CONCERT REVIEW: Garth Brooks, Live at the Encore Theater-Las Vegas

Garth Brooks-Live at Encore Theater, Las Vegas

September 23, 10:30pm show

When you enter the Encore Theater it’s almost surprising how small it is. A 1500 seat show room in Las Vegas is usually reserved for flavor of the month acts, one off performances by a current artist or a game show/Vegas show of some sort. As we entered the room, it was almost hard to believe that one of the most successful entertainers in the history of music was going to take the stage shortly. Another revelation that occurs is this; everything you’ve heard is true. For months I’d heard that this show was “Garth, a guitar and a light” which is contrary to every performance Garth Brooks is known for, but when you enter, there is it; a guitar and a light and of course, no Garth just yet.

At exactly 10:30pm the house lights went down followed by a short taped introduction, followed by Garth Brooks literally running from side stage to grab his guitar. Dressed in an un-tucked, grey button down shirt, blue jeans, work boots and a ball cap he enjoyed the massive ovation from the small crowd. When it seemed everyone had calmed down, an occasional shout would happen from somewhere in the crowd, and Garth would acknowledge it as has he was getting his guitar and mic ready. He laughed a little and said “The 10:30 show, the drinkers, this should be good”

With no song introduction, he launched into his classic “Much Too Young To Feel This Damn Old” followed by a monologue on how he’d planned for these shows to go. He spoke about how the song prior was released in 1989 but that his music heritage went back to the 1960s. He said he would be going back to the 60s and walking us through his musical life influences from his mom, dad and the rest of his family until we all arrived back at 1989. Each story he told whether it was about his parents, an artist or a song was conveyed passion and a genuine feeling. The stories would lead to covers of songs that had an influence on him and the cover would sometimes lead to a hit of his own that had been influenced by the cover he’d just played.

When preparing for this review, I struggled with how much detail to include about the set list. In the end, I decided to just give one example to make clear how cool the show is. That way it doesn’t spoil the whole show for those interested in attending but still gives a good idea of the format. An example that comes to mind is when he started talking about how different parts of the country were producing very different types of music in the 70s. He talked about how living in Oklahoma, they would hear all these sounds from the rest of the country and it would go over better with some of his family than others. He said his mom and brothers were open to all of it while his father was far more reserved and believed in only two artists (there’s a funny joke that goes along with this that’s a regular part of the show, so I won’t spoil it here). He brought up the subject of Bob Seger and how Bob was a story teller who’s music was the type that made you think he was talking to only you.

He covered three songs by Bob Seger to make his point about how storytelling from different parts of the country affected him. The third Seger cover was “Turn The Page” which Garth sang the first verse and chorus from then continued strumming the chords while explaining how thankful he was for other artists’ influence. He talked about how the Seger song sounded like the open road and a tired superstar, but to him, those chords and tone sounded different. He then segued into “The Thunder Rolls” which was just excellent seeing as he even included the last “controversial” verse. So hopefully you get the picture of how the night went from the above example because that’s roughly how the first hour of the show went. If I listed off some or most of the songs he covered during that portion of the show, you might actually be in disbelief that Garth Brooks had covered them. And I should make clear that he covered these songs well. There was no tongue in cheek business (save for a funny story about hard to understand lyrics) or any sort of feeling that he’d included certain songs because they were a hit or they would get the best reaction.

As we wondering through the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s we arrived back at 1989 as promised. He played a couple of his early classics slowly progressing through the early 90s. After he’d knocked a couple of his biggest hits out of the way, he brought the house lights up to interact with and take requests from the audience. Although the overall idea is cool, I thought it was even cooler that he seemed to take a genuine interest in each person, talking with them for more than a few minutes. He could easily said “What’s your name and request?” then just launched into the requested song, but he took a few minutes to have a real interaction with each person he talked too. Another cool thing is that he told a story for each requested song instead of just going into the cut. Again, it was a nice touch that made the audience feel even closer to the superstar. One of the audience members had flown in from Egypt for the show and requested a song from the Ropin’ The Wind album that Garth seemed surprised by. He explained that he hadn’t performed that particular song in at least a decade but that he couldn’t say no seeing as the fan had traveled so far. After playing around with the chords for a few minutes, he seemed confident and launched into the song, nailing it perfectly.

During this section of the show, an audience member requested “any spiritual or gospel song”. Garth explained that he hasn’t really ever recorded a song that would qualify in a straightforward fashion of “spiritual or gospel” but that he’d included little things in the lyrics of many of his songs that eluded to the subject. He said that he’d always toyed around with the idea of doing an entire album but that he’d felt it’d been done better in the past by other artists and that he’d only be deluding what’s already out there. As he was explaining this, he remembered that he and Steve Wariner had written a full spiritual song that had never been recorded. He went on to say that he didn’t think it had ever been recorded or performed live but that if he could remember most of it he would perform it. Before playing the song he explained that so far he hadn’t seen any of his show on YouTube and that he’d hoped it stayed that way in the future. He reminded the audience that we hadn’t been searched for recording devices upon entering and that was because he trusted us not to record and share the show on the internet. This is one of the many reasons why you do not see any pictures of video clips included in this review. Having said that, he recalled and played the song which received an excellent ovation.

After a few requests and interactions, he returned to performing songs he’d selected. He seemed humble and “real” throughout the entire performance. He included another song from the Ropin’ The Wind album not before assuring us that he was terrible at playing the guitar on it. He explained that he chose to include it in the regular set because he know that even though he couldn’t play it right, it was a big enough hit that people would request it anyway. So when he played it, he would just stop playing guitar on the parts he couldn’t play and let his voice carry the song. It was a really cool touch and something I don’t think many artists would’ve attempted.

He played only one more cover which was near the end of the show. It was a “classic rock sing-a-long” tune that got the entire theater shouting at the top of their lungs. This lead him into a story about always wanting to be an artist who had that one song that everyone on Earth knows and can sing. He then said that he felt beyond blessed to have accomplished that and asked that the entire audience stand, put their arms around each other and sing along if they happened to know it. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out which of his hits he closed with, but again I don’t want to name it here. If you’re interested in spoilers, feel free to leave a comment on this review with your email address and I’ll give you all the details you’d like.

After he finished, I looked at the time and noticed that the show (scheduled for 90 minutes) had run 2 hours and 20 minutes. To be honest it felt like it was maybe 30 minutes long tops, that’s how fast it went by. The show was engaging, enlightening and most of all extremely entertaining. There’s a reason that Garth Brooks is consider one of the world’s greatest entertainers. No one’s ever accused him of “relying” on the huge stadium productions of his 1990s tours, but if anyone ever thought that, they need only sit through this show once to see their error.

This show is only scheduled a couple of weekends a month with shows at 8 and 10:30pm on scheduled Friday’s and Saturday’s. If you’re going to be in the Las Vegas area at any time in the next 4 years the show is scheduled to run, I cannot recommend enough that you see this show. To anyone who truly loves any genre of music, I believe it would be impossible for you not to love every moment of this show. This is one of the few true music superstars left on the planet and he’s putting an amazing show out there that anyone can enjoy.

Garth Brooks Live At The Encore Theater, Las Vegas:

10 out of 10

9/11 and the healing power of music

Today is the tenth anniversary of 9/11 as most people in the U.S. know. I wanted to take a second to reflect about it and the following days.

I will never forget that day (as most won't). I was working the closing shift at the Southfield, MI Best Buy at the time. I woke up and did the normal thing I always do, turn on the PC to read Emails and news, turn on the radio to Drew & Mike on WRIF for background noise and started the shower. As I'm bumbling around I hear Mike say something like "WOAH... ANOTHER ONE HIT A BUILDING!! THIS IS AN ATTACK!!" And I stopped what I was doing and paid attention to the radio, quickly signing into the PC and something I rarely did in those type of days, turned on the TV. I saw the replay of the 2nd plane, the PC finally fired up and there was all the news and speculation and I was just frozen and consumed by what I was seeing and hearing. This went on for a few hours...

I took my shower and called work to see what was going on there as Southfield is close to Dearborn which has a large Arabic community. The first person I got was Amanda at the front security podium and she was obviously (and understandably) freaking out. "I'm so sacred right now" she told me, "There is a rumor they may attack the Detroit area" Of course those rumors were in every major city. I told her to move away from the front podium to be safe and to get me Tony, the GM. Tony told me he was waiting for word and to come in, so I did. An hour later we were all sent home. The whole day just had a quiet feel to it, which was odd for all the chaos going around.

I was working in the audio department at the time and Best Buy still let us play our own stations at the time. And what I started to notice was a dramatic increase of requests, all of the most patriotic stuff of course, but WRIF is a rock station and rock isn't really known for patriotism, it's known more for the party. Yet this day I heard 2 songs requested over and over again. Both were remixed songs that included responders calls and people crying for their loved ones. One was Styx's "Show Me The Way" off their forgotten by then record "Edge Of The Century" and the other was Lee Greenwood's "God Bless The USA" Neither were rock songs but I hand it to WRIF for turning a blind eye to that and helping people heal.

One of the first things done after the shock wore off a little was SNL... And what was the first thing they did? Played music. Paul Simon's "The Boxer" while several firefighters and policemen stood on the other stage, covered in dust from ground zero, Rudy Guillianni was also there. It was a touching moment. Next was a huge concert where the event even moved Paul McCartney to write a song and preform it. The country was really coming together as one. I kind of miss that part of the tragedy.

A year or so later we had albums coming out inspired by the tragedy. My two faves are Springsteen's "The Rising" and Bon Jovi's "Bounce", both albums are some of their stronger works in their later years.

It's amazing to me that when everything is down and everything is chaos we turn to music to help and find common ground. It's why all these guys write here and it will always be this way.

Thank God

2011: The Music Year So Far

2010 was quite a year in music for me and 2011 hasn't been too shabby so far. I meant to write a post like this back in early July but it slipped my mind and here we are at the beginning of September! Before I know it, it'll be December and I'll be prepping for a Year In Review post!

So far this year I've seen quite a few excellent concerts. If I had to pick one as "the best so far" I'd have to go with Adele wsg Plan B at the Royal Oak Music Theater a few months back. It was refreshing to catch a truly great opening act in Plan B. If you have never heard of Plan B, you really should take a listen. The latest album is called "The Defamation of Strickland Banks" and it's quite good. You can locate it on any number of streaming sites to give them a try.

Adele was nothing short of fantastic live in concert. Her band was tight, her vocals were amazing and she had an interesting stage presence that you don't see much anymore. During each song, you could tell she was really feeling what she was singing. The most interesting part was when she would really let her attitude fly on a song like "Rumor Has It" but then turn all shy again the most the song was over and the applause started. It was interesting but most of all it was genuine. You could tell that this wasn't some act just to garner more applause (I'm looking at YOU Taylor Swift...).

New music this year has been so so. I was looking forward to the new Beastie Boys album but it let me down in more than a few ways. I've listened to it a couple of times at the most but there's been nothing drawing me back to it. Hands down the best record released so far in 2011 is Wasting Light by Foo Fighters. It's easily their best work and by far the best rock album released this year. That record together with Adele's 21 are probably my two favorite overall releases so far.

We've also lost some immense talent thus far. Jani Lane and Amy Winehouse seem to have both succumbed to their respective demons which is sad for many reasons. I'm sure 2012 will bring the usual bombarding of unreleased material from at least the Winehouse camp. Jani Lane was prepping many new songs for a solo project and I do hope we get to hear those tracks. I don't expect that release to be near as high profile but I certainly hope it gets some attention.

The rest of 2011 holds some cool things for me musically. I'm very much looking forward to the new album "Kicking & Screaming" from Sebastian Bach. A new solo album from Rich Robinson (The Black Crowes) is due in October along with a solo tour that I'll be attending. I'm also excited to report that I'll be seeing the one and only Garth Brooks in concert at the Encore in fabulous Las Vegas on September 23. As soon as I return from Sin City, I'll be writing up a review of the event. I'm also hearing the Guns N' Roses will be starting a US Tour in Miami in the end of October. I would imagine they'll make their way to Detroit by the end of November or the beginning of December. Needless to say, I'll be attending. If you want to check out GN'R live prior to the US Tour, you can see them at www.youtube.com/rockinrio near the beginning of October. They're known for putting on quite a special show each time they've appeared at the Rock In Rio festival and I'm assuming this time won't be any different.

What did I miss? What concerts did YOU see this year that I should've? What new albums did YOU check out that I should? Did you discover or re-discover an artist this year? TELL US ABOUT IT! Log in and leave a comment below, let's get some music discussion going!

Why the F*@K Would You Listen to Rap Anymore?

I am a man of many hatreds. When Russ asked me to write a lil' sumn-sumn about music from time to time, I thought about all the things I wanted to say about music. Then I realized that a lot of what I have to say is about what's wrong with music. Like I am the only person that knows how music should be. So I decided I wouldn't be that guy. You know, the guy that tells you that this generation of kids is screwed up, how music doesn't mean what it used to. The back-in-my-day guy. The kids-don't-know-real-music guy. Basically, the get-off-my-lawn guy. I used to hate that guy. But what if that guy is right? Is being a bitterman justifiable when your bitterness is tangible? Or does that just make you a hater?

Well, I'm both. What makes it worse, is that I hate that I'm right. Not all the time, but I especially hate when I'm right about the destruction of the things I love. Like when the Verve broke up. Or when At The Drive In broke up. Or when the MotherScratchin' Bulls eliminated my Bad Boys in 4 games in the last Eastern Conference Finals that Zeke, Joe D, and Laimbeer would ever participate in. Now add to that list the destruction of hip-hop.

See, the rap game has been under siege for years. Rap has closely mirrored the meteoric rise of computers and the internet in the 90's. Once it proved that it was commercially, and therefore financially viable in the mid 90's, it was only a matter of time before the effects of big business stripped from it everything that gave it soul. Now look at it. After 15 years of assembly line rap production, replete with regurgitated misogyny, doctorate-level knowledge of narcotics, and idle threats from wanna-be thugs, rap has completely lost its edge. When is the last time you heard a rap song that had an original thought? An original beat? An original concept? When was the last time you you winced from the realness of the lyrics? Or felt compassion after hearing the criminal's side of the story through rap? (On a side note, I completely remove The Roots from this argument. That group is the antithesis of everything negative that I say about hip-hop in this blog entry.)

So, the question is why the f*@k would I listen to rap anymore? Why would anyone, when the radio waves are saturated with unimaginative drivel? I hear songs now and I feel disconnected from the genre. Maybe it's that I'm 36 years old with a steady job, a family to be responsible for, and obligations like bills and taxes. I think that we as music lovers forget that music is a medium of the moment; it's only relevant to the feeling of the artist at the time the artist feels it. Ice Cube railed against all things caucasian in his first album Amerikkka's Most Wanted and his collaboration with Da Lench Mob on Guerillas In Tha Mist. A quick listen through either album and you can hear the most hateful, dark, xenophobic language in any album. At the time, it was dangerous. Dangerous because it exhibited not hatred for whites, but the underlying feeling of helplessness against forces out of your control. Seeing the "American Dream" all around you and not being given the tools to obtain it. Being defenseless against a system built to strip you down and make you conform to ideas, lifestyles, and cultures foreign to anything you've experienced. But that was the way Ice Cube felt in 1992. That is not the Ice Cube of 2011. In a quiet moment, away from cameras and voice recorders, I'm willing to bet that even Ice Cube would admit that his lyrics were the bullshit babblings of an ignorant twenty-something. The same establishment he raged against is all of a sudden his ally. He has been lucky enough to see certain breaks and favorable situations while simultaneously working hard to make sure he was in the right place at the right time with the right skills to take advantage of it all. While complaining about never seeing the American Dream, he was realizing it. Now, much like Ice-T, he enjoys a career greater than he ever imagined by leaving behind the things he did to start his career. You know, my kids, until this year, had no clue where Ice Cube got his start. They only know him as a movie star! Damn, I'm old!

In the 80's and 90's rappers at least tried to stand for something, however uninformed they might be. Rap served as the megaphone and the mirror for young, black America. In rap, we saw how other blacks lived throughout the nation. we stood in awe at our similarities and took pride in our differences. Rap was an audible black bulletin board. A place were we could discuss why we were what we were and where we should be headed. Quite often our pontifications on what it meant to be young and black ranged from narrow minded (Paris), to do-you-even-know-or-believe-what-you're-saying (Digable Planets, X-Clan, Camp Lo). But rappers at least wrestled with expressing their varying realities of life in America. Rap was always evolving; finding ways to better itself through sharper lyrics, more innovative sampling, even live instrumentation and singing.

Now, rap is stuck on stupid. Everything is party rap. The formula is simple: take some kid that is barely literate and borderline retarded, let him/her spew forth nonsensical gibberish for a catchy hook, insert generic synthesized beat and/or autotune, purchase airtime and advertisements. Wash, rinse, remix. The artists are too stupid to realize that they are dooming themselves to one-hit wonder status because they never developed a sound or style all their own. This is most desirable to record companies, because rappers aren't capable of sustaining their meteoric success, and thus never have leverage to get bigger contracts based on a consistent track record. Of course Jay-Z and Kanye seem to defy this logic, but they are exceptions to the rule. They provide the bell curve that everyone else gets graded up on.

So tell me, why do you listen to rap anymore? I still listen because I know where to go to get the good stuff. I haven't listened to the radio for an entire song in approximately 8 months. Don't need to. But every once in a while I'll test the waters and let the fm tuner do its thing, only to be disappointed to hear horseshit flow freely from my speakers. However, the further hip-hop slides away from anything worthwhile, the harder it gets to justify the effort it takes to wade through the pile of manure in order to get a smidgen of gold.

3 artists I'm listening to now:

Jay Rock - Follow Me Home - 4 stars

Phonte - Charity Starts At Home - 4 stars

9th Wonder - The Wonder Years - 4.5 stars

Jani Lane 1964-2011

Jani Lane 1964-2011

Last night we got another story of rock n roll tragedy. Jani Lane was another star musician who lived a life in the tabloids as much as he did on stage and though he always seemed like a nice guy to fans he never seemed to be able to overcome his many demons. My feelings on Jani vary in many ways... I hated Warrant's first record but still saw them live 6 times because they opened for everyone in the late 80s, I thought the record was bland and very "paint by numbers" though it was a big hit, I became a fan after the 2nd single on the 2nd record "Uncle Tom's Cabin" which was followed up by the equally good "I Saw Red", Two songs that lyrically different and had a musical emotion that was rarely found in that day. Then I became angry at the industry because of this band as they put out 3 great records that no one heard because they weren't the cool band anymore and the industry can only push one style of music and at that time it was grunge. Then I lost some respect when Jani left Warrant to be a solo artist. Why? Because when you are the chief song writer then you have no need to leave... The band is your sound and a solo record will most likely be indistinguishable. Then he became another 80s reality show guy, that group of 80s stars that showed up on all the "I'm fat and on drugs" shows that VH1 got popular on recently and to many he became a punchline.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time on Warrant's early years. If you recognize the man then you know about the first two records. They put out singles that were very pop oriented and safe and sold millions and toured a lot. That's the story. More interesting is the next three records. The band put out some great music at that time and Jani was the reason.

Warrant's 3rd record was "Dog Eat Dog" The record went gold, it did OK. They had a hit with

"Machine Gun" but they went from arena's to theaters. I had seen them at the Fox in Detroit with some good friends and Jani had a rep of going into the crowd and singing, this time he grabbed my buddy Eric to do a verse of a cover of "We're An American Band" and Eric was star struck as one of his heroes was standing there with his arm around him goading him into singing a song with him! Here is a guy who sings in his own band and he can't say a word... Frozen... And still loving it! We still talk about that night and I doubt Eric will ever forget it. This was early on in the tour for "Dog Eat Dog" and later we would read (and see) how the record company just forgot this great record and they were not going to promote it at all. The record was heavier for Warrant and really stretched the band. They were dropped soon after the tour.

Eric and Jani

Their next release was "Ultraphobic". It was a dark record as far as lyrics were concerned, but it was another good record. Songs like "Undertow", Followed", "Family Picnic" and "Stronger Now"were certainly not the happy hair band type songs that made them big. Another tour, but now it's the club scene. But Jani didn't care. He still went out to the crowd and in Detroit he started breaking out his Barry Sanders story (his favorite running back he would say from the stage). We also saw the beginning of another tradition... Jani would sit down with a guitar on a stool with a cigarette in his moth and no lighter. From the stage he would ask the audience for a light and be pelted buy hundreds of them, lol. Years later it would seem a little cheesy, but looking back now it was all in good fun. I hope Jani wasn't too hurt, lol.

The 3rd record was "Belly To Belly" and it has my favorite song by Warrant "Letter To A Friend". It was an angry record lyrically but still very good. It had strong songs like "Indian Giver", "In The End" and "A.Y.M.". The band was still playing clubs and they still had good crowds coming out, and the crowd was into the newer songs as much as the hits. We got the Barry Sanders story, we got the lighter barrage, we got Jani in the crowd and we got a fun show. But there were some signs of tension as guitar techs were yelled at from stage and at times Jani did look angry. It was the beginning of the end.

After that you saw Jani on "Celebrity Fit Club" were he really seemed to make an impression on people as a sweet guy with problems, after that was all the rumors... He was too drunk to preform, too much a mess... I didn't see any of his solo shows, but I heard the stories and it was sad. I have heard he was going through a lot at the end.... The loss of his band, a divorce and a parent dying. He even lashed out (Regrettably) at one of his biggest hits saying he regretted being the Cherry Pie guy. He later retracted the statement but it obviously bothered him to some extent.

I know this look like a Warrant post more then a Jani Lane post, but Jani was Warrant, period. The saddest thing to me is that most of his best music still goes unheard because the band wasn't trendy enough so most people only know 3 or 4 songs of 2 records and it's not fair. Jani deserved better then to be a hair band, reality celeb punchline.

I'm going to add 2 songs that you should check out from their later work. two of my favorite under appreciated tunes

"Man.... You REALLY need to hear this band!!"

I think we all have a few bands that we feel we found and bugged our friends and anyone else who'd listen to hear them. My next article will be on one of the bands that never made it, the Galactic Cowboys, but this is about the ones that did and the excitement of feeling you changed someones listening life.

My first "Discovery" was Bon Jovi. Now I know everyone know them as a cheesy hair band/adult contemporary band, but before that they were a hard working rock band from New Jersey. I first heard them on a late night video show on local PBS when I saw "Runaway" and the hook was so strong that it just had to be a hit... It wasn't. Sure, it's well known for them now, but at the time, not so much. Then they released the much better "7800 degrees Fahrenheit" which may have actually done worse. I was telling everyone about these guys and playing them constantly getting one of my best friends to become a big fan (which he still is). Then came the big record "Slippery When Wet" and they were everywhere! They followed up with 2 more huge records but then made the darker "These Days" record (their best by the way) and all of a sudden I found myself trying to tell people about this band again as everyone seemed to have lost interest. It took a few solo albums and changes of music styles, but the band has been back for years, but I was one of the first...

My second band I found before all my friends (and a lot of the world) was Guns n Roses. I was one of the few that saw the one airing on Mtv of the video of "Welcome To The Jungle" and went out that day and bought the cassette. That guitar riff still sends chills up my spine! I listened to it over and over (which was not a great idea in the cassette age, lol) and then playing that for anyone in any situation where I had the chance to hit "play" on the boombox. But the song that I told people that was going to be huge was "Sweet Child O' Mine" before it was even a single. It wasn't even my favorite song on the album (Rocket Queen, Jungle or Paradise City fought it out for fave) but I knew it was catchy as hell and had another unique guitar sound. Within a month and a half or so everyone was talking GnR and within a year they were the biggest band on the planet, but I was one of the first...

My third time was Extreme. I remember seeing TV ads for the movie "Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure" and hearing this crazy guitar going on underneath it all, but never could hear the singer and the band wasn't credited. One day I just happened to hear on one of our no defunct rock radio stations in Detroit the song and the DJ actually saying the name of the band and the song (I miss those days) as Extreme and the song was "Play With Me" and once again, off to Harmony House I go! What a great album! Full of great guitar playing and unusual lyrics for a "hair metal" band and I couldn't wait for the second record. I had a lot of friends listening, but not buying the first Extreme, but "Pornograffitti changed that... Especially "More Than Words". The album was big and the song was bigger, in fact it held a record for most returned album for some time because some people (mostly of an older variety, haha) would buy it for "More Than Words" and find a very hard rocking rest of the disc that had a lot of adult themes. They followed that up with the great "III Sides To Every Story" which had a couple minor hits, then they went in a dark different direction with "Waiting For The Punchline" which didn't do well at all. Then out of the blue Gary Cherone (singer) is signed on to sing with Van Halen and Nuno Bettencourt (guitar) is doing side projects. They broke up, but in 2008 they reunited with "Saudades De Rock". I never saw them get bigger then theater tours, in fact we saw them at the beginning of the "Pornograffitti" tour at a tiny club in Detroit called "The Ritz with Alice In Chains Opening, but I won't take credit for exposing my friends to them as they were there and we didn't even notice the band til later that year, "Man In The Box" was big and that's when we noticed we saw them and no one even knew, lol.

What bands have you found and forced upon your friends til they finally saw the light? Let me know... I'd love to check them out!

The 27 club

The death of Amy Winehouse has brought the dreaded "27 club" back into the lexicon. Let's get out of the way first... It's a club, not a curse. If it were a curse there would be a lot more dead. The reason for the "curse" talk is that in general most people claim Robert Johnson was the first member after going to the crossroads and making a deal with the devil to become a great bluesman and traded his soul and that many have done this after him and mate with his same fate. Problem with the theory is that the biggest star to be associated with this deal (at least in my opinion) is Jimmy Page, and he's still kicking around. Also the fame but unusual deaths of stars much bigger then those in the club, but at a much older age (Elvis & Lennon come to mind) makes the idea of a curse seem silly to me.

However one can't deny the coincidence of the age of all these musicians or the impact that a majority of them had. The poster childs of the club are Brian Jones, the founder of The Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, influential female blues singer, Jimi Hendrix, considered by many the greatest guitar player ever, Jim Morrison, lead singer for The Doors and Kurt Cobain, leader of Nirvana. It's hard to say at this time if Amy Winehouse deserves to be on that list, but she did join the club none the less.

So how does this happen? My personal opinion.... Too much, too young. Maybe that's too easy, but imagine having the world at your feet and more money then you can ever know what to do with and you aren't even 30! And to top it off... No one will dare tell you "No". You are still immature yet you need to make decisions that would stress out an experienced CEO. Band members, road crews, record labels, agents, managers and fans are now depending on you and just a few years ago maybe you were flipping burgers... It's gotta be insane. So you turn to drugs and partying to release the stress, after all... This is what you know, you are too young to understand that you have all the power to tell everyone to just slow down for your own good, heck... You're young... You will live forever!!

I fear we will see this much more often in this TMZ society. The press adds even more pressure to an already volatile situation and it seems our young stars can't fart without a thousand cameras catching it. I see Miley Cyrus and Lindsay Lohan heading down these paths and I'm sure there is more to come. Maybe next time we see a sad pathetic, falling down drunk or stoned star, instead of laughing at them or instead of the courts sending them to jail for 2 hours we take this serious and help them and stop enabling them.