Halestorm, Adelitas Way, Since October & New Medicine - July 23rd, 2010 at the Knitting Factory in Spokane, WA

This was the only stop we had to make on our family vacation to Mt. Rushmore and back. Sorry, but I don't have any pictures or video to add to this blog :(
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We checked in to our hotel and made our way over to the venue. This was the first concert that we were taking both kids to.We ran in to Audie Grantham, drummer of Since October, outside and I got my introduction hug from him. Little did he know, the kids also had a gift for him and Ben. Mike & Ike's! Their favorite candy.

This was our first time to this venue. It looked pretty much like the Boise Knitting Factory on the inside. It has a 21+ section as well as all ages. I like venues like this. The kids and I were escorted to our own little section of the balcony where the bands can watch the bands on stage. Ryan was beyond excited to see Arejay Hale from Halestorm.

This was the first time we had seen New Medicine. They were great. They are a little punk band with Linkin Park mixed with a little Green Day. Check out their CD 'Race You To The Bottom' from Photo Finish Records. The whole CD is great. I believe iTunes has a few bonus songs that aren't on the physical CD.

Since October is just a fabulous live band. Ben's dreds a full stage usage made him a lead singer that you can't take your eyes off of. Luke flicked a pick up to me in the balcony. How did he know I have a pick collection. I will see them play anytime they are in the Pacific NW! :)

Adelitas Way was much better than the first time I saw them earlier in the year. I absolutely love watching the guitar player Creighton Bibbs. He's my favorite part of the band. The singer doesn't do much for me. Nice voice but just kinda blah on stage.

Halestorm, as always, is just the absolute best. There isn't one thing about that band that ever disappoints. Lzzy's vocals, Joe's guitar, Josh's bass and Arejay's drumming are always, always amazing. I couldn't wait for the kids to see Arejay's drum solo for the first time. The kids mouths dropped when they saw Arejay start to drum with his baseball bat sized sticks. Arejay's drum tech (his dad Roger) came over and tossed up drum sticks for myself and the kids. It was a really fun night. One I'm sure the kids will remember for a long time.

The Dirty Heads & Sublime with Rome - July 7th @ Marymore Park in Remond, WA

Luckily, we know the Dirty Heads so we were set up to shoot them. Yes 'we'. This time, I got a photo pass as well. I found it facinating that we were the only photographers there! For Sublime??? And Dirty Heads at the time had a #1 song on Billboard!! Oh well, the venue was a sell out and both bands were just amazing!

We were able to meet the tour manager for both bands and got full access to both shows. Back stage, on stage and around the crowd. 

I was happy to see that a lot of the crowd new The Dirty Heads music. They are still pretty new on the scene. They are a blend of beach, ska, hip-hop and punk. Jared and Duddy are share vocals and Duddy is the lead guitar. At one point, Jared started to giggle and pointed out 3 girls who were at the back of the dance floor hula-hooping. He asked them to come on stage an hoop during their song 'Lay Me Down'. That was so fun!

When Sublime took the stage, the crowd erupted. Rome is not Bradley, but he has his own style and respects what Bradley did. I absolutely loved seeing them play.

If you have the chance to see either of these bands play, please do. You will have a great time letting go and having an absolute blast. You may also get a contact high - There was plenty of that in the air that night!

Review: Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg, Snoqualmie Casino, Snoqualmie, WA 05.06.2010

Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg
May 6th at the Snoqualimie Casino Ballroom
Doors at 7pm
Show at 8pm

ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!
Clare B counts 'em in to the opening tune 'Rockaway Beach'. ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR! Directly into the next song 'Lobotomy' followed by 'Psycho Therapy', 'Do You Wanna Dance' and 'I Don't Care'. Taking in all the energy I finally had time to observe the members of Marky's band.

Left: Alex Kane on the lead guitar and backup vocals. Wild hair and guitar strings coming off their pegs like Einstein's hair. Constantly running and jumping in the air. An energy he would retain throughout the entire performance.

Right: Clare B on bass. Purple, neon yellow and natural dark blonde striped mohawk. British accent and piercings galore. Exactly how I love my punk rock girls! She counted in each song and performed backup vocs. She played to the audience truly conveyed the passion she has for what she is doing.






Center front: Former Misfits singer Michale Graves has a voice so perfect for this band. Close your eyes and you don't know that you aren't actually seeing The Ramones back in 1989 at CBGB. My favorite part wasn't his voice or his constant movement. It was the fact that the man's pants were being held together with a roll of black Duck Tape.

Center back: The Ramones legendary drummer Marky Ramone. Effortlessly playing and even cracking a smile - once. He looked amazing. It was a total treat for me to be a part of this evening.

ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR! brings me back to the set.. 'Sheena', 'Havana Afair', 'Commando', 'Beat on the Brat', '53rd & 3rd', 'Rock N Roll Radio', 'Blue' and 'Shock Treatment'. At some point in this portion of the show Alex broke a string and finished the tune as best he could. It was funny to see him have to get Clare's attention so she didn't count them into the next song before he could change over to his other guitar.

'Rock N Roll Highschool', 'She's the One', 'Judy', 'Poison Heart', 'Miracles', 'KKK', 'Pet Sematary', 'Chinese Rocks', 'I Wanna be Sedated', I Don't Wanna Walk' and 'Pinhead' round out the main set. The band leaves with Marky blowing a kiss. The crowd starts to chant: 'Hey Ho, Let's Go!' until the band makes it's way on stage.

Once back on stage, the band quickly gets back to it with 'Something to do', 'Cretin Hop' and 'Ramones'. Back off stage. Once again, the crowd knows there is something missing from this show. 'Hey Ho, Let's Go!' once again calling the band back to finish the show properly.

Encore #2 does not disappoint. 'Have You Ever Seen the Rain', their new single 'When We Were Angels', 'It's a Wonderful World' and finally the closer - 'Blitzkrieg Bop'.

If you take the time to count them yourself, you'll see that there are 31 of them. Yes, 31 songs in 75 minutes. When the lights went up I could hear a guy whine that it was over. His pal turned to him and said 'Dude! They played like 80 songs!'.

Back stage, the band met with nearly 30 people. Pictures were taken, autographs were happily signed on anything around. A lucky few had gotten set lists (I got half of their 2 page set list). Michale had his own stack of photos that he signed and handed out. Alex came over to Mike and said during the show he thought "Hey, your the dude from Facebook! I remembered we were punk on stage and thought I should flip you off!". He did.


Marky was sedate until we asked about his pasta sauce. Look for it to be in stores in the coming months. He's a bit overwhelmed with it's success thus far.

All in all - This is one 80's teen who has never been so glad to still be stuck in the 80's!

Review: Super Geek League, Studio Seven, Seattle, WA 05.21.2010

This one will be a tag team. I'll give my review of the opening acts and the first few songs of SGL but then Mike will take over for the rest of the show. It was an all ages show, however Mike did find out that in the 5th song, it would be a good idea for me to take the kids home.

 There was a little mix up with the time the doors were going to open we ended up arriving to Studio 7 at 7pm which was advertised BUT the doors weren't opening until 8pm. We visited with a friend and his daughter's troop of friends for a few but ended up back in the car to wait it out.

Finally in the door, we got to enjoy the people watching the crowd was providing. Mohawks to the left, pink tutus to the right and every neon hair color you can imagine. This was an all ages show, so the under 21's had to stay downstairs and the over 21's could head upstairs for a drink. I really like the layout of Studio 7 just for these types of shows. It is very easy to keep the kids where they should be.

Around 9pm a couple of clowns started to make their way around the lower room. One was on stilts and both had a more vintage vaudeville clown look going on. The best part was seeing our daughter overcome her fear and loathing of clowns on stilts. She had been telling Mike on the way to the show how she really didn't like clowns on stilts. They gave her the creeps. But she took his hand when he offered it and danced with him for a little bit. Our son was having no part in the dancing - just yet. We bought a CD and a SGL Haz-Mat suit for Mike to wear while he was taking pictures.

The clowns made their way onto the stage and started to remove things from a large refrigerator size box. Out came a chainsaw, a knife like the ones knife throwers use, a bowling ball, a grenade, and a very large jug of booze. Once they had shown off their booty, they took the box apart only to find a live marionette inside. The clown on stilts started to move his new toy around the stage to the song 'Coin Operated Boy' by The Dresden Dolls. The marionette grew tired of his strings and escaped them only to show off his new talents - juggling the things they took out of the box earlier. The chainsaw was even ON. This impressed the kids. My son's take away though was that he wanted us to find the song to put on his Shuffle.

The second opening act was Titanium Sporkestra. They bill themselves as a punk rock marching band. There are 8 horns and 8 drummers. They play songs from the likes of Slayer, Cop Shoot Cop and Social Distortion to name a few. The leader wears a megaphone that he straps to his back and uses it to talk to the crowd and get them yelling. They are pretty interesting for those who appreciate a good drum line.

Finally, it was time for Super Geek League to take the stage. The kids were aware that there could be pies thrown and water squirted on the crowd so they stayed back to start with. When the confetti cannon went off to open the show, my son was a goner and made his way over to the area where the confetti fell the heaviest. The songs were fun the the visuals of the band were fantastic. Super Geek League is the the band of geek super heroes completely unlike say, the Super Friends or Justice League. Their outfits are pretty damn fabulous though. The majority of the band are in silver jumpsuits with a huge sunflower on their right 'lapel'. The lead diva was in a silver outfit that look one heck of a lot like bubble wrap. There was a Power Ranger looking guy and you can't forget the G-Nomes. These are the guys who control the confetti, throw things and just cause a bunch of havoc.

By this time though... The 5th song was about to begin and Mike was shoving us out the door. He had been warned that the more 'Adult' portion of the show was gonna start here. He said it was about 2 minutes after we had left.....

I was going to have Mike finish the blog, but apparently he has had a bit too much going on lately to finish this post. I'll let his pictures to his commenting for him.

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.  

License to Kiss - Teatro Zinzanni, Seattle, WA

This year marks big birthdays. My mom turned 60, my aunt turned 59 and I am turning the big 40. I wanted our birthdays to be a big bunch of fun and do something for them that I don't think they would have done for themselves. Teatro Zinzanni.

This is a combination dinner theater meets Cirque de Soleil meets a Belgian circus tent from 1910 meets Chef Tom Douglas' menu. When we first walked into the venue, there is a little gift shop that I bought a new hair poof in. I offered to get them hair poofs too, but they declined. A hair poof is a littl tuft of feathers like you would find in a feather boa and it's attached to a roach clip to easily be put in the hair for some flair. I like flair!

Once we were seated, we were greeted by an antipasto dish with humus, tapenade, roasted red bell pepper and some bread to place all the yummy goodness upon. We were seated on the main floor between the center performing area and the stage. Right in the middle of all the action with fabulous views.

The cast mingles with the patrons prior to the show starting or you could consider that part of the show I suppose. We enjoyed our first course and I had a ball watching my aunt try to decipher what was going to happen next.

The show started with the host of the evening - Tobias Larsson - introducing the evening's diva - Sabine Hettlich. She sang her opening number which was fabulous. Tobias then introduced us to Mr. C - The Pastry Chef. The chocolate was now missing and Mr. C was on a mission with his team to find the chocolate.

Mitzy and Dik were the comedy act. Mitzy had this infectious voice and giggle. We cracked up everytime she spoke. Total cutie. Mr. C re-entered only this time, he was in a new costume. Drag costume #1. He found a 'willing' volunteer to come up on stage and assist him with his act -Then the second course made it's way out. Carrot and parsnip soup. It was just amazing. I wish I had the patience and kitchen tools to make a soup like that.

Back to the show for more of Mitzi and Dik, followed by rope aeralist Kari Podgorski of Seattle. Just stunning. I say with a wink and a grin. Another song from Sabine rounded out this portion of the show.

In coming - the entrees. There were 3 entrees to choose from and we had one of each. They were very accomodating to my mom who doesn't like her meat medium rare which is the standard cook. They brought hers out medium well done and she cleaned her plate of every bite tenderloin. My aunt being a vegetarian went with the mushroom strata. She's researching a recipe so she can recreate it. Myself, I had the halibut. It was amazing. Cooked perfectly. I wasn't sure what to think of the spatzl. I hadn't had the German pasta before. It was really dense.

More entertainment!! Yet another drag outfit. This one was THE most outrageous. I was crying before he said a word! He said thank you to all of his 'helpers' from earlier in the evening. The final acrobatic act was a duo that do a tango on a vertical pole that is about 25 feet long/high. The strength of this couple is amazing. Very easy to tell that they are truly in love as well - they are married in real life. The dessert was finally served. It was a cherry chocolate cake. Very rich, but very good.

I bought the picture of us together. They did a nice job, but Mike did a little editing when I arrived home. I love having a photographer/photo technician as a husband!  :)

I will continue to go to Teatro as long as it's around. I truly adore it.

My coffee table book....

Testing out a new widget for my coffee table book on Blurb.com

Please take a look.

Greece, Malta and Italy by Stephanie Raezer