Alberta tour review
Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 12:26 am
I finally found some time, so here’s a brief rundown of the Alberta shows I attended a few weeks ago.
Red Deer: The show was fantastic!! Managed to get up to 2nd row center on the floor when the lights went down, wound up with some HUGE balloon pieces, guitar picks, fake bills and 3 necklaces ( FINALLY, the necklaces!
). The band was tight and played extremely well. I ran into Randy and Kyler and chatted a bit briefly.
Edmonton: Went to the Eric Singer Meet & Greet at Mother’s Music in the afternoon. There was minimal advertisement in the papers so the line was short to start with. Eric was really cool with everyone, told lots of stories about KISS as he signed, well... mostly KISS stuff. Later that night at the venue I briefly met Toby Mamis, who was outside chatting with a few fans. Also met and talked a bit with Brent Fitz (drummer for the opening band, Econoline Crush, who also sat in for Eric Singer with Alice in the past). My seats were further back in row 25 so I took pictures and got a bigger view of the show, to maybe catch what I had missed the night before.
Lethbridge: Five hours of driving south to Lethbridge, then caught the Eric Singer Meet & Greet there. The advertisement was better (or maybe it was because it was a smaller town) - by the time I arrived a very large crowd had gathered. Managed to get through the table just before he had to leave. Later at the show, amazingly right when the lights dimmed, I found myself at the barricade, this time right in front of Chuck and Jason. This show had the worst security of the four; a VERY drunk fan had gotten on stage and had his arm around Alice for quite a while before he was jumped. Other audience members then tried to jump the stage too. Managed to catch more picks, bills, and Kyler was nice enough to give me a set list from backstage. Ran into Brent Fitz again on the way to my car and I went back to the hotel, cracked a few cold ones, slept.
Calgary: I was getting more and more familiar with the stage routine so at the show I settled into my spot (second row in front of Keri this time) and took about two hundred pictures. The ones I took in Edmonton were from twenty five rows out and being as I couldn’t take a camera into the Red Deer or Lethbridge shows I wanted some close-up shots at the last show. Would you believe I caught Alice’s cane too? Well three of us did and it looked like the new owner might be decided by a fist-fight... so I simply let go and a few minutes later, after a scuffle between the remaining two gents, the cane wound up going to a younger fan beside us in default. I REALLY wanted that cane, all three of us did, but I wasn’t about to resort to assaulting someone for it and risk getting arrested over a piece of wood. On a good note, the night ended with Calico spraying my STUK shirt with stage blood during her bow and, again, I was lucky to have made off with the usual stage props. Left the venue and arrived back in Edmonton by 4am.
And Jaded, I shaved the beard off before I went to bed.
The Calgary photos, for the time being, are on myspace. The Edmonton ones are in the pics section here and on myspace. Soon I’ll have the shots from the Eric Singer Meet and Greets and all my signed stuff up as well.
Overall, the shows were excellent and it was four days of uninterupted ROCK!
Red Deer: The show was fantastic!! Managed to get up to 2nd row center on the floor when the lights went down, wound up with some HUGE balloon pieces, guitar picks, fake bills and 3 necklaces ( FINALLY, the necklaces!
). The band was tight and played extremely well. I ran into Randy and Kyler and chatted a bit briefly.Edmonton: Went to the Eric Singer Meet & Greet at Mother’s Music in the afternoon. There was minimal advertisement in the papers so the line was short to start with. Eric was really cool with everyone, told lots of stories about KISS as he signed, well... mostly KISS stuff. Later that night at the venue I briefly met Toby Mamis, who was outside chatting with a few fans. Also met and talked a bit with Brent Fitz (drummer for the opening band, Econoline Crush, who also sat in for Eric Singer with Alice in the past). My seats were further back in row 25 so I took pictures and got a bigger view of the show, to maybe catch what I had missed the night before.
Lethbridge: Five hours of driving south to Lethbridge, then caught the Eric Singer Meet & Greet there. The advertisement was better (or maybe it was because it was a smaller town) - by the time I arrived a very large crowd had gathered. Managed to get through the table just before he had to leave. Later at the show, amazingly right when the lights dimmed, I found myself at the barricade, this time right in front of Chuck and Jason. This show had the worst security of the four; a VERY drunk fan had gotten on stage and had his arm around Alice for quite a while before he was jumped. Other audience members then tried to jump the stage too. Managed to catch more picks, bills, and Kyler was nice enough to give me a set list from backstage. Ran into Brent Fitz again on the way to my car and I went back to the hotel, cracked a few cold ones, slept.
Calgary: I was getting more and more familiar with the stage routine so at the show I settled into my spot (second row in front of Keri this time) and took about two hundred pictures. The ones I took in Edmonton were from twenty five rows out and being as I couldn’t take a camera into the Red Deer or Lethbridge shows I wanted some close-up shots at the last show. Would you believe I caught Alice’s cane too? Well three of us did and it looked like the new owner might be decided by a fist-fight... so I simply let go and a few minutes later, after a scuffle between the remaining two gents, the cane wound up going to a younger fan beside us in default. I REALLY wanted that cane, all three of us did, but I wasn’t about to resort to assaulting someone for it and risk getting arrested over a piece of wood. On a good note, the night ended with Calico spraying my STUK shirt with stage blood during her bow and, again, I was lucky to have made off with the usual stage props. Left the venue and arrived back in Edmonton by 4am.
And Jaded, I shaved the beard off before I went to bed.
The Calgary photos, for the time being, are on myspace. The Edmonton ones are in the pics section here and on myspace. Soon I’ll have the shots from the Eric Singer Meet and Greets and all my signed stuff up as well.
Overall, the shows were excellent and it was four days of uninterupted ROCK!
