Category : TRUNK REPORT

11/14: ACE FREHLEY TOUR KICK OFF REPORT

Hosted the kickoff of the Ace Frehley Space Invader tour in NJ last night. If you followed on Twitter I did song for song coverage and posted a ton of photos. Also posted a few on my FB. Like most tour kickoffs there were a few technical issues during the show but it wasn’t really a huge deal and Ace had fun with it. He is also working in a new band and I think after a couple shows under their belt things should be very tight. This band really is great! Richie Scarlett back in the fold is a huge addition. I always loved Richie’s playing, performance, voice and attitude on stage and he is a perfect wing man for Ace. Their two Les Paul’s sounded amazing all night and there was some cool dual guitar stuff as well. Scot Coogan also is a great re-addition to the band. He is a killer drummer and has a phenomenal voice which enables Ace to play many Kiss/Paul Stanley vocal era songs that he was a part of like “Love Gun”, “King Of The Nightime World” and others. Hearing Scot belt these out was really pretty awesome, especially when you consider how well he plays at the same time! Ace is only doing Kiss material he played on and was a part of and it sounded great with Scot singing. New bassist Chris Wyse sang lead on Strange Ways and he is a great player and rounds out what is a killer band with all able to sing lead. Because of the technical issues the nearly 2 hour set was trimmed and Deuce and Detroit Rock City were not played, but Ace told me he will toy with the set as he goes. 3 songs from Trouble Walkin were in the set including opener Lost In Limbo and two from the post Kiss debut (Rock Soldiers and Breakout which was dedicated to Eric Carr who co-wrote it). Nothing from Second Sighting or Anomaly. Cold Gin was the set closer. I posted a photo of the set list on my FB. I know there has been an outcry from some fans for deeper obscure Ace / Kiss tunes liked Dark Light, etc. He may very well work some of that up as he goes. But the simple truth is with any band playing deep tracks live it makes about 10% of the crowd happy and loses everyone else, so there must be balance. Trust me, I LOVE deep tracks from bands and I’m burned on the usual hits. But the huge majority are not. One example is when Ace played Too Young To Die, a great track I love from Trouble Walkin. About 80% of the crowd had no clue. It is a balance every band has to deal with. The major amount of people buying tickets just don’t know the deep stuff. So that’s why you get Kiss hits scattered in with the solo hits and deep tracks. Four songs from the new album were in the set, the title track, Toys, Gimme A Feelin and Change, although Change was scrapped due to a tuning issue (like I said, first night mess ups). As I walked with Ace to the stage to intro him he said “oh shit, I forgot to put Rip It Out in”! So no doubt that will be added very soon. The plan is for Ace to do the announced dates, then break for the holidays, then do more US shows and European festivals next year. I hope this band sticks together and enough people come out to support this tour and have it make sense and grow. It really was a fun, raw, loud rock show that was loud and punchy and loaded with a great variety of Ace/Kiss classics. All confirmed dates at www.acefrehley.com I’ll be at the second night at BB Kings in NYC. Win tickets to those shows in ET’s Box Office on this site.

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11/13: NEW PODCAST W/ SNAKE SABO, ACE TONIGHT, NEW STICKERS, HALFORD, BOOKS.

My podcast this week is all new and features an interview with co-founding member of Skid Row Snake Sabo. I go way back with Snake and the Skids since their days as a band on the Jersey club circuit. Good friends for many many years. These days in addition to playing with the band Snake also is an artists manager handling Down, Vintage Trouble and more. Hope you enjoy the conversation about the early days of the Skids and more. As always my podcasts are 100% free and available worldwide. Just search The Eddie Trunk Podcast on Itunes or at www.podcastone.com You can now also stream the latest podcasts by hitting the podcast banner on this sites home page.

Great to have Goody’s Headache Relief shot back as a sponsor. They have made more Eddie Trunk Rocks bumper stickers. I’ll have them at all my appearances as well as samples of their product going forward. I’ll also send them to any US address. Just send me a self addressed stamped envelope and I’ll drop a couple in the mail:

Sticker
PO Box 41
Cedar Knolls NJ 07927

Ace Frehley kicks off his tour tonight in NJ at the State Theater in New Brunswick. Looking forward to seeing Ace and his new band which features the return of Richie Scarlett, Scot Coogan and new member Chris Wise. All four guys sing lead so it should open up some great song possibilities. Also look forward to hearing some stuff from the new album. I’ll also see Ace again locally at BB Kings in NYC Thanksgiving week. Gave away a ton of tickets for tonight and you can still win for the NYC dates. Just visit “ET’s Box Office” on this site to enter.

Rob Halford checks in from the road on my FM radio show this weekend debuting tomorrow night at 11P on Q104.3 NYC and WAAF Boston.

Order now if you’d like to give signed personalized copies of either of my books for gifts. Please hit the “Book” tab under media for order info and be sure to specify VOL 1 or 2 or both with your order! Non signed copies available anywhere you buy books.

TMS returns 2/21/15

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11/11: KISS “LOVE GUN” DELUXE EDITION REVIEW

Just got a copy of the recently released special edition of Kiss Love Gun. So many of the many reissues that I get are pretty pointless. Many times the remastering is not even done well and the artist is not even involved. Not the case with this one. This truly is a great reissue and worth the purchase. Everyone knows by now I am still a huge fan of CDs and they are very much by far still my favorite format. When CDs are produced like this it’s another reason why I love them so much. This deluxe edition of Love Gun has great packaging, photos, liner notes by Joe Elliott of Def Leppard, a great booklet and even a magnetic love gun (the original album had a cardboard one which broke after a few snaps!). The remastered original album sounds crisp and punchy without the over compression and volume that plagues some of these remasters these days. The bonus disc has some cool gems including a demo for a Simmons song call “I Know Who You Are” which hardcore fans will recognize as the song it became on his solo album the next year “Living In Sin”. There is also a real interesting recording of a young Paul Stanley explaining how a song goes that he just wrote called “Love Gun” which is a learning demo. I also found the 1977 Montreal radio interview with Simmons interesting when he talks about the band not taking any major turns in their music or being so pompous to make a concept record. Fascinating when you consider the next album had a disco song and The Elder would come shortly after! Love Gun was the bands sixth studio album and for the most part the final ever studio record from the original band (Anton Fig would play on Dynasty and Unmasked despite Peter being pictured). It holds a special place for many because it was when Kiss was on top of the world, firing on all cylinders, featured the vocal debut of Ace Frehley, and featured a tour and stage show unlike anything anyone had seen. It was Kiss at their peak. I saw Kiss for the first time in December of 1977 and it was a game changer for me and so many. This special edition really took me back to ’77 again, being that kid in my bedroom with Kiss posters all over the wall and dropping the needle on the start of “I Stole Your Love”. It encompasses all that was so great about being a kid and being lost in the music and mystique of Kiss while staring at the album jacket. Tommy Thayer worked on this reissue and regardless of how you feel about his current role in Kiss he was a fan first and foremost and he certainly has always done a great job when it comes to capturing the history the right way. I hope the rest of the bands catalog eventually gets this treatment on CD.

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11/11: THANK YOU VETERANS, WALL STREET ROCKS CHARITY EVENT LAST NIGHT

Happy Veterans day and sincere thanks to all our veterans and all branches of our military for your service. True heroes! I hosted a fund raiser last night in NYC put together by an organization called Wall Street Rocks. My second year doing it and it was very well done and successful. They have raised over $350,000 so far for our nations heroes, and that doesn’t count last night. The event was at The Highline Ballroom in NYC (one of my favorite NYC venues) and featured many musical guests who turned in great performances. This was not a metal event but was a rock event and it was sold out with fans loving the music and the positive cause. I’ll post some photos on Facebook today. Great seeing Warren Haynes who played brilliantly. Something you may not know, I know Warren because he actually released a solo album in the early 90’s on Megaforce! Happy for all his success. Great guy and player. Also spent some time with Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. Obviously a legend and the first time I spent some real time with him. He said ZZ were considered very heavy when they first started and would love to come on TMS. Hopefully we can make that happen. Cool meeting John Popper, Will Lee and catching up with my old friend Anton Fig who was the drummer for the night. Honored to have been a part of this and thanks to Wall Street Rocks for having me. Most of all thank you to our veterans on this day! For more info on Wall Street Rocks visit www.wallstreetrocks.org

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11/10: WHITESNAKE, JAKE E. LEE, Y&T NYE, SNAKE PODCAST, ACE, MORE

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Not so great for me as a Giants fan but I knew in Seattle was a tall order.

Tonight’s SiriusXM show is pre recorded as I am hosting a benefit show tonight in NYC at Highline Ballroom for the military.

Great new Whitesnake DVD has been released of the band live in 1984. This show has been widely bootlegged but cool to have it in it’s best quality. What makes this so cool is it features a great lineup of the band with Neil Murray, the late Cozy Powell and John Sykes. Live footage with Sykes is so rare from Whitesnake since John was gone after the ’87 album was recorded. Still cool to see “Crying In the Rain” on here since it was originally on an earlier Whitesnake album. The audio mix isn’t always great with the guitar a bit low in the mix in the beginning but it is still cool to see this incredible lineup rocking 30 years ago. It’s available now as a two disc set. So many ask me what John is doing now. He completed a new album but I am not sure what his plans to release it are yet. Will keep you posted when I do. He is one of my favorite players and would be great to have new music from him. But check out this gem from the past in the meantime.

I’ll be at the Ace Frehley show this Thursday in NJ as he kicks off his Space Invader tour at The State Theater. Congrats to the many ticket winners that won by entering on this site through “ET’s Box Office” tab.

I’ll be hosting Jake E Lee’s Red Dragon Cartel 12/5 at Mexicali in Teaneck NJ. Be sure to enter to win for that one on the site also.

Just announced I’ll be spending NYE this year in San Jose at Rock Bar hosting Y&T. Should be a blast!

All new Eddie Trunk Podcast this Thursday with Snake Sabo of Skid Row. Thanks to all for the kind words on the Adrian Vandenberg podcast. All are avaialble free and worldwide at Itunes and www.podcastone.com You can also hear them on this site. Just hit the banner on the home page!

Thanks to Goody’s headache relief shot for coming back on as a sponsor. Really quality product! If you’d like the “Eddie Trunk Rocks/Goody’s” sticker just send a self addressed stamped envelope to:

Sticker
PO Box 41
Cedar Knolls NJ 07927

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11/7: WEEKEND REPORT, AC/DC, PODCAST, Y&T NYE, COCHRAN BENEFIT, RADIO, MORE

So it appears charges have now been dropped against Phil Rudd as stories broke last night. As I stated in my last post that’s why I always let things play out some and find out what the full story is. However it doesn’t appear to be the end of things as there are allegations of drugs and still some legal stuff pending. I have no idea if AC/DC will stick by him through the rest of this. They may wait until they see how it plays out or decide he is too much of a potential liability with all of these allegations swirling around him and the prospects of a massive world tour early next year. I’m sure no doubt more layers to this story to come. Even the mainstream press has picked up on it. I saw CNN this morning discussing it. It’s always interesting to me when the non rock world gets a hold of a rock story. One commentator actually argued that AC/DC is a “hair band”. Utterly clueless! If they saw the guys they would realize Angus is actually closer to hair-less! Ha!

Thanks to all the great response to this weeks podcast with Adrian Vandenberg. This interview first aired on my radio show a month or so ago. Most weeks are all new exclusive interviews for the podcast, but not every week. I do two radio shows a week and sometimes you just can’t interview people 3 times for the same thing. The radio show is also not as available and not everyone that hears the podcasts listens to that. So there is always going to be some re purposing of material but it is rare. Next Thursday is Snake Sabo and that is new and exclusive to the podcast. I do my best juggling it all.

All new radio show debuts tonight 11P ET on Q104.3 NYC and WAAF Boston 11P-2A ET loaded with new and classic hard rock and metal. Q104 streams with iHeartradio app or www.q1043.com , AAF at www.waaf.com Full list of all stations under Live & On The Air.

Pat Travers has been added to the lineup for the Thanksgiving Eve benefit for Karl Cochran at Dingbatz in Clifton NJ. Going to be a fun night. Come out and support Karl!

Just announced I will be hosting Y&T on New Years Eve at Rock Bar in San Jose CA! This should be a blast, see you soon N CA!

Saw Starz last night in NJ. Great songs, great 70’s band that should have made it. They only do a few live shows but it’s always fun seeing them. Johnny Dee from Doro and Bruno from Danger Danger among those hanging out. Nikki Sixx told me he was a big Starz fan too. They go in that group with bands like Angel, The Godz, Piper and many others from the 70’s that just missed on the mainstream success.

Have a good weekend, more soon. New TMS Feb 2015…

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