Todays concert shirt is one I picked up when I saw Danko Jones open for Sloan back in February of 2000 at The Golden Garter. When I went to this show, I was going to see Sloan as I knew very little about Danko at the time. Well, after seeing Danko Jones play, I knew there was no sense in sticking around for Sloan as it was only going to be a letdown.
Danko was awesome live and at the time only had 2 E.P.'s out, his self titled album and the E.P. My Love Is Bold which are both awesome.I then got to see Danko play again this time at The Urban Lounge in October with opening act Tricky Woo, another great double bill.
I have seen Danko a few times since and have to say, I now think Danko is just a wanker, his shtick gets old in a hurry. Not a fan of him anymore. I got to meet Danko a few times and have to say he is a nice man and is good with his fans. I've got a few of his CD's autographed.
Today's t-shirt is from the Alice Cooper comeback tour in 1987, when he was touring for his Constrictor album. Myself and a few buddies went to the Calgary show and Edmonton show.This was my first time seeing Alice in concert and have always liked this shirt, one of my faves.
Front.
Back.
Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie will be playing at Rexall Place in Edmonton on April 28th. I wouldn't mind seeing this show, as I haven't seen Cooper in many years. This tour is titled the Gruesome Twosome Tour. Good name for a tour considering the double bill.
I just finished reading a book about rock T-shirts from the 70's to the 90's. The book is called Rock Tease (The Golden Years Of Rock T-Shirts) wrote and put together by Erica Easley and Ed Chalfa released in 2006.
It really wasn't the greatest book. I was expecting more and better t-shirts in this book. There really wasn't a whole lot of reading in it, as most of the book is just pictures of t-shirts. What I found was that there were too many pictures of bad bootleg rock shirts that you used to find in the old head shops of the 80's. I was hoping that the book would have more pictures of classic concert shirts from the 70's,80's and 90's. I did find some pictures of t-shirts that I myself own, but I think between my brother and I, we could have put together a way better book then this.
There are a few good essays from the likes of Mark Arm from Mudhoney and Wayne Kramer from MC5 talking about old concert shirts.
Now after reading this book, I have come up with my own idea for my blog. I am going to start trying to put up one of my own concert shirts. (T-Shirt of the day with a story about it, show I got it at what year, what tour and such).
If you are interested in seeing what I have collected over the years (as I have tried to buy a shirt at almost every show I have been to) click here
"It's my birthday and I'll do what I want to Fuck you it's my birthday. A special holiday only for me, so do what I say, it's my party, I'll make you cry if I want to...or leave. Fuck you, it's not your birthday, so do what I say.
For 24 hours your wishing me well 364 days I'm in hell, Oh well. Happy Birthday to me.
alone on my Birthday, I'm going to Denny's 10 times today No Tip! it's my birthday, so do what I say Thanks mom didn't have an abortion, Or my birthday wouldn't be today. But I guess it's my good fortune, my birthday's today. Okay.
For 24 hours your wishing me well 364 days I'm in hell, Oh well. Happy Birthday to me.
Happy Birthday to me, Spank Me! Oh well, Happy Birthday to me, I can't believe you forgot my birthday it's my birthday and you're wrecking it now it's just like any other day you didn't do what I say
How could you forget my birthday? That's really immature Fuck you for forgetting my birthday you didn't do what I say today
24 hours no wishing well now 365 days I'm in Hell, Oh well. Happy Birthday to me."
Lyrics by The Vandals - Happy Birthday To me from the album Live Fast Diarrhea (1995)
This weeks album is one I still listen to on a regular basis and an album that should be listened to in its entirety, Roger Waters (bass player and singer/song writer for Pink Floyd) second solo album released in 1987 called Radio K.A.O.S. It is a concept album, hence needing to listen to it from start to finish. There isn't a bad song on this album, very Floydish of course, yet modern for it's time. If your interested in what the concept of the album is click here, as I don't have the time or patience to try and explain it. Or more like it, wouldn't know how to explain it. The whole album is full of great lyrics, but here are a few that really stick out to me. These from the song called "Who Needs Information" "
Benny climbed up on a footbridge And he teetered on the parapet He said can you see the whites of their headlights Are they coming yet
" And then this rant about the dislike of fish from the song called "Sunset Strip" "Californian Weirdo: I don't like fish. Jim: You are listening to KAOS here in Los Angeles. Californian Weirdo: I don't like fish. Jim: Yes, we've established that. Ah! Do you have a request? Californian Weirdo: Shell fish, guppy, salmon, shrimp and crab and lobster, flounder.I hate fish, but I think most of all I hate fresh fish, like trout. I hate fresh trout. My least-hated, favourite fish would be sole. That way you don't have to see the eyes. Sole has no eyes. Jim: Oh no! I'd like to be home with my monkey and my dog" I fuckin' love this album and see it as a classic. How I wish I could have seen Roger on this solo tour. I did get to see Roger on his 2007 tour when he did the Pink Floyd classic Dark Side Of The Moon in its entirety. What a fuckin' cool show that was. I went to that show with A-Bomb, while on psychedelics, good times with some awesome music. We ended up walking home from the Coliseum after this show as we were still buzzing.
One of my favorite memories from this album is my buddy Nerraw and I driving around allover town in his yellow VW bug (gutless thing) with a kick ass stereo , that I am sure was worth more then the car its self, anyways, we drove to all the record shops Sound Connection,Southside Sound,The Marquee and a few record stores in malls looking to purchase this album cause we had a dozen beers and a chunk of black and looking to bug out on some wicked tunes, well after hours of driving around, we eventually ended up at Southgate Mall and went into Zellers and found a cassette copy of Radio K.A.O.S. Of all the fuckin' places to find the album, that's where we ended up getting it. We then drove around and drank and smoked our faces off listening to it, that is of course after scouring the Southgate Mall parking lot looking for cigarette butts, so that we could roll our black with it, as neither one of us smoked. Fuckin' good times that was!!!!
Rumour is... is that Roger Waters is going to stage the Floyd classic The Wall again, not sure if it will be a full tour or just some one off shows, but that is something I will travel to go and see. What I really wish, is that Roger and the remaining memebers of Floyd would bury the hatchet and tour together as Pink Floyd, now that would be cool.
This week The White Stripes release their first live album (Under Great White Northern Lights) which was recorded while on there Canadian tour in 2007 in which they played from coast to coast as well as dates in Whitehorse,Yellowknife and Iqaluit.It is basically a soundtrack for the documentary that also comes out this week. The album has 16 tracks on it which sound very raw and gritty and without a doubt no over dubbing on this live album. Sometimes it's hard to believe that it is only Meg on drums and Jack on guitar, holy shit can they make some noise for two musicians. My biggest complaint of this double live album is that it doesn't let you know where any of the tracks were recorded. Would have been cool to know where they were recorded as A Bomb and I were at the Edmonton show on this tour. No liner notes or anything on the inside of album, kind of a bummer. All and all a good live album. I would give this album a 6.5 out of 10. As I said earlier in the album review, A-Bomb and I went to the show in Edmonton on June 30th at The Convention Centre. What a great fucking show it was too. All out rock n' roll very gritty and raw and balls to the wall rock. I would go out of my way to see them play live again for sure.
I pulled out an album last week that I haven't listened to in ages. Jimmy Pages only solo album he has ever put out released in 1988 called Outrider. It's surprising that this is the only solo album he has out considering how long he has been playing and how many artists he has played with, but this is it. It's not a bad album but not overly great either, he doesn't do any of the singing on this album. he actually has two different singers on it, side one has John Miles on vocals while side two has a fellow named Chris Farlow. Both singers do a good job on the tracks they sing on. While Robert Plant appears once on a song called The Only One. John Bonham's son Jason plays drums on all tracks but two. Jimmy plays some good guitar on the album but nothing that really stands out, it's mostly a blues album which should come as no surprise. Stand out tracks to me are Wasting My Time,Hummingbird and Prison Blues.
I just finished a couple of books I have had on the go here this week. The first one is a book I had picked up for 5 bucks called The Tao Of Willie A Guide To The Happiness In Your Heart by country outlaw legend Willie Nelson with Turk Pipkin.
This book was a quick and fun read. Willie basically just talks about his outlook on life. A lot of it is just common sense, like treating others as you would like to be treated. But through out the book he talks a bit about his life, a bit biographical but also interlaced with some jokes and stories about being on the road. He comes across as a very down to earth man, someone I could sit down and smoke a few with and just talk. Willie has a great way with words as you can well imagine, after all the guy has wrote like 2500 songs in his lifetime. He has a great sense of humour and is a very spiritual man as well. I would say he is now my spiritual leader,lol. Very fun and interesting read, highly recomended.
The other book I finished this week is the Ozzy biography called I Am Ozzy obviouslly noy wrote by Ozzy as I don't think he could sit and write a book, but it is Ozzy in his own words telling his story to writer Chris Ayres. I thought this was an alright book. But if you have followed Ozzy's career at all, most of what is here you would already know. What is surprising is that it has taken Ozzy this long to actually tell his story. The man has lived quite the life, with his addictive personality it's a surprise the guy is still alive. The amount of drugs and boozing he has done over the past 50 years it's funny he recalls any of it. It's a fun read with some good stories and some sad stories too, he gets into more detail then I have heard before about the plane crash that killed his band mate guitarist Randy Rhoads. I think that will haunt him til his own death, quite sad actually. What I did find disappointing in the book is that there is very little in it about Jake E Lee whom took over guitar after Randy's death and almost nothing about Zakk Wylde who has played guitar for him for the past 15 years or so, til this year anyways. As Zakk no longer is in his band. One thing I can say is that if not for Ozzy's wife Sharon, the man would not be alive today. Ozzy loves his wife and repeatedly says so through out the book, even though in the late 90's almost killed her by strangulation while on a drinking binge, she later dropped the attempted murder charges and still stands by him to this very day. Sharon is without a doubt what keeps Ozzy going. All and all a pretty good book.
"I'm the high rolling creep that's in too deep with the slicked back hair and the silver teeth, yeah baby I'm a vagabond king with a stolen crown I'm a jailhouse poet, a genius, a fool I'm the pimp who lost his cool, yeah baby I've got first class taste in a second class town"
Social Distortion - Nickels And Dimes from the album Sex,Love and Rock n' Roll (2004)
Saturday night Merle Haggard played 2 sold out shows at The River Cree Casino just on the outskirts of town. He did a 5pm and an 8 pm show, Earl,BZ and I went to this show. Earl had tickets for the 5pm show while BZ and I had tickets for the 8pm show. I wish I could give you a proper review of the show but I can't. Here is what you don't want to do when going to an 8pm show. Don't start drinking at 7:30 in the morning and drink all through the day. Needless to say, most of the show was kind of blurry. What I do remember of it was good, but in my drunken stupidity, sometime during the evening I lost my jacket, which meant I had no wallet therefore no cash to get home, I also lost BZ during the show. By the end of the night, I was panicking cause I had no way home. Thanks to the awesome staff at the casino, they managed to get me in a cab after I had called home and made sure Janis had money to pay for my cab fare. I made it home safe, thank god. I called the casino Sunday morning, hoping but not really expecting them to have my jacket. Well, much to my surprise someone had turned my jacket in and everything intact, yes, wallet,smokes,bus pass,camera and still 50 dollars in my wallet. I am counting my blessings today. A big thumbs up to River Cree Casino staff.My faith in people as been renewed, to whomever turned my jacket in, a big thumbs up to them as well. I learned a lesson Saturday night, I will never again drink that much before going to a concert.
Here is the setlist for the Wilco show in Edmonton at The Jubilee Auditorium Feb.15th 2010. Anyone know where I might be able to get a recording of this show?
1. Sunken Treasure 2. Muzzle Of Bees 3. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart 4. Bull Black Nova 5. You Are My Face 6. One Wing 7. At Least That's What You Said 8. A Shot In The Arm 9. How To Fight Loneliness 10. Impossible Germany 11. Remember The Mountain Bed 12. Handshake Drugs 13. Summer Teeth 14. Jesus, Etc. 15. You Never Know 16. Hate It Here 17. Walken 18. I'm The Man Who Loves You 19. Hummingbird
Encore 1: 20. Wilco (The Song) 21. Broken Arrow 22. Via Chicago 23. California Stars 24. Casino Queen 25. Hoodoo Voodoo 26. I'm A Wheel
