KK's Priest - St Charles, IL - Snuka blocked!!!

I wonder if Rob tried to call and congratulate him.

Because REO Cokewagon asked so nicely...

"Went to the Arcada last night to see the show, hadn't been out there since last year when King's X came through. Ended up buying tickets last minute, and actually had to go the secondary market because it was completely sold out. Don't remember seeing that happening since WASP a few years ago, but obviously I don't check all the shows.

Due to that, I spent a bit more than I probably would have on the ticket, but all in all, I think it was worth it. A few notes:

Everyone played LIVE. The only backing tracks I heard were a few samples during KK Priest's set.

Burning Witches - I thought they were fantastic. One of the best initial openers I've ever seen. They clearly have chops and seem like a real band and not something thrown together by a record company like Cobra Spell. The singer Laura clearly had a steady diet of Dee Snider stage moves from back in the day, and she actually snuck into the balcony to watch a few minutes of KK Priest's set. I'm not sure how skilled their previous (current?) lead guitarist is, but if Courtney Cox ends up taking over permanently, I think that's a great choice because, holy shit, girl can PLAY. I ended up buying a signed copy of their latest album after the show so they could make some extra money, and their bassist was working the merch booth with another guy.

L.A. Guns - Somehow, of all the bands from the era I've seen, I had never seen L.A. Guns, so was able to cross them off the list. They were decent, but I've got to be honest, seemed like an odd fit putting them between two more "metal" acts. Phil was having throat problems all night (remember, I mentioned everyone was playing live, and you could tell), but the crazy thing is, he still sounded like Phil in places. Reminded me of when I saw Cinderella years ago and Tom was having problems. They ended up cutting one of the newer tracks, and almost cut Jayne, but Tracii coaxed him into playing it saying that the audience could sing, and to their credit, they pulled it off and Phil seemed genuinely touched. They closed out playing with Peter Dankleson, a local guy who was born without a left ear canal, so he has an implant on that side of his head so he can hear, so that was fun to see.

KK's Priest - Pretty much what I expected. I've always been a fan of the Ripper era, so it was good to see him get to sing some of those songs again with some legitimacy, as a few of them I now more associate with him than Halford. KK showed that he can definitely still play, at least for 75 minutes, and the rest of the band is solid. I know they're trying to push the last two albums, but I think I would have probably only done 4 of the new songs, rather than 6. Brothers of the Road can definitely go. Unfortunately, this was one of those situations where having an older fanbase is a liability, because there would be times when Ripper was wanting the audience to sing along at parts, and the audience just wasn't having it, even though it was sold out, so that was a disappointing, as you could see he was getting frustrated. Still sounded fantastic though, and every bit as good as he did 20-25 years ago.

Ron Onesti - Well, Ron was Ron. No one makes me cringe harder. He did mention two things though that I thought was interesting. One, he was hyping Steven Pearcy playing later in the year, and mentioned that this was Pearcy's last run? Don't think I've seen that published anywhere, so not sure if it's BS or breaking news, or if I just hadn't heard it. The other, which isn't as interesting as much as it is funny, is he said that anyone that had a ticket to get in to the show that night could get into the Art of Anarchy show next weekend. So, I looked it up, and seems like, sure enough, they'd only sold maybe like 100 tickets for that show. So, I think that would apply for that thread of artists that had been popular and were back down to playing clubs, Bumblefoot and Jeff Scott Soto are definitely down from playing in GNR and Journey, respectively."

Yeah, uhhh...not her, dude.

Awesome! I take it that KKs Priest made British Lion look like the pile of puke in a bucket warming in the sun that they are?

Excellent review.

Why does Ron make u cringe??

How much did u pay for the fucking tickets??

I could REALLY do without the faux patriotism with doing the National Anthem before the headline act takes the stage.  And I get that it's his show and he's the promoter, but they run constant ads between sets, so he doesn't need to sell the audience on future shows, it's already being done. Having him introduce the headliner seems like it's making it about him, rather than the artist.  It's like, "Thanks for putting on the show and booking the acts, but no one is here to see you."

To his credit, they've done a great job of keeping that theater going and booking hard rock acts, and it's a nice place to see a show, certainly better than somewhere like Reggie's or Concord where you're going to be standing on concrete for 4 hours, so I don't want to rag on him too badly. He just seems like a big goof.