Heart Brigade Concert - Excellent Tribute Band for Heart

 I just happened to be going to the library and saw a concert was happening at Festival Park. As I walked to the stage, I thought I was hearing the inbetween band setup music on the loudspeaker. It was a Heart song. To my complete amazement it was an actual real person singing the Ann Wilson (lead singer for the band Heart) part of the song to perfection.

This band was incredible. It is not very often that I am lucky enough to hear such level of talent from a band that is not a famous label signed artist. Not only did the two women sound exactly like Ann and Nancy Wilson from Heart, they looked very similar to the sisters. The band completely complimented the high level of talent displayed by the singers. When you can get the harmonies exactly right, you are a very good cover band indeed.

I was totally mad at myself for arriving late and missing part of the show. They even threw in some Led Zeppelin songs. Hearing Led Zep performed live by such strong vocalist that could do it justice. Priceless.

 How much did I like this band? The concert I attended was free but I would gladly pay to see Heart Brigade play live again. This is huge for me. I don't spend my precious money to see just any band. Yes, they were THAT good.

Heart Brigade is the Ultimate Tribute to Heart. They are based out of Raleigh, NC.

Suzi Nelson - Lead Vocals

Joan Burton - Acoustic and Electric Guitar

Kevin Segrist - Lead Guitar

Amy Hall - Drums

Jeff Reynolds - Bass

David Nodine- Keyboards

*****Scroll Down for Lots of pictures (taken with my iphone) and a VIDEO of the song "Baracuuda"***

Enjoy!

 Heart Brigade - A Heart Tribute Band playing Bara

 Their official website is here.

Amy Hall - female drummer. She was fantastic! I had never seen a female drummer in a band before.

Thanks for Reading! I had a dickens of a time trying to attach the video. LOL! Let you know what you think.

Bands Names - Past and Present

Wow have things changed over the years in the world of local bands.

 Check out these band names from two 1994 show lists from a now closed club Snookers and this show list I saw for the King club located in downtown Raleigh, NC. 

Planet Diarrhea? LOL! I don't know what kind of music this is. Hard rock? I would love to know the story behind this name that is a visual I do not ever want to picture in my brain. 

Naming your band is a very important part of the branding of the band. While walking around downtown Raleigh, I saw a band flyer that was actually colored using crayons. It wasn't even done in a cool artistic way either, it was kinda like in a crazy lame way.

Dead Cut Tree and Mindhorse are band names in my opinion  that were attention grabbing but in a good way. Of course, I am very pro 1990s and hair bands. Those were some great times hanging out with my friends and watching really cute long haired guys in local bands sing (or scream) very hard very fast rock music.

The Dangling Loafer...I have got to google all these bands just to at least see what they look like.

 Are these guys (and maybe some women) being funny ha ha or funny the joke is on you until you hear them play amazing music that blows you away?

Whoa. What do Plant Diarrhea's band T shirts look like? 

Thanks for reading!

Motley Crue and Alice In Chains: Reality vs Fantasy of The Rock & Roll Lifestyle

May 7, 2014 in Raleigh, NC

Motley Crue: The Dirt. A very graphic reality TV show in book form.

I'm currently reading Motley Crue's book The Dirt and it's so informative, gross, graphic, sad and motivating that it is really hard to put down. This book should be read by anyone that has illusions about how glamorous the rock and roll lifestyle really is. All aspiring band members and the women who want to be groupies/girlfriends/wives should absolutely read this book.

Today,  I read this book still on my natural musical "high" of attending my first Alice in Chains concert in Raleigh on May 7. That concert was the first concert since seeing Collective Soul at the April 2009 Dogwood Festival in Fayetteville, NC that I watched a major band that I loved play live in concert.

 For the couple of years, I haven't been to a lot of concerts (no one I really wanted to see or spend precious money on the tickets). So seeing Alice in Chains was a huge event for me.

Everyone seemed to have a great time at the AIC concert. Most people have their dreams of what it is really like to be in a band or date a band member. After reading the Motley Crue book, I got a big dose of reality that the fantasy in my head is very far from the truth.

Being in a band is a lot of hard work for a lot of years. If you are extremely lucky to make it, you have to do even more work to stay at the level of success you obtained while being under a lot of pressure to achieve even more success.

Having reached success, the excesses of having a lot of money and fame come into play. Young good looking men in successful bands will have no shortage of women who will do anything, anyway, anywhere, etc. To be honest, I have never been so grossed out by how abusive and disrespectful Motley Crue was to the women they slept with. The book is very graphic depiction of how the guys really did not care about most of the women or themselves for that matter.

I was so thankful that I in the past when I met band members (Slaughter, Matt Sorum and local bands), I always acted respectfully to myself and to the men. I never wanted to be the notorious groupie bands could write dirty things about in their autobiographies. It should go without saying NOT every guy in every band is like the members of Motley Crue. There are a lot of wonderful healthy smart musicians who love their girlfriends/wives and their families.

Everyone has to make the right choices for their lives. It's human to make mistakes, learn from them and focus on living the best life you can. I keep thinking how much time the members of bands wasted in their youth. Life is so precious. The way you treat your body in your youth will have an impact on your health when you are older.

Jerry Cantrell looked amazing at the recent concert. To be honest, there have been times in the past when looking at Jerry in pictures and videos, he looked a lot older than he is. We have all seen how rock stars mostly do not age very well. The harshness of an addictive lifestyle and life on the road.  It was so great to see him looking so strong, happy and well at the concert. It is never to late in life to improve your health.

Every band has dirty laundry (love that song btw) and Alice in Chains has chosen to be mostly quiet about the details of their wild youthful days. It is interesting to see Jerry and Sean duck and dive around questions about their young crazy days in the band. Good times and bad times. Life Lessons learned the hard way and sadly too late for some members of the band. But of course I would love to know more behind the scenes stuff about AIC.

Standing in front of that stage watching Alice in Chains play, I was impressed by how healthy and strong they looked. Jerry has had struggles with his health and addiction through the years. I was definitely motivated and inspired to continue to improve my health. The band Alice in Chains is a group of men that overcame a lot of hardships in their lives and stayed true to their passion for music.

 I always feel a sense of pride knowing this about my favorite band.

I'm going to write more about Alice In Chains and other bands on my blog.

Thanks for reading!