This past Tuesday (July 13), Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant kicked off his summer U.S. tour with The Band Of Joy at the Orpheum Theater in Memphis, Tennessee.
The setlist encompassed not only versions of songs from the Zeppelin catalog (“Thank You”, “Gallows Pole”, “Misty Mountain Hop”, “Houses Of The Holy” and “Rock & Roll”) to solo cuts, including several previews from the upcoming album ‘Band Of Joy’, due out September 14th via Rounder Records.
The tour runs through July 31st..if you’re in the mood for a road trip, you can see Robert Plant and the Band of Joy at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion in Houston on July 24th.
More never before released or circulated demos from KISS have popped up…this one a ballad entitled “Mistake”. Where is The Metal Den digging this stuff up? Are they personal friends with Gene’s Mom? Maybe The Metal Den IS Gene’s Mom!! The song is a straight up country and western ballad, featuring acoustic guitars, bottleneck slides and an overall sound more along the lines of WICKED LESTER than even an acoustic gem like “Hard Luck Woman”. It is believed this rare track was recorded at the same sessions as “Rock And Roll All Nite” in 1975. As it stands it is the earliest demo for an unreleased KISS song known to exist!
The holy grail for KISS fans. The Metal Den has discovered “Smoke”, a NEVER BEFORE RELEASED OR CIRCULATED demo by the legendary rock act circa the 1970′s, believed to be cut in and around the same time as Rock and Roll Over – which itself was released in November 11, 1976, and recorded in September ’76. The listener is in for a real treat. The song is the Stones “Jumpin Jack Flash” meets “Mr.Speed”. It’s unmistakably KISS, but upon first listen, you can easily understand why they could never release this track without being sued by the Stones, for it has completely lifted the riff and vocal line of ‘JJF’. What makes it even more unique, however, is that Stanley and Simmons also sing it in total Stones fashion. It truly is a special moment in rock history and has to be heard to be believed.
We’ve all got memories of our favorite concerts. Whether it’s the first show we ever saw, the concert where we met our favorite band, or the concert you can’t remember because…well…you know…
Gibson Guitars has listed what they think are the 5 Best Concerts of All Time…I will share those with you here. Feel free to discuss and comment:
The Beatles at Shea Stadium (August 15, 1965)
Marooned on a tiny stage in the middle of a baseball field spectacularly far away from their audience, The Beatles could scarcely hear themselves play, nor could their audience, on the night of August 15, 1965. The sound at Shea Stadium was atrocious. The Beatles were the first band to make use of a stadium as a concert venue, and no one had any idea how to rig the sound for such an epic space. The crowd, however, didn’t seem to mind. Attended by nearly 56,000 Beatles fans – many of them in tears – the sold-out concert made use of 2,000 security guards, whose job it was to derail the dozens of people who determinedly tried to rush the stage. This was the height of Beatlemania, when John, Paul, George and Ringo still dressed identically – in smart khaki sports coats and black trousers – and belted out their more fun-loving hits (“Twist and Shout,” “Ticket to Ride,” “Can’t Buy Me Love”). Though it was before the advent of laser light shows and JumboTrons, the show would come to define the modern rock concert, shattering previous records for concert attendance, revenue generation and even sound amplification.
Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock (August 18, 1969)
Jimi Hendrix’s was the final performance of Woodstock and encapsulated the mayhem and creative apex that was the music festival of all music festivals. With a fuchsia scarf encircling his afro, Hendrix took the stage at 8 a.m. on Monday,just after the sun broke over the mud-rutted field in Bethel, New York. He’d been scheduled to go on at 3 a.m. but was delayed by a driving rain, so that the crowd had thinned considerably by the time the guitarist embarked on the performance of his career. Though Hendrix was introduced as “Jimi Hendrix and the Experience,” he made the correction directly after taking the stage, clarifying that they were actually playing as “Gypsy Sun and Rainbows. For short it’s nothin’ but a Band of Gypsies,” he said. The two-hour set was the longest he’d ever play, and souped-up with a new rhythm guitarist and two percussionists, it was rife with delirious, experimental takes on originals like “Red House” and “Foxy Lady.” Hendrix closed his set with a raucous medley of songs, including his take on “The Star-Spangled Banner.” It remains one of the best guitar performances of all time.
Led Zeppelin’s Three Nights at Madison Square Garden (July 27, 28 and 29, 1973)
After Led Zeppelin unleashed Houses of the Holy, they set out on their ninth U.S. tour, a historical jaunt that would bulldoze box office records previously set by The Beatles at Shea Stadium. By 1973, everything had grown bigger and better: the costumes, the theatrics, the musicianship. Of the ’73 tour, Jimmy Page once told journalist Mick Wall, “We were much more ambitious… We really wanted to take the live performances as far as they could go.” Zeppelin closed out their exhausting tour, which Robert Plant described to Cameron Crowe as an “absolute mixture of adrenaline, chemical, euphoria” with a trio of sold-out concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The concerts would become the documentary film The Song Remains The Same, released in 1976. The footage captures Led Zeppelin in their prime: both Plant and Page are shirtless, shrieking and totally blissed out.
Peter Frampton Comes Alive! (Four Nights in 1975: June 13, June 14, August 24, November 22)
Peter Frampton’s 1975 tour of the U.S. produced what was the best-selling live album at the time —Peter Frampton Comes Alive!, which became the No. 1 album the following year. When he set out to tour, Frampton was a lithe 26-year-old with three modestly successful solo albums under his belt. No one could have foreseen his tour being so powerful or life-changing, establishing Frampton not only as an international guitar hero but a mop-haired heartthrob. In 2008, Frampton described the period to Gibson.com: “I told my manager and my record company and my agent, ‘What the hell happens now? How do I stay here?’ I was astute enough to know that the bigger things got, the worse they got, because I had to live up to everything on the next album. I don’t remember a lot of it, not because I took a lot of drugs, but rather because it was too much for the mind to deal with.” The bulk of the album came from Frampton’s time on-stage at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, with additional tracks sourced from his performance at Long Island Arena in Commack, New York, as well as shows in San Rafael, California, and Plattsburgh, New York. During each performance, Frampton utilized his custom Gibson Les Paul, equipped with three humbuckers, and an Epiphone acoustic (on “Baby I Love Your Way,” one of the singles to explode after the live album’s release).
Pink Floyd’s The Wall Shows (February 1980 – June 1981)
In support of their concept album of the same name, Pink Floyd’s The Wall Tour was a visual and sonic spectacle that set the bar for every rock concert to come after it. And because of its expense and epic stage setup, The Wall shows only occurred in four cities: Los Angeles, New York City, London and Dortmund, Germany, making them all the more in demand. Inspired by the theoretical “wall” Roger Waters felt between himself and the audience during Pink Floyd’s 1977 tour, each tour stop climaxed with the explosion of an enormous polystyrene brick wall. As the band plugged away at every song from The Wall in succession, the oddities were endless: flying pigs, 30-foot animated characters, masked session musicians. It was the final Floyd tour to feature the lineup of Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Dave Gilmour and Nick Mason.
Ronnie played his last concert ever on August 29th, 2009 in Atlantic City, with the band Heaven & Hell. Later in the year, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer and underwent several months of chemotherapy. As you know well by now, we lost him on the morning of May 16th, at the age of 67.
Check out Heaven & Hell performing “The Mob Rules” from Ronnie’s final concert (courtesy Joe and Damian of Black-Sabbath.com):
Louisiana-based rockers Lillian Axe have completed work on their tenth album, “Deep Red Shadows”, at Sound Landing Studios in Covington, Louisiana. The CD was produced by guitarist Steve Blaze, mixed by Rob Hovey and mastered by Ty Tabor of King’S X. The song “47 Ways To Die” was mixed by Sylvia Massy, who is best known for her work with Tool, Green Jelly, Powerman 5000 and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Tabor is the special guest on the song “The Quenching Of Human Life”, adding an “amazing” guitar solo to the track.
The album, on Love & War Records will be released on July 2oth.
“Deep Red Shadows” track listing:
01. Under The Same Moon
02. 47 Ways To Die
03. The Quenching Of Human Life
04. A Minute Of Years
05. Nobody Knows (acoustic)
06. The Day I Met You (acoustic)
07. Sad Day On Planet Earth (acoustic)
08. Nocturnal Symphony (acoustic)
09. Deep Red Shadows (instrumental)
CHICKENFOOT – the band featuring Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, Joe Satriani, and Chad Smith – recently celebrated the 20th Anniversary of Hagar’s Cabo Wabo Cantina in Mexico (April 22-24). Aside from tunes from their debut album, the band broke out the classic rock catalog for a few songs…here’s some footage:
Shortly before he was diagnosed with stomach cancer, Ronnie recored a track with his cousin (and ELF bandmate), Dave “Rock” Feinstein. The song, titled “Metal Will Never Die” will appear on Feinstein’s upcoming solo album, Bitten By The Beast.
Check out the last known recording of the inimitable voice of the late, great, Ronnie James Dio:
