So Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath’s final show this past Saturday took up a lot of my attention, but a very historic gig happened just a day before. Cardiff, Wales was ground zero for the thing a lot of people thought would never happen – Oasis are back together, and have played their first (and second) show in 16 years.
Noel Gallagher did what he seemed dead set against doing – rejoined with brother Liam Gallagher and brought Oasis back for what has been called a “victory lap.” This tour does several more shows in England and a few in Ireland before hitting up North and South America and Australia, Japan and South Korea. Nothing has been confirmed for next year yet, but a tour of the European continent as well as a possible 30th anniversary show at the Knebworth grounds are strongly rumored.
Joining the Gallagher brothers are a handful of Oasis past members from various points, as well as a new face. Original member Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs is back, as are 2000’s era guitarist Gem Archer and bassist Andy Bell. Debuting on drums is Joey Waronker.
This is the part where I mention that I am one of the many unlucky ones who did not get a ticket to any of the shows (I only tried for Chicago). In all reality I’m ok with that now since I have a mortgage to wrestle with. I will suffice with whatever live album eventually comes from this, as well as the mountain of bootleg vids and audio already out there.
Anyway, the Oasis machine is back in business and business sounds pretty good. There are a ton of clips and vids from the shows out there. Quality varies by phone and angle, of course, but in the better-filmed clips I have to say the band is sounding really good. They sound vital and hungry, not like they’re just out doing a cash grab. While they are raking in money hand over fist and have truckloads of merch for sale, they came out and made sure people got a show worthy of the premium ticket prices.
There isn’t a whole lot more to say right now – the shows will (most likely) roll on, hopefully they don’t have to pause for some unforeseen issue and hopefully they hold it together and make it through the gigs. Word on the street is that they have contract clauses that make it very, very financially un-viable to cancel shows due to old fashioned brotherly love, so I would assume the gigs go on as planned.
I know that some people are unhappy that Oasis are back together, but judging from the live clips I’d say plenty more are very, very happy. Oasis themselves seem happy to be back, and I’m quite happy they’re back at it even if I won’t take it in. Here’s to ya.
Note – I am putting a few video clips in, no clue how long these will stay up
Last Saturday on July 5th, Ozzy Osbourne hosted a special event in his hometown of Birmingham, England. This concert, dubbed “Back To The Beginning,” was a huge, star-studded affair that marks Ozzy’s final live performance.
This massive show was staged at Villa Park, the home of Aston Villa Football Club. Given attendance was 40,000. The event was also streamed, though it was a two-hour delay. This stream was how I took the show in. The event raised a considerable amount of money for a handful of Birmingham area charities.
There was a lot of buzz going in to the event – many wondered if Ozzy would be able to perform at all. The answer was a resounding yes. The concert’s somewhat unusual itinerary was also a source of concern – most bands were getting very short 15 minute sets with a bit more time afforded to a few marquee acts at the end. Many wondered how the show was going to go off with all the logistics involved, but a rotating stage and other accommodations made it run like clockwork.
A final source of controversy revolved around an act that Sharon Osbourne said was thrown off the show. This is a whole story unto its own so I won’t get into it here as it’s not relevant to the show itself. As of my writing in the afternoon of Sunday, July 6th, we do not yet know the identity of the jettisoned act. Sharon is supposed to reveal this information at some point soon.
Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine fame was the musical director for the event. The show also had a host – you could be forgiven if you thought you were supposed to acknowledge your tribal chief Roman Reigns as the host, but no that was his clone, actor Jason Momoa.
This massive concert lasted ten hours so it was a hell of a time commitment. For me I had to miss the first portion of the stream as I had stuff to do around the house, like mowing the lawn in 85 degree hell heat. I picked up on the first all-star jam and watched through to Metallica’s first song, when I had to split because I was due at the theater for a showing of This Is Spinal Tap. Thankfully there was a few days of replay time for the stream so I was able to catch everything I missed, especially the main event of Ozzy and Black Sabbath.
I won’t run down the entire show as that would just be wasting words for the sake of it. I thought all of the bands did fantastic. For such a huge logistical challenge, most everyone sounded fine and the few hiccups there were weren’t glaring or show-ruining.
The time between the brief set changes was filled with video clips of fans as well as some tributes from musicians. Those included Dolly Parton, Def Leppard, AC/DC, Elton John as well as Judas Priest, who were unable to play the show due to already being booked for the Scorpions’ 60th anniversary concert the same night. Jack Black and Fred Durst each sent in pre-recorded performances of Mr. Crowley and Changes, respectively.
For a complete rundown of who performed what, the Wikipedia article on the show is honestly the most concise and easiest to read of the lists out there.
Both of the all-star jams were of special interest. The first one was especially cool as Jake E. Lee took the stage after not having contact with Ozzy in decades and just eight months after being shot multiple times in a botched robbery attempt. It was also nice to hear two songs from The Ultimate Sin album, a record that Sharon especially has run down over the years. Lzzy Hale did a fantastic job singing the title track from that album, it was one of the highlight performances of the show. Later in that same set, Whitfield Crane of Ugly Kid Joe came out and did a stellar rendition of Ozzy’s Believer. And the first all-star set concluded with a somewhat unlikely figure, as Yungblud performed Changes in one of the most talked-about and pleasantly surprising moments of the show.
The second all-star jam opened with Billy Corgan, K.K. Downing and others offering up a Judas Priest song, then having at Sabbath’s Snowblind. Sammy Hagar then came out with Vernon Reid of Living Colour for Flying High Again and Montrose’s classic Rock Candy. Following a rendition of Bark At The Moon from Ghost’s singer Tobias Forge (I don’t know what he’s calling himself these days), we got what was, at least to me, a surprise guest as Steven Tyler took the stage. Tyler sounded great and while his guest shot was only three songs, it does give hope that he might be able to pilot Aerosmith through their own farewell show of some sort.
After several hours of bands and all-star jams, it was finally time for the show’s reason for being. There wasn’t a ton of build-up or anything – after the set change, Ozzy was on hand for his solo set. Ozzy came out from the stage floor in a huge throne from which he’d perform. He is left unable to walk after Parkinson’s disease and spinal injuries. His band included a cast of his former associates, including Zakk Wylde, Mike Inez, Tommy Clufetos and Adam Wakeman.
Ozzy’s set comprised five of his classic songs – I Don’t Know, Mr. Crowley, Suicide Solution, Mama I’m Coming Home and the ubiquitous Crazy Train. Everything went off without a hitch and Ozzy sounded really good despite his physical condition. While the affects of age and debilitation are there, he still sounded strong.
And Ozzy was ever the showman – as he has always done, he implored the crowd to get into it by yelling, showing their hands and the like. The Prince of Darkness is clearly able to still command an audience. The power and energy of an Ozzy Osbourne performance was present and accounted for, any concerns about his ability to make it through the set vanished as he ruled over his domain.
After the solo set there was one more set change, and it was time for the final event – Black Sabbath, with all four original members present. While Black Sabbath bowed out on a farewell tour in 2017, drummer Bill Ward was controversially not included in that tour. Everyone had expressed regret for that decision in the years since, and for this final bow, Bill Ward was on hand alongside Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Ozzy Osbourne.
Sabbath performed four songs – War Pigs, N.I.B., Iron Man and Paranoid. Before going into Paranoid, Ozzy mentioned that it would be Sabbath’s final song ever and thanked the fans for everything over the years. With the stone cold classic knocked out, it was all over.
The film crew chose to focus on fireworks over the stadium rather than what was going on with Ozzy. Apparently the other members of Sabbath gave him a cake to commemorate the occasion. It was kind of odd not to show any real interaction with the rest of the band, but I guess those fireworks weren’t cheap.
And with that, Ozzy Osbourne’s live performance career is now over. He has mentioned still being able to record so we’ll see if the book’s shut or not on his studio output yet. Sharon Osbourne did relay that she is now happy to leave the music industry, so we’ll see if Ozzy will get to recording or not.
I will admit I was a bit concerned at how this event would go off, but after watching it I have to so it went off great. It was a fitting tribute to a man and band that have been the influence to several generations of heavy metal, rock and beyond. It is sad to think that the Prince of Darkness won’t be electrifying stages and terrorizing the populace, but this man definitely earned his rest at this point. Cheers to you Ozzy, may your retirement suit you well.
Last week was a huge moment in music – Oasis announced a series of North American concerts to be held in August and September of 2025. Their previously announced UK and Ireland shows sold out in a matter of minutes with a ton of issues surrounding demand and pricing. But Oasis were also far bigger in their native England than they were in the US, so how would the handful of North American shows fare?
Before tickets officially went on sale on Friday, October 4th, the band announced second shows for all North American dates, except one – the Chicago show at Soldier Field would remain a lone date. Lucky me, as I would be trying to secure tickets for that very show.
I did get a pre-sale code that would let me buy tickets on Thursday, a day before the general sale. I figured I’d take a shot at seeing them, I never had despite having lived in Europe through the late ’90’s and having every opportunity to see them whenever I wanted.
There are a few other things I’ve never done – I’ve never been to a stadium concert and I’ve never bought a ticket for a high-demand event. I think the 20,000 capacity amphitheater style gig is the biggest type I’ve been to, and none of those shows were sell-outs. I’ve been to several sold-out or near sold-out shows, but all of those were smaller, club-level shows at 1,000 or less capacity. I’ve never had a problem getting tickets to something even if it was a hot ticket.
But this Oasis reunion is a HOT ticket. Again, it melted down Ticketmaster in England due to demand. Many people over there were left out, which also served to increase North American demand as many from England would be trying their luck with shows across the pond.
I’ve bought tickets at box offices and record stores back in the days of paper tickets, I’ve obviously boguht online a lot in the past many years, and I’ve showed up to many shows and simply paid at the door without an advanced ticket. One thing I’ve never done is use an online queue system like what Ticketmaster had set up for these shows.
I got home on Thursday from work about fifteen minutes before the pre-sale began. I logged into my Ticketmaster account and, in what proved to be a grave mistake, I waited until the sale launched to join in. Had I jumped in right when I got home, there might have been a different outcome to this story.
When I got into the queue, there were 16,800 people ahead of me. I was a bit miffed that I was so far back, but then I hopped on reddit to see what people were saying and I found out I messed up by not joining as soon as I could.
this was after I’d been in the queue for a few minutes
I don’t know the exact number of tickets available – Soldier Field concerts seem to run around 54,000 or so. The number of people in the queue, who could each buy 4 tickets, far exceeded the capacity. Take into account that not all tickets were sold during the pre-sale and pickings were truly slim.
Anyway, I waited 40 minutes to get in and when I did, it was a bloodbath. There were a few scattered seats, but I couldn’t get one quick enough. The GA floor only had VIP available, and it quickly came down to only having VIP seats as well, at a $600 minimum. I simply closed my browser tab and went about my day.
I did not bother trying for the general sale the next day. I believe Chicago sold out in 19 minutes, and all of the other gigs (with two shows on all the others) sold in similar fashion. I saw that quite a few people got in on the Mexico City gigs after missing on both the UK and other North America shows. I guess up next is Australia, who are getting a whole two shows.
No, I won’t be seeing Oasis next year, barring some kind of oddball luck on the resale market. I’m not inclined to pay much attention to that, honestly. I’m not really upset about it, I knew it would be kind of a lottery to get tickets and I just didn’t hit. Besides, I’ve heard from plenty of people that stadium shows kind of suck anyway, it’s more about just being there than it is taking in the show. I’ll make do with the inevitable live album and documentary when all of that comes around.
I was talking with a buddy awhile back about canceled shows. It’s the hidden scourge of attending concerts – you show up to the venue ready to have a good time and someone’s back is out or they have the flu or a new divorce to navigate, and they aren’t playing that night. Usually these things come around in time enough to absorb, but there are times people have found out in front of the venue or even in their seats.
I’ve never personally had the worse scenario happen – I haven’t even traveled some distance only to find last-minute that the show is off. A few friends of mine have been in that predicament before, I recall many years ago texting a good friend to let him know that the band he was driving up to Kansas City to see was buried under snow in Denver. And my friend was just outside of KC, a three hour drive from here, when he found out.
But I have had a few cancellations in various circumstances. I figured I’d run through them today just for something different to do.
Megadeth
The first one is also the most recent one. Megadeth planned a huge tour with Lamb Of God, In Flames and Trivium and included little ol’ Springfield on the original routing. Well, this was early 2020 when the shows were announced, and we all know that COVID hit not long after. The tour was pushed to 2021 and Springfield was dropped entirely.
I wasn’t surprised, the show was being held in our 10,000 seat college arena and I was very skeptical that Megadeth was going to even come close to filling that. And they didn’t – tickets weren’t moving much at all, so they quietly threw our show into the bin when re-routing the tour.
And one person really made out like a bandit over it – me. I excitedly hopped on to buy tickets as soon as I could dig up a pre-sale code and I used the seat map to buy two awesome seats right on the aisle. Only problem was the seat map was oriented weird and I bought seats in the upper most row of the section instead of closest to the stage. I bought the two tickets I intended to buy so I was on the hook for four tickets at $125 a pop. When the show canceled and I got all my money back I felt a lot less stupid, I wasn’t gonna have to try and sell expensive tickets to a show people weren’t lining up to attend.
Oh, and that wasn’t all – I had bought the two closer seats under some kind of package deal involving Lamb Of God. A few months later when they released a new album, that record showed up to my doorstep, signed by the band. I can only assume that was part of the deal I bought as I didn’t order a signed record on my own. Or maybe it was a quiet kind of make-good thing after the tour got postponed and later canned. Either way, thanks.
Deicide
This goes back to 2004 and doesn’t involve a whole show cancellation but rather just one band. The tour package was Superjoint Ritual, the post-Pantera outfit of Phil Anselmo. Deicide were opening the show along with someone else. I wasn’t ever into Superjoint but I was happy for the chance to see Deicide, I do love my old school death metal.
Well, Deicide did what they often did in those years and didn’t show. I got to the front of the venue and there was a sign saying that they canceled. I hadn’t bought a ticket so I turned around and left. Deicide would jettison their troublesome members not long after and go on a run of more stability. This one didn’t really bother me too much, Deicide canceling shows was not out of the blue back then and they were the only reason I was going so it was a free evening for me.
Merle Haggard
This next one goes back to early 2016 and, if you know Merle’s life story at all, you already know the tragic reason for this one.
Merle had booked a tour with Willie Nelson, with Jamey Johnson opening. You talk about a chance to see two legends under one roof, this was it on a silver platter. And Jamey was no slouch either, he was running high around this time.
Well, sadly Merle wouldn’t make it. He came down with pneumonia and wasn’t able to shake it. He canceled his participation on the tour fairly early, and then died on April 6. This was only two days before the show was set to hit my town.
Willie and Jamey went on with their sets, both paying homage to Merle. It was a fantastic show but it’s sad that Merle passed away and couldn’t be a part of it as well. But it’s one cancellation I’d have a hard time complaining about. Totally understandable.
Slayer
These last two are inter-related. At some point in 2004, Slayer announced a tour for later in the year that was to include our humble little village. I had never seen Slayer live so I was very much looking forward to it.
Well, fast forward 20 years, and I’ve never seen Slayer live.
This one was pretty simple – just as the tour started, Tom Araya was having some kind of issues, I think with his throat but I’m not sure. The band postponed the first few shows, of which ours was one. A bit later they announced the rescheduled dates, and our show was not among the new dates. No official word was given but the rumor mill indicated that soft ticket sales were the reason.
I was disappointed by this one but not much I can really do about it. The saddest part of all is that it might have played a role in a gig we never got.
Cradle Of Filth
This final one is not an officially canceled gig. Nothing was ever booked and no tickets were sold. And all of the info I’m about to give is all second-hand information that I can’t confirm, and also it was 20 years ago so my own memory might not be the best on it all.
But the premise was this – Cradle Of Filth were looking to book US shows and somehow got in touch with a booker here. The band’s fee was huge, which is understandable as they were the most successful extreme metal band going back then. But I guess our booker was willing to play ball and everyone exchanged dates. The kink in the hose that killed the show was this – the only available date was the same night as the Slayer gig.
So we didn’t get a Cradle Of Filth show because Slayer were running town the same night. That much is understandable, as the crossover in audiences is pretty big. But, as we’ve just seen above, that Slayer gig wound up canceled. So that’s a possible double bummer, if this story is true.
I really don’t know if CoF were actually close to playing here. It’s possible that there was a low-level inquiry that didn’t pan out and then someone in the scene added a bunch of layers to the story that weren’t really there. Or it’s possible that it is all true – it’s one of life’s dumb series of coincidences that is just strange and stupid enough to happen. I kind of don’t buy it because CoF’s tour routing for the fall of ’04 doesn’t line up with Slayer’s that much but something still could have been brewing.
That about does it for the canceled shows, at least the ones I can recall. I consider myself fortunate – I never had to drive a great distance to find a show canceled at the last minute. But I’m sure many of you who read here have your own canceled gig stories, feel free to share them below. And may any future gigs go on without a hitch.
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Last Friday was the big show, one that I would have never expected to book in my town. But it happened against any expectations and it was quite a night.
The venue was the Gillioz Theatre. This is a historic spot that was originally opened in 1926, then closed in 1980 and re-opened after restoration in 2006. The spot holds roughly 1,000 people. It has been an occasional hotspot for shows and I’ve seen a handful there. It is a seated venue with not a ton of room to stand around in, a point that will come up in a bit.
The show was Saxon and Uriah Heep, two long-running British rock and metal acts who are still going strong after decades. Uriah Heep started in 1970 and have been running since, and Saxon got off the ground in 1975 and released their first album in 1979.
While Saxon was the first act to play, this was a co-headliner tour where each band got equal stage time, roughly an hour and twenty minutes. No openers or anything like that, just long sets for the featured acts and straight to the point. I’m getting to enjoy this kind of show without openers who I forget about before they’re sometimes even off stage. Opening a show like this would be a killer opportunity for an emerging band, though I do also appreciate the extra spare time from not having one.
Saxon were up first and got right into it, they played the intro and then the title track from their newest album Hell, Fire and Damnation, which I conveniently reviewed the other day. In all, five songs from the new disc got into the setlist so Saxon are clearly high on this new material.
Another thing Saxon do a lot of are title tracks – including the new album, a total of seven title tracks got stage time. This ran the string from early Saxon releases like Denim And Leather and Wheels Of Steel, to the more recent Sacrifice and also stuff like Power And The Glory being somewhere inbetween it all.
Saxon celebrating after their set
The band were totally on point all night, these guys are seasoned pros and there wasn’t going to be any let down. It could be said that their intensity was greater than that of the seated crowd, who to be honest were a bit tame. This did seem to capture Biff Byford’s attention as he brought it up more than once and a fair portion of the crowd got up and put in some energy in response. I have nothing bad to say about the venue, but an open standing sort of place would have been a much more appealing venue for this show. Sadly we don’t have much of anything like that in town, at least for a show this size.
Even with the contrast between a heavy metal band on stage and a crowd all stuffed in theater seats, the show went off without a hitch. I was very happy to see Saxon as it was my first time. I don’t know why I hadn’t caught them before, they aren’t exactly shy about touring, but whatever the case I finally got another band off my bucket list.
In a bit of trivia – I have no clue if Saxon had ever played Springfield in the past, this town did get some shows in the ’80’s long before I lived here. But I do know that their most recent member, guitarist Brian Tatler, had played town just seven years prior with his main outfit Diamond Head. There’s a story or more in that show that I will tell in a post sometime down the road.
After Saxon left the stage there was a pretty quick stage turnover to get ready for Uriah Heep. Saxon were actually only occupying the front part of the stage in fairly cramped conditions, as UH already had their gear set up behind Saxon so the changeover was pretty seamless. I’ve noticed that set turnover is a very quick process these days – back in the ’90’s when I started attending shows, the change from one band to next could take an eternity.
Uriah Heep is a band I have been familiar with but haven’t spent a ton of time listening to. They’ve had a few songs in rotation on classic rock radio but I hadn’t played an album of theirs or anything. I did put together a playlist of sets they’d done at shows prior to my stop in order to familiarize myself more with their stuff, another nice convenience of the modern age.
Uriah Heep does have one remaining original member, guitarist Mick Box. In fact, Mick is the only surviving original member so it’s not like anyone else would have the opportunity to join him. Mick was joined by singer Bernie Shaw, who has been with the group since 1986. Bassist Dave Rimmer has been around since 2013, and Drummer Russell Gilbrook has been on board since 2007. Regular keyboardist Phil Lanzon was unable to join Heep for the tour, so the band landed one hell of a special guest in his place – Adam Wakeman, the son of legendary Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman, helmed the organ keys for this show.
The Heep are also touring behind a recent album, 2023’s Chaos and Colour. Three songs from that album made the set, as well as one from their 2018 effort Living The Dream. The rest of the set was culled from the band’s classic early 1970’s work. I will say that the newer songs were all really good and have me eager to visit these more recent albums. It’s a tough task to catch up with the group as they have 25 total studio albums.
Uriah Heep in action
The band were in fine form as they delivered their goods. Most of the stuff was performed faithful to the original, while UH took a few liberties here and there. After shouting out Saxon, Shaw made a remark that today’s music is pigeonholed into genres, while when Uriah Heep were starting out music was mostly either good or not. Then UH showed off their own metal chops with a heavy rendition of Free n’ Easy. Russell Gilbrook especially got down hard and heavy on the song, an illustration that sometimes drums are honestly the line between rock and metal.
There were a few treats in store for those, like me, who enjoy extended live jams and departures from the original recordings. UH again struck up a heavier tone on Look At Yourself and also drew the jam out for a pretty long time. They also aired out their long ballad July Morning, a gentle reminder that ten-minute long songs existed long, long before Taylor Swift. We then got the encore, which was capped off with the band’s obvious hit Easy Livin’.
That was all for the show, it was off into the night for us afterward. It was a true honor to finally see Saxon live, a true stalwart of the NWOBHM. And it was a real privilege to see Uriah Heep and I will be working their albums into my rotation as I move along, they are far too good to not listen to. I was surprised that this show got booked here and I’m damn glad it did, my gigs these days are very few and far between and this was a true highlight of my concert going.
Photography by Susan Cummins
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A disturbing trend has been moving through music in the past several years. It was already happening before 2020, but the COVID pandemic really thrust it into high gear – small music venues have been closing, and at an alarming rate.
That rate is very telling, and it’s not isolated to the United States – this September 2023 article from mixmag estimates that 10% of UK grassroots music venues would close by the end of 2023. Though I don’t have word on if that came to be, I’d say the estimate was fair since a good bit of the year had already passed. And even without this stat, if you pay attention to music news at all, you’ve surely noticed several doom and gloom articles about the state of smaller music venues.
Closing venues may not seem like a huge deal to some – these are very small businesses that cater to somewhat limited audiences, and there are the stereotypical cracks about small music places – the bathroom of death being just one.
But the loss of music venues is a massive deal to music – it eliminates the place that musicians have to play. Sure, the Internet is here and makes it easier than ever to “get your stuff out there.” But – getting anyone to actually pay attention to it is another matter. Do anything on social media – post a song, an article, hell – a blog, and you’ll find it takes thousands upon thousands of impressions to generate tens of actual plays or views. Nothing about using the Internet to gain exposure is as easy as just posting it – not music, not blogging, not OnlyFans, not anything.
The music venue is the one place where people will be interested in underground or independent music. It is where people go to specifically seek that out. There is no more receptive audience for music anywhere than at a music venue.
And this plays out at all levels – I listen to a lot of underground and extreme metal. These are bands that are internationally known but let’s face facts – the audience for extreme metal isn’t usually massive. These bands will often play 300 or 500 capacity venues, the same kind of venues that host other forms of independent and local music. Losing these spots is the loss of an opportunity to see bonafide national touring acts, there are only a handful of extreme bands who draw the numbers to fill larger venues.
And the biggest impact of venue closure is to the local scene. Sure, things have changed from the old days – bands don’t have to “pay their dues” for years on the live club circuit before “making it.” But bands still have to have their first handful of gigs somewhere, even if they do catch fire early and make a name for themselves. These local venues are the lifeblood of emerging bands of all stripes – those who might go on to be signed acts, those who stake out a claim as a noted regional act, and even those who are local “weekend warrior” type bands.
The local venue gives all these bands and the fans a place to meet, mingle and network. They aren’t just important places, they are the place to meet up and get to business. It’s where you say “hey” to the like-minded people in your network and get to hear what’s going on in the scene. And for many in scenes that aren’t mainstream, this is the only social network around besides online. It’s what people look forward to and gear up for, going to these small shows, to see the bands and to touch base with friends and acquaintances.
I am totally a product of this culture. I have spent the better part of the 2000’s being at local shows. Many times that meant seeing bands that maybe I knew one of. Other times it meant I was there for a band or two comprised of good friends, and a few other bands of the same style and mind that I was into. And other times I wandered in to a local club, not even knowing that a national touring act was playing that night, and was blown away by a spectacular performance by a band that I don’t even listen to.
And I did thrive on the social scene just as much as the music itself. I’m not the most social person on the planet, and I also don’t have “approachable” written on my face as a 6’3”, mean looking dude. But at a local show I could spend plenty of time greeting show-goers and people in bands, all people I came to know and would call friends on some level or another. Those nights were as meaningful as any in my life, actually being welcomed and appreciated just for being in a space and time to check out a form of music.
As I’ve gotten older I don’t go out as much, though there has been life in our local scene these past few years. But all those years I did spend going out do mean a lot to me, and to think that this way of life is threatened by business issues and real estate prices is hard to swallow. I had a very hard time in my life in 2006, I truly had to reset everything I ever knew, and being able to go to local shows with friends was the lifeblood that honestly kept me going through that time. To see the scene possibly falling apart is tough to deal with, even if I’m nearly 20 years removed from that time.
This post was originally inspired by the closure of a very meaningful local space. I intended to eulogize it here, but after typing I’ve decided to give that eulogy in a separate post. I think this post today will be better served to address the larger issue, then I can offer a more meaningful post for the venue I’m talking about later.
I know that the world is going very cold and corporate. Things that don’t generate millions or billions don’t really mean anything. We don’t ascribe value to art, it is treated as a joke in the quest to become a shareholder. But art is the essence of life, and for many of us around my age we have ties to these venues that are now shuttering due to real estate hedge funds and equity holder interests. With these small music venues closing at an alarming rate, I do worry about the future. I don’t know what to do about it, this is not a post addressing a problem with a solution at the ready. I can only address the problem and hope forces align in a better direction.
I’ll leave off with this old Saxon song, a classic from their vital period. I can only hope that the bands will have a place to play on in the future. It means everything to them, and it also means everything to those of us who were watching and listening.
I’ve seen a fair few shows in my time but I’ve also missed many acts for whatever reasons. One act I had not seen live was Alice Cooper. It wasn’t for lack of opportunity – Alice has played extensively in this area the entire time I’ve been alive, it’s not like it was ever a chore to see him. I just never got around to doing so.
All that changed this past Tuesday, August 15. Alice has been touring with the Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard perpetual stadium tour and Alice has also been doing solo off-dates. My humble little village was lucky enough to land one of these shows and so now I’ve experienced the thrill of Alice Cooper live.
This show was at the Juanita K. Hammons Hall For The Performing Arts, a theater style venue on the campus of Missouri State University. I wrote about it previously when I recapped seeing John Mellencamp there. I decided to save a few bucks and take in the show from the upper balcony. While the lower two levels were nearly full, the upper portion had a fair few seats left. In my own row of 54, I was the only patron. It was kind of funny watching people in the full first 3 rows of this section jostle back and forth while I sat in peace. I was the highest person up for awhile but then a couple came and sat in the very top row, thus ruining my pointless brag about being the highest one up in the crowd. The view was still fine, though it was a steep haul getting to my seat. Here’s a pic of my view.
This was Alice playing all alone, no openers or anything. Alice has maintained a near-constant live line-up for the past decade or so, with the one exception being the brief departure and return of guitarist Nita Strauss last year. Ryan Roxie and Tommy Henriksen join Nita on guitar, Chuck Garric handles bass and Glen Sobel has the drums.
I won’t bother trying to run down the entire setlist, because whoever from our show updated the list on setlist.fm did a piss poor job of it. I was familiar with all but two or three songs I heard so it’s not some big deal. This did feature something like 22 songs so it was a pretty jam-packed set. This was mostly a hits set, starting with massive classics like No More Mr. Nice Guy and I’m Eighteen. More of the obvious classics were played, like Billion Dollar Babies, Welcome To My Nightmare and Under My Wheels.
There was a fair bit of attention paid to Alice’s late ’80’s/early ’90’s period, as the Hey Stoopid album got three tracks in the set – the title track, Snakebite and Feed My Frankenstein. There was a huge Frankenstein that came out for a brief moment and for a second I was wondering what Eddie was doing there, but that’s the wrong show. Poison from Trash was included, as was Lost In America from The Last Temptation album.
The songs were rapid fire, one right after another. Alice was often changing garb in the very brief dark spots between songs. It’s pretty sad that a guy 30 years older than me can change clothes way faster than me but such is life. There were spots for a short drum solo and also a guitar showcase, mostly featuring Nita.
The stage set was something like a courthouse with two huge staircase things that band members used here and there. All of this would come into play later, as we got a bit of a mini-story with the last handful of songs. The Ballad Of Dwight Frye kicked off with Alice being straight-jacketed and eventually beheaded at the behest of his wife Sheryl and the band moved into I Love The Dead. But then Alice would escape, as the song Escaped kicked off. He seemed to be put away again, but there’s a solution for that – how do you get out of criminal charges? Get elected. (Ok that works most of the time, I guess) Elected ended the little story with Alice running for president, which he actually does every four years as a gag.
There was no long gap before the encore, as the band quickly shifted into School’s Out, which was an extended jam that also featured a portion of Pink Floyd’s Another Brick In The Wall. Alice took time to introduce the band, his wife and himself. Nita honestly got the loudest reception of anyone, she has really staked a name for herself these past few years. The band then wound down School’s Out and that was it.
This was an amazing show, I’m very glad I finally got off my ass and went to see Alice Cooper. The crowd was very lively and into the show, it was impressive because I’ve seen some pretty lame ass crowds at Missouri shows in the past. But this all-ages group was very into Alice and was rocking the whole time. Alice Cooper has been at this for many, many years now and the guy still has it with no signs of slowing down.
I did snap a few pictures but from my bird’s nest view in the mostly dark my pics did not come out worth a damn. Thankfully my buddy Shawn was up far closer and got a few good ones, here’s one at the end of Elected.
Going back now to 2016, and yeah it’s still weird that it was now seven years ago. The occasion was John Mellencamp in concert. I had never seen him live before so I jumped on the chance when he booked a local show.
The show was at the Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts on the campus of Missouri State University. Sure it’s a mouthful to say but it’s a great place to see a show. It is a theater type of building with balconies that look basically right over the stage, meaning there really isn’t a bad seat in the house. I was up in one of the first few rows of the first balcony and had a great view of the stage, even from up a bit in the air.
Opening the show was Carlene Carter, the first-born daughter of June Carter and a performer since the mid ’70’s. She had been collaborating with Mellencamp and this would continue into the next year when they released a joint album. Carlene played a set that featured some old Carter Family standards like Will The Circle Be Unbroken as well as her hits from the early ’90’s, including Every Little Thing. She was very engaging and put on a really nice show. I wish I had more to say about it but this was seven years ago and also not a single person uploaded a setlist of hers from any stop on this tour so I’m a bit hosed on that. Had I known that I would have kept track of it that night but I’m not bright enough to do that.
Between sets Carlene was reportedly giving free hugs in the main lobby by the merch stands. I missed out on that because there was a beer vendor just off to the side of my section. Them’s the breaks, I guess.
Here is a bit of very good footage of Carlene from the same year in North Carolina.
After the break, John Mellencamp came out with his band, or at least the first iteration of it. For these shows John was splitting things into two mini-sets – one with more country-oriented instruments such as fiddle, and the second with the standard rock package.
Mellencamp opened with two songs from his most recent album, 2014’s Plain Spoken. Lawless Times and Troubled Man were the cuts. I wasn’t overly familiar with them but they were good songs to kick the show off with. He then went into two old classics, Minutes To Memories and Small Town.
John filled the time between songs with some banter, telling short stories about stuff his kids were up to and things like that. The set would run through several songs from different eras – hits like Human Wheels and Check It Out as well as other cuts from albums more recent.
The oldest album Mellencamp went back to for a song was 1982’s American Fool. He made sure to let the crowd know that he personally didn’t want to do the song but he knew everyone would riot if he didn’t, and then went into Jack And Diane. It is one of his bigger hits but also does get a fair bit of flack. John has not been shy about not liking the song but hey, you gotta play your hits. The crowd was into it so I guess that’s the important part.
The first part of the set rounded out with two collaborations with Carlene Carter – Indigo Sky and My Soul’s Got Wings. Both of these would appear on their joint album the following year. Then some instrumental parts led to a brief set change to set up the rock half of the show.
And when I say rock, I mean rock. Mellencamp and company came out to absolutely shred. The guitars were distorted and turned up to 11 and the band pounded out the hits. Rain On The Scarecrow led the way, with other hits like Paper In Fire, Authority Song and Crublim’ Down following. The set would close on Pink Houses and then Cherry Bomb.
That would wrap up the night. I was very glad to have finally seen Mellencamp live as he had been one of about a million artists I’ve missed over the years. It’s far easier to see someone when they play local as opposed to dealing the hustle and cost of travel to a major city, and this show was literally a few miles from my house. It was off into the night for me, with one more artist checked off my bucket list.
This video is not good at all but the sound is ok and it’s from the very show I was at.
The issue of backing tracks live has become a hot-button one among musicians and music news recently. It’s an argument that has been playing out over the past few years especially and a new take on the matter pops up almost every day. While there are a billion pieces about it floating around, the most recent one involves a comprehensive and level-headed take from Jeff Scott Soto, who provided his thoughts via a Cameo request. His words are transcribed in this Blabbermouth.net article.
Backing tracks are absolutely nothing new in music. It is fairly common for an act to bring part of their set on tape or hard drive and play it through the PA. It’s most commonly used for the types of instruments that rock and pop bands don’t haul around with them – strings, complex synthesizer parts and the various electronic sounds found in various styles of music. If a band comes out to an intro they did on a record that wasn’t a typical guitar/bass/drum tune, it is most likely a backing track.
The issue of backing tracks doesn’t really gain any traction when talking about that sort of use – it’s practical and no one really cares. It’s when the backing track is assisting the delivery of one of the primary instruments – guitar, bass or vocals – that musicians and fans have issues. And vocals is the big one that has caused a great deal of the back and forth in recent music headlines.
(NOTE – drums would not really have backing tracks, instead they can use “triggers” to mimic other sounds or even repeat sounds and give the appearance the drummer is playing faster than they really are. A different sort of topic.)
There are numerous names out there either outright found to be using backing tracks or very much suspected. Kiss are probably the biggest name as far as relevance to this site – Gene Simmons has ranted about backing track use in the past, yet it’s pretty evident that Paul Stanley has a track going as they wind down this iteration of their final tour. People in the Kiss camp have talked in a lot of circles about the track use, but it is there.
In other cases, musicians have freely admitted the use of backing tracks. Both Shinedown and Motley Crue members have openly stated they use backing tracks and provide various justifications for them – mainly to fill out the sound or to replicate a studio piece that can’t practically be handled live. WASP mainman Blackie Lawless has said he uses tracks to copy the layered vocals he does in studio. Other performers, like Charlie Benante of Anthrax and Marty Friedman, have spoken in favor of backing track use without explicitly mentioning that they use such tracks.
But there is a lot of buzz against the use of backing tracks. Many feel it robs the audience of an authentic performance, which is a valid argument when a track is used to cover a vocalist’s deficiencies. Piping in choir vocals for parts of one track when it’s impractical to tote a live choir around on tour is one thing, but covering for wear and tear is another. There’s an easy way for me to get a studio-worthy performance from an artist – look them up on Spotify, or put on the record or CD. I don’t see the need to spend a premium on tickets to watch that live.
I won’t personally claim to be all that off-put by these revelations about backing tracks. I’m not a purist or idealist by any means and I think that arguments over authenticity can go too far and into very unrealistic territory. But I also do see the point when it comes to buying what are pretty expensive tickets anymore just so some legacy act can piddle through their set when they aren’t actually capable of doing it. I don’t know how I’m going to retire, I don’t think I need to worry about padding Jon Bon Jovi’s 401k.
And yeah, it does have to suck for those singers that get up there and can’t hang anymore. A few rare gems like Klaus Meine and Rob Halford can keep at it, but by and large a person’s vocals fall off when they get older. And sometimes the fall-off is pretty brutal.
The issue of backing tracks doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon – rather, it gets brought up nearly every day as it clearly drives engagement and clicks. People will make their own choices on it, but it would seem the show is going on whether or not a fair part of that show is on a computer in the back. At the end of it all, the machine of the music industry will keep churning along, and the outrage vented over backing tracks will somehow become money in someone else’s pocket.
Awhile back I had a look at the songs that Iron Maiden have not played live. It was a fair run through a decent portion of their catalog and kind of a fun exercise to guess what might actually see the light of day on stage versus what almost certainly will never get played. The idea for it came from a Loudwire article, and the site has struck again with the “songs never played live” series. This time the subject is Guns N’ Roses, as the title of this post probably hinted at.
Now this will be a radically different post – GnR only have four songs never played live. I was a bit shocked by that information. While the band were relatively inactive for a long time and do only have what qualifies as four full-length studio releases plus some originals on an EP, four is a very surprising and low number. It means they have run through the vast majority of their catalog in a live setting.
It’s not surprising that all of Appetite For Destruction has been played live, they probably took care of that in the late ’80’s as their star was burning super hot. The GnR Lies EP also has a few original tracks and all have been played live at least a few times, including the mega-controversial song One In A Million. And if we fast forward to 2008’s Axl-led spectacle Chinese Democracy, we will find that those too have all been played live. As a note, this doesn’t count cover songs, so that one thing they released in the mid-90’s before they split isn’t on here.
Yes, in order to pinpoint the unplayed songs we need to visit 1991 and the infamous Use Your Illusion double albums. It is these two discs that all four of today’s songs hail from. It’s honestly more shocking to me that they only didn’t play four of these songs.
Way back when I started this site I did a pretty in-depth dive into the UYI albums. That saga began on this post for anyone interested in a far deeper dive than what I’ll get into today.
This post is pretty quick and simple. Four songs, let’s see what they are and whether or not Guns N’ Roses should throw them in a setlist someday.
Don’t Damn Me
This is the lone unplayed cut from Use Your Illusion I. It’s not a song I’m all that into. It isn’t horrible but there’s nothing special about it, at least to me. It would be “fine” in a live setting but also the band has a billion other songs that are way better so this would be taking up space. I could see them playing it one day just to knock it off the list.
Get In The Ring
This, like the rest of the list, is from Use Your Illusion II. And this one surprises me. This is a massive, swear-filled diss track aimed at the music media who Axl and company despised at the height of their fame, which was roughly 1989-1991. I suppose opinion is divided on this song as opinion is on everything, but I and plenly of other people always really liked this one and I’m honestly a bit floored that they haven’t played it out.
And don’t be fooled by the live crowd chanting in the song – Axl had a June 1991 crowd specifically chant “Get In The Ring” in order to record it and use on the album. This wasn’t done live even though crowd noise is involved.
It wouldn’t shock me at all if the band decided to give this one a go. I could see them maybe not doing Axl’s rant that names off a bunch of journalists and maybe that was one reason why they didn’t play it. But I’d say this one really ought to get some stage time.
Shotgun Blues
Another bit of a surprise and for me a total badass song. I always liked this one and I think it’d work great live. I don’t know what gives here and this is one they need to get into a setlist ASAP.
My World
The final song on UYI II is a total pile and I feel the exact opposite about it as I do about Shotgun Blues. I’d be mad if I heard this shit live, that could be mitigated if they were doing it for the sole purpose of totally clearing their unplayed queue. The better move would be to drop it from the album so it doesn’t count on this list anymore.
Well, that’s about it. Honestly not a lot here and that’s totally fine, I was feeling kind of lazy anyway. I have a feeling that GnR are the type to actually track this kind of stuff and they might throw down on these just to say they’ve played all of their originals live. Or maybe not, I don’t know. I wouldn’t be surprised. And since their ticket prices are well outside of my reach I don’t have to be worried about shelling out hundreds and being stuck hearing My World live.
The Crooked Wanderer 