a picture and speak briefly with Ron Keel. I was surprised I was able to recognize him but after watching him for a few minutes and looking at the tattoos on his arm I approached and confirmed it was Ron. I am looking forward to his new bands set K2 on Sunday night.

Living Color was the musical highlight of the day for me. Great musicianship although the crowd didn't know what to think of them and the band really didn't know how to work a festival crowd. Corey Glover came out into the audience during Cult Of Personality which made for one of the more memorable performances. I had never seen them before so I was hoping to hear more material but by keeping the set short and sweet they were able to leave a lasting impression.

The best performance of the day was Night Ranger. Heavy on hits including one Damn Yankees song. After watching these guys I've got a new respect for Brad Gillis. Note perfect solos, lots of emotion and a great performer. The crowd was really into them and gave the band the best response of the day.

The last two acts of the night were the highly anticipated reunions of Extreme and Triumph. Extreme was a great show and Gary Cherone is an amazing front man. I'll likely be seeing Extreme later in the year in Hollywood and for a first performance of the tour they already sound tight and Nuno sounds amazing as ever. I enjoyed their rockers much more than the ballads. The only negative comment is they tried to play the show like a headlining concert with a beginning, middle and end. The moodier middle of their set lost the festival crowd, but should make for a dynamic headlining performance for their own tour later this summer.

Last up was Triumph. My very first concert Texxas Jam 1983 featured Triumph as one of the acts and I remember as a kid being amazed with their set. I think my expectations may have been too high for Rocklahoma. It was a good set but the setlist left something to be desired and the extended versions of a couple of songs just felt a bit excessive to me. The audience seemed mixed on Triumph with a lot of the crowd clearing out before their set was over, but for the people that were Triumph fans they couldn't stop talking about how amazing a set it was as we were walking out.

We roamed the grounds after the Triumph set and caught parts of 4 more after party bands. Gypsy Pistoleros, The Banned (a cover band), Dirty Penny, and an all female hard rock group. The after parties ended at 3am and by the time we got back to our car and to the hotel it was a little after 4:30am. A very long day.

Off to Day 4.

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.

Rocklahoma Day 1 - 2008

Terry and I just wrapped our first day of Rocklahoma 2009. We got checked into our hotel late afternoon and made it to the Rocklahoma grounds around 6:30. It had rained earlier in the day so things were a little wet, a little muddy and very humid. We did a cursory walk through the VIP area and found our seats from last year and then headed to the merch booth. I bought a Ron Keel cd which was next to a side stage. We walked over just as the side stage was getting started and saw Bang Tango.

I had never seen Joe Letsé live and he played a short set of Bang Tango with a couple of Beautiful Creatures songs thrown in. Last year they didn't have these large side stages so it was nice to see a smaller crowd in a GA environment right up against the stage with some big name talent, or at least big in Rocklahoma terms. It was a good start for the fest prior to a big act on the mainstage.

Bang Tango
July 9, 2008
Rocklahoma

20th Century Boy
Dancin' On Coals
Love Rejection
Dressed Up Vamp
Attack Of Life
Ride (Beautiful Creatures w/ BC bass player)
Kick Out (BC w/ bass player)
Someone Like You

After the Bang Tango set Terry and I walked over to the main stage area to watch Firehouse. Last year Firehouse was one of the surprises and played a great set. This year their set was just ok and even though the singer tried to work the crowd they didn't win over any new fans. The Wednesday line up was added at the last minute and the crowd was a fraction of what it will be this weekend so maybe the bands were having a harder time feeding off a crowd so early in the festival.

Firehouse
July 9, 2008
Rocklahoma

Overnight Sensation
All She Wrote
Oughta Be A law
Shake & Tumble
Love Of A Lifetime
Reach For The Sky
Don't Treat Me Bad

Just as their set ended we headed back to the side stage where we saw Bang Tango perform. Just as we got in front of the stage the curtain dropped for Faster Pussycat. They played a short set that skipped many of their hits. This band still sounds good live, but time has not aged these rockers well.

Faster Pussycat
July 9, 2008
Rocklahoma

Power And The Glory Hole
Cathouse
Slip Of The Tongue
Number 1 With A Bullet
? (lyric - turn you on... turn you up...)
House Of Pain
You're So Vain

At this point the sets were perfectly timed, so as the second stage ended Eddie Trunk was on the main stage announcing the next band. Jackyl was up next. I find Jackyl very entertaining although I didn't need to see their entire set. They played the usual hits and capped off the set with a flying chainsaw routine which included pyro concussion bombs. I forgot my cord for my digital camera so I'll post the chainsaw pics when I return home. Since we missed some of Jackyl's set I didn't take set list notes.

Ratt was the last band of the night and they alone were the reason we made an extra effort to come out to the Wednesay date. The band sounded great and didn't disappoint. They played their entire first EP and mixed up the set a bit from their tour last year. Being the final headliners they added an extra few songs to their set. I taped their performance and after a quick listen in the car back from the hotel I think I'm going to have a bootleg worthy of sharing. Stephen's voice was better than last year's performance although the energy of the band wasn't as high.

Ratt
July 9, 2008
Rocklahoma

Tell The World
Sweet Cheater
Walkin' The Dog
U Got It
You Think You're Tough
The Morning After
Back For More (Ratt EP Version)
Wanted Man
I'm Insane
Lack Of Communication
Lay It Down
You're In Love
Lovin' You Is A Dirty Job
Dangerous But Worth The Risk
Slip Of The Lip
Way Cool Jr.
Body Talk

Encore
Givin' Yourself Away
Round And Round

One day in and it is now 3:30am local time. We capped off the evening at Waffle House and consider the first day a good start. We'll wake up around noon tomorrow and lather, rinse, and repeat.

Rocklahoma

Rocklahoma here I come. I fly into Austin tomorrow to make the drive with Terry. Music kicks off Wednesday night. The next post will be from the road.

Rocklahoma 2008

Here is the official line up that was announced today at the Whisky in Hollywood.

Thursday (Pre Party for those who have bought three day tickets) Bret Michaels, LA Guns featuring Tracii Guns, Enuff Z Nuff (w/ Donnie Vie and possibly Jake E. Lee), Vain, House of Lords and Jet Boy.

Friday: XYZ, Armored Saint, Kingdom Come, Night Ranger, TBA, Triumph and TBA.

Saturday: Pretty Boy Floyd, Every Mother's Nightmare, Tora Tora, Black N Blue, Trixter, Kix, Warrant (w/ Jani Lane) and Cinderella

Sunday: Axe, Beautiful Creatures, Zebra, Lynch Mob, TBA, Tesla and TBA

Side stages include Ron Keel (possible Keel reunion), Paul Shortino, Neil Turbin's Deathriders, Drive A (a local favorite of Darian) and some 30-40 other bands.

I'm excited about Triumph, Extreme, Night Ranger, Cinderella and Tesla. I'm still hoping Motley Crue or KISS is added as one of the headliners but that is just speculation at this point and based on the bands listed may be too big for the festival. Other headliners I'd speculate at this point would be Whitesnake, Judas Priest or maybe even Def Leppard.

This past year I kept a draft of predictions and here are the ones I got correct.
Cinderella, Tesla, Extreme, Night Ranger, Keel, Triumph

Rocklahoma Pictures and Wrap Up

Day 1 Pictures


Day 2 Pictures


Day 3 Pictures

It is very hard to sum up how great this event was. The music was great and hanging out and catching up with Terry made it that much better. We were able to relive some of those old times where we would take a road trip or fly somewhere to see some great bands.

Everyone we met was fantastic, from the group on the 10th row that let us hang outin their seats the entire time, to the security guys that always welcomed me to the front of the stage to take pictures, to the people we met at the hotel and restaurants that were just excited to know we came to their little town in Oklahoma to experience Rocklahoma.

The event was the most organized big event I had been to. Reserved seating also made a big difference in making this a very enjoyable event. All said and done we caught 20 bands in a 3 day period. It is quickly becoming a blur and can't wait to do it all over again next year.

Day 3 Rocklahoma Set Lists

Here is a recap and the set lists from the final day of Rocklahoma. Wrap up and pictures will be posted next.

July 15, 2007
Rocklahoma
Pryor, OK

Terry and I arrived during the Steelheart set. I think we missed two songs. I was pleasantly surprised. The singer had an amazing voice and I had forgotten that he was the singing voice of Mark Wahlberg in the movie Rockstar. The highlights for me were We All Die Young and Stand Up.

Steelheart
(missed first two songs)
Buried Unkind
Sinner (?)
I'll Never Let You Go
We All Die Young
Stand Up -> fast riff from middle of Dazed And Confused (Led Zeppelin)

They changed the order of the bands so I thought Britny Fox was up next but evidently they swapped set times with Steelheart, so LA Guns was up next. Terry and I were eating lunch and ended up missing the first song of the LA Guns set.

For me this was the breakout performance from the third and final day. I've now seen LA Guns three times but with radically different line ups. This line up featured Tracii Guns, his son Jeremy Guns on bass, Chad Stewart on drums, and original vocalist Paul Black.

Paul Black was a fantastic front man. He worked the crowd well, had a Chris Robinson (Black Crowes) kind of look and vibe about him and seemed very happy to be playing to the crowd. Chad Stewart was also playing with Faster Pussycat so I think he gets the distinction of being the hardest working man at Rocklahoma.

L.A. Guns
(missed first song)
No Mercy
One More reason
L.A.P.D.
You Can't Always Get What You Want (Rolling Stones) -> with Sweet Child Of Mine riff (GnR)
Ballad Of Jayne -> Whole Lotta Love -> Superstition -> Ballad Of Jayne
(Paul Black invited people on stage, well over a hundred jumped on stage. This was one of the highlights of all of Rocklahoma, a great moment)
Shut The Fuck Up (Brides Of Destruction)
Sex Action -> Paint It Black (Rolling Stones)
Hells Bells (AC/DC)
Never Enough
Mean Street intro (Van Halen)
Electric Gypsy
TNT w/ Paul on Drums and Chad on vocals (AC/DC)
Children Of The Grave riff (Black Sabbath) -> Rip and Tear

One of my favorite bands Great White was up next. The played a nice selection of hits, album cuts and even played a new one off their yet to be released new album. Their set was more blues rock and laid back. Even with that said they were able to keep the audience standing on their feet the entire set. Jani Lane came out for Jumpin' Jack Flash and shared vocals with Jack Russell. Jack had one of the best punchlines on stage. After introducing the rest of the band he said if you don't know me by now then you don't know Jack.

Great White
Cant Shake It
Face The Day
Standin' On The Edge
On Your Knees -> Achilles Last Stand (Led Zeppelin) -> On Your Knees
Mista Bone
House Of Broken Love
Save Your Love
Rolling Stoned
Rock Me
Jumpin' Jack Flash w/ Jani Lane (Rolling Stones)
Once Bitten Twice Shy

Jackyl is a band with a singer that comes off as extremely arrogant and full of himself. However those are the ingredients for a great front man. Their performance was great and the crowd loved it. The music was a mix of hard rock and southern rock with a heavy dose of over the top lyrics thrown in. Of course the highlight of the set was with the chainsaw solo during The Lumberjack.

Jackyl
Sometimes I Find Myself Acting Just Like a Negro (?)
Push Comes To Shove
Just Like A Devil
She Loves My Cock
Kill The Sunshine
Down On Me
I Stand Alone
When Will It Rain
Dirty Little Mind -> Miss You reference (Rolling Stones)
Redneck Punk
Black Sabbath intro (Black Sabbath) -> The Lumberjack

I've been seeing Queensryche live since their very first tour back in 84/85. They ended up being a last minute replacement act replacing W.A.S.P. I was disappointed in losing W.A.S.P. but I think 95%+ of the audience considered the 'Ryche a huge upgrade. Their music doesn't traditionally fit in with the rest of the bands on this line up but they were able to command the audience just fine. The delivered a fairly high energy set and omitted their slower paced songs for this appearance. Geoff even hit some of the high notes in the middle of Take Hold.

Queensryche
The Whisper
Damaged
Breaking The Silence
I'm American
The Hands
Another Rainy Night (Without You)
I Don't Believe In Love
Eyes Of A Stranger
Empire
Walk In The Shadows
Take Hold Of The Flame
Jet City Woman

The last band of Rocklahoma was a group I was into very heavily as a child. I never had the chance to see them live and had to settle for a Dee Snider solo show with his band Widowmaker in the 90s, which was great. Dee and company know how to command a huge crowd. They brought their New York attitude, the makeup, the costumes and played great. This was a great send off for the first Rocklahoma and I don't think a single person in the crowd left the show dissappointed.

The surprise song of the night was Silver Bells from their Christmas CD. They brought in fake snow that fell from the lighting truss, like confetti, brought out the Santa hat and even threw out candy canes into the audience. This was also one of their best sounding songs of the entire night. This was a great send off and great to see one of the bands I so dearly loved long ago.

Twisted Sister
What You Don't Know
The Kids Are Back
Stay Hungry
Captain Howdy
Shoot 'em Down
You Can't Stop Rock And Roll
Fire Still Burns
We're Not Gonna Take It
The Price
Burn In Hell w/ Drum Solo
Silver Bells
I Wanna Rock
Encore
Come Out And Play
SMF

Day 2 Rocklahoma Set Lists

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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

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.

Day 1 at Rocklahoma (Part 1)

Terry and I started our day with a 3 hour drive from Choctaw up to Tulsa. We ended up starting an hour later than we hoped but it wasn't a problem since we were able to eat a good breakfast and get a little extra sleep.

We checked into our hotel in Tulsa around 1:30 and headed out to Rocklahoma shortly thereafter. We got to the venue at 3pm, an hour before the first big band went on stage. We got our wristbands, found our seats and got some of the VIP buffet food.

The first band of the day was White Lion. Well only Mike Tramp from White Lion but he was billed as White Lion. We noticed the seats hadn't filled in so we claimed some seats around 10th row center. Fortunately we were able to keep these seats the entire day, so we are hopeful that we will be able to use these seats for the shows on Saturday and Sunday.

White Lion came out, and both looked good and sounded good. So good in fact we though maybe they should have been bumped to a later time. Little did we know how good the other bands were going to be.

July 13, 2007
Rocklahoma
Pryor, OK

White Lion
Hungry
Little Fighter
Tell Me
Wait
Lady Of The Valley
When The Children Cry
Radar Love

Second act out was Y & T. I've come to love several Y & T songs through the years and it was great to hear them live. I'd seen Y & T previously back in '85 and '87 when I wasn't all that familar with the material. Tonight they played all of my favorites including Don't Stop Runnin', Mean Streak and Summertime Girls. They had the best sound fidelity of the entire night. Dave's voice was perfect, the band had a great sound and was by far the tightest band that played. Although they did lose some momentum with the audience during some of their slower songs.

Y & T
Black Tiger
Lipstick And Leather
Don't Stop Runnin'
Dont stop
Dirty Girl
Mean Streak
Rescue me
Eyes Of A Stranger
guitar solo / instrumental (possibly I'll Cry For You)
Summertime Girls
Forever

The surprise act for the day was Slaughter. Only Mark Slaughter and Blas Elias are remaining from the original line up, but that didn't matter. All these years most of my friends, myself included, have joked about how bad Slaughter is, and even called them Laughter but with an S as in Slaugh-ter. They probably played the best show of the day, and Mark worked the crowd harde than any other band today.

Slaughter
The Wild Life
Burnin' Bridges
(Mark's amp not mic'd, he ends up walking around for about 3-5 minutes soloing on guitar until his guitar can be heard over PA)
Spend My Life
Mad About You
Eye To Eye ->
Heaven and hell (Black Sabbath cover) ->
Eye to Eye
Fly To The Angels
Up All Night

During the middle of the set Mark came out to the crowd to get everyone worked up. He ended up standing right over me on the 10th row and was singing from there for about 2 minutes. I have some great pictures that I'll post shortly.

That is the update for tonight. It is now 4:20am Rocklahoma time and we have a full day ahead tomorrow.

Sets for the Quiet Riot, Ratt, and Poison shows will be posted shortly along with numerous pictures.

On the road to Rocklahoma

I flew in today to Austin to meet up with Terry. We are off to Rocklahoma! I finally got to see his place. On the way out of town we ate at Pappasito's, I had to get a quick tex-mex fix in. We drove for about 5 hours and crossed the Texas / Oklahoma border and pulled off to get a hotel.

We are staying the night at the Choctaw Indian Casino in Durant Oklahoma. Rooms are cheap, nice enough, and we will get a good shower and breakfast here in the morning. It is a bit surreal, a Vegas style casino in a small Oklahoma town. It looks to be full of locals. After checking into the hotel around 1am we went down and played about an hour of Blackjack. We quickly learned no alcohol is available at Indian casinos and decided to call it a night.

Tomorrow we will have a full day. Check in to the hotel in Tulsa, head over to the event in Pryor Oklahoma, and take in our first day of bands that include White Lion, Y&T, Slaughter, Quiet Riot, Ratt and Poison.

I've seen all the bands before except White Lion. I'm looking forward to the Y&T (saw for the first time in '85) and Ratt (saw first time in '99).

We will head out around 10am.