Iron Maiden and Anthrax in Irvine

Last night was my first of two back to back Maiden shows. I took the day off from work and rested up for the long drive and headed out about 4pm for an 8pm show. As I was headed down there Friday rush hour was picking up and the 60 mile drive ended up taking close to two an a half hours. The time went quick, I was jamming out to Maiden and Anthrax psyching myself up for the show and then when I saw a car on the road that had IRON MAIDEN! 666 on the back window I knew I was not making the trek from LA to Irvine down the 405 alone.

Once I had a quick bite to eat outside the venue I headed over to the parking lot and was parked and in the venue by about 7pm. The show time wasn't scheduled to start until 8pm but Lauren Harris (Steve Harris' daughter) and her band got an early start at 7:30. Not sure she was a good fit for the show and although she and her band were adequate I've heard much bands that are unsigned.

Now I was ready to see Anthrax. I wasn't a big Anthrax fan as a kid but as I've gotten older I've gotten into the band quite a bit, first with the John Bush era material and then later becoming familiar with the Belladona era. I had only seen the band once with John Bush back in 2000 and I missed out on the entire Belladona reunion. Anthrax was debuting their new lineup featuring their new singer Dan Nelson. As they hit the stage the seats filled and you could tell they had quite a few fans at the show. The best part was when Maiden announced these two shows in Irvine, Anthrax were not part of the bill. A very nice after the fact surprise.

The band was loose and having fun. This was their second show with Dan and he was working the crowd like he had been fronting Anthrax for years. His voice was almost a blend of Belladona and Bush but he could also do more of the deeper modern metal vocals as well. I think his voice sounded more like Bush, however he sounded better on the Belladona material. They didn't play any of the new songs they played at their first show in Chicago, but the greatest hits set suited me fine since this was the first time I saw them since I've become familiar with the material. By the end of the set the band was fairly tight and I'm anticipating they will be great tonight.

Anthrax
Irvine, California
Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
(Formerly Irvine Meadows)
May 30, 2008

Indians
Got The Time
Caught In A Mosh
Madhouse
Antisocial
Room For One More
Safe Home
Only
I Am The Law

Ever since moving to LA Iron Maiden was one of the bands I wanted to see out here. They recorded their monumental album Live After Death in Long Beach, and I thought how perfect would it be to be at a show where Bruce yells "Scream for me Long Beach". Although I was slightly disappointed that they didn't play Long Beach, Irvine is just a short 30 minute drive away and Bruce humored the crowd and yelled "Scream for me Long Beach" and the crowd went wild.

I've been checking out quite a few bootlegs from the recent tour and on the first leg of the tour back in the Spring the band played loose and the drums always sounded sloppy to me. Not last night, 6 months of touring has made Maiden a touring machine. You could hear each of the three guitars independently, the solos cut through, and Nicko was in top form.

One interesting series of events occurred right before The Trooper. Steve Harris saw a fight break out and proceeded to pause the show for about 2 minutes as he cussed out this unruly kid. Bruce not knowing what was happening since he was behind the stage for the set change yelled out I feel a Foreigner song coming on, and sang the line "I've been waiting... for this song to start". Shortly thereafter they launched into The Trooper and Bruce got the background on what happened after the song.

The show was great and at first I was worried about going back to back nights since I doubt the setlist will change, but now I'm anxious for tonights show. The one thing that surprised me is how chatty Bruce is. Through out the show he gave long winded intros but seemed sincerely in awe at the size of the crowd. I'm not sure if last night was sold out, it sure looked like it, but Bruce announced that tonight's show was sold out so if you didn't already have a ticket then you won't be able to see Maiden again.

As they wrapped the set Bruce said a new Maiden album is in their future and they will be returning to Southern California. Up the irons!

Iron Maiden
Irvine, California
Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
(Formerly Irvine Meadows)
May 30, 2008

Pre-show Intro Music - Doctor Doctor (UFO)
Intro Movie
Winston Churchill's Speech
Aces High
2 Minutes To Midnight
(Scream For Me Long Beach)
Revelations
The Trooper
Wasted Years
The Number Of The Beast
Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
Powerslave
Heaven Can Wait
Run To The Hills
Fear Of The Dark
Iron Maiden (Big Eddie)
Encore
Moonchild
The Clairvoyant (Walking Eddie)
Hallowed Be Thy Name

Recording Engineer for hire

This past weekend I was asked to record my friend Tad's new band, Broken Ocean. It was the first time that I recorded a project that I was not a performer on. We got a late start Saturday night and realized that we were a bit unprepared with the necessary equipment to do a proper recording. With a little improvisation I was able to record some very basic tracks.

The challenge we faced was we were in a tiny room, had no instrument isolation, and didn't have enough headphones, or cords long enough to properly set up and record against a click track. We ended up tracking the music live with no vocals into Protools. 4 songs later we called it a night.

I feared the worst so I didn't listen to the recording for 2 days. Last night I sat down and began roughing out some mixes and was surprised that the material I had to work with was recorded fairly well. We had a couple of minor issues, one issue being we left the monitoring PA on during one of the tracks so you can hear some PA interference in the low frequencies, but other than that little mistake the recordings were usable.

The recording was dry and clean, and each instrument's track had very little bleed from other instruments. I couldn't believe this considering the room we recorded in was no bigger than 12'x12'.

The fidelity of the recording and the performances captured aren't appropriate for an official CD release but it is suitable for a demo CD and/or the band's MySpace page. As I learn more about microphones, different audio treatment effects (outboard and plugins) and become more efficient with engineering I think each recording I work on will get progressively better. I think in a couple of weeks we will try to do a fuller recording, layer in vocals and some additional guitars.

I was pleased that this very fast and rough recording rivals in sound quality some of the very early recordings I did with The Superlatives.

If the recordings get posted online by the band I'll be sure to link to them.

Two nights with Rush

This past week I was able to see Rush twice at the brand new Nokia Live Theater in Los Angeles, or as Neil Peart may say, a very "large mobile phone manufacturer" Live Theater in Los Angeles. Both shows were great but ended up being entirely different experiences as my concert karma continues to be at an all time high.

Tuesday night I went with Greg, a co-worker of mine. He had picked us up tickets shortly after they went on sale. Once we found our seats we realized we didn't have the closest seats in the place and determined that the seating chart on Ticketmaster was slightly misleading. Nevertheless we enjoyed the two and a half hour show.

For Thursday night I had bought a single ticket right as they went on sale and was able to score a 12th row center. The seat was much better, the sound was much better and this was the closest I had been for a Rush show in over 10 years.

The show starts and the seats next to me end up filling up. Shortly before the intermission I saw a group of people walking down the aisle who had asked security to help them find their seats. They ended up having the three seats next to me and forced the seat squatters who had been there most of the show out of their seats.

During the intermission the group struck up a conversation with me asking how much I paid for my ticket. I told them and then looked at their ticket and pointed out that their ticket was free and was labeled complimentary. Making a small talk joke I said unlike me, you actually know important people. At this point they reveal that the gentleman in their group is named Rupert and produced a couple of Rush's albums. I asked if this is Rupert Hine who produced both Presto and Roll The Bones and they were impressed both with my knowledge of Rush and the fact that I knew who Rupert was. I ended up talking to them through out intermission.

Fast forward to the end of the show and as the crowd is leaving they told me they had an extra backstage pass and asked if I wanted to join them to meet Rush! With no hesitation I said yes, thanked them, then told them that I had to run to buy merch and that I would be right back.

About 5 minutes later I joined the group and was able to get a true backstage experience. Once in the hospitality room they had hors d'oeuvres, wine, beer and other assorted drinks. A bit more upscale then most back stage areas I've been to. I just had a bottle of water. Rupert his ex-wife Natasha, and their friend Jacqueline stayed with me the entire time and I was able to hear numerous stories about Rupert's time with Rush, meeting the band, having Neil petition him for nearly 7 years to work with them, moving temporarily to Toronto to work in the studio, and hearing about how great the three guys in Rush were so great to him and his family for the few years they worked together.

After about 10 minutes Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson join the group to do the after show meet and greet. Geddy immediately sees Rupert, and says hi to our group first. Geddy tells us to stick around awhile so he can make the rounds and come back. Rupert graciously introduced me to Geddy as a friend.

Being backstage was a bit of a who's who in the LA music scene. Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters), Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), and someone I've become recently familiar with Jason Falkner (Jellyfish), a couple of guys from Vertical Horizon, and other industry types like personal managers such as Stewart Copeland's (The Police) personal manager.

Unfortunately Neil Peart does not join these types of events so Rupert and Natasha were taken to a separate room to talk to Neil privately. When they returned they said they had a great visit and Natasha had told Neil how the end of his drum solo reminded her of when she saw Max Roach and which delighted Neil. Once they return I had worked my way over to Alex Lifeson. Rupert once again introduces me as a friend and I'm able to get autographs and a great picture with Alex. This is one funny guy, if he hadn't done music he probably could have done stand up. Everything he said was hilarious.

Geddy finally made his way back to us and I was able to get his autograph and a picture with him as well. To top everything off when we leaving both Geddy and Alex shook my hand, remembered my name and personally told me that it was nice to meet me. Who would have thought that these guys would ever know who I was, even if only for a short moment in time.

I must thank Rupert, Natasha, and their friend Jacqueline for giving me such a memorable night. You just don't see this type of generosity given to a complete stranger. Thank you.

Rush
May 6 & May 8 2008
Nokia Live Theater
Los Angeles, CA

Limelight
Digital Man
Ghost Of A Chance
Mission
Freewill
Main Monkey Business
The Larger Bowl
Red Barchetta
Trees
Between The Wheels
Dreamline

Intermission

Far Cry
Workin' Them Angels
Armor And Sword
Spindrift
The Way The Wind Blows
Subdivisions
Natural Science
Witch Hunt
Malignant Narcissism ->
Drum solo
Hope
The Spirit Of Radio
2112
Tom sawyer

Encore
One Small Victory
Passage To Bangkok
YYZ

Even though my concert going experience was very different I found both performances to be very consistent including identical setlists. The first night Mission and Red Barchetta were my personal highlights. The second night Mission remained a highlight with the addition of Far Cry off their latest album. On both nights Subdivisions seemed to get one of the largest crowd reactions. I enjoyed the performance slightly better Thursday and in talking to Geddy he thought the band performed better as a whole on Thursday and said the sound seemed better as well.

What a recap. Now I'm off to listen to Presto and Roll The Bones!

My Pictures are on the Dream Theater Tour Site

I just saw that many of pictures I took on Friday have been used on DT's official tour site.
http://progressivenation2008.com/tour/photos

They pulled my pictures from my Flickr stream.
http://flickr.com/photos/drumdave/tags/progressivenation/

This is a pretty cool way for bands to interact with fans and use content from the audience. Let's hope more bands do this in the future.

Also since I didn't post it last year, here are a couple of picture with me and Dream Theater from the meet and greet last year.

Dream Theater at Gibson Amphitheatre

This past Friday I saw the opening night of the Progressive Nation 2008 tour featuring Three, Between The Buried And Me, Opeth and Dream Theater. One of Jacki's friends flew into town with her husband and son for the show. So we left the wives at home and headed out for a night of Progressive metal music.

I was only familiar with Dream Theater so I didn't know what to expect from the other openers, although I had heard good things about Opeth. The first band was 3, or Three, I saw it written both ways. These guys were great, and combined progressive metal with a latin / fusion flair. After their set I went and bought their most recent cd from the merch booth. After doing some research it seems these guys have been around awhile although I don't know how they've continued to stay below the radar. Do not miss these guys, one opening band you'll regret not seeing years from now.

The next band up was Between The Buried and Me. Not bad but not great. I'm not into the cookie monster vocals but overall the music and the set didn't bother me. After seeing 3 though it made this bands set fairly forgettable.

Opeth hit the stage next and had a great reaction from the audience. I hadn't heard any Opeth material but the crowd seemed fairly familiar with the material. This was another set that was good but not great. I did like how they combined elements of metal, and the more atmospheric moods of someone like Pink Floyd or even the softer side of Sabbath from the Ozzy era. Unfortunately I don't see myself running out and buying an Opeth cds.

This marked my 11th time to see Dream Theater and they were the only band on this bill I was here to see. I would still rather have an "Evening With" set but all things considered they played a good length set. Although my seats were better last summer, 1st row center, I was close to the stage and could hear the music and vocals much better this tour. Last year all I could hear were the subs on the front row.

I also enjoyed the set list on this tour more than last year's, and I must give Mike Portnoy credit for bringing a show that only had one common song from last year's tour and even comparing it to the other two shows I've seen in the LA area nearly zero repeats from tour to tour.

Dream Theater
May 2, 2004
Gibson Amphitheatre
Los Angeles, CA

(Intro Video / 2008: An Ant Odyssey)
In The Presence Of Enemies Pt. 1
Beyond This Life
Blind Faith
Forsaken
Erotomania
Voices
The Ministry Of Lost Souls

Encore
(The Dark Nintendo Night - intermission)
Medley:
I. Metropolis (w/ extended solos)
II. Learning To Live
III. A Change Of Seasons: The Crimson Sunset

The highlights for me were Forsaken, and Erotomania into Voices. For the encore break they showed The Dark Nintendo Night clip that has been making the rounds on YouTube. This is a mashup of our favorite character Mario from Nintendo fame disguised as Mike Portnoy running through Mario Bros world with the music of The Dark Eternal Night. I had seen this before but based on the reaction of the crowd I think this was new to most. It brought a much needed sense of humor to an otherwise serious night of music.

The Progressive Nation web site links in fans photos and video so with any luck you will see the photos I took published on the official Progressive Nation 2008 Photos Page.

Now below is The Dark Nintendo Night for your viewing pleasure.

Good Hurt

We just rocked a midnight show at Club Good Hurt and arrived home a little after 2am. We pulled another 15 of our own people into a midnight Thursday show which surprised me. Nate is working the Myspace promotions hard and was able to bring in a group of people off of adding them as friends as Myspace. Jacki continues to be our number 1 fan, sporting an Outlaw Engine T-shirt and I was able to bring in a couple of people from work. Although one of the guys I didn't really know.

We had a much larger crowd than last week, probably 30-40 people were in the small club and most stayed until the very end of our set. Afterwards I had several people come up and introduce themselves and said we were the best band of the night and wanted to know more about our band. So this was the first night where I saw we officially made some Outlaw converts! And as Wil and Presi have said Horsemen is our bread and butter. Every person I talked to after the show said they loved Horsemen. I guess that means we will have to keep it in our set.

We met the booking agent for the club and he said he liked what he heard and some of the staff gave the nod of approval so he is going to continue working with us to get us in front of more people. That is always a good thing. We as a band also received our first drink tickets! Our first form of payment. Ha!

To cap off the night on the way home CCR's Travelin' Band came on the radio. An apropos ending to our drive considering that is the song we closed our set with tonight.

Thanks to all who came out. Our next show is on May 16th at Paladino's. See you there!

Outlaw Engine
May 1, 2008
Club Good Hurt
West Los Angeles, CA

Rebelution
Born In East LA
This Woman (Fool Of Law)
Big River (Johnny Cash)
Sweat Out The Sin
The Palace Of Pleasures ->
I Know Why
Honey
The Four Horsemen (Metallica)
Travelin' Band (CCR)

B.B. King's Cancelled

It looks like BB King's Club in Los Angeles has gone out of business. We just received the call that they are closing and all shows are canceled. Our revised list of shows are below.

May 1 2008 12:00A	Club Good Hurt	West Los Angeles, California
May 16 2008 12:00A	Paladino’s	Tarzana, California
Jun 5 2008 11:00P	14 Below	Santa Monica, California
Jun 26 2008 10:30P	The Derby	Los Feliz, California

Outlaws at Universal

Announcement - OUTLAWENGINE.COM lives! Not sure how we will use it but for the time being it points to our myspace page.

Monday night the Outlaws made an appearance at the Universal Bar And Grill in Universal City, CA. Jacki was able to make it out even though she had been fighting sickness the last few days. Andrew from Seven Seraphim also came to check us out. More on Seven Seraphim later.

Our set was only 30 minutes so we had to drop a couple of songs from the set. This meant the first change in our set list since we started gigging in early April. Nate continues to line up shows so come out if you can.

May 1 2008 12:00A	Club Good Hurt	West Los Angeles, California
May 4 2008 8:00P	B.B. Kings	Universal City, California
May 16 2008 12:00A	Paladino’s	Tarzana, California
Jun 5 2008 11:00P	14 Below	Santa Monica, California
Jun 26 2008 10:30P	The Derby	Los Feliz, California

Outlaw Engine
April 28, 2008
Universal Bar & Grill
Universal City, CA

Rebelution
Born In East LA
This Woman (Fool Of Law)
Big River (Johnny Cash)
Sweat Out The Sin
The Palace Of Pleasures ->
I Know Why
The Four Horsemen (Metallica)

105 degrees is LA

Mudcrutch at the Troubadour

Last night Jacki and I got to see Tom Petty make a rare club appearance in the standing room only Troubadour in West Hollywood. He was playing a set with his original band from the 70's called Mudcrutch. The band includes a couple of members from the Heartbreakers and a couple of the original guys from the Mudcrutch days before Tom Petty became famous.

They are doing a small run of concerts in California and this was the 2nd night of 6 sold out nights at the Troubadour. Unfortunately they didn't distribute tickets in an effort to prevent scalping, so tickets were sold exclusively through Ticketmaster and could only be picked up by the credit card owner. Supposedly this standing room only I heard the venue only holds 300 people.

The band played a solid 2 hours, and although the audience knew very little of the material, it didn't stop the crowd from having a great time. The band threw in a few covers including a couple of Dylan covers that had the crowd singing along. Security was tight so no good pictures from the show.

Near the end of the set Jacki noticed that what appeared to be Tom's monitors on the floor of the stage were actually teleprompters. I guess after all of these years you can't expect Tom to remember 2 hours of new material. However I doubt anyone noticed the use of them all night.

Tom took an unassuming role settling in on bass for the entire night and even let some of the other guys sing lead vocals on a couple of the songs. Although Tom doesn't look like a bass player he sounded great plucking the country bass lines with his his thumb the entire show.

Highlights of the show for me were Summertime Blues, the bluegrass influenced instrumental June Apple and the Crystal River jam at the end of the song. Tom also turned part storyteller telling a hilarious story about coming to the Troubadour in the 70s and being invited on stage to play with the Knack after getting a bit intoxicated. When it was all said in done he thought he had a memorable appearance but in reality he ended up trashing the tables and ended up owing the club nearly 500 dollars.

A great show in a great venue.

Mudcrutch
April 26, 2008
Troubadour
West Hollywood, CA

Shady Grove
Orphan Of The Storm
Six Days On The Road
Scare Easy
You Go Your Way, I'll Go Mine
This is a Good Street
Love Of The Bayou
(Band Introductions)
Queen Of The Go Go Girls
Rip It Up
Summertime Blues
June Apple
(Tom Petty Troubadour story with the Knack and Bruce Springsteen)
House Of Stone
Love Please Come Home
Crystal River
Topanga Cowgirl
The Wrong Thing To Do
Bootleg Flyer
Encore
Rainy Day Women #12 & #35
High School Confidential

Putting on the Hurt

Wednesday night Outlaw Engine played Club Good Hurt on the edge of Venice. We went on at 11pm and played a tight set in front of friends. The venue had a great vibe, decent sound system, and Bianca, the promised nurse bartender.

We arrived early enough to catch the band before us but I don't remember their name. We enjoyed drinks, and I discovered Vodka and club soda is a pretty tasty drink. The set was short and sweet, as it will be for the next few shows. We played the same set but now Nate, our singer, has started to rename some of the working titles based on his lyrics.



Outlaw Engine
April 18, 2008
Club Good Hurt
West Los Angeles, CA

Rebelution
Born In East LA
This Woman (Fool Of Law)
Big River (Johnny Cash)
Sweat Out The Sin
The Palace Of Pleasures ->
I Know Why
Honey
The Four Horsemen (Metallica)
Travelin' Band (CCR)

Born In East LA is quickly becoming one of my favorites and its been running through my head ever since the show Wednesday night. With that I'll leave you with a couple of videos from the show.





Thanks to Marc and Eric for coming out late on a Wednesday night and to Jacki for taking the video and staying out past her bedtime.

Outlaw to play Club Good Hurt

I just found out we will be playing Club Good Hurt tomorrow Wednesday April 23. We will go on around 10:30 and I'll be down there around 9pm. Come out if you can.

I think its time for a new flyer :-)

The Outlaws Ride Again

Outlaw Engine had our second show this past Friday at Paladino's. Jacki and I arrived to the venue around 8:30 just as Wil, our guitarist was pulling up. We decided to arrive early so we could load in with the band that was scheduled to go on at 9pm. This would give us time to get our gear into the club and to relax a bit before the show.

Once gear was loaded in I was able to have a beer with Jacki and meet friends as they came into the club. This week I had quite a few more friends and co-workers show up. I probably brought out between 15-20 people to this show, even including a couple of members from my other band Spidersuit!

I ended up traveling for work 4 of the 5 business days last week so we were only able to get in one rehearsal at 10pm on Wednesday night. I had flown in that morning from Mexico so I was running on caffeine fumes for rehearsal. Fortunately this one rehearsal was just enough to improve on the previous week's show.

We played the same setlist and things felt much better. The tempos were there, I wasn't forgetting changes, the band seemed to groove better this week and most importantly my muscles didn't freeze up on me like the did last week.

Outlaw Engine
April 18, 2008
Paladino's
Tarzana, CA

Tequila Rockingbird
Born In East LA
Fool Of Law
Big River (Johnny Cash)
Sweat Out The Sin
Blue Fly Whisky
I Know Why
Honey ->
The Four Horsemen (Metallica)
Travelin' Band (CCR)

Afterwards I did a quick load out and was able to say hi to my friends. The band ended up hanging out for another hour or so, drank some more beer, and I shot pool with a friend. We even got our first band picture, courtesy of Jacki.

We are in the process of lining up some more gigs in May so we won't be quiet for long.

Here are couple of videos you can enjoy from Friday.

Eddie Vedder at the Wiltern

Yesterday I met a friend of mine from work, Jeremy, out to see Eddie Vedder on his short West Coast only April Fool's Tour. I wasn't sure what to expect, I had peeked at a setlist from a previous night so I knew he would be playing material from the Into The Wild soundtrack and I knew a handful of songs he tends to play solo would be part of the set. But what I didn't expect was Eddie solo with an acoustic guitar (or ukulele, or little guitar, electric guitar etc...) for close to 2 1/2 hours.

I hate to say it but the rest of Pearl Jam wasn't missed. Eddie entertained, sounded fantastic vocally, told jokes and stories between songs, played a little improv, and even had to give a surprise acceptance speech to accept his Golden Globe Award for Into The Wild in person.

Our tickets were through the 10c fan club and once again the PJ fanclub didn't disappoint. We were dead center 6 rows off the floor. We were on the second level off the floor so our seats were elevated above the section in front of us so we had no trouble seeing. And Eddie even made the crowd sit and said since he was playing a theater setting he wanted everyone to sit back and enjoy.

A very entertaining show. And even the opening act Liam Finn was a pleasant surprise with his unique and entertaining set. Liam's set consisted of him with a female vocalist setting up loops on guitars and vocals and jumping between frenetic drums and guitar from song to song, all in the context of a singer songwriter motif with a little angst.

Eddie's performance of Arc at the end of the first encore was amazing. He built up layers of vocals performing one vocal at a time with layer upon layer before wailing a vocal solo on top of the foundation he built. After this I was convinced the show was over. Such a unique and perfect ending. The curtains dropped and Eddie graciously gave what appeared to be his final bow.

When he came back out he played a couple of songs solo and finished the show with a standing room only performance of the uplifting song Hard Sun.

Other highlights from the set included Man Of The Hour, this song grabs me in an emotional way every time, Soon Forget (w/ the uke), the anti-war song No More, and the crowd sing-a-longs with The Beatles' Dylan-esque You've Got To Hide Your Love Away, and Tom Petty's I Won't Back Down.

Eddie Vedder April Fool's Tour

April 12, 2008 Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Support: Liam Finn (with Eliza Jane Barnes)

Main Set: Tuolumne (Intro Music), Walking The Cow, Around The Bend, I Am Mine, Dead Man Walking, (God Is In Control*) (Limit Yourself**) / Masters Of War, I'm Open, Man Of The Hour, Setting Forth, Guaranteed, No Ceiling, (with Golden Globe Acceptance and Speech), Far Behind, Rise, Millworker, Soon Forget, Broken Heart, Driftin’, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Trouble, If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out, I Won't Back Down, Forever Young, Porch

Encore 1: Society (with Liam Finn), Throw Your Arms Around Me (with Liam Finn), No More, Arc

Encore 2: Growin' Up, Lukin, Hard Sun (with Liam Finn and Eliza Jane Barnes)

* from a TV commercial
** improv

The Outlaw Aftermath

We just finished our first show. I had a decent turn out of some friends from work and some business partners. Thanks to all who came, I really appreciate the support.

We went on stage right at 10pm and played about 40 minutes. I thought our set would last longer, but given this was our first gig the adrenaline was pumping and we raced through the material.

Outlaw Engine
April 11, 2008
Paladino's
Tarzana California

Tequila Rockingbird
Born In East LA
Fool Of Law
Big River (Johnny Cash)
Sweat Out The Sin
Blue Fly Whisky ->
I Know Why
Honey ->
The Four Horsemen (Metallica)
Travelin' Band (CCR)

The funny thing is I didn't even know the names of some of these songs, and I'm seeing the titles for the first time from the printed setlist! Haha!

Honey is by far the hardest song for me to play in the set, with numerous time changes, a groove that rocks in 11/4 and some speed metal style drumming in the verse. We nailed it! So that was a big relief. I had some first show jitters so I missed a couple of intros and lost my place during one of the chorus' but all in all I'm pleased with my first performance. And one lesson learned is I've got to tighten all the cymbal stands before I start playing. I had one cymbal that kept falling during the set. Oh well.

I bought a Tascam DR1 on my way home from work and I was able to get a live recording of the set. I tried to get a board mix but I didn't have it set up right so I just got a recording through the built in mics. I now have some homework to listen to the performance before our gig next Friday.

Outlaw Engine Gig #1

This Friday, Outlaw Engine debuts their new drummer. Me! If you are in the LA area click the flyer to the right and print out and bring to the show. If you bring a printed flyer you will receive a discount at the door and most importantly the band will get credit for having someone at the show.

We are the third band of the night and will be in front of a Bad Company tribute band. We will also be playing Paladino's on Friday the 18th as well. I guess this place will become the equivalent of the Last Great Watering Hole for my last band.

I look forward to seeing everyone out at the show.

Spidersuit Recording Day 2

We resumed recording bright and early at 10:30am today at our rehearsal studio. After listening back to the tracks I decided the ever increasing tempo on Love Sick was something I couldn't live with. We ended up doing 3 additional takes and finally got something I could live with. I've been sick most of the week so I was worried that I wouldn't have the energy to play. I ended up being fine energy wise although I had to concentrate on playing more than on the first day of recordings. As a result my playing was a little stiff and it took me the three takes to get loosened up.

After that we went to recording a couple of more new drum tracks. The first was Far Stick and the second was Devil Went Down To Pedro. We did two to three takes of each and I'm fairly pleased with my performances. On Devil I changed to smaller cymbals on the second take in order to give a lighter sound, but the band seemed to prefer the vibe of the first take better. I think I prefered my performance on the second take better but I'll have to listen back once I get copies of the recordings.

We also did a take of a song I wasn't as familiar with called Isaac Newton A Go Go. At this point the band next door started rehearsing so we had to stop recording. The first take wasn't a keeper so we will have to revisit this one in a future recording session.

I have a gig this upcoming week with another band so I had to break down my drums after the recording. This leaves six drum tracks recorded and ready for the rest of the band. Our goal was to track 4 songs so having 6 songs recorded will give us some options of if we put out a 4 song vinyl single or even a 6 song cd ep.

The Ace Pic

The picture with Ace came through. Check out me, Ace and Dean.

Ace Frehley Rocks Anaheim and Hollywood

This past Saturday and Tuesday I was able to see Ace Frehley in the Los Angeles area. First in Anaheim, about an hour from where we live, and a second time in nearby Hollywood. Both shows were at House Of Blues venues and with the great setting and sound systems made for some great shows.

First up was Anaheim. Jacki, Darian and I headed down late Saturday afternoon to get down to Anaheim before the doors opened. We had been told that they were moving the time for doors to open up an hour so we were in line shortly before 7pm. Unfortunately the doors didn't open till after 7:30 so we were a bit early.

Once inside we split up. Darian and Jacki wanted food and I headed for the front of the stage. House Of Blues are notorious for not allowing cameras but after a succesful night of pictures of Queensryche at HOB Anaheim I thought pictures at the Ace show wouldn't be a problem. Right before Ace came out Darian brought me the camera and she headed up stairs to watch the show from the balcony with Jacki.

The opening band was called The Trews. Good music, strong musicianship and a great singer. Unfortunately the songs weren't very memorable although the played one song that interpolated The Rolling Stones "Gimme Shelter" which was cool.

Next up was the main event. The last time I saw Ace solo was back in 1994 in Houston, Texas. I remember the band and setlist being good but Ace not being in the best of shape. This was a completely different Ace. Sober and with a great band behind him. This performance was extremely tight and the arrangements of the KISS songs rivaled Paul Stanley's solo show a year or so back and had an energy that even KISS doesn't always hit when they perform. Seeing in arena caliber band in such a small venue always translates to a great performance.

As you can see I was able to get some great pictures from this show. All of the pictures were from Anaheim. Unfortunately about 1/3rd of the way into the show a security person made their way through the crowd and told me no pictures. I promised no more pics and kept that promise. So as a result no great pictures of the NY Groove guitar or the smokin solo, although I did take a smokin solo picture with my Helio the night of the event.

Anaheim went by so fast but I think was the better of the two performances. Highlights of the Anaheim setlist were Hard Times, Parasite and Love Her All I Can. The last song being one of my all time favorite KISS songs and not one I'd normally associate with Ace.

After the show we capped off for a late night dinner at the Rainforest Cafe and made it home around 1am.

The Hollywood show was a completely different experience. I had planned to go alone to this show but due to a new partnership I was establishing at work I was comp'd access to the House Of Blues Foundation Room and given a couple of extra tickets. Thanks to Mark and Sean. I initially thought I only had 1 extra ticket so I invited Brian, a friend from work that I knew would appreciate a night out seeing Ace. Once down to the venue we found out we had another ticket in will call so I called my good friend Dean and he was able to come down and join us.

Before the show Brian and I headed up to the Foundation Room which is a private bar on the top floor of the House Of Blues. Typically the guests are industry people, and VIPs of the sort. I think someone told me they saw the drummer for Blondie up there.

After some phone tag we were able to meet up with Dean inside the venue. We had access to an elevated set of reserved seats on the floor of HOB so after talking with the security guard, and finding our names on his list we were able to get seated.

We missed the opening act entirely in LA but didn't miss any of Ace's set. The band came out and played the same set as in Anaheim. I noticed the band wasn't as tight as in Anaheim but Ace seemed to be having much more fun. He was cracking jokes through out the night, told a couple of KISS stories and even introduced himself as Tommy Thayer as he launched into the guitar solo for Shock Me. Nothing quite like the real Ace introducing himself as fake Ace. And then during the Shock Me solo Ace burned his fingers when the guitar was smoking. He cut the solo short, blew on his fingers and told the crowd that he burned himself during the solo. A quick change of guitars and back into the set.

Shock Me and Love Her All I Can were the standouts for me in LA.

After the set I ran down to the floor and was able to get the guitar pick of the bassist. Not an Ace pick but a nice consolation. Once the venue cleared out we headed back to the Foundation Room to cap off the night. Upstairs one of Dean's friends, Ken Sharp and his wife, came over to talk to us. Ken Sharp wrote the liner notes in the KISS Box Set and wrote my favorite KISS book called Behind The Mask. It was a treat to meet him and hear some of his stories about interviewing KISS and the people around KISS. He mentioned he just finsihed a new piece in the new Goldmine magazine that covers KISS' early days on the NY club scene that I'll have to read.

As we were talking Ken mentioned that he wrote the bio for Ace's current tour and bio for Ace's new album and that he was going to go backstage to say hi. He had talked to Ace recently on the phone but hadn't seen him in nearly 7 years. After we saw Ken walk past security with no issues Dean, Brian and I followed along. Once backstage there were a small number of fans no more than 10 and a couple of industry people like Ken including one of the producers for the Detroit Rock City movie. Ken talks to Ace's management and is able to get us into Ace's dressing room for a quick meet and greet.

This was entirely unsuspected so all I had on me was a piece of paper in my back pocket and my concert ticket. No camera, no CD, nothing, but I made the best of what I had. Ace graciously took pictures, signed autographs and briefly spoke with each of us. Dean and I got our picture with Ace and hopefully the guy backstage that took the picture will email it to us soon. Ace was in a good mood, although he didn't seem too comfortable with the praise but took things in stride. I told Ace that he was the last of the original 4 from KISS I got to meet and that this was a dream come true. He said in his high pitched voice "Ok... do you want me to sign something". Very funny. He did a similar thing when Brian was taking to him. Ace signed two great autographs for me, first my ticket and then a much larger autograph on a piece of paper.

One thing worth noting is that Ace is sober on this tour. Brian happened to have a beer in hand when we walked into the dressing room and Ace's manager politely told him that alcohol was not allowed around Ace. Last time I saw Ace solo he was a bit strung out so seeing him take sobriety seriously was impressive.

I now have all of the original KISS members autographs and the only KISS autograph I'm lacking is Mark St. John, who passed away last year and was a member of KISS for only a few months. The night ended up being a strange alignment of events but I have to thank Mark and Sean for the access to the Foundation Room, Dean for introducing us to Ken and to Ken for getting us into meet Ace. This was a night I won't ever forget.

Ace Frehley
March 22, 2008
House Of Blues
Anaheim California

and

Ace Frehley
March 25, 2008
House Of Blues
Los Angeles California

(LA only - introduction "Transmission sequence activated")
Rip it out
Hard times
Parasite
Snow blind
I Want You (partial) (Drummer Coogan on vocals)
Rock soldiers
(LA - Ace joke paraphrased. Ace said he was talking to a guy in Silicon Valley that asked Ace who used the first computer and Ace said the chinese? The guy says no Adam and Eve. Eve had the Apple and Adam had the Wang..... )
Breakout (Coogan on vocals)
Into the void
Strange Ways (Bassist Esposito on vocals)
Medley Torpedo Girl, Speeding Back To My Baby, 5 Card Stud, Trouble Walkin (Coogan vocals)
Stranger In A Strange Land
New York Groove (with back in the Anaheim and LA Groove)
(LA - Ace said, as Paul Stanley would say give yourselves a round of applause)
2000 man

(LA - Ace joke that wasn't funny. Why did god create gentiles. Somebodys gotta pay retail.)

Shock Me
(LA - Ace yelled Tommy Thayer before solo)
Guitar solo
Rocket Ride

Encore
Deuce
Love Her All I Can (Coogan vocals)
Love Gun (Coogan vocals)
Cold Gin
Black Diamond (Outro)

I met Ace

I can't believe it, I met Ace Frehley tonight. I will blog more after I stop shaking!

--
Sent from my Helio Ocean