So I have been attending Moondance Jam this week in Walker, Mn.. I was there for Thursday and Friday, missed Wednesday, and will more than likely not be going tonight, but so far this show has been awesome!!! Thursday brought Starship feat. Mickey Thomas, let's just say, this band will never be what it was without Grace, I was not impressed. The greg Rollie Band was up after Mickey, for those who don't know, Greg Rollie was one of the members of Santana, they opened the show with Jingo, and rocked out the rest of the show, I was really impressed with these guys, they went through alot of Santana favorites, and they rocked it out. The legendary Motor City Madman was up next! This is the one I was waiting for, the company I work for are major sponsors of this show, so we were supplied with sidestage passes and me and a few friends got to go up into the balcony viewing area, which is right on the stage, and I forgot to mention that when the Nuge came on, it began storming BAD about 2 songs in to his set, but the Nuge, in between songs came out and said, "F*** MOTHER NATURE!!!" and continued his set. For this guys age, he had so much energy on stage and riled the crowd up so much, it blew me away. Needless to say, he owned Friday night, and from what I heard, Wednesday also. Oh yeah, Wednesdays line-up up was Black Valentine, The Little River Band, The Guess Who, Dennis DeYoung, and Steve Miller Band headlined, I missed this day, but was told The Guess Who rocked it out that day, Steve Miller just wasn't the same Steve Miller. During the Nuges set security came up to the balcony and told us that sicne the lightning was so bad we would have to get down and that there was a strong possibility the concert would be called off for the night. So I walked back to our booth and decided to head for home and skip Alice Cooper. I got word that Ted Nugent blew something up on stage whick delayed Alice Coopers set by over an hour and after Ted they also had sound issues, so Alice's set didn't get the greatest sound in the world.
That takes care of Thursday. I went back for Fridays portion, I got there during The Outlaws set, didn't watch them. But I did go back on stage for Kenny Wayne Shepard, man this guy can play the guitar, just amazing, at the start of his set his guitar tech did not hook something up right on his pedal board, so the organ player took off with a blistering organ solo for the whole 5+ minutes it took Kenny to get his guitar issues resolved. But when he did he rocked out. Count so far, Ted Nugent #1, Kenny Wayne #2. So Kenny Wayne gets done and up next is the band that stick out on this bill like a sore thumb to me, The Bangles? But I came out to see these ladies rock, and let's just say, for 47 years old, Susanna Hoffs, is HAWT!!! They came out and rocked, they did all their hits, from Hazy Shade of Winter, all the way to, you guessed it, Walk Like An Egyptian. The one flaw in The Bangles set was that they closed with Eternal Flame, didn't make sense to me, but still an alright set, didn't move them up my board, they are sitting at 3rd. Next was the closer of the evening, the replacements for The New Cars, since they did cancel. Poison was now the headliner for Friday night, one thing that surprised me about Poison, Rikki(Ricky, Rickie...) actually does sit down when he plays? Wow, every video of Poison I ever seen he was standing up, and being and old school type drummer, I always wondered how the hell this guy did it? Anyways, Poison came out rocking, Bret Michaels voice sounded a little different than I remember, but was still good. They put on a pretty good show, the crowd was loving these guys, C.C. had a ripping solo about 5 songs in, which the crowd ate up, they went through all the hits and put on a pretty good show, but only good enough to catapault them into 3rd.
I will not be attending Saturday nights show, as other duty calls, but for those of you wondering who is on tonight. T. Albert Lloyd & The Kingpins, Y&T, John Kay & Steppenwolf, Doobie Brothers, and closing this years fest out, Heart.
I have pictures from the 2 days I attended, and will post them when I get them off my camera.
So there is my first real in depth review of a concert, hope you liked.
Peace,
RezDawg
Sounds like a kewl time...... It was cool to hear the Nuge is still the Nuge.
I'm somewhat shocked about your review of Kenny Wayne Shephard, though. My only experience seeing him was at Grand Casino Hinckley as part of the BB King Blues Festival a few years ago. Lemme see, the billing was Indigenous, Tower Of Power, KWS and of course, BB. Tower of Power was good, but I didn't dig them at the time. BB was BB (totally cool & laid back....) Anyway to get to my point... Indigenous' Mato played CIRCLES around KWS..... all KWS did was walk around the stage and strut, play a lick or two and flop his hair around..... It's cool that he's gotten better.....
BTW, I did catch Indigenous at the Fine Line recently and Mato is still BAD ASS!!!
T
Yeah, this was actually my first time seeing KWS live, I have always been a big fan of his music. And I do agree with you about Mato, he is probably one of the tops out now when it comes to blues guitarists, before anyone jumps on me about saying that, I did say ONE OF THE TOPS, not the best*LoL*. Its good to see Indigenous back, but its not the whole group, I haven't seen them in awhile, but I heard its only Mato now? Anyways, I haven't heard how the final night of the Jam was going, but I was not to fired up about tonight anyways.
Just a side note for all you blues fans out there, coming August 25th and 26th to the 7 Clans Casino Hotel and Indoor Waterpark in Thief River Falls, MN. its our annual Blues Festival there, this year we have co-headling Bo Diddley, and The Fabulous Thunderbirds on Saturday and Fridays headliner is Walter Trout, John Lee Hooker Jr. and Big Walter Smith and the Groove Merchants. So if you want to make the trek north, come on up and visit us, and enjoy our HUGE indoor waterpark!!! Anyone can contact me for more details gjourdain@sevenclanscasino.com
I posted some pics from Moondance Jam 2006 in the Random Gallery on the photos page, for your info.
Thanks for the review. Nothing like a good outdoor festival. Must have been very hot out.
Good to see you are an Indigenous fan.
The new Indigenous album has been doing great. They even had a single n the top 40 of the Triple A charts. They are on a great label now, Vanguard so they should be getting a good push.
The album was all tracked at Winterland and the band was going through some issues and ended up with Michael Bland doing most of the drum tracks. Pte played bass on the whole abum but I see isn't touring with them now. Wanbdi did play drums on some songs but left part way through the tracking. They are all brothers and sisters and you know how family can be. Oh well.
Todd F.
www.winterlandstudios.com
www.myspace.com/winterlandstudios
Thanks for the info ToddF, I have not heard the new album yet, but will very soon.
I heard that Heart was good at best. I heard they closed with some Led Zepplin tunes and that she sounded just like Robert Plant.
Heart was amazing. Ann Wilsons voice is incredible. In between songs you could hear everyone around you talking about her voice. The show as a whole was great.
The Bengals was the worst on the bill as far as the shows I saw. They were weak and you got the feeling that they maybe practiced twice before coming to Moondance. They looked uncomfortable with their instruments and inbetween most songs they looked like they had no clue what to do next. I think they only had one transition between songs that didn't have plucking and sounds between.
I became a Ted Nugent fan this weekend. He was truly energized through out his show and he made it worth it that I was standing in the down pour of rain.
Poison? I left during the show when on the big screen they had a video of a girl dancing holding her titties. Do these guys forget there are women in the audience? Where is the naked guy video for the gals? So I left but my friends who stayed loved them.
I also took time to watch Thund Her Struck an all female AC/DC tribute band. Pretty cool and the audience loved them.