Grease

We were pleasantly surprised to see Eddie Mekka 'Carmine' from Laverne & Shirley take the stage and warm up the crowd.  We didn't know he was in the musical. He sang and announced that next year is the 40th anniversary of Grease. The show is timeless and we were ecstatic to finally see the musical version of Grease!

For the most part, the scenes were very close to the movie. The first scene featured the theme song 'Grease' with the whole cast including T-Birds & Pink Ladies. Second scene was 'Summer Nights' which introduced us to Danny and Sandy at Rydell High.

The 'Greased Lightning' scene featured a rocking red convertible with flames on it which the T-Birds restored on stage. However, (unlike the movie), the song was lead by Kenickie instead of Danny. The choreography was spectacular and exceeded our expectations.

Eddie Mekka played two characters. The first was Vince Fontaine from the WAXX radio station at the dance as well as the Teen Angel who sang ‘Beauty School Drop Out’ to Frenchie (with pink hair). Our favorite cast member was Rizzo. She had Stockard Channing's character traits of a bad-girl down pat. She exuded attitude as she sang ‘Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee’ and ‘There Are Worse Things I Could Do’.

The musical ended similar to the movie with Sandy getting a fabulous makeover by Frenchie to the ‘Tell me about it…stud’.  Like the movie Sandy and Danny and everyone are together in the end. The final two songs were 'You're the One that I Want' and 'We Go Together'.  They received a standing ovation.

Keith Urban

Keith Urban performed a free concert at West Edmonton Mall to promote his new album “Get Closer”.  It was the only Canadian promotional show.  There were 3,000 people in attendance and a lot of screaming women.  He joked that the last time he did a free show in 2001, only four people showed up; he was glad more showed up this time!  He had his acoustic guitar and a drum machine; not everyone is talented enough to pull that off.

He played 7 songs.  His set list included ‘Days Go By’, his new single ‘Put You In a Song’, ‘Making Memories of Us’, ‘Kiss a Girl, (where he brought up a teenage fan to come up and do a duet with him), ‘Stupid Boy’, a cover of ‘The Joker’ by Steve Miller band, and ‘Somebody Like You’.  He was supposed to do 5 songs, and said twice, “This is my last song”.

He did a meet and greet after the show for the 200 fans that went to buy his new album the day before at HMV.  Some loyal fans stayed overnight just to have the chance to meet him.  His upcoming Canadian September 2011 tour was announced for shows in Ottawa, Toronto, London, Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver.  Tickets go on sale March 4 at 10:00 am.

http://www.keithurban.net/

Hard Core Logo Live

We saw the musical Hard Core Logo Live at the Roxy.  It is a stage adaptation of the 1996 Canadian cult-classic mockumentory that is based on the book by Michael Turner, ‘Hard Core Logo’.  The movie was loosely based on the punk band D.O.A from Vancouver; it starred Hugh Dillon (the former lead singer of the Headstones).  The movie had cameo appearances by Joe ‘Shithead’ Keithley of D.O.A, Art Bergmann, and Joey Ramone.

The musical started with a “Punkerland Who’s Who” featuring Joe Keithley, ‘the Godfather of Canadian punk’.  The musical is very similar to the movie.  A punk rock band ‘Hard Core Logo’ – Joe Dick, Billy Tallent, John Oxenberger, and Pipefitter reunite to do a fundraiser for their friend who has been shot; and it turns into an eventful tour across Western Canada.  There is a lot of live music and they included the song ‘Who the Hell Do You Think You Are?’ which won a Genie Award for ‘Best Achievement in Music – Original Song’.  The Musical Directors of the play were Joe “Shithead’ Keithley and Corinne Kessel.

The Director of the movie Bruce McDonald has stated that there is a Hard Core Logo sequel in the works!  Until then, the punk opera is in Edmonton until December 5. 

http://www.theatrenetwork.ca/

Canadian Music at the Grey Cup 2010 Festivities

The City of Edmonton built a stage for Canadian bands to play on for the 2010 Grey Cup Festival.  There was Canadian music all over the city all weekend outdoors and at all of the parties. 

The first band we saw at the Huddledome was Helix.  Brian Vollmer said they just about didn’t make the show as their plane was late, the door wouldn’t open, their vehicle didn’t arrive on time, and they got lost and the GPS didn’t work!  They were happy they made it to be able to take part of the festivities!  They played a lot of new songs; but still played favorites like ‘Make Me Do Anything You Want’, and ‘Rock You’!  They also played ‘Heavy Metal Love’ which was the wedding song played for Ricky in the Trailer Park Boys Movie.  They were filming for their new Helix-based reality TV series. 

http://planethelix.com/ 

The second band we saw was Bif Naked.  She is one of the best female talents of Canada.  She has an amazing voice and has such star quality.  She sang some of our favorites like ‘Space Man’, ‘Moment of Weakness’, and ‘Lucky’.  Before she started ‘Tango Shoes’ she said that her tango shoes are now in the Bata Shoe Museum in downtown Toronto!  Bif finished the set with ‘I Love Myself Today’.  She was excited to be part of the celebration!

http://www.bifnaked.com/

The third band we saw was Ian Thornley with Big Wreck.  This was part of a reunion tour!  They played some solo Thornley songs ‘Come Again’ and ‘Make Believe’, and played Big Wreck songs ‘That Song’ and ‘The Oaf’.  Ian laughed when some girls asked him to ‘take it off’, it was too cold; but he said he loved the Rock Winter!  They finished the set with an ‘Oh Canada’ guitar solo.

http://thornleymusic.com/

We went to see Dave Navarro & DJ Skribble at the Underground Huddle.  Dave played guitar while the DJ played songs, it was similar to when we saw Tommy Lee DJ and play drums.  It was rock mixed in with some dance.  Dave played guitar along to Rush, Black Sabbath, Queen, etc. but surprisingly; no Red Hot Chili Peppers or Jane’s Addiction.  He has a very cool stage presence; he has mind-blowing talent with his guitar playing.

The fourth band we saw was Fozzy with Chris Jericho.  We actually only got to see a couple of songs as we had to stand in line to go zip lining.  We could hear people screaming Fozzy!  Fozzy! as we were zip lining across the Huddledome and we saw Fozzy with Chris Jericho on the stage 90 feet below!  

http://fozzyrock.com/

The fifth band we saw was Trooper.  They are a staple of Canadian music; they have been playing music for 35 years.  They are very entertaining on stage and Ra McGuire is hysterically funny.  They did a great many songs that every Canadian knows like ‘Raise a Little Hell’, ‘We’re Here For a Good Time, (Not a Long Time)’, and ‘Hand Grenade’.

http://www.trooper.com/

The final band we saw was Big Sugar.  They have been ‘on a break’ for 6 years, so everyone was excited to see this Canadian blues-rock band perform again.  Gordie Johnson came out with a double neck guitar with a Canadian flag on the back and started with ‘Red Rover - Brothers and Sisters, Are You Ready?’ and they played all of their hits including ‘Diggin a Hole’, and ‘Dear Mr. Fantasy’.

http://www.bigsugar.com/index.php

Other Canadian bands that played around the city and for the parties were Matt Good, Theory of a Deadman, Streetheart, Tom Cochrane, Wide Mouth Mason and The Trews.  We had to pick and choose who we wanted to see as it was all packed in one weekend for the Grey Cup 2010!

Halloween Howler with Bret Michaels

We attended local rock radio station (100.3 fm) the Bear’s 18th Halloween Howler on October 29.  It was held at the Shaw Conference Center (Edmonton, AB) and featured performances by Bret Michaels and Hail the Villain.  We have been to almost all of the Howler’s in the past (unless we were in Las Vegas or LA) and always have an amazing time.  The prizes (for best costumes) are huge and the costumes are always mind-blowing!  This year was by far the best Howler yet, and there were a great many Bret Michaels and Slash look alikes at the party. Bret was definitely the most popular costume choice this year and there were wigs and bandanas everywhere you looked! It was awesome!

This year there were 12 of us girls dressed up as Bret's Rock of Love girls. We all wore matching Rock of Love backstage passes.  We were front row center and had an amazing time!  Bret started the show with ‘Nothin’ But a Good Time’ and played many of our Poison favorites such as ‘Fallen Angel’ and ‘Talk Dirty to Me’.  We haven’t seen him play solo since Rocklahoma 2008 (we also saw Bret play with Poison at Rocklahoma 2007 as well as in Las Vegas in Sept 2009)! Did we mention we love Bret? :)

We were hoping that he would play some of his solo songs like ‘Bittersweet’ or ‘Driven’, but he opted for more party-orientated rock cover songs like “Rock N Roll All Night’ by Kiss and "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynard Skynard.  Either way (as usual), Bret rocked our world! 

We visited the merch booth after the show where Bret offered a post-show meet and greet for a $200.00 donation to juvenile diabetes. Check out the link on BretMichaels.com:  http://www.bretmichaels.com/2010/diabetes_files/diabetes.htm        

Us at the Howler! (Lor and Cin) :)

My Appetite for Destruction – Sex & Drugs & Guns N’ Roses – Steven Adler

Steven Adler writes about his interesting childhood in L.A.  He had the opportunity to see Kiss in June of 1978 when they were filming ‘Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park’, and he saw Motley Crue play live at the US Festival in San Bernadino for heavy metal day in 1983.  Similar to Slash’s book; he talks about their childhood friendship and the experiences they had growing up together.

He reveals how the members of Guns N’ Roses met and formed in 1985.  They started with ‘EP Live?!*@ Like a Suicide’, then in 1987 ‘Appetite for Destruction’ was released and it changed all of their lives.  The songs ‘Mr. Brownstone’ (heroin) and ‘It’s So Easy’ (groupies) summed up that era.  He also talks about the controversial ‘G N’R Lies’ that was released in 1988. 

He goes on to explain how he was so sick from heroin withdrawal when he was called in for the ‘Civil War’ recording session for ‘Use Your Illusion II’.  He struggled through it; and it was the last song he was to play with G N’R.  He was called in the next day to ‘sign his life away’.  He signed the legal papers to sign away his royalties, rights, and partnership with the band for $2000.00.  He thought he was signing papers to avoid partying, and would be ‘charged’ $2000.00 if he did.  He didn’t think he was getting kicked out of G N’R for drug use as almost everyone else in the band used.      

This lead to his years of self-destruction of time in jail, 3 attempted suicides, 28 overdoses, 2 heart attacks, 1 stroke that left permanent damage.  He ended up on the reality show Dr. Drew’s ‘Celebrity Rehab’.  After this, he played at Rocklahoma in 2008.  This is when we had the opportunity to meet him.  He was so sweet and childlike and was happy to take a picture with us.  Right after Rocklahoma, he went on Dr. Drew’s ‘Sober House’, but he was arrested in taken to another rehab facility.  The book is written in 2009 and at that time Steven was sober and getting support from Izzy, Duff, and Slash.  He looking forward to playing more music with Adler’s Appetite and is very hopeful of an all original member Guns N’ Roses reunion.    

Collective Soul - River Cree Casino Edmonton Alberta Oct 8, 2010

We always love seeing Collective Soul play live shows. We've seen them a number of times in the past, but it had been awhile since the last time (Capital Ex a couple years back), so we decided to catch their show at River Cree Casino!

Collective Soul always put on a very entertaining show and playing songs from their extensive catalogue of hit singles!  Audience members danced and sang along as the band played familar favorites such as "Shine" "Gel" "The World I Know" "Precious Declaration" and (our favorites) "Why pt. 2" and "Hollywood"!

Lead Vocalist Ed Roland was playing acoustic guitar. He said his young son came up and told him he learned his first song from the internet. The song was "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. Ed said his son then asked him what his first song was. Ed said he'd try to play it on the acoustic guitar for us, and that it went something like this: He then broke into the first few lines of "Cat Scratch Fever!". He exclaimed "Wow that sounds awful!! I bet Ted Nugent would shoot me with a bow & arrow if he heard me play his song like that" ha ha ha  Ed then said that him and lead guitarist Joel Kosche (who recently became a new daddy) had the same conversation recently (about the first song they'd learned to play on guitar). He went on to say that Joel said that if his son should grow up and want to learn guitar, he'll teach his song his first song which would sound something like this: (and they went on to play) "Enter Sandman" as the crowd sang the lyrics right up to and including the first chorus!  It was so awesome!

After a few more songs, Ed wished us all us Canadians a Happy Thanksgiving and said that the next day (Oct 10th) was his brother (Rhythm Guitarist) Dean's  Birthday. Then Ed said "Tomorrow is the 10th month, 10th day of 10th year 10-10-10 that's like the number of the beast or something isn't it??? Then sure enough, Ed took that acoustic guitar and rocked the best acoustic version of Iron Maiden's "Number of the Beast" that we've ever heard!

Collective Soul ended their set by playing "Run" (off "Dosage" released in 1999). One by one the band members stopped playing their instrument and came up to the front of the stage, shook hands with fans in the crowd, tossed out picks, sticks etc.. then left the stage as Ed kept playing and singing "Have I got a long way to run".  Soon, Ed was the last member left on stage playing and singing and he too shook hands and walked off the stage all the while singing and playing the song. The show ended as the last few bars of "Run" was heard acoustically being played behind the stage!  What a great ending to an awesome show!

Check out Collective Soul's Official Site:

http://www.collectivesoul.com/

Vince Neil - Tattoos & Tequila - To Hell and Back with One of Rock’s Most Notorious Frontmen

Vince’s autobiography is written more like “Tommyland” than “The Dirt” or “Heroin Diaries”. Vince writes about his childhood, Rockandi, and how Motley Crue started out on the Sunset Strip. There are some interesting stories of rock n’ roll debauchery when they ruled Los Angeles and became the hugely influential band that they are today.

He explains his side of what happened when he was charged with vehicular manslaughter in the death of Nicholas ‘Razzle’ Dingley from Hanoi Rocks in 1984. And the hell he went through when his 4 year old daughter Skylar died of cancer in 1995.

Vince describes his arrests, alcoholism/drug abuse, multiple rehab visits, wives, groupies, surgeries and his love/hate relationship with the other members of Motley Crue. He tells his side of the story when he quit/was fired, John Corabi joining Motley Crue, his solo career, and the reunion. He distrusts all of the members of the band. Nikki Sixx was the only one from the band to be interviewed for the book.

Vince Neil has postponed his solo show in Edmonton November 4. It may have something to do with an upcoming court date (in January 2011).

http://www.vinceneil.net/

Suck - A Rock n Roll Vampire Movie

When we visited Toronto in June for NXNE, we were hoping to see a showing of the new Rock n' Roll Vampire movie "Suck". We'd read that it starred Alice Cooper, (his daughter Calico has a role as a waitress as well), Iggy Pop, Alex Lifeson, Henry Rollins, Carole Pope, Moby, Dave Foley etc...

It would have been quite fitting to see "Suck" in Toronto since we were fortunate enough to see Iggy & The Stooges play an insanely packed free show in downtown Toronto. Unfortunately, we had to pass on the movie as we had a full schedule that day seeing New York Dolls in Burlington followed by seeing Iggy that night.

The movie was released on DVD September 28, 2010. It was worth the wait, it definitely did not disappoint! If you loved "Trick or Treat" "Prince of Darkness" etc... you'll LOVE the movie Suck!

Highlights:
-The majority of the movie took place in various cities in Canada.
-Alice Cooper had a large part as a bartender(with a twist)
-Alex Lifeson as a Border Guard
-Henry Rollins and an awesome, radio dj who kept dropping great cheesy one-liners
-Iggy Pop as an ultra-cool recording studio owner
-Moby as "Beef Bellows" as an unlikely metal singer of a band called "Secretaries of Steak"

Check it out!
http://suckthemovie.com/

SLASH – Calgary & Edmonton AB September 2010

Couldn’t wait to see our good friends Brent Fitz and Todd Kerns up on stage rockin’ with guitar GOD Slash!   They have toured many parts of the world and finally got to play at home in Canada.

The set-list varied slightly between cities. However, both included songs from Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver, Slash’s Snakepit and Slash’s new solo record. It was awesome to hear songs such as “My Michelle” “Fall To Pieces” “Starlight” and hearing Todd (as Slash put it) “sing the shit out of” “We're All Gonna Die” (Originally sung by Iggy Pop on Slash’s new cd).

It was mind blowing to see Slash appear so laid back and cool, yet effortlessly play some of our favorite rock n roll songs of all time!

After the show in Edmonton, we got to spend time with Brent and Todd and let them know how proud and happy we were for them! Being that they both live in Las Vegas, we don’t get to see them that often! We missed them the last time we were in Vegas as they were busy in LA with TV appearances (with Slash),on Leno, Lopez, Ellen etc…

And it seems like this is just the beginning for our Canadian Rockstars………….

AEROSMITH – Edmonton, AB Rexall Place - Sept 14, 2010

Aerosmith was awesome as usual! Before Aerosmith took the stage, we were advised of the:

RULES OF THE CATWALK

-No drinks or purses on the catwalk because Steven WILL trip

-Catwalk lighting - each section of mini-lights (about a yard long) costs $5000. Try not to bump them because if one goes out, they all go out like Christmas lights

-Feel free to reach upwards not outwards at Steven

-If Steven leans down to sing to you, you can touch his scarves but don’t pull on them because he’ll fall into the audience and it will stop the show

We were ecstatic that they played a wide range of songs from "Train Kept A Rollin’" to lesser known favorites like “Chip Away at the Stone” as well as a string of ballads including “Dream On” “What it Takes” and the Epic “Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing” with on screen footage from the movie Armageddon. 

A few highlights of the night:

-Joe Perry dazzled the audience with a Guitar Hero showdown in which he battled solos with a video game version of himself on the big screen.

-Steven drumming along side Joey Kramer (twice) with huge smiles on both their faces.

-The camaraderie between Joe & Steven even though rumors were rampant that everyone in the band was upset that they heard through the media (and not from Steven) that he was joining the cast of American Idol.

-Steven interacting with the fans along the catwalk (including us) J! Steven sang to us, shook our hands and even handed Lor the water bottle he drank from!

Welcome

Welcome to our blog! 

We decided to do this as a way to share pics and details of our rock n roll adventures (including concerts, festivals, travelling etc...)

We always have friends asking about cool places we've been to in various cities (Las Vegas, Los Angeles (Hollywood), Seattle, New York etc...), and we figured this is a good way to share info with you all. 

We also plan to post pics, reviews etc... from various rock concerts and cool events we attend! 

Hope you enjoy our blogs!
Lor & Cin