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.

Dinner and movie

Jacki and I took in a movie and dinner Saturday night. Darian had run off with friends to see her new favorite band Take The Crown. So on our night alone we took in Ratatouille at my favorite theater in LA the Arclight. The movie is highly recommended as Pixar never disappoints. The digital animation keeps getting better as do the story lines. And seeing a movie at the Arclight with their caramel popcorn is always a treat.

After a quick run to Amoeba Music we decided to try out something new to eat on the Sunset Strip. We ended up at Carney's, a train that has been converted into a long hot dog stand. Jacki and I agree that this may be the best hot dog we've had in LA.

Earthquake

D and I just felt an earthquake. There is nothing quite like having the entire house rock back and forth. A magnitude 4.5 about 10-15 miles from where we live.

A night at Molly Malone's

Last night Jacki and I went to Molly Malone's to see Smug. We first heard about Smug because their guitarist Rick Musallam plays with Mike Keneally, and held double duty playing both with Smug and later in the night with Mike's band.

As their debut cd was approaching release Jacki befriended their singer/bass player Bret Helm via email. She was looking forward to meeting him since their cd had finally been release. We walked in and saw him standing near the back of the room, went over introduced ourselves, and were able to talk for a few minutes before the next band started.

He stated he wished the album had come out sooner and plans to have a new Smug disc out before the end of the year. His description of the new music was interesting. He described that instead of the sound going more outward, it would instead be a more focused forward sound, and more lo-fi. He said think White Stripes and Beck. At least it made sense when he was telling us about it.

The first band we saw was Loop!Station. A female singer, a cello player and a bunch of loops recorded in real time as part of the performance. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, the creation of loops on the cello isn't something you see everyday, but after about 20 minutes of their set I was ready to see what we had come for. They had a good response from the audience and seemed to have brought the biggest crowd.

Unfortunately after their set the crowd thinned significantly. At one point during Smug's show Bret made the comment about how he thinks there are more people in the audience than on stage.

The other times we've seen Smug they came off more as an indie rock heavily influenced by punk. Tonight their set was less punk and included some elements of improvisation with extended jams during several of the songs.

Their set was awkward at times with silence between songs, although about half way through their set they loosened up and were able to allow for some of the extended jams to breathe. But just as they got going their 45-50 minute set was over.

Highlights included a great impromptu bass performance of Happy Birthday by Bret. What Jimi Hendrix did for the Star Spangled Banner, Bret did for Happy Birthday. During one of the awkward moments of silence someone suggested the band sing Happy Birthday while waiting for Rick to re-tune his guitar.

Other highlights included Jacki's favorite 3 States, It's Me and Most Of All. Check out the pic of Bret using the mic stand for slide bass!

Smug
August 5, 2007
Molly Malone's
Los Angeles, CA

Short Jam (Instrumental) ->
Doubtful
Graham & Liz
Passing You By
(Happy Birthday - Bret on bass)
3 States 6 Days 1200 Miles
Shoulda Wrote A Ballad
It's Me
Most Of All
Passin You By
???

More photos available at
http://picasaweb.google.com/dhoward/SmugMollyMaloneS

Dream Theater goes Platinum

I just got back from seeing Dream Theater at the Gibson Amphitheater in Universal City. For this event I bought the DT Platinum experience which included a meet and greet, a picture with the band and a great seat for the show, more on that later.

Being a Friday afternoon I ended up leaving work early in the event of a worst case scenario with traffic. Fortunately it wasn't that bad and only took about an hour to get to the venue. Once at the venue the DT fans began to congregate outside of the gates and then the Platinum pass holders ended up finding one another.

I picked up my backstage pass around 7pm and headed into the venue. The meet and greet was nothing special. They ended up having about 50 people backstage and just ran us through. First run through was to get a picture. No idea how mine turned out, the person taking the photo said the shots looked fun and I could tell Mike Portnoy was having fun in the pic so I'm hoping it will be a fun picture.

The second run through was to get an item signed. I brought a copy of their most recent cd and had the band sign their picture in the booklet. They also gave us a signed 8x10 of the band as we left the meet and greet. All in all I probably had 90 seconds with the band. If you are wondering if the Platinum pass is worth it, I would say no and stick with the gold ticket that will get you a seat in the first few rows. Maybe it was just LA... The one nice moment during the signing was when the guy in front of me asked Mike what was in the setlist tonight and I said don't tell him. Mike laughed and thanked me so he could tell the other guy he can't say because of me.

Outside of the meet and greet I went and purchased their newest official bootleg of Deep Purple's Made In Japan. I passed on the other merch and made it to my seat. The seat was second row dead center. Can't get much better than that. I caught the last half of the second opener Redemption, featuring Ray Alder from Fates Warning.

During the set break a guy sitting first row center said the subs were too loud and he was going to move back to the second row. I ended up swapping seats with him and ended up front row dead center. The best seat in the house. At this point the camera and I were ready for the show to start.

Once the band came out they had a very clean stage with giant ants hanging off amps, sitting on the ground and hanging on Jordan's keyboard rig. Pretty wild and tied into the theme of the new album cover. They ran through some of the new cd, avoided their hits, and picked some deep tracks from previous albums. A very creative setlist. Although the sound wasn't great due to the subwoofer problem, you could tell the band was spot on and were as tight as ever. At one point I saw Jordan give John Myung a sign of approval after John nailed the closing of a song on bass.

Highlights of the set for me were Surrounded, Lines In The Sand, The Spirit Carries On, and from the medley Learning To Live and Octavarium.

Dream Theater
July 27, 2007
Gibson Amphitheater
Los Angeles, CA

Intro Movie
Constant Motion
Panic Attack
Scarred
Surrounded
The Dark Eternal Night
Keyboard Solo
Lines In The Sand
Misunderstood
The Spirit Carries On
In The Presence Of Enemies

Encore
Medley
i. Trial Of Tears
ii. Finally Free
iii. Learning To Live
iv. In The Name Of God
v. Octavarium

Dream Theater July 27, 2007

Amp'd Mobile RIP

One of our competitors is terminating customer support today and will shut off service in a matter of days. They recently filed for bankruptcy and were not able to secure additional financing. It is never good to hear of a competitors failure, but it is encouraging to see that our different approach to the space is yielding much more positive results.


http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/07/24/ampd-revises-shutoff-date-july-31-at-the-earliest/

Rush at the Hollywood Bowl

The month of concerts continues. Last night I made it out to the Hollywood Bowl to see Rush. I had the best seat I've ever had at the Bowl and Rush came out and delivered a great set. I ended up meeting a guy named Rick from Houston, Texas that had come out for the show. It was nice to talk about Houston and all of those past Rush shows in the Woodlands, at the Summit and even the Texas Jam show at the Astrodome.

The band looked fresh and sounded great. This was one of the best performances I'd seen Rush give. I remember they were also very good on the R30 tour so maybe they are one of those few bands that get better with age. The show started while the sun was still up and by several songs into the set the sun had set. The sound was perfect, you could hear all the instruments and Geddy's vocals clearly. Although Alex appeared to be singing as loud as he could into his mic you couldn't hear him, and that is probably a good thing.

During the intermission Dave Foley walked over to talk to some friends of his that were sitting in the same box I was. I wanted to get a picture with him but he wasn't making eye contact with anyone other than his friends. He said a pleasant hi as he walked up and that was it. As he walked back to his seat a guy one box over did get him to autograph his Rush ticket. Kind of an odd thing to get autographed, but since Dave is Canadian I guess it works.

Highlights of the set Entre Nous, Natural Science, the South Park intro to Tom Sawyer and they fact that Rush played no medleys. All full songs for a change!

Rush
Hollywood Bowl
Los Angeles, CA
July 23, 2007

Intro Movie
Limelight
Digital Man
Entre Nous
Mission
Freewill
The Main Monkey Business (guy comes on stage to baste the chicken's that are rotating behind Geddy)
Bob and Dough McKenzie from the Great White North introduce
The Larger Bowl
Secret Touch
Circumstances
Between The Wheels
Dreamline

Intermission

Intro Movie
Far Cry (w/ pyro as Geddy sings "circuits blowing")
Workin' Them Angels
Armor And Sword
Spindrift
The Way The Wind Blows
Subdivisions
Natural Science
Witch Hunt (w/ more pyro)
Malignant Narcissism
Neil's Drum Solo
Hope (Alex Solo)
Distant Early Warning
The Spirit Of Radio
South Park Video introducing
Tom Sawyer
Encore
One Little Victory (w/ Pyro)
Passage To Bangkok
YYZ

Click below for a few more pictures.

Rush - July 23, 2007

Ozzfest 2007

Darian and I went to the first free Ozzfest in San Bernardino, CA yesterday. 15 bands played and we caught 8 of them. Although I didn't enjoy the music as much as some of the other shows I've recently seen I must commend Ozzy and Sharon for making this a free event.

Second Stage
Daath - First band of the day we saw. They were playing the second stage and the crowd seemed to be into them.

3 Inches Of Blood - Next up, and until the 2nd stage headliners they had the greatest demand of the crowd.

Mondo Generator (featuring Nick Oliveri) - I was expecting more from these guys, but I've always expected more from Nick's other band Queens Of The Stone Age. Crowd seemed to mellow during their set.

Behemoth - European metal with guys decked out in makeup. Intense set, their drummer could play double bass like I've never seen.

Hatebreed - Crowd went absolutely crazy. Multiple pits in front of the stage which resulted in this huge dust cloud over the crowd. We were by the mixing board and could barely see the band because of all of the dust.

At this point D and I headed over to the merch booth to get her a Hatebreed shirt. In the merch area we ran into a couple of her friends a friend that works at Hot Topic in Santa Monica and another friend from her school. We hang out with them for about 20-30 minutes, saw a couple of fights, saw a guy get arrested and quite a bit of blood. Its unfortunate that crowds like this get out of hand. To think 50K plus people at Rocklahoma I didn't see one fight and there were no reports of any arrests. Not the case at Ozzfest.

Towards the end of the Hatebreed set we headed over to the main stage to find our seats.

First up on the Main Stage was Lordi.

Main Stage
Lordi - Pyro galore. This is one of the bands I wanted to see, more for the spectacle. They definitely delivered.

Lordi - Set List
Intro - SCG3 Special Report
Bringing Back The Balls To Rock
The Kids Who Wanna Play With The Dead
Who's Your Daddy
Blood Red Sandman
The Deadite Girls Gone Wild
Devil Is A Loser
They Only Come Out At Night
Would You Love A Monsterman
Hard Rock Hallelujah

Static-X - They earned the best performance of the day. For their song Cannibal John 5 came out, decked out in makeup and played lead guitar for the song. Outside of Ozzy I enjoyed their set the best out of the day.

Lamb Of God - I have heard good things about this band but due to very poor sound during the set I didn't get to enjoy it. Crowd loved it and they did play Laid To Rest, the one song of their's I knew. From where I was sitting Redneck was the biggest crowd pleaser.

Ozzy Osbourne - What can you say about Ozzy, he is the reason Ozzfest exists and if royalty existed in metal he would be at the top. This was my second Ozzfest, the first being 10 years ago in 1997. This was the one tour Zakk didn't play with Ozzy so it had been 16 years since I had seen Zakk. This was a great set. Ozzy's newest lineup grooves much better than the lineup with Rob Trujillo, who went to Metallica. Blasko - Bass
Adam Wakeman - Keyboards (Rick Wakeman's son - Rick is in Yes)
Zakk Wylde - Guitar
Mike Bordin - Drums
Ozzy

Ozzy Setlist
Intro movie with Ozzy integrated into various TV show, music video and movie clips.
Intro music - Carmina Burana
Bark At The Moon - Zakk wearing a black kilt / skirt
Mr. Crowley
Not Going Away
War Pigs
Road To Nowhere
Band Introduction
Suicide Solution
Zakk Guitar Solo w/ Star Spangled Banner
I Don't Know
I Don't Want To Change The World
Mama I'm Coming Home
Encore
Crazy Train
2nd Encore
Paranoid - During the final encore Zakk tripped on his cord, fell on the ground and unplugged his guitar.

Ozzy closed the show saying tickets will cost twice as much next year.

Ozzy made the event worthwhile. I'm not into the new, underground heavier metal out today so I don't see myself getting into the majority of the bands we saw. The only band I might check out would be Static-X.

After the high point of the night with Ozzy we then had to deal with the hell of the venue. It took 2 hours, no exaggeration, to get out of the parking lot. Show let out at 11pm and we get home at 2am.

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

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

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.

A busy few days

This week has been quite busy with the 4th. On Wednesday Darian, Jacki and I went up to York's to rehearse again and to have some 4th of July bar-b-q California style with some steak grilled up for tacos. Food was good and the rehearsal was also good. Darian took her bass this time and we worked on 2 songs. By the end of the night they were sounding fairly tight.

For Thursday and Friday we had back to back nights of Mike Keneally Band. Thursday night was down in San Pedro. I had never been down that way. Once we got to the venue Jacki and I paid admission and then got a quick bite to eat. About 10 minutes after we sat down Joe Travers (drums), his wife, and Doug Lunn (bass) sat in the table right behind us. We knew that as long as we got out of the restaurant before they did then we wouldn't miss anything.

This was probably the best Keneally set Jacki and I had seen. Doug Lunn on bass was also a treat. He played a fretless bass and had a fantastic tone.

A couple of points during the night Mike took requests. I yelled out "I Can't Stop" and he actually agreed to play it. A definite highlight. Other highlights for the night were Rosemary Girl and Uglytown. The band played very tight and the venue was great for live music. Held about 60 people and had grand piano on stage that Mike took advantage of a couple of times through the set. At one point they even launched into a free form improvised piece which they pulled off. Mike was playing a solo that he mirrored on guitar and keyboard at the same time.

The Friday night set was a little looser and not quite as exciting as the first night. They had Evan Francis on sax and flute for some of the set. However the highlight came at the very end of the night when the band played Inca Roads. Jamie Kime from the Zappa Plays Zappa band came up from the audience and Jamie and Joe led the band through an amazing rendention of the Zappa classic. Although Thursday's show was much better the Inca Roads performance was alone worth seeing on Friday night. We took Darian on Friday for her first Keneally experience. Although it wasn't the best first impression she could have had she did say she enjoyed watching Mike play his solos.

Saturday we spent a good portion of the day cleaning. Our house is now the cleanest it has been since we moved in. This up coming week I'm back to work for a few days and then I'm off
to Rocklahoma with Terry.

First Rehearsal

This past Sunday Darian and I rehearsed with a girl named York up in the Northridge area. Jacki and I met York at a Mike Keneally show at the Baked Potato a couple of months back. After numerous exchanges via email, phone and Myspace we finally were able to get our schedules to sync.

Since this was the first time for us to get together this was both a psuedo audition as well as a meet and greet to see if everyone worked well together.

Once the drums were set up we ran through one of York's songs called Relinquish. You can hear a demo recording on her Myspace page.
http://www.myspace.com/karleyyork

Click the song Relinquish to listen.

After working through that song York walked through another couple of her songs. By this point we had somehow convinced Darian to pick up a guitar. Within minutes she had learned the chords for York's next song and Darian was suddenly the primary guitar player for the session. Very cool to see.

One of York's friends, Katt Lowe, also came by. She played guitar, provided feedback to the bass player, Tony, and even ran us through several of her own songs. This was the first time I had actually worked with someone who was semi-professional. She is good friends with the original singer from the Runaways, Cherie Currie. An all female band that featured Joan Jett and Lita Ford when they were in their teens.

The remarkable thing is how Darian is getting involved so young. She is at the right age and is already light years beyond what any of my friends or I could have done at age 15.

The plan is to get back together this weekend. Let's hope that second impressions are as promising.

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.

John Mayer at the Bowl

Just got back from the John Mayer show. This was my first time to see him live and I was pleased with the show. One observation I made is he seems to be playing these multiple roles of pop star, blues guitarist, singer/songwriter and leading a blues/rock band. When he turned on his pop start charm all you could hear were screaming girls. That doesn't happen often at the types of shows I normally go to.

Highlights of the set for me were Good Love is On The Way and Stop This Train.

Openers were Rocco Deluca and the Burden, and Ben Folds. Both sets were good but I don't see myself running out to buy their material. Ben Folds was a character on stage and if you do get a chance to see him you will be entertained. His set seems it would transfer well in a small club.


No Such Thing
Belief
Good Love is On the Way
I Don't Trust Myself (With Loving You)
Waiting on the World to Change
Dreaming With A Broken Heart
I Don't Need No Doctor
Why Georgia
Vultures
Bigger Than My Body
Gravity

-- encore --
Slow Dancing (acoustic)
Stop This Train (acoustic)
I'm Gonna Find Another You

This is the third time I've been to the Hollywood Bowl and now I'm a fan of the venue. The sound was great and the garden seats didn't hurt. I even spotted Jimmy Kimmel sitting near by.

Bob Schneider

D and I just got back from the Keyclub after seeing Bob Schneider play. The Grooveline Horns were backing the band on songs including Tarantula, Bombananza and James Brown's Sex Machine. A good high energy show. Pictures will follow.

Austin MoMo

I've made it back from a successful trip to Austin. Of course I ate some of my favorite food and was able to catch up with some old friends.

Once off the plane I immediately headed for the Salt Lick, but only the one in the airport. I ordered a brisket sandwich with extra sauce. Just as I remembered it, wonderful. The last time I had Salt Lick was when I had Jacki buy some at the airport when she was returning to Atlanta. Her flight was delayed multiple hours and I ended up eating that sandwich nearly 8 hours after she bought it. It was much better to have hot and right off the grill.

Next stop, music. I left straight for Waterloo Records from the airport. Spent about an hour at Waterloo and picked up quite a bit of Texas music including Vallejo, Storyville, and Chingon. I also picked some other things that only a store like Waterloo tends to carry.

At this point I checked into the hotel, and then headed over to see Ron and Kat. I hadn't seen them in years and couldn't have asked for a better visit. Good drinks and even better conversation. Thanks for the great time.

Now back to reality. Although Ron and I stayed up too late, I had to get to work on my presentation first thing Monday morning. The Mobile Monday Austin was the purpose of the trip and I had a good bit of work to do. I put in 2-3 hours up until lunch, then made a side trip for another bar-b-q lunch at Rudy's. I worked at Rudy's for about an hour and then I met up with Enrique, the organizer of Mobile Monday, to work on my presentation.

We met at Opal Divine's on 6th street and worked there for several hours. We had a surprise visit from Tux, a former co-worker. We were able to show each other family pictures, catch up on what old friends are now doing, and then catching each other up on how life is going in general. We worked right up until the time Enrique and I had to go to the Omni hotel for the event.

I thought I was going to be nervous when I presented, but fortunately the audience was very laid back and I was able to have a relaxed and interactive discussion. I was allotted 30 minutes for my presentation and believe I ended up talking for over an hour. People couldn't get enough of Helio. I presented the Ocean and discussed how the key is communication over data services. All content must be discoverable and shared, usability is key, the simple things often have a greater impact than complex features, and shared my ideas for solving mobility problems server side.

This was my first opportunity to present to an industry audience and to hear immediate feedback. There is a lot of excitement about Helio and the audience seemed very pleased with the presentation. It's great to see so many people rooting for us.

Enrique gave a glowing review of my presentation on his blog. My favorite quote is "and today David is one of my mobility heroes". Too kind, too kind.

A special thanks to C. Enrique Ortiz and to Marisa Sladek. Thank you for providing me a great opportunity and for doing a great thing for mobility by carrying the Mobile Monday torch in Austin.

After the event I met up with Terry at Trudy's South Star. He's now my brother in law but that night it felt like we were just catching up over drinks back in college. One of the best times I've had with Terry in years. Terry and I stayed out until Trudy's shut down at 2am. Sorry to keep you up so late!

Since I had a 6am flight the next morning I just ended up staying up all night, the risk of falling asleep and not waking up was too high. I'm now back in Santa Monica, caught up on sleep, and back to my regularly scheduled program.

Thanks to everyone for giving me a better visit home than I could have imagined. It was great to catch up with all of you and I can't wait until next time.

Oh and how do I feel about going back to Austin? Other than the fact that it was 97 degrees and I was sweating everywhere I went, I was glad to see the spirit of "Keep Austin Weird" is alive and well. It was great to see that it still feels like home.

The travel never stops... Austin

Just one more trip and then I'll be home for a while. I was in Korea last week and am heading to my former hometown of Austin as I type this.

I've been invited to speak at a Mobile Mondays Austin by a former colleague of mine, Enrique Ortiz. See below for the details if you are in Austin. I'll be speaking about the launch of our newest device the Ocean.

When: Monday, May 14 , 2007 5:45 pm - 8:00pm
Where: Omni Hotel - Austin Room (2nd Floor) 700 San Jacinto at 8th Street Austin, TX 78701 [map]
Cost: Free, space is limited so please RSVP

It has been nearly 5 years since I've been to Austin. I'm anxious about seeing the town I called home for many years and fear that I'll be disappointed with what the town has turned into. In other ways I'm worried that I'll fall back in love with the town and will want to immediately move back. Hopefully it will be somewhere in between the two.

The best part of this trip other than the food (bbq, and tex-mex) will be getting to catch up with my good friend Ron and brother in law Terry.

Well the plane is now boarding, so wish me luck on my presentation.

Heaven and Hell at the Forum

A week and a half back I went to the Heaven And Hell show (Black Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio). It was a good show although the Heaven And Hell set seemed long. Most of their songs are at a slower tempo and nearly 2 hours of slow tempo music makes for a long night.

Machine Head and Megadeth opened. This was my first time to see Machine Head, they were alright but I still have no plans to get one of their cds. The Megadeth set was great. High energy, good playing and a very tight band. This was my second time to see Dave and the 'Deth. Their was quite a bit of controversy when he changed his band up a couple of years back, but I must say this is a great sounding line up.

The floor was GA which meant I was standing all night and having to deal with a metal crowd. Crowd surfing and the pit was in full swing during the Megadeth set. I was pretty sore from getting banged up by the time the show was over.

The crowd seemed into the bands. Machine Head played to only a small audience, so small I thought the show was going to be a bust. But by the time Megadeth came out the venue was 70-80% full.

Megadeth
April 25, 2007
The Forum
Inglewood, California

Sleepwalker
Take no Prisoners
Wake Up Dead
Kick the Chair
Hangar 18
Washington's Next
Tornado
Symphony
Peace Sells
Encore:
Holy Wars

Heaven and Hell
April 25, 2007
The Forum
Inglewood, CA

-intro- (E5150)
After All (The Dead)
The Mob Rules
Children Of The Sea
Lady Evil
I
Sign Of The Southern Cross
Voodoo
The Devil Cried
- drum solo-
Computer God
Falling Off The Edge Of The World
Shadow Of The Wind
Die Young
Heaven And Hell (extended)
Encore:
Neon Knights


Click below for more pictures

Heaven And Hell (Black Sabbath), Megadeth, Machine Head

More San Diego Pictures

Here are links to the rest of our vacation pictures.

San Diego Zoo

Coronado Island

San Diego Vacation Pictures and Videos

I've been too busy to write an update about our vacation over Darian's spring break. In the meantime you can check out pictures from the trip.

Highlights of our trip included a day at the San Diego Zoo (highly recommended), a day at Sea World, and a couple of days of touring the San Diego area including a stay on Coronado Island and a walk through a haunted house. Oh and Coronado Island is not really an island, go figure.

Sea World

San Diego Tour

Pictures from the Zoo will be posted next.

Former KISS guitarist Mark St. John...RIP

I just found out that former KISS guitarist Mark. St. John died today of a cerebral hemorrage. Mark was only in the band for the recording of Animalize and for a few concerts (3 to be exact) at the beginning of the Animalize tour.

T0 this day Animalize is one of my favorite KISS albums and was the KISS album I probably listened to most when I was growing up. He is featured prominently in the Heaven's On Fire video.

This is the second member of KISS to pass, and although he was a very small part of KISStory it isn't easy to see one of my childhood heroes disappear.

From KISSONLINE.com


Sad to report that Mark Norton aka Mark St. John, KISS' lead guitarist on Animalize, passed away this morning of a cerebral hemorrhage. Mark was 51 years old.

KISS remembers Mark for his contributions and sends their condolences and deepest sympathies to his family and friends.

Welcome the Presidents of America

Last week I attended a wireless industry conference called CTIA. This is a chance for many of the big players in wireless to converge in a single place to show off their new products, services, and also provides a chance to catch up with old friends in the industry. I've been in the wireless industry for approximately 7 years and time and time again you run into the same people. The running joke is the people are the same only the companies on the business cards change.

Over the course of the week I met with numerous companies ranging from brand new startups with a handful of employees to some of the largest companies in the industry including Nokia, and AOL.

The highlight of the conference were the keynote speakers on the final day. President Bush and President Clinton both spoke to a packed hall. This was a great once in a lifetime opportunity.

I arrived about 30 seconds before they came on stage. It seemed as though every chair in the room had been taken. As I walked in a group from Helio waved at me and told me to sit in the reserved rows at the very front that were empty. Not hesitating I lifted the rope and settled into the 3rd row of what had to have been the press area. No one said a thing and I took out my computer and made it look like I was taking notes just like the rest of them. I also ended up with one of the best seats in the entire room. :-)

George Bush came out first, cracked a joke about he and Bill being the odd couple, and proceeded to talk a little about how the telecom industry had a positive impact on his presidency. Bush's speech was more philosophical and and although it had a little less substance than Clinton's speech it was very enjoyable.

Bush had a great presence about him. He came off as charismatic, funny, and very down to earth. My impression of him as president was that of a very formal, and stiff president. Hearing him speak you got the sense of him being a very down to earth person from Texas. You also realize that he has the brains in that family.

After Bush left the stage Clinton came out and made a joke about this is the punishment he gets for winning the presidency from Bush. He is now Bush's straight man, since he follows Bush and is the butt of many of Bush's jokes.

Clinton discussed the importance of Information Technology to the US. He took the principals of how IT benefited the US and stated that wireless technology has an even larger opportunity to improve quality of life in developing nations, and ultimately all of modern society.

The speeches wrapped and Bush and Clinton joined each other on stage together and took some lite questions through a moderator. It was great to see Bush and Clinton united together. They both appeared extremely sincere and extremely comfortable with where they are in life.

It was great to see the two of the them together. It really showed how unimportant the Democrat vs Republican debate is and showed the importance of how coming together and just being Americans can have a much greater impact.

I must also add that Bush looked fantastic. It is hard to believe he is in his early 80s.

Although I was on the third row I wasn't able to get any great pictures. The pictures I took were of the video screens in the room.
Link to more pictures

Link to a recording of the keynote
Link to a good synopsis of the speech

Fighting Foo

Last week in Orlando Florida I was able to see the Foo Fighters play a private concert. This was part of an invitation only party thrown by the mobile phone division of LG as part of the CTIA convention. Once I heard Foo Fighters were part of this event I worked my industry network and was able to get onto the private list.

A small group of us from Helio broke off from our dinner at Hard Rock Live and headed over to the LG party. Security was one of the tightest as far as the CTIA private events went. If you weren't on their list you weren't going to get in. The party was at The Groove on Universal City Walk in Orlando. The club probably held a couple hundred people at most.

We arrived early around 8:30pm, had a couple of drinks and met up with some of the people we knew at LG. After we caught up I headed to the stage. The band ended up coming on a little after 10pm.

Foo Fighters
The Groove
Orlando, Florida
March 27, 2007

All My Life
My Hero
Times Like These
Learn To Fly
Breakout
For All The Cows
Best Of You
The One
Big Me
Generator
Monkeywrench
Everlong

During the set Dave Grohl made reference that they were playing an office party. Since Dave knew LG was footing the bill he started to joke around about how cool LG was and how Sears sucks and that he won't buy Kenmore, he'll only buy LG. Little did he know that it was the Mobile Phone division of LG sponsoring the event and not the LG appliances division. At least he tried.

Highlights of the set for me were All My Life, Learn To Fly, Monkeywrench and Everlong. I've been playing drums quite a bit a the house and All My Life, Learn To Fly and Monkeywrench are regularly a part of my practice set. The parts aren't that complex but they are extremely tiring to play and are just fast enough to be out of comfort zone. During the breakdown of All My Life I noticed their drummer slowed the tempo to make it easier to play. Pretty interesting that their drummer seemed to struggle ever so slightly with the exact same part of the song as I do.

The oddest part of the show was you had many people, myself included, dressed in casual business attire with jackets and slacks. Many of the people at the show weren't very familiar with the band. It seems such a waste that these private events don't allow for their biggest fans to see them. Fortunately I was able to take advantage of this and was able to get a setlist, Chris Shiflett's , their lead guitarist, guitar pic (red), and Dave Grohl's guitar pic (black). Chris only threw one pic into the audience and that was thrown directly to me. I pulled Dave's pic off his mic stand after the show.

Afterwards the group I was with headed back over to the Hard Rock for another private party. This one was thrown by MTV. After talking to a couple of people at the front desk we were able to get in to the party. The artist at the MTV party was Three 6 Mafia. A hip hop artist I had heard of in name only. After watching about 30 minutes of their set I still don't see the fascination with live hip hop performances. A bunch of people on stage rapping to music coming over the PA.

The MTV event was nice and was much more conducive to visiting with people. The LG Party was all about the Foo Fighters concert, and the MTV party was much more social and allowed for light business networking.

After finding the larger group of Helio people at the MTV party we said our goodbyes, broke for the night, and all headed back to our respective hotels.

Link to more pictures from Foo Fighter's show.