Beat Memorabilia & Famous Musicians

    On Monday September 14th,  Crosby, Stills and Nash took the stage for the  first of 3 different Classic Rock  shows scheduled to play in the Puyallup Fair concert series for 2009.   When these three music icons walked on stage, a collective admiration was clearly exhibited by the almost capacity crowd.  The catalog of music that David Crosby, Graham Nash and Stephen Stills are responsible for is astonishing. 

     The show started a bit quiet; and when I mean quiet, I mean the volume.  “Helplessy Hoping” was helplessy drowned out a few times by the shrill screams of participants on “The Extreme Scream” carnival ride.  This is one of the Puyallup Fair’s premier rides, which is unfortunately located right outside the gradstand entrance. 

     It seemed to take a couple of songs for their voices to “warm up” but once they did, there were several occasions during the concert that I experienced chills running down my back.  If you closed your eyes, you’d swear that there was a whole choir onstage singing.  When you opened your eyes, you remembered that it’s just these 3 guys, implementing the perfect 3 part harmony that defines Crosby, Stills and Nash.

The night picked up pace and volume with songs like “Love the One You’re With” and the offbeat “Deja Vu”.  Stephen Stills was amazing on guitar as well, and all three musicians seemed to get better and better with every song that they performed.  The group came back out for a gracious encore, which put the total time of the concert nearly 2 hours long, and the audience loved every minute of  it!

Photos of Angela Hammontree and Bill Cantlon courtesy of  Jeff Jordan Photography.

Photos of Dave Wilson and Dave Lavin courtesy of Cindy Beckwith.

REVIEW

     The show I covered was Thursday night, August 30th at Big Daddy”s Place in Woodinville, Washington.  This is a great venue featuring a raised stage, built in lighting, permanent dance floor and lots of room.

     Right off the bat, Angela showed off her strong vocal abilities with “White Rabbit” and Somebody to Love”.  When this girl belted out songs that were originally performed by Grace Slick, Robert Plant and Ann Wilson;  all you could say was “Wow”! 

     And what about “Helter Skelter” by The Beatles?  Can you get any more rockin’ than that song?  And people were dancing to it!  The dance floor completely filled when they played “I Saw Her Standing There” and kept it going with “Tie Your Mother Down”.  Dave Lavin (bass) took over lead vocals on that one and really connected with the crowd. 

     Dave Wilson (guitar) highlighted his skills on songs like “Crossroads” by Cream and “Ain’t Talking Bout Love” by Van Halen.  These songs contain intricate guitar riffs, which he performed brilliantly.

     And then there’s Bill Cantlon (drummer), the consummate entertainer.  You can tell that he has a blast when he performs.  He did a great job covering the various drumming styles of all the songs they performed, as well as keeping the audience rockin’. 

     Their song choices matched the abilities of these musicians well and the audience had such a good time that they didn’t want “Rock Steady” to stop.  All in all a great night, and with time I think this fairly young band (7 months old) will keep adding great songs to it’s playlist and be entertaining bigger and bigger audiences for years to come.

Rock Steady-No Doubt

    I took my place and waited about 20 minutes for the concert to start.  I watched as Bret’s loyal fans took their places.  It looked to be about 80% female/20% male and it stands to reason.  When Bret came on stage, he did not disappoint.  He had the looks, the moves and the voice one would expect.  Wow! 

     Bret got the crowd jumpin’ with “Sweet Home Alabama” and continued with “Look What the Cat Dragged In”.  He then paid homage to Bob Dylan and Guns N’ Roses by singing “Knockin’ on Heavens Door”.  His interaction with the crowd continued when he talked about his trip to Iraq.  He mentioned his appreciation for our troops everywhere and then performed “Something To Believe In” , to the delight of the crowd.

     Bret’s lead guitarist Pete Evick has his own band and showed his experience by taking the lead on “Drift Away”.  He had some pretty cool 360 degree jump spin moves while he played also.  The other band members were Dirty Ray, swinging his hair on bass, Rob Wylde on keys, and the very entertaining Lucky Chucky on drums. 

     Towards the end of the concert Bret talked about writing “Every Rose Has It’s Thorn”, toasted the crowd with a beer before playing “Nothin’ But a Good Time” and continued to have a lot of interaction with the crowd.  He actually encouraged everyone to move closer to the stage, despite the efforts of the security guards to keep everyone close to their respective seats. 

     A great night overall.  My only regret is that I didn’t get to meet these guys.  The Portland show is coming up in August and with any luck, there will be a part 2 article about meeting the band and pictures to go along with it!

    On Friday night, May 8th 2009, The Bret Michaels Band played their first of 2 concerts at The Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Washington.  I was fortunate enough to be granted a photo pass for the show and was very excited to get my fledgling attempt as a member of the media underway.

     Each venue has their own rules and regulations about the media and taking pictures.  Apparently, most of the casinos have a 30-60 day pre-approval process in order to take concert photos.  I didn’t know that and neither did my BMB (Bret Michaels Band) contact. 

     Needless to say, when I got to the venue, I had a hard time getting my media pass.  My name was not on the list at will call, so I made a call to my contact and he sent a guy named Tattoo Tony down to help expedite things.  Tony was a really nice guy and was trying to help me, but I could tell that he had a lot to do before the show started and didn’t really have time to wait on the Emerald Queen concert officials to get things straightened out. 

     Fortunately, I had been in contact with the person in charge of media passes from the casino on a previous occasion, and when she came down to help, Tattoo Tony left to get back to his normal duties.  She was able to get the O.K. from her supervisor to at least let me take pictures from the side of the stage during the first two songs.  I was grateful.

To be continued…