Waterstock 2004

My final entry, part 10, in my review series. I finally got caught up! The next post will be about the weekend Halloween costume party. Fun stuff!

"Joey, I told you I'd post a review on Metal Sludge. You asked how it was and I told you it kicked ass. Thought you and the rest of the band might want to see what I posted. The first part is the post I put on before the show and then my lengthy review. At the end is a link to a few pics I took and you are welcome to use them for anything you like. Once again, welcome back and thanks for still going at it! Warrant kicked my ass!

Just wanted to let you all know that I'm heading out to see 5 great bands today. LA Guns will start the show at 1:30pm kicking off the day. Firehouse, Great White, Warrant, and Jackyl will make the day complete! J-Dub and I will be getting some pictures and I will post a review of the show on here.

Just for the record, I have seen LA Guns on the Poison tour, so this line-up will be completely different except for Riley. I saw Firehouse's original lineup on the Rock Never Stops tour in Des Moines a few years ago, so I will see the new bass player for the first time. I've seen Warrant by themselves in Des Moines with Billy and Fasano. I've seen them at Rock Never Stops with Rick Stier and Vikki Foxx. I saw them again last year with Whitesnake. This will be the first time I have seen Steven and Joey and I'm anxious to hear Jaime singing for them. I saw Great White on the Poison tour so this will be a revamped lineup, too. I saw Jackyl with all original members at the 98.9 The Rock Rockfest in KC, so this will be my first time seeing them as a four piece.

It should be a great show and you should hear all about it from me if you don't get a chance to attend!

Here is the review. As anyone who has seen my posts knows, I can be very detailed so...

First the set lists...

LA Guns

No Mercy
Sex Action
Never Enough
I Wanna Be Your Man
Marseilles (Angel City)
Nothing Better To Do
Long Time Dead
Crystal Eyes
Riley's Drum Solo (pieces of Led Zep)
One More Reason
Electric Gypsy

Encore:
Ballad Of Jayne
Rip And Tear

Firehouse

Rock On The Radio
All She Wrote
Crash
Holding On
When I Look Into Your Eyes
Shake & Tumble
?Drivin' Down? (Not Lover's Lane or Bringing Me Down)
Overnight Sensation
Highway To Hell (AC/DC cover)
Love Of A Lifetime
Reach For The Sky

Encore:
Don't Treat Me Bad

Warrant

Sure Feels Good To Me
Down Boys
32 Pennies
Bed Of Roses
Love In Stereo
Sometimes She Cries
Mr. Rainmaker
All My Bridges Are Burning
Quicksand
Blind Faith
Ridin' High
Thin Disguise
Song And Dance Man
Hold On To 18 (Black N Blue tune)
Heaven
Uncle Tom's Cabin

Encore:
Good Times (unreleased new song)
Cherry Pie

Great White

Lady Red Light
Shot In The Dark
Face The Day
On Your Knees (introductions)
Save Your Love
Paradise (Jack Russel solo tune)
Can't Shake It
Rollin' Stoned
Rock Me
Once Bitten Twice Shy

Jackyl

Just Like A Devil
I Stand Alone
Mr. Evil
Kill The Sunshine
Push Comes To Shove
When Will It Rain (It started sprinkling during this one!)
Down On Me
Dirty Little Mind
She Loves My Cock

Encore:
The Lumberjack

I couldn't tell you how many people were there, but it was huge. There were actually idiots who thought they could put lawn chairs up front, but they soon disappeared. The day was nice and cool and we got a few sprinkles in the evening. It even started sprinkling a second time during Jackyl's When Will It Rain.

The reception to all of these bands was excellent. I heard various comments from people who were there to see Warrant and didn't know Jani wasn't in the band to people who weren't that anxious to see Great White, but loved their show. There was a nice turnout for everyone. The crowd just got louder as the day went on. There were the typical beach balls and women baring their breasts. There was the porn star LA LaMann (I've been wondering why a woman would go by the name LaMann in the porn industry...). There were the giveaways (Harley and boat) and a tattooing and piercing tent.

The only real bad thing was the amount of fat and old chicks. There were even fat chicks baring their breasts. Disgusting! There were a few hotties baring their tops for beads and that was cool. I think I got a few pictures of that...

As for the bands, LA Guns had a real swagger to them. Phil was a tad tanked, it seemed, but in great form. Very funny and jovial about the monitor problems. Nothing Better To Do was sung by guitarist Stacey Blades. This guy was a great replacement for Traci! I told him that I will title his picture, when I get it posted, as Traci's permanent replacement. Les Paul through a Marshall stack...ya just can't beat it! Adam was really into the show and was giving his rock star snarl to a few people in front. Steve did a great job and used some Zep in his solo. That dude sure is looking old, but plays with more energy than some of the newer drummers I've seen. I think Phil was kind of surprised by the reaction to his band. The crowd really did support them and it was 1:30pm! Great set.

Firehouse got the crowd going, too, but I did notice more people milling about during their set. I had to grab a bite to eat, but made sure I wasn't too far away to see and hear what they were doing. They passed the vocals around, too. Their bass player sang Highway To Hell. I think a lot of people were surprised to hear Firehouse cover AC/DC, but they went nuts. Firehouse is a VERY tight band and made it clear that they have made a career out of music. These guys seem the most professional of all the bands. They have a great sound and great songs. I have everything these guys have put out, but you will notice in the set list that I can't figure out one tune. Gotta go back and listen...

Warrant freakin' rocked! Jaime is an excellent singer and replacement for Jani! I can't say enough good things about this lineup. Jaime's stage banter was corny as hell, but he didn't hide it and was really quite funny doing it. Doing his song Hold On To 18 was well deserved and the crowd went nuts hearing it. Joey freakin' kicked everyone's ass with his guitar playing. He hasn't lost a thing but his looks. There were some faces he made while playing that reminded me of my dad and grandfather. Of course, he isn't ashamed of being who he is and his attitudinal playing really took the forefront. Eric and Jerry were solid as always and the interaction between them and the 3 "new" guys was like family. Steven was great vocally and with the time keeping. I told him and Joey two things...WELCOME BACK and IT'S ABOUT TIME! Joey and Steven seemed to relish being back on stage as Warrant and the crowd picked up on it. They did tunes from the first 3 CD's as well as losing their virginity to us with a new tune called Good Times. I can't wait to hear the rest of the new tunes! "When there's good times we rock. When there's bad times we roll." Waterstock was good times!

Great White sounded great. I do have one thing I was disappointed about. Too many jams. These guys have so many great songs from their career, but they had to extend a few like On Your Knees and Can't Shake It instead of adding more songs. It was kinda weird seeing Jack and Mark up there with 3 young guys who looked like they didn't belong on the same stage with the older guys. They sure played like they belonged, though, and brought a lot of energy to the stage. They were rocking out to tunes that were probably written before they knew what rock n roll was. It almost made me shed a tear seeing the hope that their generation could provide to my generation's music. In spite of the long jams, Great White did rock and had the crowd into them. As I said earlier, the crowed just got louder with each band. It was cool to hear a song off of Jack's solo CD. I probably would have picked a different song, but this one did fit the band. Jack was having fun and still had the moves to go with THE voice. Solid show.

Jackyl really deserved to headline this party. They came out tearing up the place! Jesse had to stand in front of the mic while he played guitar and seemed like the eye of a freakin' hurricane! Jeff was flinging sweat with every snap of his neck and Roman was just trying to keep up with him! Those guys were everywhere! Chris was playing in his bikini underwear and knocking things over (well, just one cymbal). Jesse had just made the comment that they beat back the rain (which started during Great White) and then kicked into When Will It Rain. Yes, it actually started raining again part way through this tune. Jesse brought out the chainsaw in typical fashion to finish off the show and a wooden stool. I know people started clearing out a bit due to the rain, but the many that stuck around for Jackyl were not disappointed at all. These guys put everyone else to shame with the shear energy of their show.

I hope to have the pics up in the next couple of days. I got autographs from everyone except for Great White. I should have stuck around to get those, but I had a friend take the item I had for them to sign out to his car by mistake. I even had Jaime St. James sign an old Black N Blue cassette cover for In Heat. He was shocked to see it. I think I was most impressed with LA Guns, Warrant, and Jackyl. All for different things, but they all kicked major ass. Firehouse and Great White were awesome, too, don't get me wrong, but the others just ruled. These bands need to play here more often. The show was such a success that they are planning another one next year. The promoters have been doing shows in Omaha and this was a test run to try the same thing here. J-Dub and I went to the Omaha show last year, which was Poison, Vince Neil, and Skid Row. Omaha definitely has the better women. Des Moines just didn't show off their best at Waterstock. Two things wrong with this crowd were the lack of beautiful women flashing and the idiots trying to put lawn chairs up front. The crowd was into the shows, but they just had no idea what an outdoor concert is really like. Hopefully, this show educated Iowa on what to expect in the future. This state is so far behind everyone but Arkansas (sorry Cracker), so hopefully these shows will help them catch up.

Hope I didn't miss anything! I mentioned Sludge to everyone I talked to, but didn't get to wear my shirt due to my daughter wearing it and it's still in the dirty laundry. Pictures will be sent soon!"