Adam Ant at the Showbox Market 09.07.2013

2013 has been a concert year that included a bunch of musicians from my childhood performing as if they had never had any lulls in their careers. I've seen The Specials, Paul McCartney, Presidents of the USA and Black Sabbath, just to name a few.

This weekend though, I had the opportunity to photograph one of my all time heroes. I have playlists of his songs on my iPod and my iPhone. I've even introduced him to my son. My 12 year old allows me to put songs on his iPod that I think he will enjoy. The Adam Ant tunes have not been removed so far.

Adam Ant.. I had to say it again. I really never thought I'd have the chance to see him perform live in 2013 let alone have the chance to actually photograph him! The opening band, Prima Donna, out of L.A. kicked things off right at 8pm. They were a great choice to open for Adam. High energy and great tunes and they had a modern take on the New Wave vibe of the 80's. Singer Kevin Preston had an interesting combination of fun intensity about him that made me really enjoy this band. I liked them to the extent that I bought myself a CD before I headed out.

I haven't been this impatient for a set change in a long time. I was in the pit as soon as they would let us in there. The band took the stage to an introduction that consisted of Tchaikovsky's '1812 Overture' and a quote by Lord Cardigan from the film The Charge of the Light Brigade.

The crowd was rowdy by now and ready for Adam. He took the stage and we were treated to 'Marrying the Gunner's Daughter' for our first song. He followed that up with 'Dog Eat Dog' and 'Beat My Guest' for the other two songs we could photograph.

We headed out of the pit during 'Kick'. I made my way to the back of the room and stood (danced) next to the soundboard for the remainder of the 29/30 song set:

Ants Invasion
Hardmentoughblokes
Stand and Deliver
Shrink
Room at the Top
Kings of the Wild Frontier
Wonderful
Whip in My Valise
Vince Taylor
Stay in the Game
Cool Zombie
Strip
Desperate but Not Serious
Cleopatra
Never Trust a Man (With Egg on His Face)
Zerox
Vive Le Rock
Antmusic
Goody Two Shoes
Car Trouble
Prince Charming

Encore:
Press Darlings
Lady/Fall In
Red Scab
Physical (You're So)

It was in the back of the room that I really got to listen to him. His voice - was - incredible. I could close my eyes and be taken right back to my room in junior high.... 'I got Marco, Merrick, Terry Lee... Gary Tibbs and yours truly. In the naughty North and in the sexy South, we're all singing and I have the mouth....'

Journey, Foreigner & Night Ranger at the Key Arena, Seattle, WA 10.21.2011

Another classic concert tonight. This time we saw 3 pop-rock bands from the 80's. I have seen the original line ups for both Night Ranger and Journey back in the day. Journey was the first concert I went to without my parents. It was a little odd seeing Journey without Steve Perry, but Arnell did a great job with the vocals. He needs more practice on stage though. He's a little bouncy bordering on cheerleader. You can see Mike's Journey photos here.

Journey's Deen Castronovo solo

Foreigner sounded great BUT there wasn't 1 original member on stage. Mick Jones may still be in the band, but he was either injured or ill and wasn't on this tour. This means that it was a cover band!

Foreigner 'Hot Blooded' & 'Dirty White Boy'

I loved Night Ranger the best. I can sing along to almost every song. They had the most energy and clicked with the crowd the best.

Night Ranger 'Sister Christian' featuring Deen Castronovo on drums

Tomato Battle Seattle @ Pyramid Alehouse with Super Geek League 09.24.2011

This blog is like no other. It starts with 300,000 pounds of rotten tomatoes being thrown at each other, beer drinking, costumes and ends with a music concert. Who would you expect to headline a tomato battle? None other than Super Geek League with Titanium Sporkestra opening for them.

My team at work decided to do this activity as a team building event. It was beyond fun!! Mike and I had on Super Geek League hazmat suits so we could just throw them away after the battle. That was a brilliant idea!

People gather around the tomatoes and once the word is given - All Hell Breaks Loose! Some of the tomatoes are green though. I got one of those right between the eyes. Thankfully I had on a pair of goggles so they took the brunt of the hit. Mike rented a Go Cam so he has some great footage of the mayhem further inside the crowd.

We stopped once the bands started to play, but others were over in the tomato pit for hours! I couldn't handle that smell for that long.

Titanium Sporkestra

Tomato Battle footage with Super Geek League at the 13:49 mark

Redhook's Birthday Party with Devo, The Psychedelic Furs & Tom Tom Club @ Redhook, Woodinville, WA 09.17.2012

This was a day that I was really looking forward to. I've seen Devo live several times and they NEVER disappoint. I was there for The Psychedelic Furs. But first we had to have a beer (we were at the Redhook Brewery for goodness sake!) and a great sandwich. We (or I, really) had to paint part of the birthday sign. We had to visit with Michael Pilmer (Devo's everything guy) and we had to wait through the very opening act - Mitten.

Mitten was OK, but I only liked the Depeche Mode cover they did. Other than that, I could have passed. Next up was Tom Tom Club. They were better, but their set was too long for a group with 1 actual song. They did more covers than originals and that annoyed me.

Tom Tom Club - 'Punk Lolita'

I was getting antsy for the P-Furs. They are a true part of my New Wave history. They sounded the same. There was no age to Richard Butler's voice at all. He was just a silky as ever. Yip, I even teared up when they took the stage. 

The Psychedelic Furs - 'Love My Way'

The Psychedelic Furs - 'Pretty In Pink'

Now it was time for Devo. The bad news is that it started raining REALLY HARD and our cameras were getting soaked. Since we had seen Devo several times before, we headed out after the 4th song. We'll be seeing them soon again. Time to save ourselves and our cameras. If you have never seen Devo live, make a point to do it. They jump around on stage like they are still in their 40's!

Devo - 'Peek a Boo'

Le Butcherettes opening for the Super Geek League CD release party on July, 29, 2012 at El Corazon, Seattle, WA

Normally I would talk about an entire show but this time I'm just too damn excited to discover this band so I'm going to completely gloss over the local bands they were opening for in this blog.

I got to El Corazon early. I was expecting to get there to see Post Modern Heroes start off the show followed by Witchburn and ending with Super Geek League's CD release show. What I didn't know was that a little known band out of Mexico/Los Angeles got added to the bill as the first act.

When the band took the stage, there were MAYBE 30 people in the house and most of those were band members for the other bands appearing later. I myself was up on the second level talking to Robot from PMH. It took about 30 seconds in to the first song before I was down on the floor right in front of Teri "Gender Bender" Suarez.

She came out on stage in a dress with a white apron covered in some fake blood as if she had been doing some recent butchering. Teri switches between guitar and keyboard with Omar Rodrigues Lopez on bass and Gabe Serbian of The Locust on drums. Think White Stripes with a female lead. Just raw beats with Teri captivating the show.

Not far into the second song, Teri had blood dripping down her face. Another blood pack. It was convincing. She had a kind of 'Carrie' thing going on if you recall the movie.

Once the show was over, I talked to her for a bit. Mainly, I wanted a CD and needed to know if they had any at their merch booth. She thanked me for dancing and said it was beautiful. If you weren't dancing to them, there is something wrong with you. Really wrong.

Anyway. I found out that they were touring with Queens of the Stoneage but since Queens was opening for Soundgarden at the Gorge that weekend, they decided to come to Seattle and book a show instead of taking a few days off. Lucky for me, they had no egos and were happy to open up a local bands show.

Back to the blood pack on Teri's forehead... I finished editing my photos and tagged the band in the album. Needless to say that I was shocked when Omar said that she had actually cut her head open on one of Gabe's cymbals. She didn't say a word. She just kept on performing and didn't let on she was injured! She became my hero right then and there. I still in awe of her not stopping to get attention to her forehead. She'd rather finish a set for 30 people than stop. Please take a quick look or listen to them on YouTube or Facebook.

Iron & Wine - House of Blues New Orleans, November 20, 2010

Jeannie and I headed out for the Seahawks game in New Orleans on November 18th. We made our way over to the Hard Rock for dinner the first night.

The next day we started to explore the town. The main thing was to find the House of Blues. We were trying to see Supervillains and B-Foundation. I had a connection trying to get me tickets, but there was a misunderstanding.

We decided to go ahead and buy tickets to the show... but... they had canceled and we didn't realize it. What we bought was tickets to a burlesque show. We had a BLAST though! Fun misunderstanding!

My husband let us know that there were tickets for us into the Foundation Club at the House of Blues for Saturday. The contact didn't realize that B Foundation was a band but got us into the private Foundation Club at the House of Blues for the Iron & Wine show on Saturday night. The club was amazing inside. We got to watch the show from a private deck above the stage. The show was sold out and there weren't any seats on the main floor. This made us even more happy that we had the view we had.

We didn't stay for the entire show as we had planned on a night on Bourbon Street. We headed out from the House of Blues back to our hotel to change from our nice clothes into our Seahawks jerseys for our night out on Bourbon Street with the other Hawks and Saints fans. Such a great time. We got teased some, but we knew that would be coming. Since it was two girls, we weren't picked on too badly.

Hawks lose, but we had so much fun at the game and around the city, the away trip was well worth it!!!

Gorillaz - Key Arena, Seattle, Novermber 2, 2010

Gorillaz - Key Arena, Seattle, November 2, 2010

We lucked out and were able to get tickets on the day of the show. Our seats were on the floor about 15 rows back. Mike was back stage networking while I was out watching the opening band N.E.R.D.. I had heard of them, but didn't know their music. Kind of a hip-hop/pop sound. Good performers but I think they would have liked playing to a few more people. It was a late arriving crowd.

The seat to my right was empty, this was Mike's seat. A couple had sat down to my left. Our friend Lisa came out to say hi to the couple next to me and found me there too. I didn't think much of it at the time. Lisa went back stage and I got a text from Mike asking me if I knew I was sitting next to Ryan, Puddle of Mudd's drummer. I showed Ryan the text and he just smiled and said it was him. We chatted a bit between bands and Mike came and said hi to him before he had to get into position to shoot Gorillaz.

The orchestral opening introduced us to the humongous video screen that would distract me the whole show. Do I look at the videos or do I watch the band below it? Do I watch Murdoc or do I watch Damon and Clash icons Mick Jones and Paul Simonon? Too much eye candy!!!!!!

Here's a little piece of trivia...  The Gorillaz 'band' had more than 30 members and there were 111 members of the traveling stage crew.. WOW!!

The star of this tour was the the Plastic Beach CD with their previous hits in between. The first song was 'Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach' featuring Snoop Dogg. There were people arguing after the show if he was there or not. He wasn't. It was a video of him with the band playing below.

The show was AWESOME. I just love them. I was by no means disappointed with the live show. I was curious how it would be presented, but it was just fabulous.

View Mike's photos here: Gorillaz Photos

Set List:
Orchestra Intro/Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach/Last Living Souls (with Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)/'19/2000'(Rosie Wilson)/Stylo (with Bobby Womack and Bootie Brown)/On Melancholy Hill/Rhinestone Eyes/Superfast Jellyfish (with De La Soul)/Tomorrow Comes Today/Empire Ants (with Yukimi Nagano)/Broken (with Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)/Dirty Harry (with Bootie Brown)/El Mariana/White Flag (with Bashy, Kano & the American.. etc)/To Binge (with Yukimi Nagano)/DARE (with Rosie Wilson)/Glitter Freeze/Punk/Plastic Beach
Encore:
Cloud of Unknowing (with Bobby Womack)/Feel Good Inc. (with De La Soul)/ Clint Eastwood (with Bashy and Kano)/ Don't Get Lost in Heaven/Demon Days

Billy Idol - August 5th, 2010 at the Tulalip Casino in Marysville, WA

Billy looks amazing! He's still sexy as hell after all these years.

This was the first time Mike and I had been to the Tulalip for a concert. This was part of their summer outdoor series. They impressed me with adequate bathrooms inside and out. They had great food options and the lighting and sound were both really good.

As for Billy - He not only looked amazing, he sounded amazing. The set was a good length. Steve's guitar solo was insane. The crowd absolutely loved every single moment of the show. I caught a little bit of drum solo and most of 'Mony, Mony' on video. Click the link below!!

Setlist:
'Ready Steady Go!'
'Dancing With Myself'
'Love is Strange'
'Flesh For Fantasy'
'Scream'
'Sweet Sixteen'
'Scarred for Life'
'Kings and Queens of the Underground'
'L.A. Woman'
'King Rocker'
'Running With the Boss Sound'
'Blue Highway'
'Rebel Yell'

Encore:
'White Wedding'
'Mony Mony'

107.7 The End - Broken Bells End Session at Hard Rock Cafe, Seattle, WA

Luck was on my side this day. I hopped on to Facebook for a quick look at posts and saw this:

Hard Rock Cafe Seattle Official Page We have 2 spots for the super exclusive acoustic End Session with Broken Bells today at 3:00pm at the Hard Rock before their sold out show at the Showbox tonight! Post a comment here about your favorite concert you've ever gone to. Winner will be chosen randomly at 12:30pm and must be able to be at HRC Seattle by 3:00pm today!

I decided I would give it a shot since I only work 4 block from the cafe. My entry was:

Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg - Snoqualmie Casino 2010. A legend behind the drums and nothing but energy from Michale Graves, Clare B and Alex Kane. 31 songs in about 70 minutes. I was in punk rock heaven.

And at 12:51 I got the message from the Hard Rock that I was one of the lucky 2.

I made my way to the cafe and checked in. Got my nice little The End 107.7 laminate and headed in to grab a seat. The ones right in front were already gone, so I headed to the side of the stage. Not a bad location at all. I had my little point and click that I keep in my purse so I was ready for photo ops and maybe a little video.

Out come Broken Bells - James Mercer and Danger Mouse. James waves to the crowd and they open with their hit 'The High Road'. No one is using flash photography so I tried to get pics but my little camera wasn't good in that light. I decided to tape the second song 'Citizen'. I didn't realize what was to come and I didn't tape the next song. I had been to a show like this for their sister station The Mountain so I guessed they would play for about 40 minutes or so. I had time to tape another one after this song.

 I was wrong. They played 3 songs and left. Never once addressing the crowd. Didn't stay to sign autographs for the 30 people that made the effort to come and see them. I was glad that I only walked 4 blocks instead of driving in from Lynnwood, Issaquah, Tacoma - Who know where everyone came from to see it. 

It was totally strange. People didn't know if they should leave or wait.. Just strange.