Monsters of Rock

We started in Hollywood, Florida for a couple days before the Monsters of Rock cruise.  We went to the Hard Rock Hotel on Thursday night.  It is enormous!  There was a lot of shopping, bars, and restaurants.  They had some pretty amazing music memorabilia.

http://www.seminolehardrockhollywood.com/

Friday night we went to the Monsters of Rock VIP pre-party to see Atomic Punk and KIX at Exit 66.  KIX is one of our favorite bands and they did not disappoint.  Steve Whiteman is a perfect front man with a lot of energy to really get the crowd going, he is also hysterically funny.  There was extreme excitement in the air; everyone was so excited to get on the boat. 

We got on the boat on Saturday, and got our favorite black rock t-shirts on for the group photo at 6:00.  Then the Monsters of Rock cruise began!  There was a lot of overlapping of bands, so it was really hard to choose.  The first night we had a chance to see Cinderella and Eric Martin from Mr. Big.  Cinderella was delayed by technical difficulties for an hour, but they were so worth the wait.  Tom’s voice is as strong as ever.  Eric Martin did an acoustic show in the Monster Café and was spectacular.  We ended up catching a couple of Bang Tango and Black and Blue songs as well.  

Sunday we went snorkeling at Key West.  Again there were some scheduling issues.  Some of the VIP meet & greets and some bands played while we were on our excursion.  We made it back in time to see KIX again.  There was no backstage so we saw Taime Down, Fred Coury, John Corabi, etc in the audience.  We also caught a few Helix songs.  Tonight we saw John Corabi’s acoustic show and a few late night songs by Firehouse. 

Monday we went to the Atlantis Resort in Nassau, Bahamas.  We missed some of the cool things on the boat that day.  Again, hopefully that will be worked on next year as it is supposed to be a longer cruise.  We made it back for Night Ranger, Tesla acoustic, Lynch Mob, and Faster Pussycat.  It was well done that there were jams everywhere and opportunities to meet musicians even if you missed the meet and greets.  John Corabi got up and sang with Lynch Mob and Eric Brittingham got up and played with Faster Pussycat.  We still met people that we never got to see play like the members from Stryper and Black ‘N Blue.

The cruise was a quite the experience.  The music, the atmosphere and meeting rockers from all over the world equaled one of the best weekends of our lives!  We met so many people at the shows, at the bars, restaurants and on the excursions!  We also met some friends that we have met at Rocklahoma, Rock N America, and M3.  We also got to meet other regular’s like Eddie Trunk and Mark Weiss.  We would definitely go again!

  

We decided to stay in Florida for a couple days after the cruise to recuperate so we went to Nicko McBrain from Iron Maiden’s Rock N Roll Ribs in Coral Springs. 


http://www.rocknrollribs.org/

We also went to Dr. Feelgoods in West Palm Beach.  We were a little surprised to hear dance music and a very young crowd there.  It was still a great time.  It really was a ‘Hooligan’s Holiday’!

http://www.feelgoodswestpalm.com/

      

Sebastian Bach

We went to see Sebastian Bach play at the Deerfoot Inn in Calgary.  Sebastian hasn’t changed at all.  He has an amazing larger than life stage presence and still sounds spectacular!  He still spins his microphone in circles.  It is hard to get a picture of him on stage because he has so much energy and his hair is flying!

The show was the day that Whitney Houston passed away and they did a Whitney medley and then he sang ‘I Remember You’ to us.  He then wore one of our friends’ hats and joked about looking like a French Brian Johnson from AC/DC.  He also grabbed a girls’ phone and was singing in to it and put it in his mouth.  He then joked that we were seeing the best of Skid Row on stage and laughed and told people not to put that on you tube.  And he of course cracked jokes about being Canadian and his guest appearance on Trailer Park Boys.  He is so entertaining with a great sense of humour. 

We had an opportunity to meet him after the show.  He was shocked when we asked why he didn’t sing “Most Powerful Man in The World’; he said no one had ever requested it before.  The set list was a good balance of old and new.  He sang ‘Here I Am, and ‘Piece of Me’ and sang some new songs off his new album ‘Kicking and Screaming’ ‘My Own Worse Enemy’, ‘I’m Alive’ and ‘Dirty Power’.  He of course finished with ‘Youth Gone Wild’. 

LA/NAMM

Our first stop from the airport is always Barney’s Beanery at 8447 Santa Monica Boulevard.  It is one of our favorite restaurants.  Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin used to drink here, as a matter of fact; Janis Joplin’s vehicle was left here the night she passed away. 

We walked up a block to see the Alta Cienega Hotel where Jim Morrison lived in room #32 from 1968-1970.

We made time to hit our favorite store Shrine of Hollywood at 7305 Melrose Avenue.  They have some amazing rock ‘n’ roll clothing there!  And of course Shoes for the Stars.  There are so many great stores on Melrose and Robertson.

 After Melrose we went to pay respect to Dee Dee & Johnny Ramone at the Garden of Legends in Hollywood Forever at 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard. 

Day 1 of NAMM was amazing!  We met David Ellefson (Megadeth), Glen Hughes (Black Country Communication), Eric Bass (Shinedown), Charlie Benante (Anthrax), John Tempesta (The Cult), Ritchie Falkner (Judas Priest) and Bruce Kulick (KISS).

Friday night we went to the Dean Guitars 3^rd Annual NAMM Jam at the Grove of Anaheim.  Wayne Static (Static-X), Vinnie Moore (UFO), Jackyl and Testament played!  It was a very diverse sound and diverse crowd.  There was a band playing the outside bar  called Metalachi - the world’s only heavy metal mariachi band.  There was also a Coffin Case and Dean girl fashion show.  It was a very entertaining night with a great many musicians in the audience.  We finished the night off at the lobby in the Hilton.

Day 2 of NAMM was sensory overload.  There was mass line-up’s to meet Tommy Lee, Lita Ford and Rob Halford.  We had the opportunity to meet Lita Ford, Warren DeMartini (Ratt), Steve Stevens (Billy Idol), Dean Roland (Collective Soul), and Vinnie Moore (UFO) and Rikki Rockett (Poison). 

Saturday night we went to the House of Blues in Anaheim to see Steel Panther.  It was a sold out show.  We have seen them a great many times, but this show seemed to top them all!  Vivian Campbell got up on stage and they played “Rainbow in the Dark” by Dio and “Rock of Ages” by Def Leppard.  It is all over youtube! 

Back to Hollywood!

We had lunch at one of our favorite restaurants’ El Compadre.  This place has a lot of rock ‘n’ roll history.  It is across the street from the Guitar Center that has the Rock Walk.  We always stop here to see if there are any new handprints.

We then hit Hollywood Boulevard for shopping at the Hard Rock, Betty Page and a few rock shops including Hot Rock at 6717.  The shops are filled with Lip Service, Tripp, and any band t-shirt you could ever think of.  We also found a few stars on the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard – Alice Cooper at 7000, Kiss at 7080, Motley Crue at 6752, and Ozzy Osbourne at 6780.  

We went to our favorite store in the world, Amoeba!  There is always rare finds of books, cd’s, and dvd’s.  The place has 2 levels they have bands at night!    

We made a stop a block up from the Whiskey A Go Go to see the old apartment of Guns ‘n’ Roses at 1114 N. Clark and the old Motley house at 1124 N. Clark.  Then we hit the Rainbow!  It was a rockstar-filled evening as everyone was still in town for NAMM.  Members from Lita Ford’s band and WASP were there.  And of course Lemmy was there in the corner playing his game.  It was an epic night, good way to end a trip!