A cool front had just moved in and it was about 78 degrees with a slight breeze. PERFECT conditions other than the early start time. Let's ROCK!!
I always like to say, nothing much "rock n roll" goes on in daylight. But Thin Lizzy rocked my ass off on this early October evening at 7pm. They played a killer set with no help of any stage lighting. Just old school goodness.
The dude Lizzy has singing is a dead ringer for Phil vocally. Straight up. And he played guitar too, so 3 guitar attack for most of the songs. The 3rd guitar helped them sound like the records. Filled out the sound. They played the big hits. I had 4-5 songs in my head I wanted them to play also, or in place of what they did play. but alas, ...Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society had to play..
... BLS is the worst sh*t I have ever heard! No hook-having, no dynamics, bad axel rose sounding, too loud of stage volume, only fast soloing, droning jibberish... in one ear out the other as fast as possible.. I don't get them. ?
Zach CAN play guitar, don't get me wrong,.. I just don't get the songs. Not my thing. D was disgruntled with their suck too!!! ....(That's my girl!!!) We left our seats and walked around after two songs o' theirs, and scouted the venue/GA section out for kicks.
The Concrete St. Amphitheater is dope! It's outdoor. An old concrete factory. Cig smoking is no prob (for all you tobacco heads).
I got searched with the "empty your pockets"and a slight pat down. D sed they patted her down pretty good. I was all allergy like that that day, and sed loudly... "you gonna make me empty my pockets of my kleenex!!!?? Disss!!!" and laid half a box o' kleenex in a clump o' sheets down, with a bottle of nasal spray on the table. He barely frisked me after that. I could of got my camera in, dang it!!
The Concrete St. reminds me of Southpark Meadows or the old Backyard location, with the vibe of the old infamous Austin, TX, rock club The Backroom!!!!! Old school METAL fucks like us and a bunch of young kids with their dads.
Smoking seemed to go on right when the bands started. When the lights dimmed for any band, it smelled of the sticky ikky... Real quick. I saw glass pipes getting lit, and I was wondering the method of getting such in? Makes me go hmmm?? Where do you put the glass pipe when there is a frisk involved?
Our row 11 "seats" (and there were about 50-70 rows) I reckon) were folding chairs bound together by plastic ties, and were in a section surrounded by the GA peeps standing at a fence! It was like walking into the gauntlet to get to our seats. Sort of "thunderdome" like?? A definite feeling of a caste system or some shit? fuggit. Pay the cost to be the boss. They have a nice GA area, a paved section/grassy hill, where the beer stands, pissers, and merch are. Lots of hanging out talking. Tons of Bud/Coors talls sold for $5.75. No pinché Milller Lite to be found.
About the grassy hill: it's where real people go to see concerts! I believe that straight up. We went up there and just sat down, far away 800-1,500 ft or so away, and just dissed the F out of BLS to each other!! How could one not?! And it sounded better there than it did in our 11th row shitz too!! We gave BLS a chance. Peepz was having fun up in that area.. Not paying much attention. When BLS ended, few cheered.. D pointed that out to me at the time. A telling but true factoid. Onward...
JP took the lazers and smoke and shit up a few notches from the other bands. AS they should! I liked the song list mostly, but they dissed a few of my faves - "Freewheel Burning," "Exciter," and "Running Wild".. but fugggittt. The set was nice.
I wasn't keen on the idea of JP without KK, but... fuck that.. the new dude was nice. Check it!- They gave him his solo .... in the ENCORE!! To me that is a bold statement. When have you ever seen a "solo" in an encore?? WTF?!! I swear he mocked ZW a bit... as he is a long haired blonde, and played a white les paul hung very low. He started out playing fast gibberish a la ZW, but a bit cleaner, and WAY better tone, ..and then he stopped, ...and with a "mocking, dramatic" smile.. went off.... with some tastey, thought out shredding solo. Dynamics included!!! Respect. He threw picks out all night, in fact made an effort to throw picks to specific peeps!! Try and try again stylie, like 80's era Rick Nielsen in a way. He connected with the peepz in a cool way.. D almost got a pick.. but it caught wind and carried a row back, two seats over. Close but no cigar. I saw it go down out of my peripheral, but I thought it was an unruly moth.
There were a few JP songs were the bass was DEEP!! I saw Ian Hill playing moog bass pedals! Dancing all around trying to play them and the bass guitar at the same time. werd, Respect!- You could feel it when he did it. THE LOW!!!
There was Lady Starlight dj sets in between bands? She's a DJ. She basically played old metal classics.. "Ace of Spades," "The Trooper," "Reign in Blood," "War Pigs," etc... And she acted the songs out with props—swords, indian tomahawks, shields, etc.. She looked a bit like Kat Von D, and tried to sell it, but... I ain't buying. She had shirts in the merch booths. I hope she sold nil. pinché poser. Metal ain't vaudville!!!
D and I came to a conclusion that we will be back at Concrete St. Amp. if a good show comes up. It was old school fun.
After the show we payed our respects to Selena. r.i.p. We also ate at Whataburger. That's what you do in CC tx.!!! better ask somebody.
WERD-
-wB