A Year in Review

We started New Years Eve 2010 off with a Shinedown show in Edmonton at 100.3 the Bear's New Year's Eve bash at the Shaw Conference Centre!  A highlight of the night was when they performed their version of Lynyrd Skynards' "Simple Man" as a tribute to Dimebag Darrell. 

We also saw the rock opera 'Jesus Christ Superstar' with Ted Neely who was the original Jesus in the 1973 film!

In mid-January we were ecstatic to attend the NAMM convention in Anaheim with our friends.  We had the pleasure of meeting some of our faves such as Slash, George Lynch, Ratt, Phil Varone, Steven Adler, Joe Satriani, Rikki Rockett, Andy Timmons and many more.  In the evening, we attended the Guitar Players Ball 5 with George Lynch (Dokken, Lynch Mob), Chris Holmes (WASP), Carlos Cavazo (Quiet Riot, Ratt) and Brent Fitz (Union, Alice Cooper, Vince Neil and currently Slash) on drums!  Gilby Clarke (Guns N Roses) was supposed to play as well, but he was in a motorcycle accident and unable to attend. 

Also as part of NAMM, we saw Ratt at the House of Blues in Anaheim!  It was packed to the rafters and we were pleasantly surprised to see Stephen Pearcy on vocals. He had been playing some solo shows so we assumed he wouldn't be fronting Ratt that night!  We had alot of fun (and drinks) hanging out with Steve Brown and PJ Farley from Trixter!

After a fabulous day of shopping on Melrose; we took in the Steel Panther show Monday night in LA at the House of Blues on Sunset.  Mark McGrath (Sugar Ray) got up on stage and jammed with them.  We were surprised to see Pearl opening up for them.  Pearl Aday is Meatloaf’s daughter; and Scott Ian’s (from Anthrax) wife.  Scott Ian was playing with the band!

We attended the Motley Crue shows in Vancouver and Edmonton for the Dead of Winter Tour.  Although they played a bare bones type show with way less theatrics than the last couple of tours; they were still spectacular!  The Joe Perry Project opened up for them.  It's just not the same seeing Joe up on stage without Steven Tyler singing and grooving beside him.

We saw Megadeth with Testament in March at the Shaw Conference Centre, in Edmonton.  It was historic to see Dave Mustaine and Dave Ellefson playing on stage together again.  Dave and Dave were two of the musicians we had the pleasure of meeting earlier in the year at NAMM.

In April, the Gruesome Twosome Tour came to town!  Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper both put on very entertaining shows.  Rob Zombie showed movie clips on the huge screen behind him and Alice Cooper entertained with his Rock N Roll horror show!  Alice was recently inducted in to the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame!

We took a much needed trip to Las Vegas to celebrate Lor's birthday.  We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel for the first time, and loved it! We checked in at the front desk as the sweet sounds of Poison's "Talk Dirty To Me" billowed throughout the hotel! It felt like home. We saw Benji Madden get escorted through the hotel on his way to fight Riki Rachtman in a sold-out match which Benji won. We also saw Drowning Pool play at Wasted Space!

Our trip also included watching our friends the Spazmatics play a couple of shows while enjoying big Vegas drinks. We also went to the Steel Panther show at the House of Blues.  We saw the new Cirque De Soleil show "Viva Elvis" on our last night in Sin City!  It was a short but enjoyable trip!

In May we saw Slaughter at Century Casino in Edmonton. We talked to Mark, Dana, and Blando and told them how excited we were to see them again at Rock N America in July!  In May, we also saw The Trews and Buckcherry at the Rainmaker Rodeo!  There was a massive snow storm, but Buckcherry put on such an amazing live show, they're worth it!

In June we saw the legendary Iron Maiden.  They played a lot of new songs and Eddie looked a little different than normal; but they still rocked Rexall Place as usual. 

In June, we went to Toronto for NXNE and got to hang out with some old friends Johnny Rude & Lydia, Stacy Stray, Joy and Sammy. We shopped alot and checked out various gigs at bars including Tattoo Rock Parlour, The Hideout, Cherry Cola Rock & Rolla, Bovine, and Oh Boy.  We also saw the rock/jukebox musical "Rock of Ages" and had seats in front of the first row! While in Toronto, we saw Iggy Pop and the Stooges play Dundas Square which was jammed pack with unbelievable amounts of people.  We also saw the New York Dolls at the Burlington Sound of Music!  It was a mind-blowing weekend!

July was an exciting month.  First show was Fear Factory at the Starlite Room!  Next up was Bon Jovi with Kid Rock at the Stadium!  We also saw our friend Tommy Mac and his band Hedley play to tons of screaming fans at Capital Ex.

July 23-25 we attended Rock N America Music Festival in Oklahoma City!  The days were unbelievable, so were the after-parties at the Garden of Evil!    

On Thursday at RN'A we saw: Sweet, Bulletboys, Trixter, Faster Pussycat, Great White, a Tribute to Dio, and Twisted Sister.

Friday at RN'A brought us: Steelheart, John Corabi, Firehouse, Pretty Boy Floyd, Michael Schenker, LA Guns, Cinderella, and Scorpions.

On Saturday at RN'A we saw: Warrant, Texas Hippie Coalition, Slaughter (with a special appearance from Vince Neil), Lillian Axe, Lita Ford, Gilby Clarke, Dokken, Lynch Mob, and Ratt.

August was another great month!  We saw Keith Urban at the Big Valley Jamboree, and one of the Scorpions final shows in Canada. 

We saw Blondie for the first time ever. Deborah Harry she looked and sounded amazing!  We were also elated to see Buckcherry again, this time at Edmonton Event Centre.  We attended a meet n' greet before hand at Bourbon Street at West Edmonton Mall.  We finally got to meet Josh Todd! Yay! They were all so nice!  It was a much better show, indoors - with no snow!  :)

We were happy to see our friend's Killinger play Edmonton Event Centre with Lynch Mob.  The vivacious Marq Torien (Bulletboys) was on vocals and James Lomenzo (White Lion and Megadeth) was on bass.  George Lynch is a Guitar God. It was such a fun night! We ran into friends we hadn't seen in many years!

In September we saw the Aerosmith 40^th Anniversary show!  We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Aerosmith!  Joan Jett opened the show, and played a lot of songs from her days with the "Runaways"! 

We also caught a couple of Slash shows in Calgary and Edmonton and were proud to see long time friends Todd Kerns & Brent Fitz up on stage with the Guitar Legend.  (see earlier blog for review on Aerosmith as well as Slash).

In October we saw Collective Soul play at River Cree Casino! We were also ecstatic to see one of our faves,  Bret Michaels, headline the Halloween Howler.  (see earlier blogs for reviews of both Collective Soul and Bret).

The November Grey Cup festivities in Edmonton were fun-filled.  We saw Helix, Bif Naked, Ian Thornley with Big Wreck, Fozzy with Chris Jericho, Trooper, and Big Sugar.  All Canadian, All weekend!  (see earlier blog). 

The last show of the year was Keith Urban at West Edmonton Mall.  It was intimate and interactive (see earlier blog)! 

Can’t wait to see what 2011 has in store for us!