Hope everyone had a great weekend. I took my family to a NJ Balloon Fest where REO Speedwagon was playing. I used to go see REO many times as a kid. If you think they are only about the big ballad hits not the case. Clearly not a metal band by any stretch, but a really good rock band with some tasty guitar playing and classic rock songs for sure. It was good to see them and these days Dave Amato, who played with Nugent, is on lead guitar. He’s been in over 20 years and is a great player. I like to expose my 5 and 9 year old to as much rock music as possible. Not forcing them into anything, just creating some balance between rock and Disney channel haha! They liked the songs and it was good to see REO again. Huge thanks to all the guys in the band (who are TMS fans) for the amazing hospitality. They asked me to intro them and took photos with my kids. Could not have been cooler to us.
Many comments to my blog on the concert biz today. Cool to see all the opinions. I’ll post more general biz blogs from time to time. Love seeing the thoughts from everyone.
So cool to see all the amazing response to The Winery Dogs. Glad this little idea of mine is working so well. See you this Saturday for the sold out US debut at BB Kings. Please note they go on around 8:15, early show!
Also in NYC area this Thursday 8/1 Great White at Bergen PAC in Englewood NJ and Night Ranger at BBs.
More book signings to come for VOL 2. Keep an eye on this space!
The new Aerosmith DVD Rock For The Rising Sun is awesome! So well shot, real audio, cool extras, amazing set list. Incredible how great this band STILL is after all these years and still the same 5 guys.
I’ll be LIVE tonight 6-10P ET on SiriusXM channel 39 TRUNK Nation. Guests include Joey Kramer of Aerosmith and Mark Kendall of Great White. Connect live on 866-315-2663.
Follow on Twitter: @EddieTrunk
26 Responses
Eric, are you kidding me? The Dogs album is very refreshing with alot of the stale, overproduced dreck that passes for music nowadays.
Yeah, it might be better than most of the pop\R&B rock that gets most of the play these days. But it still sounds boring\stale to my ears. There is better music out there if you search for it. Some good melodic, and memorable music with some good energy (latest from… the Darkness, Nazareth, Rush, Coheed & Cambria, Volbeat, Anthrax, D.A.D., Ginger & the Wildhearts, and even that Black Star Riders album are all wayyyyyy better than Winery Dogs.).
I’ll say some postivies… Richie Kotzen’s guitar playing is tasteful. He doesn’t go full shred (leaves Billy Sheehan to do most of that). There are some OK melodies here and there, and “I’m No Angel” would be one song that I might put on a mixtape. But other than that, think album is forgettable and it will probably be only album they ever make.
You seem to have some agenda against this band. If you don’t like it that’s cool, but seems deeper than that. But to each his own. I respect all opinions but you are way in the minority here.
Love the great comments on REO. The 70’s albums of You Get What You Play For, You Can Tune A Piano But You Can’t Tuna Fish and Nine Lives contained some really good rock songs. Probably some of my favorite albums of that decade. Saw them live a couple of years ago when they toured with Styx and Night Ranger. Very good show.
Love Gary Richrath – definitely agree with an earlier poster that he is a very underrated guitarist. I’d buy a ticket to one of their shows if Kevin Cronin could get over himself and allow Gary back in the band. Cronin is another victim of LSD (lead singer’s disease) and completely ruined the band. The irony is that as a singer, he’s really pretty weak, whereas Gary was a very accomplished guitarist. Just another example of a lead singer’s ego taking over and causing everything to go to hell.
There’s an idea for you Eddie: write a column on how many bands have been wrecked by their singer. That would make for some interesting comments.