Reunion Blues Backstage Banter

The Reunion Blues Blog

Category Archives: Critical Review

This Flights For You…

A question we often get asked by our customers about our new RB Continental line of cases is, “Can I carry this on a plane?” Now, being able to carry on your case or having to check it is variable upon the airline but thankfully we have first hand accounts of how the RB Continental Case performed in both areas.

Brett on His Way to His Flight

First up our own sales guru, Brett, had to take a trip back to his homeland of Colorado. Lucky for him he was able to land himself a gig while he was there which meant he had to take his semi-hollow body guitar with him. He decided to check his guitar with the airline inside his very own RB Continental guitar case. Click here to read about Brett’s RB Continental Case success story.

Just recently one of our own dealers, Cream City Music, had one of their guitar teachers travel from Milwaukee to Brooklyn for a gig. He took his RB Continental Acoustic Dreadnought Case for the journey and he ended up being able to carry-on the case. Click here to read about Cream City Music’s RB Continental Case carry-on success story.

County Fairs Rock!

My best musical concert experience so far this year came at our local Sonoma-Marin Fair right here in Petaluma, CA just about a month ago.  Granted our favorite little fair is the exception to the norm when booking musical talent.  The San Francisco Chronicle rated it’s lineup tops amongst all Bay Area Fairs this year for featuring the following headlining acts.

Wednesday night were local funk legends Tower of Power.  According to friends who attended they were soulful as ever and really got the place moving.  Thursday night was power popster Rick Springfield (cue Jesse’s Girl!)  I hear some of you snickering into your Starbucks but Rick has always been a musician first and has continued to record new material and play live through the years to mostly positive reviews.  My wife attended this show with her good friend who is a Rick Maniac and reported that it was the best show she’d ever seen at the fair and she’s seen Cheap Trick and Joan Jett there in previous years so that’s saying something.  Friday night was the indomitable Charlie Daniels Band and while I have no first hand reports of the proceedings I’ve never heard of Charlie Daniels putting on a bad show so I’m guessing it was excellent.  Which brings us to the main event Saturday night and my review of the current incarnations of Foghat and Blue Oyster Cult. While these bands may only have 4 out of 9 original members they both gave 4 Star performances.  

Foghat kicked things off with a set that more or less resembled the following: Road Fever, Take Me To The River (yes they did it first and better if you ask me!) My Babe, Drivin’ Wheel, Stone Blue (my personal fave of the night), Fool For The City, I Just Wanna Make Love To You and of course Slow Ride. Original drummer Roger Earl and longtime bassist Craig MacGregor were joined by hired hands singer/guitarist Charlie Huhn (Victory, Humble Pie, Ted Nugent) and lead/slide guitarist Bryan Basset (Molly Hatchet, Wild Cherry) and delivered a tight, superb sounding set with energy, enthusiasm even breaking into a few bars of Play That Funky Music during band introductions.  Foghat summary: Original members 2 of 4.  Performance 4 stars out of 4. Total stars = 6 out of 8!

With it starting to get dark I went to get a corn dog and then back to get a good seat for the mighty Blue Oyster Cult.  Needless to say they didn’t disappoint.  Buck Dharma was a revelation, taking center stage,  playing his swiss cheese Steinberger guitar all night and making incredibly fast, fluid, complex guitar runs look deceptively easy.  Joined by partner and founding member Eric Bloom on vocals, keyboards and guitar along with sidemen Jules Radino on drums, Richie Castellano on 2nd guitar and the incomparable Rudy Sarzo (Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne, Ronnie Jame Dio, Whitesnake) on bass they absolutely delivered the goods. They played the following set (give or take a tune or two): The Red and The Black, Burning For You, Buck’s Boogie (instrumental), Cities Aflame With  Rock N Roll, Godzilla, Don’t Fear The Reaper, Shooting Shark and Hot Rails to Hell.

I found it a bit odd but refreshing to hear them play so many deep cuts and even an instrumental. My only disappointment was in not hearing Take Me Away which surprised me as it’s one of their biggest hits and one of my favorite songs.  One particular highlight was during band intro’s when they introduced Rudy, mentioning all of the amazing acts he’s been a part of  and playing a snippet of a tune from each band.  It was kind of odd seeing LA Sunset Strip Rock God Rudy Sarzo with locks flowing jamming with such a quintessentially buttoned down bunch of close-cropped New Yorkers as BOC butt at least he didn’t lick his bass!  BOC Summary: Original members 2 of 5.  Performance: 4 stars out of 4.  Total stars 6 out of 9! All of this for $15.00??  I can’t wait to see whose playing next year!

What’s your best concert experience of the year so far? Let me know in the below comments section.

Photo Credits: Erum Karim, RiverRatt3, chascar

Review of Phil Angotti and the Lazy Apple Orchestra-People and Places (Our House Records)

What do you get when combining a golden voice, clever songwriting, incredible musicianship, lush harmonies and a love of music? You get Phil Angotti’s new CD release “People and Places”.

Phil draws from American and British power pop influences from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s but he has crafted his own style. Phil wrote all the songs, and if you like melody, you will like this release. You also get some great grooves and all the extras. I suggest that you get the whole CD (don’t just download a song or two). None of the songs sound the same and they each help build a total work of art. And with the Lazy Apple Orchestra you get a lot of different instruments on each song that you don’t want to miss.

As song # 6 says, “What happened to the songs with the grooves?” Well, I think he answered his own question. Click HERE.

The Carl Palmer Band

The Carl Palmer Band
The Carl Palmer Band
What can I say but CARL PALMER IS THE MAN! I still haven’t come down from watching his power-trio band take me to new and insane musical heights, leaving myself and the entire theatre with our jaws in our laps and our minds soaring.

This power-trio consists of Carl Palmer on drums, Paul Bielatowicz on guitar, and Simon Fitzpatrick on bass. They were all simply out of this world and, yes, yours truly had the great honor to work as their monitor engineer at the Petaluma Mystic Theatre.

Watching Carl during sound check was a real treat… to see a master craftsman set up and design his tone. First he went through his entire stick bag to test the tonality of each stick for consistency of tone and quality. Then to watch him tune each drum head, and not just bang on each corner and make a few turns with the drum key but to go through each hit with different dynamics to get the right tone for attack, punch, and bottom end creating a nice round sound. Not only does Carl Palmer sound check his kit, he then sits out in the middle of the theatre and has the bass player and guitar player indivdually go through each of their amp channels of clean and distortion, and all the floor effects dialing in their levels and effect modulations.

Carl’s ear is so good he could be the next greatest sound engineer. He even knew which frequency that he prefers to have notched out of his kick drum for his monitor feed. I mean, I never get drummers knowing engineering terms, it’s usually “My monitor is making a ringing sound can you make it go away?” I would then go to the channel with the particular drum with the “ringing” and remove the frequency that is causing the feedback. Carl knew the frequency just like a piano player would know not only the note but also its frequency of a single key that was struck on a piano. He probably learned it from Emerson while working with him all those years!

The entire band was insanely remarkable and each player’s solo performance was like no other… with Paul and his lightning fast sweep picking, chord tapping, up and down the guitar neck leads that just had folks staring so hard you swore their eyes were going to pop out. Then Simon and his ever-so clever remix of Queens ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ finger tapping and slap bass thrown in here and there for the heavier parts was amazing to watch. Seeing one person play that song and all instrumental and vocal parts simultaneously on one instrument, I guess if you are going to play with Carl Palmer, you better know how to play better than the rest to keep up with this living legend. It was all an awe inspiring performance that I was not only glad to watch but also to help be apart of the making.

Of Chinese Democracy, The Dream, The Answer & AC/DC

 

So as you probably know there is an awful lot of hullabaloo on the webbernet and elsewhere these days about the long-awaited, much-anticipated,  ridiculously-delayed release of Chinese Democracy, the not-so-new Album from Guns & Roses or NU GNR or The Axl Rose Solo Band or whatever you prefer to call them.  Most of the reviews that I’ve read have been positive and I like what little I’ve heard so far.  Axl’s voice sounds good (well sounds like Axl anyway), the riffs groove and the songs rock. There’s a touch of an industrial sound here and there and the lead guitars, while stinging and soaring in their own right, are much different from Slash’s bluesy burning which I miss.  Other than that some of the material could almost be Use Your Illusion era Guns with Axl attempting his best Freddie Mercury ala November Rain.  I’m sure it will sell by the boatload and I’ll probably find it in my Christmas stocking! One certainty is that the live show, with Reunion Blues endorser Richard Fortus (also of Psychedelic Furs fame) laying it down on rhythm guitar amid the musical maelstrom of Axl, Dizzy, Richie, Bumblefoot, Frank, Chris, Tommy and possibly even Buckethead???, will be a spectacle worth beholding.  www.myspace.com/gunsnroses

Richie Rockin' out
richard_fortus_01

Richie Rockin

 

On a less grand scale but no less important, I’d also like to briefly mention another new release by yet another Reunion Blues endorser, a local boy and personal friend Josh Ramos.  The CD is called The Dream and it’s a collaboration between Josh and Hugo Valenti. Some of you may remember Josh from his time in The Storm which featured former members of Journey and Santana including Gregg Rolie, Steve Smith and Ross Valory and also the SoCal based hard rock outfit Hardline.  Hugo started out fronting Valentine which later became Open Skyz but might be best known for fronting Evolution, the pre-eminent East Coast Journey tribute act.  So as you might have guessed buy now, The Dream bears a strong resemblance to Journey in many aspects, but all in a positive way.  It’s the best collection of Journey songs from a band not named Journey that you’ll ever hear. The songwriting and arrangements on this album are rock solid and memorable and Hugo is a terrific singer with great range and passion. But the highlight of this cd is Josh’s playing. He really rips it up all over the disc with ferocity, feeling and an innate sense of melody not many possess.  The Dream is being released primarily in Europe so it might be a bit hard to find but for fans of outstanding melodic rock guitar playing it’s well worth seeking out. www.myspace.com/ramoshugo

Josh Jammin
josh-jammin

Josh Jammin

Brett’s Music Bag: You’ve also got to check out The Answer www.myspace.com/theanswerrock. These bad boys from Northern Ireland are really bringing it hard the wayyy old school way. I’ve had their initial release Rise for close to a couple of years now after hearing about them in Classic Rock Magazine.  Anyone who caught them on The Late Show with David Letterman recently knows exactly what I’m talking about. The singer Cormac Neeson reminds me of a heavier, more aggressive Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes and the guitarist Paul Mahon is pure Gibson/Marshall hard rock glory.  Catch The Answer  live in concert opening for AC/DC on their Black Ice world tour. Never toolate indeed…    

The Answer Rocks
the-answer-rocks

The Answer Rocks

 Speaking of AC/DC, kudos to the Brothers Young & Co.  whose Black Ice recently went #1 in 29 countries, shifting 1.5 million units in the first two weeks of release in the US alone and over 5 million copies sold worldwide so far. Brings a tear to a crusty old rocker’s eye. Good on ya mates! www.myspace.com/acdcDistinguished Gentlemen