Which One’s Pink performs a spectacular tribute to Pink Floyd.  They have had a solid and well deserved reputation as the premiere Pink Floyd Tribute band for quite some time.  

I actually saw Which One’s Pink? play a show with upcoming World’s Greatest Tribute Band act Led Zepagain at the Oceanview Pavilion in a little beach town far north of LA about 5 years ago.

That evening, they played “The Dark Side of The Moon” in its entirety and it was incredible.  And having seen Roger Waters perform the same album at the Hollywood Bowl less than a year earlier was a good way to gauge how great they really were.  And they are.   Witnessing  a very small portion of the sound check turned out to be a great show in itself.    With an abundance of Pink Floyd material to draw from (14 studio albums and 27 singles), there wasn’t exactly a shortage of great songs to choose from.   

The huge crowd was incredibly enthusiastic (and quite loud) at the show.   Everyone there was really excited to hear Pink Floyd music done right.  

What last week’s show had in theatrics, this one had incredible lighting and lasers, along with really good sound, which made the entire venue an exciting display of sound and lights to back the music of the band.   

Katie Daryl came out for the TV introduction for the band to the deafening roar of the audience.  

The band hit on all cylinders from the opening cha-ching of the cash register of “Money” to the sax and guitar solos and killer vocals.  They continued the momentum throughout their 8 songs in their main set, which was a great mix of selections from The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon.   

 

The lasers kicked in during the second song of the set (“Happiest Days of Our Lives”) which segued into “Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)”, where Dan Johnson came out and got the audience participating with the chorus to the song.  He also provided the voices at the end of the song.

 

Along with the remarkable keyboards, guitar, bass and drum parts, there was some lap steel guitar on “Breathe” from Dark Side of the Moon.   It all sounded so slick.  And the lasers were just incredible.

After “Breathe”, they went straight into “Time” with some great percussion and keyboard parts.  And great sound and lighting.  The lasers were such a bonus. 

   

From there, they went back to The Wall and stayed their for the remainder of the main set with “Hey You” and then “Empty Spaces”.

  

Katie came out onstage at the end of “Young Lust” (that song totally rocked and was one of the real highlights of the show) and took the show to commercial break.

 

The encore consisted of “Wish You Were Here” (complete with 6 and 12 string acoustic guitars), an incredible version of“Comfortably Numb” and “Run Like Hell”, which was a great way to end the live telecast.   

What a great selection of songs and incredible performance this was.

 

   

The fans in attendance were then treated to the oldest song in the set, as they played out with “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun” from 1968’s A Saucerful of Secrets.

 

Which One’s Pink and Pink Floyd fans of all ages were completely blown away by the show.

 

This was another incredible performance to add to the 5 other great acts that have already performed this season. 

Which One’s Pink did a phenomenal job and definitely earned their place amongst “The World’s Greatest Tribute Bands”

W1P on Twitter

SET LIST:

Money (The Dark Side of the Moon)                                   

Happiest Days of Our Lives  (from The Wall)             

Another Brick in the Wall, Part II (from The Wall)        

Breathe  (The Dark Side of The Moon)                             

Time   (The Dark Side of The Moon)                                   

Hey You (The Wall)                               

Empty Spaces (The Wall)                               

Young Lust  (The Wall) 

————————————-

Encore:

Wish You Were Here (Wish You Were Here)                      

Comfortably Numb  (The Wall)                     

Run Like Hell (The Wall)

Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun   (A Saucerful of Secrets)

 

WHICH ONE’S PINK?:

Paul Samarin lead guitar/vocals

Scott Richards – Bass

Allen Moreno – Guitar

Marty Brumer – Drums

Nick Feduska and Larry Isenberg – Keyboards

Dan Johnson – vocals/ voices

Michael Forbes – saxophone

NEXT WEEK?  A tribute to Bon Jovi – Blaze of Glory

Free Show Tickets for the Live Telecast

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This week rocked.    I think I saw more shows this week than most “normal” people do in a year or more.  

Seeing Phil X and the Drills play at the Viper Room last night was definitely the highlight of this great week of shows.

2013 has been Phil’s year in just about every way.   He married his sweetheart, he is going to be a dad soon AND has been on a world tour with Bon Jovi this year (his second “tour of duty” with the band).   And there isn’t a dude that is cooler or more deserving than Phil.

And… Phil is the most viewed guitarist on the Internet.   His Fretted Americana videos are legendary.

According to the not exactly up to date Phil X and The Drills website (screen shot taken a few hours before show time), it appears that prior to last night’s show, they hadn’t played a gig in 134 roughly days.  I know they rocked in Texas with Kenny Aronoff on the drums back in March, so that must have been their last show until now.

The last time I caught Phil and The Drills was when they opened for Steel Panther last January.   That show was KILLER! 

Just months later, he was suddenly back on the Bon Jovi World Tour replacing Richie Sambora, as he previously did a baker’s dozen of shows with the band back in 2011.   

This part of the 2013 Bon Jovi world tour just concluded and now here he is playing a small local show.   And if you think about it for a second, going from playing huge stadiums to enormous crowds around the world and coming right back and playing to an intimate Viper Room show is WAY COOL!   Just prior to the start of the show, here he is out front with Amy, Lynn and Mike, who proudly sports a Bon Jovi tattoo (enlarged to show detail!)

Barring Phil’s performance with Billy Sheehan and Russ Miller last year at Yamaha in Burbank last September, this is the smallest venue I’ve seen Phil perform at to date.   The last time I caught Phil and The Drills was when they opened for Steel Panther last January.   That show was awesome.

Here’s the set list of the show.  Nice placement of the rose next to “Stink”, Amy!  Well done!

Phil is the only guy that can “phone it in” and still totally kick ass in concert.

He uses an iPhone app for one of the songs, which is totally awesome.

Here’s a little sample of that (sorry about the audio quality – the stereo microphones in point and shoot cameras can’t do the job of recording concert footage very well!)

 

 

The band ROCKS “Fire” by Jimi Hendrix.  That’s entertainment right there!!

The audio blows here (this camera sucks for that), but this gives you an idea of how cool the show is…

Daniel Spriewald and Randy Cooke are the incredible rhythm section that holds it down while Phil does all his guitar wizardry. 

 

Needless to say, Phil’s guitar work is absolutely incredible.   Who else goes from quoting “Man-eater” from Hall and Oates straight into Motley Crue’s “Shout at The Devil”, then rip on a portion of “Hotel California” and shred The Flintstones theme and tons of other cool tunes.   Magnificent!!!  

 

  

Phil and The Drills have great names for their albums (“We Bring the Rock N Roll”, “Kick Your Ass In 17 Minutes” and “We Play Instruments and Shit“) and funny song titles and hilarious lyrics, too.   

Here’s a snippet of “I Wish My Beer Was As Cold As Your Heart”:

“I know you tried to kill us
When you drove my car off Coldwater Canyon in May
Damn, baby, where the hell you from?
I wanna know where the hell you’re from
We’d all be dead if you had a gun
You’re kind of evil is state of the art
I wish my beer was as cold as your heart”

“Air Hockey Champion of the World”.  This is my favorite song from The Drills.   I dork out every time I hear it.

“’cause I’m the air hockey champion of the world
I’m the air hockey champion of the world
I’m the air hockey champion air hockey champion
of the world…. of the world
except for the time i got beat by a girl”

(Here’s Erik from Made In America getting beat by a girl.  And he REALLY wanted to hear the band play “Beautiful Apartment”.)

 

 

Michael showing that “Middle Finger” was indeed in the set.

Amy and Phil after the show…

Phil and the band really need to COME TO LUCY’s 51 tomorrow night and EVERY MONDAY to jam with occasional DRILLS drummer Kenny Aronoff, James LoMenzo and Brent Woods.  That would f’in rule!!!

SET LIST:
AIR HOCKEY CHAMPION OF THE WORLD
MIDDLE FINGER
SUNNY DAYS
PLAYING FAIR
WALK ALL OVER YOU
KISS MY TROUBLEMAKER
STINK
SWATTED FLY
I WISH MY BEER WAS AS COLD AS YOUR HEART
FROM THE FUTURE
TALK YOU OFF THE LEDGE
FIRE

  

Acoustic 80s metal!!

I remember seeing White Lion open for Ozzy in the late 80s in Irvine.   I wasn’t a fan going into the show, but I left as one.   That was the “Big Game” tour.   They really were an excellent band back in the day.

 

Mike Tramp can still sing really well.  He had good arrangements for acoustic versions of the songs    His best tunes were “When the Children Cry” and “Little Fighter”.     Those two songs alone were worth the price of the ticket, parking and gas to get there.

   

He also hung out upstairs after his set and signed autographs and took pictures.   Way cool!

 

Stryper sounded awesome.  They told stories, jokes, talked for a while and played some good tunes.   

   

Michael Sweet and Oz Fox are both underrated. Both of them really shred and make a good guitar combo.        

And Oz really can carry a tune.  Their harmonies always sound fantastic live and this was a good showcase for them to play some good songs.   Early in the set, their best song was “Calling on You”.

 

      

Towards the end of the set, they had 15 year old Gabbie Rae come up and sing “Always There for You”.  She’s a great young singer and she nailed it.

     

Here’s an obstructed picture of Jeff Scott Soto singing “Fat Bottomed Girls” taken up on the balcony towards the end of the set (the same reason there’s not a pic of Gabbie Rae).  It sounded pretty awesome from up there.    

They closed out with “Ready For Love” by Bad Company and “Soldiers Under Command”.  It was kind of a bummer that they didn’t play “Free” or “To Hell With The Devil”. I figured those songs were mandatory at any type of Stryper show…

One of the advantages of sitting on the balcony is being able to zoom in and take a picture a good portion of the set list.   

And gives you a good view of this:

Something is wrong with this picture.   Look at that thumb:

Great show.   I’d go see this one again, for sure.

41 years ago today, Alice Cooper was at Number 1 on the UK singles chart with “School’s Out”.

Alice Cooper actually used to hang out with other rock stars at “On The Rox” – the little nightclub right above The Roxy.

“You used to be so hip when you hung out on the Strip……”—  lyrics from “Give It Up” off Alice Cooper’s “Constrictor” Album   

With all the “shock rock” aspects of his stage performance, Alice Cooper may be the ultimate act to pay tribute to and Alice in Cooperland  really did a fantastic job.   After he popped out of the casket onstage and proceeded to play 15 Alice Cooper classics throughout the set.  With tons of incredible theatrics and seemingly constant costume and set changes, this was the ultimate production and a truly faithful recreation of an Alice Cooper show.  The band rocked it.   The musicianship made this a very believable performance.
 

They played a dozen songs before going to commercial break with Katie Daryl at the conclusion of “I Love The Dead”.   Highlights included a David Brighton as David Bowie appearance during “Under My Wheels”, a reenactment of the hilarious Wayne’s World skit with Alice Cooper, Alice getting beheaded by a guillotine.  In fact, every song was a highlight and there was so much going on. 

They returned with “School’s Out” and “Elected” to close the broadcast.   They then rocked “Cold Ethyl” for the live audience.   What a shockingly great show this was.  Talk about exceeding expectations.   WOW!

SET LIST:

Billion Dollar Babies

 

I’m Eighteen

 

Feed My Frankenstein  

 

Under My Wheels (complete with an appearance by David Brighton)

 

 

Only Women Bleed

 

Welcome To My Nightmare

Go To Hell

      

Poison

 

No More Mr. Nice Guy

Be My Lover

 

Killer

 

I Love The Dead

 

COMMERCIAL BREAK:

  

ENCORE:

School’s Out

 

In addition to popping confetti-filled balloons with a sword, there were also smoke and fog machines during the encore. 

Elected ‘ – with appearances by Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon.  They threw money around.   It was hilarious.

  The close of the broadcast: 

Cold Ethyl

 

THE BAND (Left to Right):

ROB LONTOK – BASS

JEFF PAGE – DRUMS

LARRY CORNWALL as ALICE

MICHAEL JACOBSON – KEYBOARDS

JEFF SCHOFIELD- GUITAR

WHAT A PRODUCTION!!  There were so many people that came out to take the final bow.   That was cool.

 

The lyrics to “Go to Hell” probably stood out the most and are most meaningful: 

“For criminal acts and violence on the stage
For being a brat – Refusing to act your age
For all of the decent citizens you’ve enraged
You can go to Hell
For gambling and drinking alcohol constantly
For making us doubt our parents authority
For choosing to be a living obscenity
You can go to Hell” 

I’ve seen Alice Cooper in concert 3 times.  He always has top notch musicians and never fails to put on a fantastic show.

I actually enjoyed the sound and the lighting at this show at The Roxy better than the venues where I’ve seen Alice perform. 

The last time I saw him live was a few months ago, I ended up sitting up front in a GREAT seat and got to hang out backstage before, during and after the show.  I even got to meet Alice before the band hopped on the tour bus.  He was a cool dude and looks great for a 65 year old rocker.     

Here’s a picture I took of Alice and my buddy after the show:

              

“……You got a perfect happy smile, yeah you`re growing old in style………”

—  lyrics from “Give It Up” off Alice Cooper’s “Constrictor” Album   

This shows marks the halfway point of Season 2 of The World’s Greatest Tribute Bands.  There are 5 more shows remaining this season.    Free ticket information