The year got off to a good start with Gordie Johnson of Big Sugar playing his first show here with his new band Grady from Austin, Texas on March 9th. They played Cook County Saloon of all places, considering Cook County is a country bar, but the place was a rocking this night with Grady.I went to this show with my cousin Jay.
April 2nd my Cousin Jay and I went and saw Motley Crue on their Better Live Than Dead reunion tour. I hadn't seen the Crue since their 1989 Dr. Feelgood tour, so this show was going to make me feel like a teen again, and ya it worked. This was actually quite a good show, while Vince didn't sound quite as good as he used to, they still put on a great show,although I have to say Mick Mars looked like the walking dead, but can still play a mean guitar.The concert had a big circus like feel to it,the stage was set up like a circus tent with midgets,dancing girls, women blowing fire all kinds of stuff to watch while rocking out to the Crue. They played all their old hits that I grew up with in my teens. We had row 9 on the floor for this show. They are still touring these days, but think they are getting kind of boring again, glad I saw them on this tour. Good time was had by all, the show was sold out and can't see them selling out the Coliseum again anytime in the near future.It sure doesn't stop them from coming through town though, as they play here again January 27th 2010, this has got to be the 5th time they have played here since 2005.
On April 18th I went to see Motorhead play at Red's on a freakin' Monday night. This was my fourth time seeing Motorhead play, and was probably one of my favorite performances I have seen them play. They never let you down, you know what your getting when you go to see Motorhead, some raw fucking rock n' roll. What did surprise me was the encore when Lemmy came out with an acoustic guitar and played Whorehouse Blues, that was fucking cool. What Motorhead actually are is a raw blues band deep down. I missed 2 of the 3 opening acts. I saw Corrosion Of Conformity they were quite good, but missed 3 Inches Of Blood and Damn 13. I went to this show with my Cousin.
Another show I saw at the dreaded venue Red's was ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead with opening act The(International)Noise Conspiracy from Sweden this was an excellent double bill. Trail Of Dead were trippy and loud, I really enjoyed them and Noise Conspiracy were quite good but not as good as i was expecting, all and all though a great double bill.
On July 15 my Cousin and my friend Zap and I went to see Grady again, second time in 2005, this time at a bar called Cowboy's. What's with Grady playing country bars,lol, fuck, the guy is more rock then most metal bands, nonetheless this too was another great show by Grady. We had an awesome time at this show with lots of debauchery, it was a late night, I think we called it a night at about 7am. Good times!!!!
The day after seeing Grady it was time to see the ultimate outlaw in concert Willie Nelson with Kathleen Edwards opening. I took my Dad to this show as a Father's Day present. This was both our first time seeing him play live, we had row 2 on the floor for this show too, the best seats my dad has ever had for a concert. And what a great fucking show this was too. I never realized what a good guitar player Willie actually is. It was some fucking cool seeing him play his old beat up acoustic guitar. The show rocked from start to finish with no slow parts, way more rocking them I was actually anticipating. For 72 year old outlaw, he put on one hell of a show.
On July 29th at the exhibition here in Edmonton (Klondike Days) Twisted (Fucking) Sister played on the free stage on the grounds. The area for the concert held about 5000 people, with the show starting at 9pm, it was full by 7 with several thousand more people outside the gates. This was the second time seeing twisted Sister for me, having seen them when they opened for Iron Maiden back in 1984. It was the original line up all done up in their make up and 80's costumes, they hadn't changed a bit. What a great fucking time and show this was. While lead singer Dee Snider kept the his usual cursing to a minimum, he had no problem getting the rest of the crowd to say it for him. They played all the old classics from Stay Hungry,You Can't Stop Rock N' Roll and Under The Blade albums. I went to this show with my girl friend Janis, one of her best friends Lois her boyfriend Kenny, Lois' son Drayson,Janis' son Stephen and my Cousin. The beers were a flowing at this show. What an awesome throw back concert, and for free, good time was had by all.
On September 5th Janis and I went to the Pearl Jam and Supersuckers show. I won tickets for this show from The Edmonton Sun. I hadn't seen Pearl Jam since 1993 and that was at The Convention Centre to 4000 people, this time it was a sold out show at The Coliseum in front of 16,000 people.I was looking forward to seeing the Supersuckers play again, but have to say they let me down. But Pearl Jam more then made up for it. They played for over 2 hours and put on a rocking show.
On September 19th Janis and I went to see Robert Plant with opening band The Trews play Rexall Place (the coliseum). This was my fourth time seeing Plant solo in concert and Janis' first time seeing him. Robert Plant is one of Janis' very favorite singers, so she was quite stoked to be seeing him live in concert finally. I was hoping to get good seats for this show, so I held out til the last minute and managed to get row 1 on the floor for this show. We caught the last couple of songs from The Trews and have to say, again I wasn't all that impressed with them. As for Plant and his band The Strange Sensations were excellent. He mixed it up good with an equal amount of Zeppelin songs and his solo stuff. What surprised me about this show was how small the crowd was for a rock icon like Plant. There were only maybe 4500 people in attendance. For all those that missed out, you missed one hell of a show.
On September 20th, I went to see System Of A Down with opening band Mars Volta at Rexall Place. This was a great night of some heavy weird psychedelic music. What really impressed me this evening was Mars Volta. I thought they were amazing in concert. At times it reminded me of what seeing Zeppelin in their prime must have been like and the guitar player for Mars Volta (Omar Rodriguez-Lopez) reminded me of Jimi Hendrix. I liked their weird jams and psychedelicness in their music, but them maybe it was just all the pot in the air,lol.
System Of A Down were good as well, this was my second time seeing them, and they have come a long way since seeing them in 1999 at Ozzfest in Vancouver. Their music is on the wacked side, reminds me a bit of Zappa if Zappa played heavy metal music.Overall a great night of metal.
On October 14th my Dad,Cousin and I went to The Sidetrack Cafe for an intimate show with Corb Lund and The Hurtin' Albertans. The Sidetrack only holds a couple of hundred people, so this was a cool show to be at. This is also probably the most drunk I have ever got with my Dad, we had an excellent night of music,drinks and good times, Cuz even bailed on us that night as he had too much of a buzz on,lol,light weight.
October 17th, my Cousin and I went to Red's to see Tesla play an all acoustic show. I hadn't seen Tesla since they opened for Motley Crue back in the late eighties. It was the original line up and they put one hell of s show, playing for 2 hours.Another great show.
October 28th myself along with A-Bomb,Cousin,A-Bombs bro Ryan,and Janis went to see Grady play Red's this time. This was my third time seeing Grady play in the year 2005. And yet again, another great fucking rock n' roll show. I have never been disappointed by a show of Gordie Johnson's wether it be Big Sugar or his new band Grady. If you get the chance to see them, do it, you will not be let down. A big memory of this show was actually after the show, with all of us having a good buzz on and taking a cab home. I recall my Cousin talking like Bubble's from Trailer Park Boys and cracking us up to the point where we were in tears.Probably the funniest cab ride have ever taken. What a fun night of music and laughs.
October 31st A-Bomb and I went to see a band called Heavy Trash led by Jon Spencer of The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion band, this was his new band which is kind of a rock a billy/punk blues band. The opening band was a band called The Sadies who also backed up Heavy Trash on this night. I had never heard of The Sadies before, but holy fuck, I sure am a huge fan of them now. They put on a rockin' opening set that had Heavy Trash having to follow up with an even better set. Well, it was nice surprise to see The Sadies as the back up band for them. This was an awesome night again of music.The show was at The Sidetrack Cafe which was an excellent venue for this kind of music.
Other shows I saw in 2005 that didn't make the best of list. Strapping Young Lad with The Agony Scene and Misery Signals at The Starlite Room, Queens Of The Stone Age with Throw rag at Red's, The Doors Of The 20th Century with Vanilla Fudge and Pat Travers at Rexall Place, Sounds Of The Underground which included Lamb Of God,Clutch,Madball,Strapping Young Lad,Terror,High On Fire,Throwdown, headliners Gwar and many other acts this show was at Rexall Place, Foo Fighters with Sloan and The Constantines at Rexall Place, Maximum Rock N' Roll at The Sidetrack Cafe (this too was an awesome show), Gigantour which included Megadeath,Anthrax,Fear Factory and others at The Shaw Conference Centre.
I would have to say the year 2005 was one of the best years in concerts for me, as I was able to attend a lot of them, and the majority of them were great shows.Good times!!!!
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