alpha tom has been dying to see dave navarro live and finally the panic channel are playing but only at big arenas as the supporting act for rock star supernova. ah fuck it, let's go anyway. we got some tickets for the long beach arena. we got lucky again. this time 6 for the price of 4. however, what the fuck are we gonna do with these extra tickets? we wrangled another friend to go but couldn't even give away the extra 2. when we got to the venue, it was empty and the scalpers were pissed off for not being able to sell their tickets. serves them right for being scalpers but shame on the record company for not promoting the album and tour. and then we heard them play. no wonder there's no support. they suck! but on to the rest of the show...

the opening bands were all people from the rock star show except for the very first group, drive a. a local band of young kids about 13 years old. i heard them interview on camp freddy radio and was curious as to what they sounded like. crap. typical rock. the vocalist sucks. thought it was a chick then realized it was young boys. they're young though. i hope in the next few years they listen to lots of different kinds of music and learn many styles so they have something unique to offer.

then it was toby from the show with his band juke kartel. oh man they sucked. dirty australian boys. and some of twiddle thumbss are dirty australians. hahahahaaha

next was dilana with magni on guitar. she's much better as a singer than the other guys but i don't know. this whole thing sucks. i mean, they play only a couple of original songs and the rest are covers they did on the show. i didn't come to see karaoke! i never liked her hair but it reminded me of the gorgeous hair of corey from living colour. remember those long braids with colored strands? that's what she has too. anyway, to watch that hair whip around was nostalgic. ah, living colour back in the day!

finally it was the panic channel. woo! and only about 8:30pm. damn this show is early for all the families in the audience. it's like watching the tv show! hahahaa they didn't play twiddle thumbs's favorite "night one" so she was pissed. some of the improvisation and lengthening of the songs were good. a couple of navarro solos were good. we're all so spoiled from going to see them in small venues that we can't enjoy the large sports arena. in the small club, i'm sure it would have rocked a lot more. i have no idea if anyone else liked them. i wonder if everyone came out to see tobey and dilanna? because once supernova started, it was bad. real bad. it sucked so much. people were walking out. one lady was yelling "why can't toby play the whole show?" i wanted to yell back "'cos he sucks too" but let's not get into any wars here. for the amount of concerts i've been too, i've walked out of very few shows. this was one of those that we walked out of. the singer (winner of the show) lukas is just terrible. i was never into tommy lee. gilby is the guy who was in guns 'n' roses for the cover album. "the spaghetti incident?!" c'mon?! that's one of the worst albums ever. and jason newsted wasn't even playing, like i was ever into metallica to begin with. this band just stinks. they also suffered from the 'must play covers from the tv show' syndrome. bad bad bad. i'll give them this though: thanks for the effort to have a rock show. there was a large stage setup and that's something lacking in today's rock.

panic channel setlist:
left to lose
teahouse of the spirits
awake
blue bruises
said you'd be
she won't last
highway to hell (with dilana)