Concert listing

Gonna use this as a space to capture the concerts attended by me. Since I can edit this, will allow me the means to update the list as I remember those fuzzy moments. It should get visually better as time goes by and I have time to pretty it up. Those in the know are welcome to add comments or clarification for my bad memory.


Brazil - local Texas band (attended with Marcus Boney - RIP)
Steppenwolf and The Guess Who (Attended with MB)
.38 Special (Saw at Dallas Alley free concert)
Steppenwolf (Saw again at Dallas Alley free concert)
Kingdom Come, Dokken, Scorpions, Metallica, Van Halen (went on a package deal - bus and tix from Tyler to the Dallas Cotton Bowl with Militant, Hagar's voice crapped out and they promised free show, made up several years later in Dallas Alley as a free for all event, i didn't go)
Warrant and Motley Crue (second time's the charm, with Militant, Reunion Arena, Kick Start My Heart was recorded live at that show for Decade of Decadance album)
Pantera (at the After Dark Club in Houston in a New Year's Eve show, I stage dove, Rocky George from Suicidal made a guest appearance)
LA Guns, AC/DC (Can't remember much of this one, seems like Sepultura may have played, too. Was at the Starplex)
Bad English, Whitesnake (Reunion Arena, featured Steve Vai and Adrian Vandenberg as dual guitarists for Whitesnake)
Faith No More, Guns N Roses, Metallica (Texas Stadium)
Winger, The Scorpions (Starplex - very special show)
Coal Chamber, Danzig (at a club in Deep Ellum - with Skippy, turned us on to Coal Chamber, Danzig was awesome)
Suicidal Tendencies, Queensryche (saw with Militant and the magician, turned me on to Suicidal AND got to see Mindcrime in entirety as a show within the show)
Coal Chamber, Sevendust (Powerman 5000 was headliner and we disliked them so much we left just after they started, saw with Skippy)
Coal Chamber, Megadeth (at the Bronco Bowl, great showm saw with Skippy)
Robert Plant, Alannah Miles (saw with Militant, did cover of my fave Zep song, Nobody's Fault But Mine)
Quicksand?, White Zombie, Anthrax (saw with Skippy and Militant, Al Jourgenson of Ministry waved to me when I yelled at him after the show - he was a guest of the band and was walking across the stage)
Motorhead, Dio, Iron Maiden (with Skippy, Awesome show, especially Dio and Maiden - rode in Chevy SST before they were publicly available)
Queensryche, Judas Priest (saw with Militant & Skippy, the reunion tour with Rob Halford)

Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold and Volbeat (turned me on to Volbeat)
Iron Maiden, Ghost (This thing called Ghost - awesome!)

Scorpions & Ratt (T-Bucket's first concert) Grand Prairie
Queensryche at Grand Prairie
Iron Maiden and Coheed and Cambria (Dallas Starplex)
Iron Maiden and Megadeth, Austin at the racetrack
Sum41 at Houston House of Blues with T-Bucket
Third Eye Blind, Bad Bad Hats, Oklahoma City Criterion
Third Eye Blind, Dallas Starplex
Deep Purple, Alice Cooper at Starplex


DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, JJ Fadd, Public Enemy, Run DMC (with Javiez lol)
Dottie West or Tammy Wynette- I'm hazy on this, could have been another early 70s country star, but she played a small high school in my area that my family went to see when I was a kid)
Jerry Reed (at Billy Bob's when my grandma and aunt visited Texas, whole family went, I remember it not being a great place to see the concert)
Dwight Yoakum (with the Queen, at Starplex, couldn't understand any of the talking, but songs were OK)
Trisha Yearwood, Garth Brooks (with the Queen - one of his last big arena tours, big multi-night gig)
Deryl Dodd (at several venues in Texas, with the Queen)
Mark Chestnut, Tracy Lawrence, George Strait (A New Year's Eve show in Dallas with the Queen)
Bruce Robison (At a special acoustic concert opening for Guy Clark, with the Queen, blew me away and I saw him solo at Austin's Broken Spoke later)
Bruce Robison & Kelly Willis more times than I can remember now
Bruce Robison, Charlie Robison & Jack Ingram - Dallas Hard Rock, Unleashed Reunion
Charlie Robison multiple times, first in Lampasas, also Belton
Max Stalling multiple times, Belton twice, Lampasas, The Colony, Waco fair
Slaid Cleaves multiple times - Saxon Pub, Waxahachie theatre, Washington, DC, Tomball, Belton
Chris Knight multiple times - Belton, Waco Hippodrome, Belton intimate show, Waco Lakeside
Warren Hood, multiple times, opening for Bruce/Kelly, at Waco
Courtney Patton, Belton multiple times, our backyard, New Braunfels area, Waxhachie with and without Jason Eady

Junior Brown (multiple times, once at Gypsy Tea Room in Dallas, second time at Southern Junction and said hi to him near the merch table, and again at a Deep Ellum Club) also at Waco
Johnny Gimble and Hank Thompson in Waco at MCC, one of Hank's last shows

Growing old is mandatory; growing up is not

I stole the title of this post from a bumper sticker I read. Love that saying.

I still laugh at vulgar jokes. The sight gag is still appreciated here. And, hell, I still play video games.

Recent events happening with a couple of my friends has me pondering growth. Not long ago, a co-worker of mine announced she was engaged to be married. This woman, divorced with a child, had dated a guy and gone through a long series of he-loves-me, he-loves-me-not episodes that had many convinced it wouldn't never work out. I sent her a note how happy I was for her and made a comment that, after writing it, seemed profound in some ways: "Progress is good; happiness is best."

Ok. It seemed profound to me. I'm easily impressed. Point being that many people looked favorably on this announcement of her engagement as an overdue progress point on the journey of love. My sentiment is that while it's nice to progress through someone's pre-conceived wickets of progress in the croquet game of love, that being happy with where you are really produces a hell of a lot more satisfaction.

And so it comes to this: the two friends I mentioned are both on the verge of moving to very far lands. One is certain, heading within the month to Los Angeles; the other's got a standing offer for a job in Bermuda. These are both great opportunities for people who highly deserve a fantasticly refreshing change of pace in their lives. And while I might whimper about the fact that two friends will likely be off the choices of day-trip visits, I'm really excited that they have the opportunities ahead of them. These guys deserve success.

Further, I have a reservation about both because they're each going to a situation that appears to be a 'dream' job kind of setup. If not that tailored, maybe they could be considered at least highly ideal jobs for their interests. My big hope is that they find more than progress -- they both deserve happiness.

For me, I often find myself happy when I can be a kid. Give me a good radio station or my video game and I'm set. So maybe I'm not progressing in some regards, but I can sometimes find happiness in the simple things.

No greater point here. Just some thoughts and feelings on the subject. I still like that bumper sticker, though.

Camaro may be coming back!

General Motors today unveiled a Camaro concept car after discontinuing the muscle car just a few years back.

My first reaction -- as a Camaro enthusiast -- was WOW! The new concept actually takes the lead of Ford and incorporates an old-is-new design theme that mixes modern automotive design with distinct design elements from first-generation cars.

Here's a photo I gleaned from the Internet.

Read more at Chevy's performance website.

My second reaction, after thinking about this a while, is maybe this is too little, too late. As much as I love the first-gen Camaros, especially a '68 Super Sport with 427, seeing it now seems a little adulterated. It says, "We're Chevy and we couldn't come up with anything new that was cool, so we went back to this popular design."

And while I can be all high and mighty like that, I also admit that the recent generation Ford Mustangs that do the same thing I like even more than the originals. Of course, I have grudging admiration for the early Mustangs, though I'd take an early Camaro over a Mustang seven days a week. Not sure I'd do the same if buying new versions today. That's what I'll have to sort out.

Part of the reluctance is in the fact that Chevy seems to be so day-late and dollar-short. I mean Ford's, what, 5 years ahead of them on this whole retro-is-the-new-black thing?

I reserve the right to change my opinion on this once I see them actually produce this car. I've certainly seen Chevy shop around a concept car only for it to never see the light of day (a '57 Chevy Nomad clone comes to mind that I saw at an auto show.) Hell, Dodge seemed to get closer to that with its Magnum than Chevy ever got.

I also go off on a tangent to bemoan how horribly Chevy has tended to adulterate the Super Sport (SS) packaging in the last couple decades. The only exception to that was the Impala SS that was built on the Caprice-sized body, before the most-recent design. Everything else I've seen with SS badging has been underwhelming, most especially the SS pickup. Yuck. Ford's Lightning pickups made those look like Little Tykes cars.

Enough for now.

Marriage made in....heaven

So I'm reading about Bill O'Reilly and David Letterman having a little back and forth on Letterman's show. Letterman, in unusual fashion in my opinion since he usually throws softballs at most of his guests.

I wasn't aware, but the Associated Press reports that O'Reilly was a catalyst in the whole don't-take-Christ-out-of-Christmas movement. That was an issue Letterman disagreed with O'Reilly about and the two went back and forth.

So the media picked up on it and made it into a story. O'Reilly, in subsequent interviews has said he enjoyed the opportunity to spar and had no issue with being ambushed. Third-party analysts said that the whole issue may be backfiring on O'Reilly because he's suggested he may retire in a couple years. They even used the term 'jumping the shark' to describe him making such a big fuss about Christmas. Happy Days fans should remember Jumping the Shark - a term from when a show gets on its last legs and incorporates some kind of stunt to pull in a bigger audience. In Happy Days' case, they had Fonzie literally jump a shark for a TV thrill show.

So if O'Reilly is in his twilight and has nothing else to do, I've got a plan for him.

He needs to get into politics. And I've got the perfect conservative to run with him. It would be like a Magic 8 Ball of politics: you never know what's going to come out of their mouths on any given day.

Bill O'Reilly and Pat Robertson. The same Pat Robertson who this past week said Ariel Sharon was struck down by God for dividing God's land by agreeing to give the Gaza Strip to Palestine. The same Pat Robertson who also said the Hurricane and terrorist attacks on America was God's punishment for the U.S. abortion rate. Uh huhhhh.

Did I mention that Robertson recently also suggested Hugo Chavez, the outspoken leader of Venezuela, be assassinated?

What a dream ticket. A marriage made only in ... heaven.

Heisman in two hands - worth one Bush?

Someone asked me today how I felt about the national championship game last night featuring USC vs. Texas. "Good for Texas," I said, "But now we'll have to listen to all the Texas fans for a while."

I think you know what I mean... the incessant braggadochios and their chest-beating. It just gets kinda old - I mean, I have lived in Texas long enough to hear that ad nauseum from Cowboys fans.

Beyond that, though, I'm glad. It was good to finally see the two undefeated teams go head-to-head so that we wouldn't have weeks and weeks of speculation about which team was really better and did the sports writers of America really get the rankings right.

This game was great - no doubt about it. It featured high scoring, a lead that changed several times and a game-winning play in the final minute from a fourth-and-short-yardage situation. Did I mention the game featured three Heisman Trophy finalists (USC QB Matt Leinart, USC RB Reggie Bush, UT QB Vince Young), two actual Heisman winners (Leinart and Bush) and a seemingly home field advantage for USC?

After USC lost the game, Leinart was quoted as saying that he basically thought USC still had a better team, but that Texas just made more plays in the game. Uh, that's kinda like saying, my car's faster, I just didn't beat you in the race. The whole point of the teams playing is to determine which team is better. Hence the buildup of this game as a true Bowl Championship Series title game.

Yes, you can talk about the Any Given Sunday corollary which states that on any given day, one football team can beat another if things go just right. Everyone can have a bad day and unfortunate circumstances to lose to a team they shouldn't have lost to. In this case, that excuse doesn't fly. There was too much on the line.

Now, USC has a legitimate gripe about a play where Texas scored when the ball should have been down. The play wasn't reviewed on instant replay when it should have and wasn't reversed. So some could say that Texas might never have won if that had been called back. But it wasn't called back so it's only conjecture at this point. Maybe they would have just been more resolved to score and it wouldn't have been as close as it was. We'll never know and we can't go back.

Regardless, UT overcame the public perception that No. 1 USC was a better team than the No. 2 Longhorns despite matching undefeated records. They had to play in the Rose Bowl, which is in USC's back yard. Texas' Heisman finalist had to face USC's two Heisman winners. On paper, so many people had USC picked to win that playing the game seemed a formality.

But somewhere along the line, Vince Young put it on them. And that's kinda cool.