Borrowed the Screaming for Vengeance 30th anniversary CD from the library, and there was a surprise in there – a second disc, a DVD with JP’s set from the 1983 US Festival in California.

For those of you not older than dirt, the US Festival was put on by Steve Wozinak as a ‘feel good’ massive music festival for two years in a row. It lost tons of money both years, the second year had a ‘metal day’ – added because may have been the only moneymaker, IMHO (and from reading articles about it back then) – and JP was one of the main acts, so watching this DVD was definitely a trip down memory lane (I was a sophmore in high school at the time).

So they start their set and the two guitarists come out – JP’s constantly changing drummer and bassist had to have been the source of the Spinal Tap joke about the exploding drummer – Glenn Tipton is shown chugging a Heineken just before he comes out, and KK Downing is wearing what look like female biker go-go boots – of course.

Then, as the strains of ‘The Hellion’ finish and they launch into Electric Eye, Rob Halford is heard, but not seen, quite yet. Then he marches onstage to massive cheers, and he’s wearing his ‘Goth King of the Village People’ outfit – mirrored aviators, leather and spikes ‘everything’, bullwhip, massive skull belt buckle and boots of his own. Next to these two, Glenn Tipton looks pretty tame, with only red stretch pants, open shirt and classic 80s “feathered rocker hair”.

And away they rock. Pretty good set, if what seems to be largely a set of hits only, but still pretty good, they play tight, and try to rile up the crowd, although it’s obvious that crowd is WAY too big to communicate with very much, and the stage is set back considerably from the crowd with massive security and camerapeople anyway.

Then of course near the end of the set, Rob Halford bursts through the center Marshall stack and ‘rides’ their Harley slowly onstage, revving the crap out of it. I never saw JP back in the day, only just a few years ago at White River locally, and I don’t remember them bothering with the Harley – at our show Rob Halford was too busy with costume changes anyway. So then RH lays out on the front chopper wheel, and away they go with Hell Bent for Leather

It’s probably the perspective of time (or just getting old) but despite obvious musical talent, this is still pretty cheesy. Although the actual music video (embedded below) for ‘Breaking the Law’ is the epitome of cheese, especially when Beavis and Butthead were making fun of it (couldn’t find that sadly). But in fairness to the band, something i just read seemed to indicate they made the video somewhat tongue in cheek anyway

…to the Metal Gods!

candybowl

Another music tragedy – will they just please STOP?! RIP, Mr. Cornell…

also a much older clip from happier times here….

candybowl

finally got back to Flight to Mars last night after an absence of 3 years – true, ROCK. This was the 15th year show – ‘wow’ doesn’t begin to describe it, definitely one of the best rock shows I’ve seen in a long time – looking at the most recent years (that i’ve missed) it looks like they’ve been on a Thin Lizzy kick of late too – there were several played last night – great stuff!

someone video’d the opening F2M song:

Looks like Mr McCready broke out a little Eruption in the Sat show:

Previous years’ clips can be seen from this search too.

candybowl

even though in my usual way, I found out about it 4 years AFTER(!) it happened…but still cool…

On the scene: ‘School of Rock’ cast reunites for 10th anniversary screening

candybowl

Another bad musical start to the year…..RIP.

candybowl

I didn’t even know he was sick. With Keith Emerson’s suicide earlier this year, that’s 2/3 of ELP now gone….very, very sad.

Greg Lake (1947 – 2016)

silly video but always loved this song in the brief 80s ‘ELP’

Other YT videos

Just read John Doe’s latest writing, Under the Big Black Sun, a history of sorts related to the LA punk scene of the late 70s/early 80s.

We saw him at The Tractor a few weeks ago – great show and they were promoting the book at the show, so got it from the library.

This is an interesting read for a number of reasons – it definitely brings back memories of that time, when those of us not living in LA (nor old enough to be punks in a band anyway) could only observe things from afar through local record stores and mags like The Rocket. It’s also definitely a window into a crazy mishmash of misfits and aspiring musicians, poets and outcasts seeking their own kind of community, with vignettes written by many others in the scene besides Doe (Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Gos, Henry Rollins of Black Flag, Mike Watt from The Minutemen (whom we saw at the Tractor last year, too) – the list goes on. Finally, to me it was a bit eye-opening to all the drug and alcohol abuse that seemed to accompany the scene, at least according to the book. It’s obvious that sort of thing goes with the territory – but does it have to? Being on the outside I guess makes that a bit hard to relate to.

In any event, X has always been a fave band since that time, and they were one of, if not the first, band I saw play live. This book only serves to continue their legacy for both LA punks then and since – and is a love letter to all longtime fans. Thanks, John Doe.

but then again, it’s a 3rd season episode, not entirely surprising…

Space Hippies invade The Enterprise

And then SPOCK joins in!

candybowl

can’t believe I missed this! this show was here last month on the 20th – dammit!

for those of you still not sure what a Theremin is (or haven’t seen 1951’s The Day the Earth Stood Still – one of my three fave 50’s movies, along with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The War of the Worlds) – here’s some more info.

candybowl

Missed Mike McCready’s annual Flight to Mars benefit rock show again this year with his UFO tribute band, doh! We were in OR doing Reach the Beach (see post tomorrow night). But thanks to the magic of YouTube (clips below), not a complete loss…also some clips on their Facebook page.

gotta love Mike McCready’s Flying V….Rudolf Schenker, eat your heart out!

Other clips from this year:

and from past years, some faves:

my alltime fave UFO song, Love to Love:

enjoy…

candybowl