last night was the third residency of camp freddy at the roxy. man, so much to say...

the opening band was wickhead from south africa. they were ok but it wasn't my kind of music. halfway into their set, my friend tells me that budgie is in the audience, over at the vip tables. i don't believe it. maybe i'm more shocked that he knows who budgie is because we never talk about the banshees even though they're my favorite. i look over at the empty tables and sure enough, there's budgie with two women. what the hell is he doing here? i have to go talk to him! i can no longer pay attention to anything else and hope that he's still there when the opening band finishes so i can go talk to him and not try to yell above the band.

i walk over there and motion for him to step over where i am so i can talk to him, which he politely does. i probably could have walked right up there without the wrath of the waitress blocking the area because it was early on in the evening and not crowded--at a previous show i did walk up there to look at the photos on the wall. however, i wanted to be respectful and felt it was rude enough that i was interrupting his hanging out time with his friends.

i tell budgie that i'm so happy to see him and was wondering if he's just come for the show or if he is playing.. he's playing.. and if they are playing "israel" because i heard the band hint that they would.. he said they were going to play it but are playing "christine".. i ask if he's living in LA now.. he says that's he's visiting for 2 months and he mentions something i couldn't quite hear, about siouxsie being here 3 weeks ago but she's gone back to france (did he mean her tour?).. i ask if he's on any upcoming albums.. not that he's aware of unless someone did something without his knowledge and mentions the banshees remasters, that "kiss in the dreamhouse" is probably next.. i say that i'm happy to see him because i haven't heard much since you know what (the divorce and creatures breakup) and he says he's happy and everyday it's getting better. aww... i tell him i'm so glad to see him looking happy and healthy and hope he has a good time whilst in LA and him being at the show has made it complete for me. he's very smiley and happy budgie as always. such a nice guy.

he thought i looked familiar and so i think that's another reason why he walked over to me and i explained how iI used to live in santa cruz and went to the shows a lot there and in san francisco. he asked me my name and things started to ring a bell to him. he tells me that he thinks he has a picture of me somewhere. this is turning into a conversation i had with budgie 10 years ago when he swore he knew me from something. he also asks if i went to the previous camp freddy shows and yes i did go to both. he said he was there last week and saw steve and paul (from the sex pistols). damn, i wasn't even thinking of looking around for celebrities in the audience! to think budgie was there. damn damn damn! but so nice to have talked to him now and not missed it.

when i get back over from my friends, it turns out i didn't do a good job questioning budgie and am duly chastised for it. for example, i didn't ask why he's in LA for 2 months. now that i think of it, it was my chance to tell him other banshees fan sort of things like how we want a dvd of their music videos or why wasn't "song from the edge of the world" on the b-sides compilation or something like that. during the moment, i was just so happy to see him because i'm not sure if he's ever going to join another band or if we're ever going to hear his creative output again. that's why i asked if he's on any upcoming albums and was disappointed to hear that he's not but i can't push him to strike musical genius and put stuff out there. it's enough that i have the records that i do and have gotten to meet him so many times.

there was a long break until the next act and so i kept looking budgie's way. i thought maybe he's dating one of the girls and the other is a friend. but after looking at them for awhile, i think they're all just friends. it was really cute to see budgie air drum to the music over the system: "california girls"! the long break was getting very annoying though. i guess it takes a long time for those girls to put on all their makeup and stilettos. it's gone past to when they should have went on stage to now when camp freddy is supposed to go on stage. they finally get their asses out there and i think they should've not gone on at all. we get it already... in my defiance i decided to start playing games on my cellphone and not pay them any attention.

finally, the show! you could hear the band was on the stage, the lights went dim, and the sound system went off. but the curtain did not rise! so the sound came back on and it was rage against the machine. the band starts playing along to the song. i guess they're frustrated too that it's taken so long. finally, the curtain goes up and the rocking begins.

throughout the night, there were some guests like budgie who have not appeared already but some people have been there each show. in a way, i'm getting tired of the same people and songs because i thought they were going to mix it up more.

there were issues with dave's guitar during the show. the sound would cut out like it's the cable so the roadie would come out to swap cables. only, that didn't work. they would change guitars. once the plug didn't fit and the roadie couldn't understand why. it was right in front of me and if it was bent it was ever so slight. this kind of stuff would have sent dave in a fit and stormed off stage (like panic channel at the roxy a year or two back) but he must've been in a good mood 'cos he even did a little joke like he was trying to get the roadie to give him a blow job while he was trying to change out the cables.

i was right up in front and was able to get some tight shots of the performers close to me. for those further away however, my lens just doesn't have the power to capture their performance due to the fast motion and changing lighting of concerts. sometimes i was too close to the action where i can only get those looking straight up at you shots, which usually are very blurry and i delete them. or the performers try to get cute, like how dave pointed his finger at my camera but went a little too far and touched the lens. he apologized and i was just laughing at it all. that's why i have a filter--for protection! i quickly cleaned the smudge and went back to taking photos. at one point though i had a bit of a panic because the camera become unresponsive. it completely blacked out on me. the batter was not dead but it was like there was no battery inside. perhaps the humidity got to the camera. i took out the battery, put it back in, started it back up and everything was fine.

budgie came out for "christine" and before he was even announced, i just started clapping profusely as he stood on the side of the stage and started screaming "buuuuuudgggggiiiiiieeeeeeeeee". i think the girl next to me was like, who the fuck is that and why are you going crazy?! ahhahaaa. terri nunn from berlin sang. she introduced the song by saying siouxsie and the banshees are one of her favorite bands. the music and vocals were good overall. i think dave is pretty good at picking out the music and playing covers but this is the first time i've not heard him be spot on so definitely those john mcgeoch chords are tricky. budgie stuck around to play the next song, "ant music". he also came out at the very end when they called all the guests up on stage for the final "i wanna be your dog". budgie only played a tambourine as the two drum kits were filled.

i was surprised at how versatile terri nunn is...i only know berlin's hit songs that get played repeatedly. she also sang "highway to hell" and that sounded good too. in the banshees mailing list, the perverse/blasphemous question of if the banshees sang with someone other than siouxsie, who would you like to see was once asked. after last night's performance, i'd be comfortable voting for terri.

as for the other guests, well jerry cantrell and billy duffy were there again. this time jerry didn't wear a hat and played right in front of me so i finally got some good shots of him. in fact, as he was headbanging his hair kept hitting me and getting in my way! there was a guy from def leppard that no one near me has heard of--vivian campbell, who i looked up and is probably better known for his time with dio. there was also corey taylor, the singer from slipknot. in slipknot, i can't stand him. his first song or two were good. he could sing well. but then he started to regress into his slipknot voice a bit and it was awful. chad smith from the red hot chili peppers was also there and you could tell he and dave enjoyed playing together live again. corey parks from nashville pussy was there again too. also there was b-real and sen dog from cypress hill.

here's some pictures i took:

guitar battle

budgie

rock on

rock out

billy morrison

navarro pose #3b

nice closeup

corey parks

vivian campbell

terri gives dave a hello kiss

terri nunn

jerry cantrell headbanging

this is what it's like to be under terri

dave fucking up my lens

finally got a good shot of chris chaney!

billy pointing out who his best friend is

setlist:
hello there (cheap trick) - donovan on vocals
song two (blur) - donovan on vocals
bad reputation (joan jett) - corey parks on vocals/bass (nashville pussy)
rock n roll star (oasis) - billy morrison on vocals, vivian campbell on guitar (dio)
the metro (berlin) - terri nunn on vocals (berlin)
christine (siouxsie & the banshees) - terri nunn on vocals, budgie on drums (siouxsie & the banshees)
antmusic (adam and the ants) - donovan on vocals, budgie on drums
eighties (killing joke) - mark mcgrath on vocals (sugar ray)
rock and roll all nite (kiss) - mark mcgrath on vocals, jerry cantrell on guitar (alice in chains)
jailbreak (thin lizzy) - jerry cantrell on vocals, billy duffy on guitar (the cult)
ain't talkin' 'bout love (van halen) - corey taylor on vocals (slipknot), billy duffy on guitar, chad smith on drums (red hot chili peppers)
rock superstar (cypress hill) - b-real and sen dog on vocals (cypress hill)
highway to hell (ac/dc) - terri nunn on vocals, vivian campbell on guitar, jerry cantrell on guitar, chad smith on drums
them bones (alice in chains) - corey taylor on vocals, jerry cantrell on guitar/vocals, mike inez on bass (alice in chains)
all right now (free) - corey taylor on vocals, vivian campbell on guitar, billy duff on guitar chad smith on drums [billy was on the setlist but i think this was the song he didn't show up for]
i wanna be your dog (the stooges) - everyone

*i didn't get a setlist this time but i think this is correct because i did take a somewhat hard to read photo of the setlist, read other people's reviews online, and by going through my photos