Ministry Live in Edmonton March 31st 2018

On Saturday night I went to the Ministry concert at Union Hall here in Edmonton. After hemming and hawing whether to go or not, as I had never seen Ministry in concert before and really wanted t go, I managed to score a ticket for the show 45 minutes before show time for 20 dollars under face value. So at that price I figured I can't miss seeing Ministry this time.

I got to the show just before the first band of the night started. The first band being The God Bombs out of New York city. The venue was pretty much empty when this three piece band hit the stage. But that sure didn't stop them from performing like they were playing to a packed venue. Their music is a mix of metal, punk, with some electronic beats and a tribal kind of beat. The lead singer was a mad man, at one point he was on the dance floor writhing around on his back singing or more like screaming. I didn't much care for them, but have to say they put on a performance.

The God Bombs.

Next up was Chelsea Wolfe from California. I had never heard of her before, but by the time she came on, the place had filled up a lot. Seemed like a lot of people were there for her as much as Ministry. I'd describe her music as kind of Goth, folky music. I didn't much care for her either. But she got a great response from the near full bar.

Chelsea Wolfe.

Now for the main act out of Chicago the industrial metal pioneers Ministry led by Al Jourgensen on vocals. I believe he is the only original member left. I had never seen Ministry before and have always loved their album from 1992 Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs. By the time Ministry came on the place was packed. Ministry is currently on the road promoting their latest album AmeriKKKant, which is somewhat of a throwback to their old industrial sound. I actually think the album is quite good.

The band opened with a couple from the new album "Twilight Zone" and "Victims of a Clown". And what a wall of sound that came from the stage. I had read a few reviews of their shows and heard a few complaints about Al's vocals, but I thought he sounded really good. They did a called "Punch In The Face" from the album From Beer to Eternity, while doing this song they had images on the screen behind the band of Trump being punched in the face repeatedly. There were a lot of images of Trump on the screen and not in a good way. The band also brought out Burton C. Bell of the band Fear Factory to do vocals on a couple of songs. That was cool and he sounded great too, he actually performs on a couple songs from the new Ministry album.

About a third of the way through the show I ran in to my buddy Metal, who happened to have an extra set of ear plugs that he gave me as I had forgot to bring mine. That made a huge difference in the music for me, I was able to really enjoy the rest of the show. Thanks Metal! The last third of the show is when Ministry finally did a couple of songs from Psalm 69, them two songs being "Just One Fix" and "N.W.O."back to back, that was when the crowd was really losing their minds.

My only complaints about the show, was the venue, not a fan of Union Hall, too few songs from Psalm 69 and Ministry only played for 70 minutes. Still a good time was had. Good times!!!

Ministry at Union Hall.

Udo Dirkschneider Live in Edmonton March 16th 2018

On Friday night my Cuz and I attended the Udo Dirkschneider concert at the Starlite Room. And you have to admit, it's fun to say Udo Dirkschneider! I really needed to get out to a show and get my mind off of some unfortunate family issues in the past two weeks, and what works best, live music always does the trick. So this was perfect.

For those that don't know who Udo is, he was the lead singer for the German heavy metal band Accept between 1979-1986 and then joined the group again for a couple of albums between 1993-96. I myself was a fan of Accept in the mid 80's, not a huge fan but did like and own the albums Balls To The Wall, Metal Heart and Russian Roulette. After Accept, Udo went on to front his own band U.D.O. for 15 albums, the only one I have is his first one. So can't say I even gave his solo stuff a chance. So when this show was announced, I thought it would be fun to see Udo, as I never did see Accept in concert, and don't think they ever played Edmonton before. I may be wrong there, but I don't recall seeing them play here from the time I started going to shows in 1984. What was really good about this show is that it was billed as the Back To The Roots Tour, so all Accept songs, sweet! I've always kind of thought as Accept as second rate Judas Priest.

We got to the Starlite Room around 8:30 thinking we would catch the opening band Elm Street from Australia, but that didn't happen, we got there just in time to grab a beer and it was time for Udo. Show was an eary start obviously, kind of surprised me for a Friday night show.

Udo and his band opened the set with a song called "The Beast Inside" from an Accept album called Death Row released in 1994. Have to say I was not familiar with this song, but man what a reception Udo got when he came out on stage. The fists were raised as were the devil horns salute, and Udo's voice was top notch and he hasn't aged one bit, and the man is 65 years old. He looks the exact same as he did back in the 80's, even wearing the camouflage gear still, just classic.

Next up was a song called "Aiming High" from 1986's Russian Roulette album, this song I knew. I didn't know all the tunes but the ones I did, like "Midnight Mover" from Metal Heart were sounding great. The sound at the Starlite seems to have got a lot better in the last couple of times I have been there, which is awesome.

There were a couple slower songs about midway through the show which was a great time to step out for a quick smoke. But after the slow ones, it was time for "London Leather Boys" from the Balls To The Walls album, that sounded amazing and got the near sold out crowd back into the show. After London, it was another song from Metal Heart "Up To The Limit", they did lots from Metal Heart, which to me was the last real good album they put out. The audience seemed to think the same as lots of people were singing along.

Udo's back up band were good, they had the classic metal sound down, as well as the cliché moves, but hey, it was all fun. On guitar was Bill Hudson an LA based guitarist who has played with Savatage and Trans-Siberian Orchestra, he was kind of cheesy actually, also on guitar Andrey Smirnov who is a musician from Russia he was good, on bass from Germany was Fitty Wienhold and rounding out the band on drums is Udo's son Sven.

The encore featured a couple songs from the Accept album Restless And Wild, and of course to close out the show was the song everyone was waiting for "Balls To The Wall", the metal heads were losing their shit to this one.. A fun night of old school heavy metal and a good distraction from events over the past couple of weeks. A big shout out to my buddy for the guest list! Good times!!!

Udo Dirkschneider at the Starlite Room.

T-shirt front.

T-shirt back.

Santana Live in Edmonton March 12th 2018

On Monday night I went to the Santana concert here in Edmonton at Rogers Place with my buddy Buzzard. This was my first time seeing Santana in concert as I'm not really a huge fan of him. I like him but never really had an interest in seeing him live. My buddy talked me into going to the show as he has seen Santana a couple times live and mentioned I really should go. He picked up tickets so now I was committed to going. Buzzard leant me the Carlos Santana autobiography The Universal Tone: Bringing My Story To Light, which was an interesting read and had me looking forward to finally seeing this legendary guitarist.

Santana are on the road now as part of his Divination Tour. This time around Carlos had a eight piece band with him as he always has a revolving door of musicians he plays with. Playing in the band this tour is Andy Vargas and Ray Greene on vocals and horns, three drummers Paoli Mejias, Karl Perazzo and Carlos' wife Cindy Blackman Santana, David K. Mathews on keys, Benny Rietveld on bass, Tommy Anthony on guitar and of course Carlos Santana on guitar., a great bunch of musicians backing him up.
I've always found listening to Santana albums that I would get bored as I always kind of though the songs all started to sound a like. Carlos has a very distinct guitar sound, there always no doubt who is playing when you hear that Santana guitar sound. But in concert, I enjoyed it much more, didn't feel as repetitive. And that was even after a two and quarter hour long show, with no intermission. It was billed as an evening with Santana, so no opening act, but I thought for sure there would be an intermission, but to my surprise there wasn't, which was fine, cause the show actually went by real quick.

The show opened with the song "Soul Sacrifice" in which we missed as we were still in a line up trying to get into this damn venue, still not a fan of Rogers Place. I thought the place would grow on me, but thus far I can say it hasn't. By the time we got in and grabbed a drink and got to our seats Carlos and band were playing the popular song "Evil Ways" which sounded amazing, which segued into the John Coltrane song "A Love Supreme". A half dozen songs into the show the band played what is probably Santana's biggest hit "Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen" that really got the crowd of about 6000 up and dancing. The show was full of guitar solos as that is what Carlos is most famous for which included a version of Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Child (Slight Return).

For the encore we were treated to a drum solo by Cindy Blackman Santana who could really bang the shit out of her drum set, I'm not one much for drum solos but I thought she did a great job not only on her solo but through out the whole show. Also in the encore was the huge hit for Carlos the song "Smooth" from his 1999 mega album Supernatural. I hated that song, which originally featured Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty on vocals, but live with Andy Vargas and Ray Greene doing vocals it actually sounded quite good.

After reading the Carlos Santana book, I was expecting Carlos to really go on about spirituality and such as he is a very spiritual man, he didn't do that and just let the music do the talking which was cool by me. The few spiritual/inspirational messages he did have were on the screen behind him. And at 70 years of age not only does Carlos sound good, but he looks healthy and good too. All and all this show was much better then I had expected. Good times!!!

Santana at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

Seven Inch Saturday (Fake Problems / Gaslight Anthem)

Today's seven inch single, also works for my cover song of the day. It is the Fake Problems / Gaslight Anthem split single. Side A is the song from the Naples, Florida band Fake Problems, the song being "Songs For Teenagers" from their 2010 album Real Ghosts Caught On Tape released on SideOneDummy Records.

The B Side is a cover of the Fake Problems song "Songs For Teenagers" covered by the New Jersey band Gaslight Anthem. I really like this version of the song as well. The single was released in 2011 and limited to 500 copies on neon green vinyl.

I was lucky too have seen both these bands play together back in 2010 in Edmonton when Fake Problems opened for Gaslight Anthem.

Original version by Fake Problems.


Cover version by Gaslight Anthem.

Seven Inch Saturday (Anthrax)

It's been a while since I have done a seven inch Saturday post, so here we go. I've been busy with listing my vinyl on Discogs that last little while and haven't updated the blog a whole lot. But now that the listing is done I can get back to writing more. After going through all my vinyl, I've come across some stuff I forgot I even had. So I am going to start writing a bit more about some vinyl I have re-discovered.

Today I am starting with a seven inch single from the band Anthrax. This was part of a series of Record Store Day releases (or Disquaire Day in French) from 2016. These releases which also include Twenty One Pilots, La Femme and The Doors are singles that honour the musical connection between France and the USA. All the releases are in memory of those last in the 2015 Paris attack in which 130 people lost their lives in a terror attack. The only one I picked up is the Anthrax single which features the songs "Antisocial" (Trust cover) from Anthrax's 1988 album State Of Euphoria, b/w "In The End" both songs are live versions. The song "In The End" from Anthrax's 2011 album Worship Music is wrote as a tribute to 'Dimebag' Darrell (Pantera) and Ronnie James Dio (Black Sabbath, Rainbow, Dio). This single is a limited pressing of 1500 copies on red vinyl. Both songs were recorded in Tokyo not sure of what year though as there is nothing on the cover or record telling you. I found both live recordings to sound very muffled and muddy sounding, not a very good recording at all, almost bootleg like.

Side A - Antisocial

Side B - In The End

In concert news...Anthrax will be coming through Edmonton again this spring with Slayer and Testament on Sunday May 20th at The Shaw Conference Centre.

Dan Bern Live in Edmonton February 15th 2018

Well it's been over a week already since my buddy Buzzard and I went to the Dan Bern concert at the Almanac here in Edmonton. Dan Bern is a guitarist singer/songwriter and painter from Mount Vernon, Iowa. I was excited to hear that Dan Bern was playing Edmonton having followed him for years especially in the late 90's up til about 2005, it was then that he seemed to fall off my radar. Although he has been busy putting out albums all through the years right up til the present time. And to see an artist like Dan Bern play an intimate venue like the Almanac was going to be pretty damn cool.

Opening the show was local artist Paul Bellows. Paul is another artist that you used to hear his name in the local scene all the time, but again it's been years since I had heard anything about him.

Paul's opening set was pretty good. Though I didn't know his tunes, I thought he put on a good show. But I was there for Dan Bern.

Dan Bern opened the show with a song called "Freight Train Blues" a Doc & Merle Watson cover. And it was right from the first song when I noticed that all those in attendance were big Dan Bern fans, as people were singing along right from the get go. Another big sing along song was "Black Tornado", I didn't realize how popular Dan really was. It was cool to hear everyone singing along with Dan, it even looked like Dan was kind of surprised himself.

Dan was really engaging with the audience, telling some great stories and was funny as hell too. One of the first thing I noticed when Dan hit the stage was the t-shirt he was wearing, which was a Saskatoon Blades shirt. Dan mentioned how it was his favorite t-shirt he owned. The Blades are a Western Hockey League junior team, that surprised me, but would make more sense later on during the show. The show was full of surprises, as I was also surprised by how knowledgeable he was on Canadian culture and politics.

I can see why Dan gets compared to Bob Dylan a lot. Dan has a very distinctive voice and is one hell of a songwriter. Other songs Dan did that I knew were "God Said No", "Shakespeare's Got A Gun", "Jerusalem", "Party By Myself" and "Fascist". There wasn't a bad song played all night, no boring moments or anything, just a stellar show from start to finish. It was about two thirds through the show when Dan invited a gentleman on stage to do a few songs with him, and that man was the General Manager of the Saskatoon Blades Colin Priestner. Colin was actually a great singer as well, who would have guessed. The last song of the night Dan wandered through the crowd singing and playing the guitar and invited opener Paul Bellows out with him where the two of them belted out a song. All and all this was an amazing night of music. A great show. Good times!!!

Dan Bern at The Almanac.

Dan Bern and Colin Priestner.