Seven Inch Saturday (Metallica)

Today's seven inch single is from Metallica and features two songs from the No Life Til Leather Session demos. The two songs on this release from Bong Water Records are Killing Time and Let It Loose. This seven inch single came out in 1987. On Side A of this vinyl etched on the inner runoff it says "Rule #1 never trust a hippy" and on the B Side it is etched with "Absolutely no rock n' roll". Both songs are covers, Side A is Killing Time by the band Sweet Savage and Side B is Let It Loose by Savage. This is a pretty cool Metallica collectors item.

Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band Live in Calgary Oct.13th 2015

Last Tuesday Janis and I went tot he Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band concert in Calgary at the Jubilee Auditorium. When I first saw this show announced I was of course interested in going, and really wanted to take Janis to it as she is a huge Beatles fan. I had seen Ringo once before back in 1989 and that show was amazing, especially with the back-up band he had at the time. Checkout the poster below to see who was all playing in Ringo's All Starr Band at that time.

So when this show was announced I had to see who was in the band this time around. As the format for these Ringo shows is that each member of the band do a few songs from their previous bands. Well the back-up band this time consisted of Steve Lukather on guitar whom played in Toto, Richard Page on bass from the 80's band Mr.Mister, Gregg Rolie on keyboards a founding member of the Santana band, Todd Rundgren on guitar who has produced many an album and is a songwriter, Warren Ham on saxophone (no idea who he is), Gregg Bissonette on drums who once played in David Lee Roth's band and then of course Ringo Starr of Beatles fame.

This line-up certainly didn't match up with what I saw in 1989 at all. After seeing who was in the band I really had no interest in going, but I really wanted Janis to see another Beatle in concert, having already seen Paul McCartney a few years ago. Then I saw how much tickets were for this show. Holy fuck, two hundred dollars for these washed up has-beens, ummm nope not gonna go!

But then I got lucky and won a pair of tickets for the Calgary show from CKUA radio. So yes, we were going to make a weekend of it and travel to Cowtown for the show.

The show started with the band coming out on stage and then Ringo making his appearance last, bouncing out to a standing ovation and going into a Carl Perkins song called Matchbox, I was amazed at how agile and full of energy Ringo Starr is, the man don't look a day over fifty years old, yet he is seventy-five. Good on you Ringo! After that it was a Ringo original It Don't Come Easy. This version of the band has been playing together for over three years now and recorded a new song called Island In The Sun from his new album Postcards From Paradise, the first time that Ringo has recorded a new song with any version of his All-Star bands. It was alright, nothing special.

My favorite musician of this band was Todd Rundgren, he is a freak and at times kind of reminded me of Joe Walsh. His songs were pretty good, and he looked to be enjoying himself on stage, actually the whole band seemed to be having fun. Of course when Ringo did any Beatles songs the crowd rose up and sang along to such songs as Don't Pass Me By, Yellow Submarine, With A Little Help From My friends and Give Peace A Chance.

It was the rest of the shitty songs that you had to put up with through out the show. Songs by Toto such as Africa, Hold The Line and Rosanna, I have never liked Toto and it felt like those songs were never going to fucking end, ughhh! And Richard Page of Mr. Mister playing Kyrie and You Are Mine, again another band that I never liked. I will say though, Richard Page has a damn good voice, he hasn't lost it at all, if you like Mr. Mister that is. Then of course we got a few Santana songs, I don't mind Santana but have heard Black Magic Woman way too many times. This whole show felt like you were listening to a golden oldies AM radio program.

I couldn't help but think, man Ringo you sure have sunk to a low when your playing drums to such bands as Toto and Mr.Mister. But the 2500 people in attendance for this sold out two hour show sure did seem to enjoy it. I know Janis really liked the Beatles stuff, and it's always good to see your lady having fun dancing up a storm, singing along and giving the peace sign back to Ringo, as that is something Ringo did a lot of, he loves his peace love and happiness mantra. All and all we enjoyed the show, especially with not having to pay for it. Thanks CKUA! Good times!!!

Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band setlist.

Matchbox(Carl Perkins cover)
It Don't Come Easy (Ringo Starr song)
Island in the Sun (Ringo Starr song)
I Saw the Light(Todd Rundgren cover)
Evil Ways (Willie Bobo cover)
Rosanna (Toto cover)
Kyrie (Mr. Mister cover)
Bang the Drum All Day (Todd Rundgren cover)
Boys (The Shirelles cover)
Don't Pass Me By (The Beatles cover)
Yellow Submarine (The Beatles cover)
Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen (Santana cover)
You're Sixteen (Johnny Burnette cover)
I'm the Greatest (Ringo Starr song)
You Are Mine (Richard Page cover)
Africa (Toto cover)
Oye como va (Tito Puente cover)
I Wanna Be Your Man (The Beatles cover)
Love Is the Answer (Utopia cover)
Broken Wings (Mr. Mister cover)
Hold the Line (Toto cover)
Photograph (Ringo Starr song)
Act Naturally (Buck Owens cover)
With a Little Help From My Friends (The Beatles cover)
Give Peace a Chance (Plastic Ono Band cover)

Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band at the Jubilee Auditorium in Calgary.

T-shirt front.

T-shirt back.

On a side not, anyone who reads music magazines or watches TV may have seen that Ringo Starr has been endorsing Skechers shoes these days. Well, Janis had bought herself a pair of new Skechers a week before our getaway and hadn't broke them quite in yet. Well we did a whole lot of walking around in Calgary, checking out record shops and such. After a few days of lots of walking, Janis got blisters on her toes which made for some uncomfortable walking. Which got her and I to thinking, damn we should have made a sign to take to the concert that read...

Santanaofabitch, Mr.Mister my Toto's hurt!!!

Great White/Slaughter at River Cree Oct.9th 2015

Last Friday Q, Cuz and I went to the Great White and Slaughter double bill at River Cree Casino. This show was originally scheduled for April but had to be rescheduled because of structural problems with the tent that River Cree uses as a venue. I had no intention of going to this show, but Cuz ended up having an extra ticket, so off to the show I was going. After all at one time I used to be a fan of Great White having seen them twice previously back in the late 80's early 90's. As for Slaughter, I had seen them once before when they opened for Cinderella back in 1991. Was never a fan of them back then and am still not.

The first band of the evening was Slaughter. It had been years since I had heard this band and in all honesty didn't even know they still existed. Can't say I was excited about seeing them but thought I would give them a chance. Well, that didn't last long, still not a fan of them. With only two originals members in the band, that being lead singer Mark Slaughter and bassist Dana Strum. I thought their show was boring and music was terrible too, I did think that the drummer Zoltan Chaney was entertaining, he banged away like a mad man, jumped around like a crazy guy and was pretty damn good at flipping his sticks. Overall, not my kind of band or music and couldn't wait til they were done.

Slaugter setlist.

Edit this setlist | More Slaughter setlists

Slaughter at River Cree Casino.

Headliner of the night was Great White a band that has been around since 1984 and has it's share of tragedies and band members. There currently are two different versions of Great White in existence, one being Jack Russell's Great White and the version that was playing on this night called Great White with out the original lead singer Jack Russell. This line up featured three original members Mark Kendall on lead guitar, Michael Lardie on guitar and drummer Audie Desbrow. On lead vocals was Terry Ilous who once sang in the 80's hair metal band XYZ, which is something I just now learned. Anyways, to me Jack Russell was and is Great White. It was always his raspy and gritty vocals that first turned me on to this band. But I thought this might be a good show as I figured they would have a decent replacement for Jack, but nope. This show lacked everything I always liked about the band.

Lead guitarist Mark Kendall still can play quite well and looks like he is having fun, but other then that I thought they were terrible. Lead singer Terry Ilous did nothing for me, lacking the raspiness in vocals that I always liked, and what the hell, he had black hair, and that just don't work.

The band lacked grit and the old blues twinge that worked well with their glam metal sound. The sound just felt too polished for me, and hated buddy on vocals. And they barely played any of their old stuff. Again, I couldn't wait for this show to end, after about an hour thankfully this double bill was done. For a show that was supposedly sold out, I sure did see a whole lot of empty seats. My estimate would be a crowd of three hundred. Thank you Cuz for the free ticket as I would never have paid to see this show, and now I know why. I was really hoping for a better show by Great White then what I got but can't say I am surprised. Still it was a fun night out, making fun of the bands. Good times!!!

Great White setlist.

Edit this setlist | More Great White setlists

Great White at River Cree Casino.

Metallica Beer

So a few weeks ago on the internet I saw an article about Budweiser (my favorite beer and one of my favorite bands) were releasing a limited edition Metallica can to commemorate the two shows Metallica were playing in Quebec city. Metallica were playing the very last show in the old Colisee Pepsi coliseum and then two days later playing the very first show in the new Centre Videotron coliseum. This limited edition Budweiser was only available in the province Quebec and only 91,000 available. I had to have me a few of these, so that got me thinking how the hell am I going to get some of these. Well, a good buddy of mine that I used to work with moved back to Quebec a few years ago. So I got in touch with him and asked if he could help me out. Well, lo and behold he came through for me, sending me a dozen of them. A big big thank you to my buddy Simon!!!

Budweiser Limited Edition can.

AC/DC Beer

While at a liquor store yesterday I found this German beer on the shelf. The AC/DC Rock Or Bust beer named after there latest album title.. This is the second style of AC/DC beer I have seen now. A few years ago there was the Black Ice beer.

I have to say I didn't mind this blonde coloured beer at all. It's a nice tasting beer that comes in a tall can containing 568ml of yumminess!!!

The Black Ice edition of AC/DC beer.

Looks like there is also a AC/DC energy drink available. To read more about these products checkout the website here.

AC/DC Live in Edmonton Sept.20th 2015

Last weekend I ventured to Commonwealth Stadium along with 60,000 others to see AC/DC, this was an outdoor show, so of course it started raining just as the show was about to start. I wasn't going to bother seeing this show, but a week before the show I managed to get myself a ticket. Mind you it wasn't the best seat in the house, but hey, how many more chances is a person going to get to see the mighty AC/DC in concert.

The show started at 7:30 with opening act Vintage Trouble a rocking blues soul band from Hollywood, California. And as the band hit the stage, the rain started coming down, go figure. Vintage Trouble is a band I had never heard of before, but after a little research they seemed like a band I might enjoy. I was right on that account, the band played a great forty-five minute set. I was surprised by how many people were actually already in there seats for the opening act. Ty Taylor the lead singer for Vintage Trouble had a James Brown vibe to him, a great front man with a great voice. The band backing him up were damn good too. The band has four albums out with their newest release 1 Hopeful Rd. having just come out this year. This is a band I will definitely be looking into more. They would be a great band to see in a small venue or at festival like Interstellar or the Blues Fest, they would go over great at something like that. During intermission everyone I heard talking about the band seemed to enjoy them. Opening for AC/DC isn't an easy thing to do, but it sounded like they won over some new fans, good on them.

Vintage Trouble at Commonwealth Stadium.

After a half hour break between bands, it was time for AC/DC. During the break I went to have a smoke outside and get a beer, what fucking gong show it was to get around the stadium. The main concourse was stupidly packed it was tough getting around, what should have been a two minute walk took a good twenty minutes if you were lucky. If you wanted to pick up a t-shirt or something you were looking at an hour line up, forget it. Line ups for beer weren't quite as bad, but still a line up. I was lucky and found a line up that took only about ten minutes, yay, lucky me.

I got back to my shitty seat just in time to catch AC/DC come on. And of course, the rain was still coming down. What was really cool, was just before the band hit the stage the stadium was dark and all you could see was about 30,000 people with blinking red devil horns on their heads, it was quite a sight to see actually. So blinking red lights and yellow rain coats and ponchos was the colours for this night. Just like six years ago when AC/DC last played here at the same venue, the rain continued on.

This was my fourth time seeing AC/DC in concert and first time in twenty-four years, having last seen them on the Razors Edge tour, back when they used to play small intimate venues like Coliseums. Having not seen them in that many years I was looking forward to this show. You know what your going to get at an AC/DC concert, a meat and potatoes rock n' roll show. and that is exactly what I and 60,000 others got.

This time around the band was missing a couple of members, that being guitarist Malcolm Young who is out because of health issues and drummer Phil Rudd because of legal problems. So the line-up was Brian Johnson, Angus Young, Chris Slade on drums, Steve Young on guitar and Cliff Williams on bass. This is the second time I have seen this version of AC/DC as this was the same line-up I saw when they played Edmonton in 1988 on the Blow Up Your Video tour.

AC/DC opened the show playing the title song from their latest album Rock Or Bust. And off we go, from there it was one great classic song after another. They did three songs from the new album, that being the title song, Play Ball and Baptism By Fire. The new songs went over well except for Baptism, which is when I and many others headed to the can and to buy merch. Which by the way, there was still a big line up at the merch tables. Other then that the band rocked the stadium like few bands can. Brian and Angus still rocked the hell out of the stage like they were way younger then they actually are. Even with the rain coming down it sure didn't stop Angus from bopping around like he always does, and Brian's vocals sounded great as well, none of them have lost a step that's for sure. because of where I was seated, I never did get to see drummer Chris Slade other then on the big screens they had on each side of the stage. The only breaks the band took was when the roadies had to come out and squeegee the puddles of water from the stage. The crowd were on there feet and singing along right from the first note to the bitter end in a cold and wet night.

Angus and the band put on a great two hour show, and thankfully this time around we didn't get the mooning from Angus, thank god. I guess he is getting too old show his ass any more. Even through all the rain the band put on a great show and I didn't see a person leave because of it. The rain did finally stop, yup, for the two song encore, go figure. All and all this was a fun show, AC/DC can still bring it and it was awesome to see a big rock n' roll show at Commonwealth Stadium again. Good times!!!

Setlist for Edmonton show.

Edit this setlist | More AC/DC setlists

AC/DC live at Commonwealth Stadium.

T-shirt front.

T-shirt back.