A Year of Concerts: 2014

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Yusuf Islam / Cat Stevens | “Peace Train … Late Again” Tour | Nokia Theatre L.A. Live | 12/14/14 [Concert Review & Photos]

Yusuf Islam / Cat Stevens | “Peace Train … Late Again” Tour | Nokia Theatre L.A. Live | 12/14/14 [Setlist & Video Clips]

Jamestown Revival, Nikki Lane & Pete Molinari | The Troubadour | 11/30/14 [Concert Review]

Jamestown Revival | The Troubadour | 11/30/14 [Photos and Video]

Nikki Lane | The Troubadour | 11/30/14 [Photos and Video]

Pete Molinari | The Troubadour | 11/30/14 [Photos and Video] Continue reading

Fear | Ink-N-Iron |6/7/14 [PHOTOS & VIDEO]

 CLICK HERE TO SEE OTHER ACTS I WAS ABLE TO CATCH AT INK-N-IRON

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California hardcore punk took shape in the late 70s and early 80s. Heavier and more abrasive than regular punk rock, bands like Black Flag, the Circle Jerks and Fear were the seminal bands that helped paved the way that particular sound and style. Fear’s music and live show is known to be aggressive and confrontational . Their performance on Saturday Night Live back in 1981 is the stuff of legend, as they invited a pack of skinhead slam-dancers on-stage resulting in costly studio damage and even on-mike profanity. That story alone was enough to make me curious enough to catch their set.

I got the stage after the band had already started, but I’m glad that I wasn’t up close to snap pictures. Mosh pits had formed and I’m assuming that either me, or my equipment, could have easily been broken. lol.

Fronting the band is Lee Ving; the only original member of band since its formation in the late 70s. His sharp tongue and vocal thrashing of the mic was still on par. For a man in his mid-60s, his band’s music elicited from the crowd a teenage abandon of angst and straight up punk. Just watching the swirling pits got my juices flowing.

I couldn’t find a setlist of their set online, so if you attended the event and know what their setlist was, please post it in the comments, and I’ll add it to the post.

Immediately below are some videos I found of The Briefs performing at the festival and also the Ink-N-Iron pre-party. If you know of any other videos that are online, please post the link below in the comments so that I can add it to the playlist.

 







 

CLICK HERE TO SEE OTHER ACTS I WAS ABLE TO CATCH AT INK-N-IRON

Ink-N-Iron Festival | The Queen Mary | 6/6/14 – 6/7/14

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For the past eleven years, The Queen Mary has been the host of the annual Ink-N-Iron Festival: a weekend inspired by a culture of tats and cars, embodied in their display of  pristine vintage cars, three levels of tattoo artists booths, live music, burlesque acts, art displays … you name it, they’ve got it.

I first got turned onto the festival last year to catch a band from Texas that I really like, Girl In A Coma. Even though I don’t sport any ink on my person, I really enjoyed the whole vibe of the festival. It was clean, the people were all courteous, it was a family affair, tickets were reasonably priced ($80 for a weekend pass) … and the music rocked.

When I saw the line-up this year, I jumped on getting a ticket. Although I couldn’t attend the festival on Sunday due to work obligations, I was able to catch a whole bunch of quality acts while hanging out with friends, old and new. Below is the list of the acts that I was able to see perform. To see the pictures that I was able to snap (and video embeds of the performances I could find online) of each of the bands that performed, CLICK THE NAME of the act to get redirected to the blog entry.

June 6, 2014

  1. Ray Campi
  2. Wanda Jackson
  3. Merle Haggard
  4. Hopeless Jack and the Handsome Devil

June 7, 2014

  1. Hopeless Jack and the Handsome Devil– yup, I saw ’em twice
  2. The Briefs
  3. Fear
  4. The Damned
  5. Nick Waterhouse

In the meantime, below are some of the pictures that I snapped from the festival. I would have included more pictures from the burlesque show, but I’m trying to keep this blog PG rated. 😉