Rocklahoma 2009 Day 1

For some reason I always forget just how oppressive the heat in Pryor, Oklahoma can be...and this year is no different. We’re talking temperatures of over one hundred degrees – before the heat index. Needless to say, Rocklahoma 2009 is a real hot box.

The first day of Rocklahoma – or Metal day – featured a lot bands outside my comfort zone. Leatherwolf, Metal Church, Anvil, Overkill, Saxon and Anthrax. I am not a rabid fan of any of these acts, so coverage wise, this is my “light day.”

Since I was still getting my bearings during Leatherwolf, I can’t say too much about their performance. The mix was off and the crowd was quite small. It’s always hard for the first band of any festival on day one regarding crowd size.

Metal Church just announced plans to call it quits, making Rocklahoma their final show. I gotta say, not being a Metal Church fan, the band did sound good. Ronnie Monroe has a good voice and I remember watching him solo on a side stage last year. The band opened with "Fake Healer..." and
the crowd was slowly growing by this point.

I was most curious about Anvil. Truth be told, Anvil are more known for the documentary about their lives versus their music. Also, their set was right at the heat of the day, so that couldn’t have helped the crowd situation any. Poor lead singer “Lips” was playing his guitar on the first song, lost his sound, and ran to get it fixed. Sure enough, he slipped on one of the stage steps but got right back up. I don’t think he was hurt at all. Later he said “That first step is a loo loo” or something to that effect. Anvil didn’t play “Metal on Metal” until their very last song – there was, however, a random drum solo thrown in for good measure.

After Anvil – and a general feeling of dizziness from the heat – I took a break during Overkill. This means I missed their entire set and can’t speak to their abilities. The band did have some interesting merchandise including a T shirt with a bat and wings logo that reads “Get your own logo” or something like that. This seems like a slam toward Avenged Sevenfold, but I’m not sure.

Saxon was the band I was waiting for all day – and I wasn’t the only one. It seemed like for the first time of the day, the seating area was starting to fill up, although general admission attendance seemed to remain lean. Saxon played just about everything you’d expect: “Wheels of Steel,” “Crusader,” “Denim and Leather.” They didn’t play “The Eagle Has Landed.” All in all it was a great set, with beautiful British accents and Biff Byford jumping around and commenting on the heat. He was preaching to the choir.

As expected, the crowd was heaviest for Anthrax – after all, they headlined Metal day. I’ve never been into Anthrax – just not my cup of tea I guess. The band did have a lot of energy and it was the first time I’d really heard new singer Dan Nelson belt. He is very heavy, which surprised me just a little. The band played “Indians,” “Antisocial” and all the rest. Someone threw a beach ball into the crowd and I noticed the men were very violent with it during Anthrax. Some guy two rows up from me kept body slamming himself into his wooden bench seat. Music has never made me want to hurl my body into something like a wall or a bench, but whatever. I hope the guy got his money’s worth.

Glam wise I checked out Bai Bang and Beautiful Creatures – both side stage acts and basically excellent. Honestly, I think Beautiful Creatures had the biggest crowd of the day next to Anthrax. People were packed into the tented area close and tight, which made moving around less than great. Joe Leste sounded great and looked happy and I think that was enough for the crowd. Bai Bang are obscure Glam – Google them because they rule. Real Swedish sleaze that would be better in the night versus so early in the afternoon. Bai Bang played very early and not a lot of people got a chance to watch them on first pass – hopefully I’ll get to see them again during the run of the festival.

My attendance guess for Metal day? I’d say somewhere between 4500 and 5500 people.

I've Arrived at Rocklahoma 2009...

...and I'll start posting updates shortly. Expect show reviews, exclusive photos and backstage banter over the next few days. It should be fun!

Twisted Sister is Ready to Rock with Bring Back Glam! Are You?

Ok, you have to admit this is very cool! Just push play.

Memories Don't Die

“Have you seen my childhood?”

So goes the first line of the Michael Jackson song “Childhood.”

A lot of journalists have recently attached the death of Michael Jackson to a person’s childhood. People interviewed all over the world say they are grieving for Jackson “...and their childhood memories.”

Your memories don’t die.

In the past, I’ve been guilty of saying things like “...another piece of my childhood gone.” Truth be told, that childhood was gone years ago, the only remnants being scrapbooks and other mementos – especially the music. Isn’t the childhood love of music what brings most of us together on a daily basis? If you think back to some of my earlier posts – buried over a thousand deep in this site – it’s just random ramblings of me remembering the first time I listened to Poison’s Open Up and Say...Ah! or watching Aerosmith live at the MTV Video Music Awards.

When I was young I had lots of records (think a giant, obnoxious stack) that I liked to play over and over on my mom’s big console stereo. In 1991, I was in fifth grade and yes, I owned a copy of Michael Jackson’s Dangerous on cassette. (By the way, Dangerous is still my favorite Jackson album). I remember sitting on the floor of my bedroom, running the tape back and forth, listening to “Black or White” constantly. In nearly the same action, I would pop on many other tapes and click through MTV like it was going out of style. 1991 was a big year in music – but especially so for Glam and therefore I had a lot of choices. Even though I’m no longer that young girl sitting on the floor listening to my cassettes, I’ve always carried that memory with me. I’m not exactly sure why I have such vivid memories of scanning the booklet for Dangerous and thinking it was exceptionally thick, except maybe it was fate I would one day write about the experience for mass consumption.

I suppose today’s giant outpouring for Jackson is as selfish as it is selfless. Sure, millions of fans entered the lottery to win tickets to the public memorial in California and the lucky ones flew from all over America and points beyond. But that’s only half the story. No one wants to face mortality and if there was anyone able to cheat death, it was supposed to be Michael Jackson. After all, who was more famous or rich? The rest of us can’t compete with that – we’re just average Janes and Joes. The “dying part of a childhood” isn’t so much saying goodbye to a memory as it is the stark fear of being pushed forward in the great mortality chain that is life – no one is immune.

So, today when you turn on the news – and the story of Jackson’s memorial will be on TV, radio and the Internet all day – don’t be fooled by the masses crying for Thriller and their past youth. Recall the past fondly, but don’t be scared to look ahead, ready for the next big band or album to change the world. The best is yet to come. Of that, I am certain.

Rocklahoma Roll Call

Well, it's basically time for a Rocklahoma roll call, so today is as good a time as any. I'm leaving for the festival Wednesday -- it's hard to believe it's been an entire year already.

Of the Bring Back Glam! faithful, I know myself and my husband Eric will be at Rocklahoma. We're picking up Christian at the airport. I also know Kari will be there...but who else? If you're going to the fest, comment me and we'll try to meet up for a chat during the show.

I'll say again I'm disappointed in the lineup - it's just not strong - but it's always great going to big events to catch up with friends from all over the world. Plus, I'll be seeing Kix again and Danger Danger for the very first time - so that's a giant benefit. A big negative is the heat: I'm really, really dreading the high Oklahoma temperatures.

Of course, I'll be using Twitter during my time at the fest and Tweeting updates several times during each of the four days. You may notice I don't Tweet excessively - I'm not the type of person that needs to send a bulletin each time I eat a sandwich or take a nap. When there's music news to report, I do so and you'll be seeing that during Rocklahoma.

Taste of Minnesota - Judas Priest and Whitesnake Live

Editor's note: Bring Back Glam! reader and personal friend Christian made a trek to the Taste of Minnesota a couple days ago. I asked him to share his photos and thoughts on Judas Priest and Whitesnake live. The review below is all his. Enjoy!

The main reason I bought tickets to Rocklahoma 09, is in response to strong rumors of Judas Priest/Whitesnake being there. This turned out not to be true, so I decided instead to catch them elsewhere. I flew from Hobart to Melbourne, Melbourne to LA, then LA -> Denver -> Minnesota on July 02 (losing my bags in the process), to be at the Taste of Minnesota on July 3rd. The people who run the Taste were awesome to me. I wrote to ask them when tickets would go on sale, and they helped to make sure I got good seats. In fact, I was seated front and center, although people from the whole gold section came and stood in front of the seats. I got there early enough to be at the barrier for the whole show. The Taste guys popped by to say ‘hi’, but only briefly. The Taste itself was also pretty cool -- I had some good food and entertainment during the day while I waited for the show.

One great thing about Metal shows is the people you meet. I had bought two tickets, but the friend I wanted to take couldn’t come, so I met a guy named Dave while waiting for the Priest merchandise to be set up, and because he seemed cool, and was alone, I gave him my other ticket. He came too late to make the barrier, but he was just behind me for the whole show. I met a ton of other cool people, although one of them, the other guy next to me, did end up grabbing the drum stick that Scott Travis threw directly to me after the show ended.

Whitesnake right now is Reb Beach, Doug Aldrich, and some guys I’ve never heard of. They were all good players, the show was tight, the extended guitar duel was actually not boring and David Coverdale was in fine voice. I’d heard recently he’s been accused of using tapes -- I saw no evidence of that. I did hear people setting up saying they needed to test ‘vocal effects,’ but I don’t think that was anything that would detract from giving him credit for sounding amazing. He went for plenty of screams, and he nailed them all.

The mix of guitar players in Whitesnake is interesting, Reb does a lot of legato tapping ( that is, long flowing melodic lines ) and Doug is a more traditional player. I have to say, Doug also more looks the part, overall I think he’s the better player, but they both sounded good. The set list included all the songs you’d expect: “Crying in the Rain,” “Is this Love,” “Give Me All Your Love Tonight,” “Slow an’ Easy,” “Here I Go Again,” “Still of the Night,” etc. I’d love to hear “’Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City,” live, but given that it’s a cover, and it predates his U.S. success, I was not surprised. They did two songs off the new CD, the second had Doug playing a Les Paul with a metallic front. David mentioned during the show that their record company went bankrupt, it’s a sad indictment of our times that a label can go broke signing Whitesnake. The show was a little brief, but they sure gave their all and did a great job. Whitesnake was one of the bands left on my list of bands to see before I die and they did not disappoint.

I managed to catch one of Reb’s picks, which was a real highlight for me. Having said that, my main goal was the Priest. This was my second Judas Priest show and I was very excited to hear all of British Steel, probably THE CD that got me in to metal in the early 80s. The show started with a curtain up that had scenes of Birmingham on it. Their intro song was “War Pigs,” which went over a lot better than “My Generation” for Whitesnake. They cut it short and went in to “Rapid Fire.” From the start, Rob (Halford) sounded great and was obviously having a great time, as were the rest of the band. I can’t work out if Ian (Hill) had his costume on backwards, if he lost a bet, or what, but his outfit didn’t look great. The others all looked and sounded great: I sure hope I have that much energy when I am pushing 60! There was plenty of on-stage banter from Rob as we moved through this classic album.

The highlights for me were what I expected them to be: “Grinder” and “The Rage” (two of my favorite Priest songs). I was reminded of just what a strong album this is, even the one song I never used to like much (“Steeler”) sounded incredible. At the end, Rob said “That was British Steel,” and you could see how proud he was to say it. They next played “The Ripper,” which is not my favorite Priest track, it was also during this track that I noticed the one time there’s a falsetto vocal on the CD that Rob skipped over. He nailed everything he sang, however.Of the remaining songs, the highlights for me were definitely “Victim of Changes” (I prefer “Beyond the Realms of Death,” but this is still an epic song), “Freewheel Burning” (which Rob sang on the back of a Harley, complete with the red laser lights that appeared in the video, they used them a lot in the back end of the show), and “Diamonds and Rust.” They have done this song acoustic for a little while now,starting when Ripper Owens was in the band and I’ve always thought that a little pointless. Joan Baez did it that way, why not do it the way it was recorded? So, I threw my fist in the air and yelled when they started it out and it was obviously being played the classic ‘Priest’ way. I will say, Rob sat hunched on the bike for all of “Freewheel Burning,” I got the impression that maybe having to sing that fast didn’t leave him with anything to be moving around at the same time. Along the way, they did “Prophecy” off Nostradamus. I wondered how this would go, although I knew the new songs went over well in the show I saw in San Francisco last year. A lot of people have not really ‘got’ this amazing double album and in a set of classic tunes, I was worried it would sit flat. Instead, it got at least as big a cheer and as many people singing along as any other song of the night, proof that Priest are still making relevant music.The ending song was, obviously, “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin.’” A lot of people would like them to drop this, and while I’d swap it for at least 30 other tunes, I still think it’s OK. Rob whips the crowd up with a sing along and they get a chant going at the end; it’s a good closer for them. The show didn’t feel as short as I expected when I saw the set list online as I was still sweaty, hoarse, and ready to call it a night.Both bands put on a great show, and I’d recommend this set to anyone who likes either band.

The merchandise was also cool, lots of Ts with the razor blade design, also one of Screaming for Vengeance (which doesn’t fit, but it looks cool), and also left over ‘Four Horsemen’ Ts from the last tour. They also had razor blade necklaces, as well as Priest caps, wrist bands, etc. Whitesnake had shirts, a program, a mug, a key ring, and a tracksuit top (not a hoodie, funny enough). I spent $220 on merchandise.

Happy Independence Day, Top 10 Metal Songs of Summer

It's a big holiday in America - Independence Day. This means barbeques, music and fireworks. If you're in the U.S., you're likely heading out to a party or two today and I bet music will play a big role in those festivities. Earlier this week, I counted down the Top 10 Metal Songs for Summer over on Noisecreep. Seems fitting to review that list here today.

Here's a hint: Poison and Y&T made the list...but so did Type O Negative. Check out the copy below and jump to AOL to read the rest.

Songs and summer go hand in hand: outdoor concerts, the iPod playing during a run through the park or a stereo jamming during a family cookout. To celebrate Independence Day, Noisecreep recognizes some of the best songs of summer. Maybe this list will help you discover a new favorite summer tune – or bring back fond memories of seasons past. More...