Tryphoon's Lair
Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles
Filed undergig
Another year, another Foo Fighters concert
I think that since I moved to London back in 1999, there has barely been a year without attending a Foo Fighters gig, from tiny warm up gigs in minuscule clubs with Alia and friends to ginormous "Foo Fighters and Friends" with Jef in Hyde Park, during our last London summer.
So no exception this year: tickets went barely on sales that a friend had already acquired ours.
Good night out with friends and loud music.
Drive home (Forum to Santa Clarita) sucked though, stuck on the parking of the forum for an hour before even being able to move. Note for future attendance at the forum: do not park on official parking but on tiny ones across the street...
LA Rising Festival - B & W - Jul 11
LA Rising Festival
Once again, Geoff found a way to get me to come out of Suburbia and attend some gig... Well, this one was impossible to pass on! Rise Against, Muse AND Rage Against the Machine were to play on the same stage! Lauren Hill and a couple of other bands played there as well, but I can't really say any of us was really interested... The gig was insane. The day, very hot. The pit, absolutely mental (including a guy crowd surfing in a wheelchair). The sound, amazing. And the drive back home a drag! Especially knowing that I had to drop Geoff and his bro to the After Party where the little buggers boogied until the wee hours of the day with the likes of Lars Ulrich (Metallica), Dominic Howard (Muse), Matt Sorum (Guns'N Roses, Velvet Revolver) and Sebastian Bach (SkidRow). [Personal message: Dear Kyle, you know I now have no choice but to hate you!]
Geoff can always find gigs, even in Vegas!
For the last couple of years, Geoff has been my lifeline to rock concerts, from the usual Camp Freddy gigs to Metallica, Iron Maiden and other loud things.
But this time, while we were both attending a trade show in Las Vegas (NAB), we managed to end up at a Franky Perez (FXP) gig, at out usual position: by the stage! If you haven't heard of him before (which would not be surprising), he is amongst other thing the guitarist of Scars on Broadway, a resident guest of Camp Freddy and potentially the best voice in LA these days. We were in for a treat!
The best part of the gig was that the band was playing at home, almost for friends and family. So after having met with the father of the guitarist, we ended chatting at the end with most of the band, joking about their sound issues through the night.
All in all, a so not Vegas night out and a very good gig!
Camp Freddy Xmas Residency - Part 3
Last show of the Xmas residency at the Roxy...
Enough of taking blurry pictures, this time, I brought my real DSLR and managed to sneak almost at the front of the audience (basically, behind 2 pro photographers and their huge lenses and a couple of hardcore fans who filmed the entire gig).
Camp Freddy definitely finished the year with a bang. Highlights of the evening included Juliette Lewis performing an interesting version of Proud Mary. Cypress Hill sung their anthem "Rock Superstar" Camp Freddy style (meaning "way more rock") and were joined on stage (to their surprise) by Sebastian Bach (Skidrow) for a monumental "Paradise City" from Guns'n Roses (isn't he Axl's (sole) best fried those days?). Johnny Lang nailed a perfect "Black Magic Woman" and last but not least, Billy Idol, Steve Stevens (the nice gentlemen married to the thing with the huge tits on "Married to Rock") and the rest of their band closed the evening with "Ready Steady Go", "Dancing With Myself" and "Rebel Yell".
Way more pictures available after the bip...
http://picasaweb.google.com/cyril.rickelton.abdi/20101217#
Camp Freddy Xmas Residency - Part 2
Or if you prefer: Camp Freddy: The singers edition...
The usual Camp Freddy awesomeness with added singer value...
It all started with Slim Jim Phantom (Stray Cats, remember them?) followed by Franky Perez (Scars on Brodway), Juliette Lewis (Juliette Lewis and the Licks) and Mark McGrath (Sugar Ray) then things accelerated adding Corey Taylor (Slikpnot, Stone Sour), Johnny Lang and last but not least, living legend (and the new judge on American Idol), the one, the only, Steven Tyler...
Best part of the Steven Tyler shenanigans... After a perfect 'Sweet Emotion', the man sung the first bar or Armageddon's "Never miss a thing", stopped, shouted "Fuck that Shit..." and launched into a furious 'Whole Lotta Love"... Yes he put some weight on, but the voice, OMG, the voice!!!
Oh did I mention Johnny Lang, Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac) and Steve Jones (Sex Pistols) as background musicians?
Last part next Friday...
Camp Freddy Xmas Residency - Part 1
It must be the Holiday season! Friday saw the first set in the Camp Freddy Xmas Residency 2010 and once again, it all started with a major bang!
In the audience, the usual suspects are there. Geoff, Kyle and I plus a million people we tend to see at each and every CF concert, including the 5 foot caterer who needs to be as close to the stage as she can to be able to see a thing, the tall blond idiot and somewhere in the crowd, Jay W who I haven't seen in ages. We are as usual perfectly located on the front row (or almost there), on the right side of the stage, next to a bar to avoid any advanced case of dehydration.
On the stage, the usual suspects are there too: Front left to right: Navarro, Chaney, Leitch, Sorum, Morrisson and the expected plethora of guests.
Set list included tons of singers such Richard Patrick from Filter/Army of Anyone/Nine Inch Nails on Hey Man, Nice Shot, Glenn Hughes from Black Country Communion, Deep Purple (Mk. III & IV), Black Sabbath nailing Highway Star (sorry Thierry and Lionel for your bad Deep Purple experience last week. Glenn however NAILED it!). Fishbones singer Angelo Moore on Search And Destroy and a killer Sax solo and Sully Erna from Godsmack on Metallica's Enter Sandman and a heavy version of Pink Floyd's Another Brick In The Wall and Franky Perez, to this day, the best voice in Hollywood!
Guest musicians included the usual Steve Stevens (Billy Idol) and Billy Duffy (The Cult).
No comment on the cracking hangover that followed that gig on Saturday morning…
Next chapter: Next Friday!
Camp Freddy plays acoustic version of Sugar Ray's "Fly"
Following a Facebook tip and a Twitter tweet, Sarah and I (and Geoff) ended up last night at a charity event in the middle of Hollywood, enjoying a quick acoustic set of Camp Freddy, featuring the usual suspects (Matt Sorum, Dave Navarro, Billy Morrison, Donovan Leitch) and some almost usual guests (Duff McKagan, Marc McGrath, Franky Perez).
This is a quick video giving a taste of the evening.
More pics to come...
Camp Freddy at the Avalon
Another day, another Camp Freddy gig, this time at the Avalon Club (Thank you Fabrice) for a pre Oscars party…
Great gig, fantastic line up. Just felt awfully under dressed for the first time at a rock concert (pre oscar dress code fully in action). Luckily a bucket-full of beers and some loud rock n’ roll soon helped me forget about my attire..
