REVIEW: OPETH - SORCERESS - 9/30/2016
Gweedo

If you're close minded and like listening to the same three chords over and over let me stop you right here. Re-evaluate your life and come back later. Ok, now that we got rid of all the squares let me delight your ear holes with some new original sounds. Opeth. Yeah they used to play Swedish death metal but it's time to wake up because these guys have left that in the rear view. Now pumping out experimental progressive jazz rock they released Sorceress, their 12th album. I don't want to lead you too far astray. This is definitely a "need to be in the mood for" type of record but that doesn't make it any less good. In my opinion it is best enjoyed as I am; unwinding at the end of the day in your thoughts with a cold beverage. It demands to be absorbed, digested, and appreciated. Get it on vinyl if you have the chance.

REVIEW: BUCKCHERRY, AUTUMN BURN, & RED TIDE RISING - 5/27/2015
Gweedo

To the delight of many, Summit Music Hall hosted the rescheduled Buckcherry show! The original took place a few weeks prior with local bands Resonance and Lola Black. Unfortunately Buckcherry frontman, Josh Todd, was fighting a cold and had to bow out only three songs in. This time around attendees rocked out to Red Tide Rising, Autumn Burn, and Buckcherry. The shame was that not enough tickets were sold to open up the balcony. Red Tide Rising had some great merchandise and stuck around their booth all night making themselves known. What I really liked about their booth was that they had a cool signed drumhead and custom guitar picks. These are things that most local bands don’t get into. Buckcherry also had good merchandise out. With this tour, Buckcherry was offering Meet & Greets. Even with that they came out and signed any CDs you bought. Really nice guys that were happy to meet and have a short chat with their fans. Some signed drumheads sold quickly at their booth as well. I was disappointed that Autumn Burn didn’t bring any merchandise out. That’s a good way to make a little extra change at a gig.

REVIEW: ALTER BRIDGE, CALIFORNIA BREED, & THE CRINGE - 10/20/2014
Gweedo

The beautiful Paramount Theatre presented The Cringe, California Breed, and Alter Bridge. Even though this was a later show, 7pm doors, the line reached to the end of the block. For me, this was the first show I’ve been to at this location where they removed the first 15 or so rows and had moshing. There was the typical nook at the front with band merch. Of note, Alter Bridge only had a few t-shirts. The design that I liked was only a woman’s shirt. Also California Breed had a signed CD but at $40 it was a little much for me to grab.

REVIEW: SLASH - WORLD ON FIRE 10/9/2014
Gweedo

I spent some time checking out Slash’s new album, World on Fire; soaring vocals, guitar solos, and groovy rock beats, what more could you ask for?! Slash’s third solo album brought back Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators to hammer out 17 awesome tracks. World on Fire seemed very cohesive like a full band wrote it instead of a collaboration. You can’t beat Myles Kennedy on vocals. Todd Kerns had some great bass parts and I really enjoyed Brent Fitz on the drums. The cherry on top was the fantastic album art that is a collage of popular figures and a yellow top hat smiley face housing a skull. Ron English is to thank for that. The tracks are dynamic and have catchy melodies making this my favorite solo Slash CD yet.

REVIEW: AEROSMITH & SLASH - 8/19/2014
Gweedo

The Pepsi Center hosted Aerosmith and Slash on August 19th. There were concerns that this concert might get cancelled with the recent health problems of Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer. Thankfully the show went as scheduled. Both bands had a good selection of shirts. I was a little disappointed that Slash’s CD doesn’t come out till September because I would have loved to buy it. The Pepsi Center was a little sparse to begin with.

REVIEW: BOSTON, THE DOOBIE BROTHERS, & PAT SIMMONS JR. - 8/6/2014
Gweedo

It’s always great to knock a band off your bucket list. August 6th was the day I was able to cross Boston off that list. Unfortunately, I was unable to do it before the passing of Brad Delp. Also in attendance that day was The Doobie Brothers and Pat Simmons Jr.. Fiddlers Green Amphitheatre hosted the event after receiving a slight facelift at the entrances and the concession stands. A perk to the show is that I was able to find the free parking at the venue. Keep a look out for it next time you go. With parking and excess convenience charges, any financial relief is welcome. The evening started with rain for a while, but like clockwork, it stopped right before the show began. This rain caused flooding in the front couple rows that had staff members frantically cleaning up. There were a couple merch booths with shirts and CD’s. People were walking around selling Boston’s Greatest Hits CD for $10 to be entered into a drawing for a Tom Scholtz signed guitar. All proceeds went to charity. The rain helped the evening by cooling everything off. As the trickles stopped, the people trickled in.

REVIEW: MOTLEY CRUE & ALICE COOPER THE FINAL TOUR - 8/2/2014
Gweedo

I’ve been dreading yet looking forward to this day, The Final Tour. If you live in a cave, get out! Motley Crue announced, after 33 years, they are calling it quits and with that came their final tour. August 2nd was the day this last performance came to Denver at the Pepsi Center. Motley Crue made their final trek with Alice Cooper and The Raskins. Unfortunately, the Pepsi Center was slow in setting up the seating which caused about an hour delay getting in. This delay made the organizers have to cut The Raskins. I bet they were probably pretty decent to be invited on this tour. The other unfortunate thing was that there were no cameras allow at this concert. That made it so all the photos coming out were from camera phones. So, forgive me for the poor picture quality. I’m certain this is because a DVD of this tour will be coming out for the people that couldn’t make it and for the ones that want to relive it (me). Once the doors opened, it was surprising how quickly the masses were processed and sent inside. Both entrances were loaded with fans in their 80’s garb. There were merch booths everywhere for Motley Crue and Alice Cooper. Outside had a small tent and a lady walking around with a small selection. Inside had at least three booths and the same lady walking around before the concert. There needed to be more women’s shirts, but I think that’s the case for every concert. They did have quite a few different shirts, posters, cups, flags, hats, etc. though.

REVIEW: THE BASTARD SUNS, SPRED THE DUB, SUSPECTS, NO BUENO, PORT AUTHORITY, & FEAR THE CALM - 3/22/2014
Gweedo

This evening marked my first event at the Roxy Theatre. They were hosting The Bastard Suns, Spred The Dub, Suspects, No Bueno, Port Authority, and Fear The Calm. All this music was at a steal! It was $10 for an advanced ticket. I was able to get in for free for being part of the Denver Street Team and running around town putting up flyers. A task I was more than willing to do for one of my favorite bands, The Bastard Suns. There is great parking across the street from the venue that is free and well lit. Also a LightRail stop is right across the street. Inside the Roxy Theatre is a small active bar with a narrow long open floor. The bar was at the back of the venue. I liked the venue because there seemed to be a good place for each kind of concert goer to hang out. There wasn’t much of a backstage so most of the instruments were out and off to the side. Most of the bands had little merch areas set up. There were very few people at the start of the show.

REVIEW: SHIPROCKED 2014 DAY 4 - 1/29/2014
Gweedo

For whatever reason all good things come to an end, ShipRocked being no exception. After four days of fun you finally start getting into the swing of things and submit you could stay on this boat forever. Four days of being unplugged was quite refreshing. This day started out a little tedious with three long Meet & Greets. This was a little annoying to stand in lines half the day. It would have been nice to move at least one to a prior day. Maybe try having two Meet & Greets on one of the beach days. But anyway it is what it is and Meet & Greet one had Five Finger Death Punch, Sevendust, In This Moment, Young Guns, and Mistress Juliya. This was another event that had zero planning. The line was snaked all through the boat and for whatever reason looped back on itself in the same hallway giving people no way to use that hall for any other use. Then they took the end of that line and merged it with the front which was extremely frustrating since people in the front had been waiting at least an hour. Like I said, poor organizing. This was a pretty decent Meet & Greet, the only things I’ll say about it is that Five Finger Death Punch didn’t really seem to care. You lined up with some other random fans behind them for the picture while they sat. They didn’t say hey or anything just talked amongst themselves, snapped a photo, and continued talking to each other. My greetings were ignored and it was a very rude situation. Bassist Chris Kael at least shouted a bye as I walked on to the next band. The other odd encounter was with In This Moment. There was a girl that told you where you could stand before you entered into the picture and she wouldn’t let you set any of your stuff down that you were carrying. Also there was a bulky guy standing behind Maria Brink creepily. Turns out he was back there to make sure you didn’t grab her ass. It was a very awkward situation. The band didn’t seem like they wanted to be there at all and Chris Howorth was complaining about having to do it afterwards. In their defense I will say they had played the night before so the planners should have placed them in one of the later Meet & Greets so that they didn’t have to get up early and prep for this.

REVIEW: SHIPROCKED 2014 DAY 3 - 1/28/2014
Gweedo

Rise and shine, day three of ShipRocked has arrived!! Today brings the dawn of “Washy Washy, Happy Happy, Smiley Smiley, All the tiiime!!!” The cadence of cleanliness that has been ingrained into everyone’s soul. Delivered to the masses at every boarding and before entering the buffet area by the energized and overly enthusiastic crew. I think it was very effective in getting people to remember their hygiene. Everybody on the boat and at this point even off the boat was saying it to each other. As for activities for the day, we were still off the coast of Great Stirrup Cay where we would stay one more day. As the day before, there was another early Meet & Greet this time with Jim Breuer, Nonpoint, Crash Kings, Scorpion Child, & Wilson. As most learn from their mistakes the organization of this event was much better but very rushed. It seemed like the person in front of you had barely cleared the frame before they were snapping your shot. Not sure why the rush since both of these greets didn’t have a lot of people showing up to them. Wandering around there were less artists that came to the island this time. It seemed like they got their fill the day before and were relaxing on the mostly empty boat.