The Crying Spell at the Kirkland Performing Arts Center 01.29.2011

This is one of my absolute favorite local bands. I really like this venue for them. Being that it's all ages, the theater seats make it easy for kids to be able to see (and last through) the whole show.

Please check out The Crying Spell if you have a chance. Here are a couple of videos to get you familiar with the band and their sound!

Duff McKagan's Loaded - Movie filming at the Feedback Lounge 12.23.2010

Happily, we were informed of a night of filming for Loaded's movie at the Feedback Lounge in West Seattle. We arrived and had a little cocktail with some of our friends before the filming started.

There were just a few acting scenes filmed that night along with the filming of a 3 song acoustic performance. I was fun to be a part of. I have some video, but I was asked to keep that offline until the movie is released. I will add and update with the video once it's OK to do so. Keep and eye out for and Edit below in the coming months.

Texas Hippie Coalition w/ Syztem7 at Studio 7 - 11.27.2010

I was really excited to finally see Syztem7 live. I had seen pictures that Mike had taken of Jaymez and his head dress from an earlier show and wanted to see it in person. I did not disappoint. This thing is insane!

Syztem7 is an industrial metal band. They have a unique sound that I really enjoyed. It reminded me of my New Wave days but was much heavier. The singer had a good stage presence and the band in general was pleasing to look at with their uniformed look.

Next up was Texas Hippie Coalition. All I can really say is wow. I had never heard of the band and really had no idea what to expect. By their name, I did suspect that they would be a southern rock type of band and I wasn't far off. They were great performers and had the crowd roaring. It's not really not my type of music, but I can always appreciate a good show no matter the style. Check them out of they make their way back our direction!

Since October - Thanksgiving 2010

We knew that Since October was coming to town to bless us with a performance at El Corazon the night before Turkey Day. What we didn't know was if they had any time off for Thanksgiving. So we asked. Sure enough, it was an off day and they had a show on the 26th in Spokane. Not that far away. Mike asked if they'd like to join us at my Aunt's house for a home cooked meal. Needless to say, they were all for it!

So the 24th came along as we met up with the guys at El Corazon. The stage was front loaded so the guys really didn't have much room and we all know that Ben is quite the mover on stage. Add to that the famous pole on El Corazon's stage and he was like a captured animal when he was trying to move around.

I was standing on the left of the stage getting shots of Josh. He was totally entertaining me pouring water on his hair and flinging it at some girls who were a tad prissy to be up in the front.

Their performance was great, as always. This is a high energy band that always keeps the attention of their fans and makes new ones along the way.

Thanksgiving day came and we awaited their arrival in the quaint little town of Sumner. The van arrived and out came 4 rockers and their merch guy Chad. My cousin David took one look at Audie said that guy could eat a whole turkey himself. :)

They got settled inside when we got a surprise and saw that Josh had shaved his head and the long locks he was watering down just last night were gone! In it's place was a stocking cap that he wouldn't remove except the one time to show us the new do.

The guys were very happy with the spread and took a bunch of it with them when they got on the road for Spokane. Little did they know, the snow had been coming down on the pass for a few hours and they ended up having to stay in North Bend for the night as the pass had been closed for avalanche control.

I felt really bad they we may have caused them to miss their show by trying to look out for our friends and give them a good Turkey day on the road. All was good! They made it through the pass on Friday and onto the show that night.

Have a look at some of our Thanksgiving fun!

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

October 2010 Concerts/Shows: Slash, Alice In Chains, Lucha Vavoom and Steel Panther

Slash – Showbox SoDo, Seattle, October 2, 2010

Thank you to KISW! Mike was shooting the meet and greet before the show and I was able to watch the sound check and get my picture with Slash!!! That was sooo cool!!

The opening band, Bad City, was pretty bad alright. I was not impressed at all. I just wanted to see them get over with.

Love, love, love Slash. Myles Kennedy has a great voice and rocked the covers big time. I had a big crush on the bass player, Todd Kerns. What a cutie!!

They played about 19 songs. Great set!

‘Ghost’, ‘Mean Bone’, ‘Nightrain’, ‘Sucker Train Blues’,  ‘Back From Cali’, ‘Civil War’, ‘Rocket Queen’, ‘Doctor Alibi’, ‘We’re All Gonna Die’, ‘Do It For The Kids’, ‘Watch This’, ‘Starlight’, Slash Solo/’Godfather Theme’, ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’, ‘Rise Today’ and ‘Slither’. The encore was ‘By The Sword’, ‘Welcome to the Jungle’, ‘Paradise City’.

This was a GREAT concert and I’d go again.

Alice In Chains, BlackDiamondSkye Tour - Key Arena, Seattle, October 8, 2010

Mike was at the Vancouver show on the 7^th and brought me back my all access pass so I could meet him at the Key after work. We went to the meet and greet so Mike could get some shots for the station.

Mike had a little corner of the production room to keep his equipment and I could sit out of the way waiting for the show to start. When it was time, I made my way to the side of the stage to take in the show.

First up: Mastadon

I’ve never seen them live before. Very dynamic band. They really reminded me of Jethro Tull without the flute. Super nice guys though. Brent is quite the character.

Next up: Deftones

I hadn’t seen Deftones live either. Wow… What energy. Chino jumps around that stage like he’s the Energizer Bunny! They lowered down the biggest disco ball I think I’ve ever seen during one of their ballads. I turned once to see Sean Kinney standing behind me for part of the Deftones set. I really like seeing the headlining band take in their openers.

AIC:

What’s not to love?!?

This was the second time I saw AIC live with William on lead. He really respects Layne’s memory and sings the songs beautifully. I love their new CD. It makes shows better now that it’s not only the songs with Layne being sung.

Jerry is Jerry. The AIC sound was as it should have been.  I absolutely love watching Mike Inez play bass. He is such a sweet guy and turns into some rock demon when he gets on stage. The transformation gives me chills.

The light show was spectacular! This show was being filmed in 3D for a DVD. That will be cool to say that I was there for it! If you’ve never seen Alice In Chains live, go. Even better, go in Seattle. They treat the home crowd well.

Lucha VaVoom – Showbox Market, Seattle, October 21, 2010

This isn’t a concert, but deserves a little blurb.

Lucha Vavoom is a combination of Mexican masked wrestling and burlesque dancing put to 1940’s through 60’s music. This was absolutely one of the best times I’ve had EVER.

The wrestlers were super tall, little guys and all heights in between. There were good guys, there were bad guys, there were chickens and there were dancers in between the matches. I had to buy my son a mask and myself a CD of the fabulous music.

The burlesque was really fun. My favorite was the guy that everyone thought was a girl to start with. There were many men in the room checking him out and then getting a little freaked when they realized he was not a she. Too funny.

I can’t wait for this to come back to Seattle. I think it should be at a different venue though. The ceiling was a little low for the flyers. I kept thinking they were going to hit their heads.

Steel Panther – Showbox Sodo, Seattle, October 31, 2010

LOL… Nothing could be finer than Halloween with Steel Panther. They guys were on as always. Total entertainers, musicians and showman.

The costumes in the crowd were interesting. I couldn’t believe there were actually 2 guys dressed up as the shocker.

I love being on stage to watch these guys. They just crack me up. I try to stand on Lexxi’s side. This time Jamie Nova, from Witchburn and formerly of Hells Belles, came up on stage and sang an AC/DC song with the guys.