last night we went to see camp freddy at the roxy. they are playing every thursday at the roxy for the entire month of may, which is pretty cool. tonight was the first night. each time there are supposed to be different guests and songs. mark mcgrath is hosting each show and he knows most people is a douchebag and was cool with it so that was cool of him to talk humbly to the audience. he seemed sincere to be happy just to play on the same stage with his idols. he's actually pretty good singing "eighties".

drive a opened up. we had seen them before. they are a high school band. they are much better now than last time. last time was really bad. this time was not bad but i wouldn't call them outstanding in any way. the songs are basic rock n' roll, nothing fancy, nothing notable. but it's just a lot better and the leads are improving. the vocals need some work, possible someone else should sing and the current singer should really focus on developing his role as lead guitarist. since they're still young, there is much potential for the future. i would recommend that they continue to absorb various artists and styles to learn from. but maybe that's not what they have in mind. maybe they wanna be just like the ramones.

for camp freddy, it seems like tonight was for the guys in the audience. before the band took the stage, there was this stripper/burlesque type group of girls called the darling stilettos. actually, they weren't strippers nor burlesque. they're just girls wearing skimpy clothing, dressed in stilettos, and shaking it to rock music. they're not even attractive but all the guys in the audience were drooling. i noticed some of the musicians in the audience gawking at them as well (camp freddy member chris chaney and guest nuno bettencourt). anyway, later on in the show, it felt like with each guest they introduced, it was for the guys. each one the guys were going crazy, like no way! that's my hero, i can die now. but for the girls, i don't know if we were so excited. or maybe just the type of girls i'm friends with...it's not our bag baby.

the guests were: stephen perkins (jane's addiction--woo hoo!), nuno bettencourt (extreme--still don't know what's the big deal about this guy), lemmy (motorhead--this is what i'm talking about when i said the guys went nuts and the girls were like, whatever!), corey parks (nashville pussy--never heard their music, only seen them in kerrang, but the chick is over 6' with tats and huge tits and skimpy clothes so again, this one was for the guys), steve jones and paul cook (the sex pistols! this one was for everyone except twiddle thumbs who hates punk), warren de martini (ratt--for people into hair metal in the 80s), poe (for anyone who remembers who she is, ouch), and jerry cantrell (for people who were into the 90s seattle scene).

since there were two members of the sex pistols on stage and going to any sex pistols reunion would probably suck, i feel like this was the next best thing. the sound was tight and everyone joining in on vocals did a good job. there was just a lot of energy and it was great. for the guests i'm not fans of, even their songs sounded good actually. i never knew what the big deal was with motorhead. i just didn't get it. tonight was the first time "ace of spades" actually sounded good to me. perhaps i need to listen to some remastered recordings on a good stereo. really surprised that the band covered blur and oasis. very hard for me to imagine dave navarro playing britpop but there it was. "song 2" is rock though i admit, it is their let's try to win america song. and "rock n' roll star" is very apropro for the evening.

what i'm really happy about the show is that it's my first real rock n' roll show with my dslr. that's exactly why i got the dslr. so far i have photographed two shows but one was apocalyptica (cello!) and the other a local friend's band so it wasn't exactly the kind of show i wanted to sink my teeth into. to be honest, what i really wanted to take pictures of was the panic channel but i wasn't able to afford the camera before they broke up. as dave fans, and since he's so photogenic, i wanted a nice rock star shot of him playing guitar. unfortunately i didn't really get that because i was standing in a different part of the stage for once. i did get some great shots of billy morrison, who was right in front of me. donovan stopped at one point to pose for my camera too. but because we're always in front of dave, he actually noticed that we weren't, walked over to us during the show and shouted at us, "what are you doing here? traitors!", which was pretty fucking hilarious.

here's some pictures i took:

roxy marquee

how do you play that again?

one of my favorite shots of the evening

morrison and cantrell smiling

gnarly, dirty, rock n' roll

mandatory crotch shot

billmo posing for the video camera

dnav

nuno

dono hamming it up for camera

lemmy

setlist:
hello there (cheap trick) - donovan on vocals
song two (blur) - donovan on vocals
eighties (killing joke) - mark mcgrath on vocals (sugar ray)
rock n roll star (oasis) - billy morrison on vocals, nuno bettencourt on guitar (extreme)
good times bad times (led zeppelin) - poe on vocals, nuno bettencourt on guitar
antmusic (adam & the ants) - donovan on vocals, stephen perkins on drums (jane's addiction)
suffragette city (david bowie) - billy morrison on vocals, warren de martini on guitar (ratt)
round and round (ratt) - mark mcgrath on vocals, warren de martini on guitar
jailbreak (thin lizzy) - mark mcgrath on vocals, steve jones on guitar (sex pistols)
emi (sex pistols) - mark mcgrath on vocals, steve jones on guitar, paul cook on drums (sex pistols)
ace of spades (motorhead) - lemmy on vocals/bass (motorhead)
something else (eddie cochran) - lemmy on vocals/bass, corey parks on vocals/bass (nashville pussy), steve jones, paul cook
i wanna be your dog (the stooges) - everyone