At the end of Spring as it starts to get warmer also begins festival season seemingly no matter where you live. This is how we got the Summer party started with varying degrees of success.
Wildflower Festival – May 17th – Galatyn Parkway – Richardson, TX
As previously mentioned the Summer would soon be upon us so to prepare for that the City of Richardson (an affluent suburb of Dallas) throws their annual Wildflower Festival – Even if you have never been to this one – you have certainly been to a carbon copy somwhere in your town especially if you live near a big metropolitan area. You know the drill – it usually presented in one of those Taste of (enter the name of your city here) and its just one giant commercial with locals peddling their wares and giant corporate sponsors with their hands in your pockets in the whole time.
The entertainment booking process is as formulaic and predictable as many of the acts they book: It’s presented as a mixed bag but in reality its whoever they can get within their budget – it goes a little something like this:
Get several one-time big acts that the producers think are still relevant because they are still touring.
Several big name local acts –
Several tribute band/covers act
Here are the ones we saw:
Blue Oyster Cult
The first two bands we saw, satisfy the recognition factor – Bands you have heard of and can probably sing at least one of their songs, but haven’t been relevant for 30 years or more. When you’re the rebellious band all the kids listen to so they can annoy their parents, forty years on after those kids grow up you’re going to be playing family-friendly sets to them and their kids. And so it was with Blue Oyster Cult, still remarkably retaining two (almost) original members from their 1960s formation, playing to a crowd in the sunshine while beach balls bounced around and the crowd drank Merlot from their lawn chairs.
Brave attempts to wheel out deep cuts were made (who remembers “Golden Age of Leather”?) but you and I both know the crowd was only there for one thing. The band could have been sulky about it but in fact Eric Bloom, pushing 70 and a man who must have played Don’t Fear The Reaper a few thousand times at least, managed to grin and mime the cowbell that the song required more of before he tackled his guitar part with verve. The whole thing was quite enjoyable, in an afternoon in the park sort of way.
Grand Funk Railroad
The same can be said for Grand Funk Railroad, another band I was happy to be seeing but largely to simply just check them off of some imaginary list in my head. They were perfect for this atomosphere however.
Rev Horton Heat
I don’t care much for Rockabilly music and despise Rockabilly culture but who doesn’t love the Rev Horton Heat? Call it a Texas thing or even a Dallas thing but it just comes with the territory – the Rev just simply rules and thats accepted as it should be – even by me.
The Toadies
What can I say that the local press hasn’t already said about these guys over the past 20 years? I know these guys too intimately to do a decent review as I’ve been to literally hundreds of shows over the years and know them as friends of mine. However even a complete stranger could see the ass they were kicking from a mile away.
Their are a local tradition in Texas and especially around here and with the spins they still get on local radio they have become something like Classic Rock in DFW – everyone has heard at least one of their songs at least once. They draw big crowds around Texas but for an event like this where tickets are cheap and in a family environment the crowd swelled from the normal 2-3k they normally draw to 12-15k – The crowd was massive and sang every word.
I am grateful that they still personally invite me to their shows and go as often as I can, but one thing I do if its a show in DFW is I avoid the backstage hang completely. At shows like this it has an element to bring everyone out of the wood works and they find themselves talking to their 3rd grade teacher. I refuse to be just one more person they have to entertain so I usually just meet up with them after somewhere offsite. This was also Jess’s first time seeing them and I wanted us to do it as fans in the crowd, not as cool kids having to make a scene so I forewent our option of going backstage and found a spot the left of the stage.
I mention this because I’d like to use this space to give a giant FUCK YOU to the producers of Wildflower, their staff and the bullshit hacks they have volunteering for them that bullied us to the point of exhaustion.
Let me explain: Jess and I had All Access passes – that means we could go anywhere we wanted – However since we chose to just hang mostly in general population here is what we had to contend with:
This whole production is about MONEY – this is no different than a time-share, instead of promising you a vacation while you listen to their speil they instead ply you with Classic Rock –
So while everyone in general population are crammed in like sardines – the outer, shaded areas that have a better view, their own bathrooms, concessions and provide seating are roped off for corporate schleps or sold for outrageous amounts to schmucks as VIP seating.
These sections are left largely empty – Since I didn’t wanna go backstage and stay out of people’s way we opted for these sections. However since the volunteers working these posts hadn’t seen a pass like ours yet (because those with our passes wouldn’t be here, they would opt for backstage) we got raked over the coals like we were second class citizens.
More importantly their was a High-School like hiearchy going on – like the volunteers that were in charge of these areas were like the mean cheerleaders because this is where executives and people who had money sit and they weren’t gonna have their country club fucked up by the likes of us on their watch.
The most insufferable thing happened when I kept trying to explain to this one older lady who looks like she leads Catillions that we could go anywhere and to leave us alone, she wouldn’t even let me go to the bathroom, wouldn’t let Jess sit down and when we went to the bar they woudln’t serve us, when finally we couldn’t take it anymore and found a spot to the left of the stage.
Then these dickheads behind us were just harassing the shit out of us trying to start some most pit among the lawn chairs. While this was going on some completely drunk white trash lady in her late 40’s and covered in tye dye somehow fit her rotund body under my left arm and was fist pumping just under my chin, until I tossed her like a frisbee into the asshole wannabe moshers behind me.
Things escalated until it got ugly and I had to elbow smash this jerk in the ear to get him to fuck off – I spent the next two songs waiting for retaliation behind me and then I said “Fuck this” and finally we went backstage. I know I’m doing alot of complaining and these are First World problems but I’m just trying to reiterate what happened. Fuck You Wildflower Festival – We will NOT be back.
Masters of Madness Tour w/ Alice Cooper & Marilyn Manson – June 10th – Verizon Theater – Grand Prairie, TX
It was Jess’s birthday – so what did I do to celebrate? I took her to see fucking Alice Cooper!! – I am the best boyfriend in the fucking universe haha
Though I have seen Manson dozens of times over the years I’ve always wanted to see Alice Cooper. I got a brief set two years ago at the Revolver Golden God Awards in Los Angeles but I’ve never seen his actual show. Jess had never seen either so we both were very excited
Sadly the show was at easily my least favorite venue in the DFW area – the Verizon Theater. A place that forces you to pay $20 to park and as much as I have to go to shows that shit adds up quickly. Also their Will Call team are largely unhelpful and I think I must have fucked someone’s girlfriend that works there in my younger days because I always get the cold shoulder. This time was no different and their was the usual “mix up” with my tickets when I’m here until I finally said fuck it and bought two tickets right on the front row of the first elevated section. We could see perfectly –
Manson’s show was a spectacle from the start, and his wide array of props stuck to his theme of being obscene and offensive. This was miles above the disastrous show I saw him perform about 18 months prior with the Pretty Reckless. That show was designed to be stripped down and just rock so I’m not comparing it on a spectacle level – I’m comparing it to the barely standing drunk mess he was at that show and how I could barely recognize what songs they were playing it was so horrible. This show was firing on all cylanders. I’m sure he grew up worshipping Cooper and who wants to embarass themselves in front of their idols.
His set didn’t really take off until The Dope Show, when he came on stage wearing a fur coat and holding a birthday cake. He then threw a bag of blue “meth” (even HE is obsessed with Breaking Bad) and the cake into the crowd, which was the cue to start the song.
The gloomy cover of the Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams which has become a staple of his, was performed on stilts – and crutches long enough to touch the ground. He caressed his band mates with them and paraded them on stage that was just plain creepy and extremely entertaining.
He closed predictably with The Beautiful People, his popular 1996 hit, after a short encore break.
I overheard some fans saying they were leaving after Manson’s set, saying they only wanted to see him. But Cooper is the guy who invented all of this, and his horror film-come-to-life is rock ‘n’ roll theater by its best practitioner.
Though Cooper doesn’t have a new album to promote and Manson’s Born Villain has been out for a year, this tour seemed to be more about proving their legacies as two of rock’s most theatrical performers, not letting the fact that both are past their primes distract them.
Though dubbed as co-headlining it was clear who the master here was and having Manson go on anything but first would have been a crime and I like to believe he wouldn’t have it any other way either and that’s cool.
Even cooler is that it didn’t appear that anyone left. In fact the crowd seemed somewhat larger by the time Alice Cooper hit stage –
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Jess and I genuinely recoiled and were scared out of our wits! I don’t know if this picture does it justice – but it was so weird and (for us) unexpected that we were clinging to each other like school children. An amazing effect.
Cooper, head and all, came back for I Love the Dead and finished his set with the perfect anthem School’s Out –
It was Jess’s birthday and she’s a teacher and this was the last day of school before Summer let out.
Remember how exciting that was and you kinda wish Alice Cooper was there to play you out as you left or at the very least someone could blast the song as your trashing your locker? – Well this kinda really happened!! – We got to hear Alice Coopper sing it on the last day of school! than an encore of his early ’70s anthem, I’m Eighteen, joined by Manson,
But even that dream collaboration couldn’t compete with the conclusion of Cooper’s show. That paralleled the early part of his show. During the extended guitar solo, .Cooper kept the show going with Ballad of Dwight Fry, a tribute to the Dracula and Frankenstein actor. He was put in a straitjacket and escaped, only to be stabbed by his robotic nurse and decapitated by a guillotine. Just fucking awesome and one of the best shows I’ve ever seen and totally worth the wait. I will NEVER miss one his shows again.
The Supersuckers – June 20th – The Live Oak – Fort Worth, TX
There was a time around 1994-1996 (during the same time and I was getting heavily into the Rev as stated above) that my friend Patrick and I were seeing the Supersuckers every couple of months or so. They were in DFW so much I thought they were a local band – they had the look and sound of a band from Texas not from Seattle (especially in the early 1990s) – Then I didn’t see them again for like 12 years and in the last 18 months it seems like old times as this is I think the 5th times I’ve seen these guys during that time.
Bearded Eddie Spaghetti entertained with his faux cocky way. He’s one of the best front men in rock and roll, and he barely does anything but be himself which is totally cool. He’s the ultimate pitch man for the band. Their set summed up their career, and helped to remind listeners just how much good rock and roll music they have made over their 25 year run.
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Before getting on stage, Eddie Spaghetti was the merch guy for the night. I didn’t even realize it was him until he went on stage. The stage was plain and fairly bare, with just the band and their rock and roll instruments. No fancy effects other than some fog from the smoke machine, and some dark sunglasses for Eddie and Dan “Thunder” Bolton over on the guitars. Pretty simple, pretty basic, let the rock and roll do the talking. Very no-bullshit, something I’ve always appreciated about these guys.
It was great to see the Supersuckers again and catch up with them and a bunch of old friends who made it out to the show.
Setlist:
Beat to Shit On the Couch
Mudhead
Rock-n-Roll Records (Ain’t Sellin’ This Year)
How to Maximize Your Kill Count
Pretty Fucked Up
Creepy Jackalope Eye
Hot Rod Rally
Paid
Bad Bad Bad
The Evil Powers of Rock ‘n’ Roll
Pushing Through (new song)
Rock Your Ass
Non-Addictive Marijuana
Encore –
Cowboy Song (Thin Lizzy cover)
Pretty Fucked Up
Born With a Tail
Photos –
Roy Turner
Mike Insuaste
