Punky Meadows & Frank DiMino of ANGEL @Count’s Vamp’d 6-15-18

Punky Meadows & Frank DiMino of ANGEL @Count’s Vamp’d 6-15-18

PUNKY MEADOWS and FRANK DIMINO LIVE AT COUNT VAMP’D

by: Jay Rice

Friday night June 15th will go down as one of the greatest Rock & Roll moments of my life, seeing Punky Meadows and Frank DiMino together again, playing an all Angel set at the legendary Count’s Vamp’d in Las Vegas, Nevada. After a successful series of East Coast shows that reached New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, the guys moved their talents to the West for another round of high energy Rock & Roll.

Hitting the stage with “On The Rocks” from 1977’s classic album “On Earth As it Is In Heaven”, Punky and Frank, along with fellow band mates Danny Farrow (rhythm guitar), Steve E. Ojane (bass), Charlie Calv  (keyboards) and Billy Orrico (drums), raised the crowd level to 10 with Frank’s soaring vocals and Punky’s melting licks that were only matched by the gleaming smiles on both of their faces as they enjoyed the immediate love and approval of their adoring fans. Fans whose dreams were answered after so many years of wanting and praying to hear Live Angel music again. Wasting no time they followed up with another “On Earth” gem, “Can You Feel It” and “Wild and Hot”, from their last studio album, 1979’s “Sinful”.

Offering a full Angel set that covered all 5 studio albums along with selected solo numbers, the band offered up such classics as “Don’t Leave Me Lonely” from 1978’s masterpiece “White Hot”, “Bad Time”, “The Fortune”, as well as playing for the first time ever Live on this tour “Cast The First Stone”, and a terrific cover of Mott The Hoople’s Bowie written classic “All The Young Dudes”, showing why classic rock is not dead and Live music is alive and well.

In addition to the classics, the guys delivered terrific performances of “Straight Shooter”, from Punky’s 2016 Billboard charting album, “Fallen Angel”, and “Rockin’ In The City” and “Never Again” from Frank’s brilliant solo release, 2015’s “Old Habits Die Hard”, solidifying why Frank DiMino is one of the greatest singers in music today. Punky was on fire and shredding away with such passion and energy, it makes one wonder why Angel was never appreciated more. They were, and still are one of the most underrated bands of all time! Closing out this stellar 17 song set list with “Feeling Right” from 1976’s “Helluva’ Band” you can see why the fans are filling up the venues to see the best show of the year! This band rocks as well as anyone out there today and are only getting better and better with each performance. The band are not hired guns for play, they are all fans who love Angel and they are having the times of their lives bringing these classics to life again for the roaring, enthusiastic packed crowds.

But the night wasn’t over yet, returning to the stage for the encore for the classic anthem “The Tower” from their 1975 self titled debut “Angel.” They enlisted the help of another fellow Angel alumni, none other than the man himself, the legendary Gregg Giuffria, marking the first time in close to 37 years that all three members played together Live, raising the roof off of Count Vamp’d with the loud thunderous applause of the jaw dropped crowd! I loved the HUGE smile of keyboardist Charlie Calv, as he enjoyed one of his hero’s taking command of his keyboards.  It suddenly felt like the 70’s again and magic was in the air as Gregg’s haunting notes of this timeless classic filled the room and everyone was standing to this historic moment in rocking approval and making this fan’s dream come true.

I would like to thank Punky, Frank, Danny, Steve, Billy, and Charlie for their gracious hospitality at the Meet & Greet and a BIG shout out to Danny for making it possible to meet Gregg. I am eternally grateful for everything brother, thank you so much! Last, but not least, thank you to Leah Burlington for your kindness and for taking my photo with Gregg, YOU ROCK! I was happy just meeting him but you gave me a keepsake I will always treasure, many thanks to you for taking the photo.

What makes a person from Maryland get up at 1:30 am to be on the road at 2am, drive 3 hours to the airport, to be 3 hours before a scheduled 8:30am for a 5 hour flight? The love of this band, that’s why. They’re great! I encourage everyone to go out and see the guys on this tour as well as help support live music. Having seen the band Live twice now, once in New Jersey, and now again here in Vegas it was sad to see it all come to an end, but there’s still a silver lining… See ya next month in Nashville.

Round 3 coming up!

Jay Rice / Angel Fan for Life!

Setlist:

On The Rocks

Can You Feel It

Wild and Hot

Rockin’ In The City

Straight Shooter

The Fortune

Cast the First Stone

Bad Time

Don’t Leave Me Lonely

Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore

All the Young Dudes

Never Again

Got Love If You Want It

Anyway You Want It

Feelin’ Right

Rock and Rollers

Encore:

The Tower

Also in the July issue of “Sin City” Presents Magazine!! 

The Bones Las Vegas @Count’s Vamp’d 5-10-18

The Bones Las Vegas @Count’s Vamp’d 5-10-18

    The Bones: Patrick Vitagliano

     by: Leah Burlington

I am talking with Patrick Vitagliano from an amazing Las Vegas based band called “The Bones” that does twisted covers of old cheesy 80’s tunes and original music. They are a very different kind of band and when you see them live, you will understand why. They have four great albums out, “What Would Ginger Do?”, “Dirty Pretty Things”, “”Ruin Your Rock Show, Live” their live album with all their tongue in cheek covers of 80’s songs and their new album “Caramel” which just recently came out.

  1. Speaking of Caramel, I heard that the cover art for the new album is a painting done by the porn actress, Ginger Lynn. What is the story behind that?
    Patrick: Yeah, Ginger did paint the cover photo for the Caramel record. She’s a pretty talented artist, and that’s actually what she spends most of her time doing these days. I had initially reached out to her in 2013 when I was roughing out the plan for the “What Would Ginger Do?” record, and asked her for permission to use one of her more iconic photos for the album cover. She asked for the MP3 and lyrics to the title track, which impressed me. In the conversations that followed, it became obvious that she cared a lot about properly vetting a project before getting involved, and making sure she wasn’t being represented in a negative way, etc…We hit it off, and have kept in touch since then. She reached out shortly after that, and asked if she could use the title track “What Would Ginger Do?” as the theme song to a show she had on Sirius Radio, which was really great for us in terms of getting the music out to a much wider audience.
    Anyway, cut to 2017, we had just recorded the Caramel record, and I was coming up blank on a cover-art concept. The song Caramel is a dark and tragic story about a girl trapped in her life as stripper. Her name was Caramel. As it was coming time to make a decision, I had nothing. I opened Twitter (which I almost never do), and saw this painting that Ginger had just posted, and it spoke to me. Her tweet was “I just painted her, and she doesn’t have a name, can you help me name her?”. I called Ginger, and and told her that the painting reminded me of a character in our brand new song, Caramel, and asked if she’d be interested in doing another album cover. She once again asked for the MP3 and lyrics. She called me back and said that the song really struck a chord with her, having lived a similar life. She said that she was no stranger to stripping her way across the country in Gold Lame’, and that these lyrics really hit home. She said that in the opening scene of Eddie Murphy’s “The Golden Child”, he’s standing in front of a newsstand, and in the newsstand, you can see her on the cover of Hustler, wearing a Gold Lame’ bikini, and that we had to get together and chat.
    Coincidentally, she had just moved to Vegas, so we got together for breakfast and worked out the details for the album cover.
    She even named the painting “Caramel”.

Ginger is a very cool chick, and you can see her paintings on her website, www.gingerlynnart.com. She also does a top notch crawfish boil!

More of this interview with Patrick in the June issue of “Sin City” Presents

Sons of Apollo 4-27-2018 Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas

Sons of Apollo 4-27-2018 Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas

Sons of Apollo

by: Leah Burlington

I feel like I made the right choice with going to the Sons Of Apollo show last night at the Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas!!! (I am bummed I missed Kings X!!) Holy crap my friends!! What do you get when you put five of the MOST talented musicians in prog and rock/metal in one band?? You get perfection personified!!! Every member of this band is famous and amazing in their own right. No one overshadowed anyone on that stage. What we had were five guys ripping shit up for the fun of it and having the best time! They played all the songs of their new album and a few covers for shits and giggles. They did short solo’s and didn’t overdo it. All I saw was smiles and jamming like madmen!! It was SO fast paced it was hard to get killer shots, but I think I did ok.

It was an excellent two hour high energy show!!! Don’t miss these guys if they come to your town..

More review in the May issue of “Sin City” Presents Magazine

Check out their website here: Sons of Apollo

Sons of Apollo: Alive

Judas Priest & Saxon 4-21-18 Las Vegas

Judas Priest & Saxon 4-21-18 Las Vegas

Judas Priest & Saxon: Las Rageous Fest: Las Vegas

Review by: Steven Troy

Edited by: Leah Burlington

I’m gonna geek out on you and ‘fess up… Judas Priest changed my life. I was just a stoner kid, wandering around the beach in San Diego with a guitar around my neck, listening to stuff like Pink Floyd and Rush, when I found a tape on the ground that said “Judas Priest, Unleashed in the East”. May as well have been in Martian, I had no clue. Took it home… and had to buy another one a couple weeks later. A few months after, they came around, and that was it. My whole world had changed. A couple other bands I got turned on to after that were Iron Maiden and SAXON. I first saw them with Accept, their first ever show in the US, and it was awesome… but Saxon stole the show, as I think they did here… awfully close, for sure. Some controversy, a lot of people were miffed because the mighty Priest played on the smaller, F stage, when other bands that many people did not agree with, played the bigger, main, U stage… for sure, Hollywood Undead had no business being there at ALL. But, that’s how it went down. Saxon rolled on just before Priest, and it was UN! REAL! The kick drums were SO insane, I thought the bricks in the street were gonna start flyin’ around, and the whole sound was THAT huge, just MONSTER! Biff Byford has perhaps the most commanding stage presence of ANYBODY! He just rules the world when he’s onstage, like Moses giving the Ten Commandments. And he has lost NOTHING over the years!  He sounded PERFECT! This was my personal fave set of the weekend… but…

Up next was the Allmighty JUDAS PRIEST. I will never forget the first time I saw this band… 9th grade… do the math… ain’t skeered… and, yeah, it was a life changing experience. Tipton and Downing, with their choreographed twin guitar attack, Halford howlin’! They just blew my mind… but gave me a clear path! I saw that and said   “THAT’S IT! THAT’S how you do it!” And they still do. With KK Downing stepping down in 2011, Richie Faulkner has taken over guitar duties for his parts. Some HUGE shoes to fill, but he played and rocked like Downing. On this tour we found out that the mighty Glenn Tipton has Parkinsons Disease so he is touring with them but only plays the last three songs if he is up to it. In his place is Andy Sneap, doing Tipton’s guitar licks like a pro and he also produced the new kick ass album “Firepower” along with their legendary Priest producer Tom Allom. Now, we all know how dry it is in this desert, and its allergy season… when is it NOT? Halford took a couple songs to adjust… but then it was ON! This man single handedly established the way Rock and Metal singers are expected to sound, influencing EVERYBODY since he busted out in the 70’s. Once he got in a groove… yeah… hold on! SUPER difficult vocal songs, like Freewheel Burnin’ and Painkiller, he straight NAILED. They don’t call this dude the Metal God for nothin’. I, personally, don’t even TRY to sing when April and May come around, I have a hard enough time breathing… But Rob Halford is ROB FUCKING HALFORD! Metal God, indeed. I told some friends early in the evening that the coolest thing that could happen that night was Glenn Tipton jammin’ a few songs… and he did! He rolled onstage for the last 3 songs, and it just made that whole night pure MAGIC! SUPER awesome show, and if you missed it… you missed it!

Saxon and Priest still reign as two of the best metal bands in the world!! All we were missing was Maiden to round out the Unholy Trinity of Metal!! One day…

Check out Judas Priest new killer album Firepower: Judas Priest

Check out Saxon’s new album Thunderbolt: Saxon

Nightwish 4-10-18 Brooklyn Bowl, Las Vegas

Nightwish 4-10-18 Brooklyn Bowl, Las Vegas

Nightwish was an EPIC show showcasing over two decades of amazing female fronted symphonic/melodic/power metal from Finland!! This is one of my all time favorite bands!! This was also the 7th time I have seen them live and the show was nothing short of awe inspiring and the visuals were fantastic!!

And like I have said before, their third singer, Floor Jansen was a charm when they found her, because she has one of the greatest female voices in Metal! She is a full on metal chick, dressed in leather and spinning her head like a helicopter. This woman has it all!!! The band was tight as always, full of energy and it is always wonderful to see these guys play their hearts out!!! Great to see Tuomas Holopainen and Marco Hietala smile at me again. Those two are two of the most talented men I know!! Marco has one of the most powerful voices in metal and Tuomas is a wizard on the keys. Emppu Vuorinen is always kicking ass on his guitar with a big smile on his adorable face. I Love Troy Donockley playing his Uilleann pipes. He gives them that Celtic feeling… This band is just sublime! You have to see them live to really appreciate them.

New drummer Kai Hahto is a kick ass addition to the band! He is a very heavy hitter!

Much love to NIGHTWISH!!! Thank you for a killer two hour set!! And thank you for stopping in Vegas!!! It was a blast and they had a huge crowd to greet them here!!

 

Review and photos by:

Photography of Leah Burlington

Check them out on tour: Nightwish Website

Nightwish: “Endless Forms Most Beautiful”

Randy Rhoads Remembered 2018 @ Count’s Vamp’d 3-24-18

Randy Rhoads Remembered 2018 @ Count’s Vamp’d 3-24-18

Randy Rhoads Remembered 3-24-18 @Count’s Vamp’d

By: Leah Burlington

The Randy Rhoads Remembered show which is now going to be an annual event at Count’s Vamp’d, is always a show I have to be at. It is a wonderful heartfelt tribute to the memory of the mighty Randy Rhoads, one of the greatest guitar players that has ever lived. His brother Kelle Rhoads puts on this show to keep the memory of his fallen brother alive in the hearts and minds of his fans. Not only do you get to hear and see a TON of great rock royalty and talent, you also get to hear the first two OZZY albums in their entirety. “Blizzard of Oz” and “Diary of a Madman” are played in full. The host of this show is Joe Sutton and he does a Q&A with Kelle so we can hear stories about Randy from the mouth of someone that was there from the beginning. Big brother Kelle always tears up talking about his little brother Randy. The stories are very emotional…

Full Review in the April issue of Sin City Presents Magazine

Special thank you to Noelle Kim for everything and bringing this great show to Vamp’d!! And to Korie Koker for bringing the event back to Vegas!!