12/7: JAKE E LEE, HOUSTON & AUSTIN THIS WEEKEND, MORE.
Hope everyone had a great weekend. My Giants actually won a game! Good because I want Coughlin to stay, not so good for our draft next year. Hosted Jake E Lee and Red Dragon Cartel in NJ Friday night. As someone who hosted this bands first ever show in LA (which was a well documented disaster) it’s great to see how far they have come. I am sad to see Ron Mancuso out of the band but Greg Chaison does a great job and obviously has some history with Jake going back to the Badlands days. Mancuso played a huge role in bringing Jake back and getting an album out (and connecting me with him for radio and TMS) so his role in the existence of this band can not be overlooked. But shit happens in every band and Jake seems very engaged with Greg back as a band member. If you didn’t hear my recent interview with Jake we get into a TON of stuff. Podcast is coming soon too. A lot of things are explained about RDC as well as Badlands, Ozzy and more. The thing I really want to point out of singer Darren Smith. This guy was CRUCIFIED on social media after his debut with the band with everyone screaming for him to be canned. Granted it was not a good moment by any stretch as he will be the first to tell you. But I was vocal about not letting him go. The guy could always sing, but was never a front man (he’s a drummer in his past band). So the performance stuff could be fixed and the nerves were understandable. And it has been fixed big time. Darren has really grown into his role fronting this band and does a great job covering so many singers live. I’m glad for him. Nice to see someone hang in there and turn it around. Funny how quiet it is when someone is doing a great job huh? That’s social media for you and the world we are in today. We’ll see where this all goes but there were some cool song additions to the set (Dreams In the Dark, Now You See Me No You Don’t) and Jake is playing way better with the rust knocked off. Positive signs for this band going forward, we’ll see what the next moves are after these final few live dates for 2014.
Thanks to everyone who came out to Dingbatz Saturday night in NJ for the Karl Cochran benefit. Was great to see Karl who is making progress after a very serious stroke. Joe Lynn Turner, Pat Travers, Carmine Appice, Steve Brown and many more rocked for over 3 hours and it was a blast for a great cause. JLT can still sing and Carmine even at this age is one of the most powerful drummers you will ever see. Steve and Travers ripped as well. Ears still very much ringing!
Austin & Houston TX I am coming to you this Friday and Saturday! Friday I’m at The Original Emo’s (new location) in Austin. Broken Teeth with Jason McMaster and more are playing. Saturday I’m at Concert Pub North in Houston. A UFO and Thin Lizzy tribute will play. Had a blast with these guys about a year ago! Come out for some drinks, music, Q&A, rock stories and more.
First of the year end special edition shows this coming weekend. The all Iron Maiden special!
Many more appearances about to be announced. Keep an eye on the home page for the dates and info as always.
Great show at Mexicali Friday night. Jake’s playing was right on and LOUD! The band sounded great and I thought Darren did a nice job on vocals. Jake seemed to be in good spirits, shaking hands and giving out picks. Looking forward to some new music from him soon.