Wednesday
Mar242010
How Long Would You Wait?
Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 12:01AM
Let's say you've paid for a concert ticket and are waiting at the venue for the band to start. You wait and wait and wait...and the band never appears...or appears hours later. How long do you stick around? I ask because I just read Axl Rose kept Guns n' Roses fans in Chile waiting four hours the other day. Of course, we all know Rose has been keeping fans waiting for years now, but come on. It's disrespectful and I can't imagine just sitting and sitting and sitting...On the other hand, I'd hate to walk away from a show that cost a hundred bucks (or more) to attend.
Again, I ask: how long would you wait? I'm going to put my wait limit at around an hour. If a band can't get it together within an hour of the posted start time, then there's a serious problem. You can bet I'll be at the box office, demanding a refund - and I'm a pretty persuasive arguer, thank you very much.
Bands that keep fans waiting are lazy, really. Performing - and on time - is part of a musician's job. The high cost of ticket prices keep a lot of fans from attending shows these days as it is. I highly doubt many artists want to go the way of Axl Rose and just piss off music lovers more. Thoughts?
Reader Comments (47)
This is just Waiting For Godot - with a couple of people sitting waiting for the man who never arrives. It's an exercise in pointlessness and futility... and it was written 60 years ago as a tragic comedy.
Sadly, it's still a tragic comedy.
He personally ruined one of the greatest rock bands ever. How horribly sad in light of the state of today's music...
Bill
Man, I know your concert going and Rock Star hanging-outing is the stuff of legend, but c'mon, rationalizing waiting for freakazoid, Waxl Blowz is ridiculous.
And as far as me taking it personally, hey I'm just offering my critique. It's true, though, I may be "making" it personal, when I talk about Waxl's facejob or corn rows, but if someone's in showbiz and they want to carve their face up they should make sure they've got the best in the biz doing it. Hell, the guy's in L.A., for Chrissakes. And do I even need to get into how stupid the corn rows look?
I told ya I saw it all, from their last small club electric show where they were white hot and playin' their as*es off without any tardiness sh*t and then slowly watched it all go downhill by the third time I saw G'n'R at MSG NYC and that was the last time I saw 'em and ain't never seen 'em since (xcept in peices like Velvet Revolver, another borefest, where waiting for 'em actually might have been more exciting than actually seeing 'em! I am however lookin' forward to seein' Slash if he's gonna tour off his new "duets" album.).
Let's face it and I've said it before, IZZY was the real talent in that band.
Ram!
Metalman (are you my long lost father I've been flyin' the Globe searching for? I heard you hid your true identity and posed as the original lead guitarist of Uriah Heep while fighting crimes against Metal in the early days!)!
They got it right, Sweet Lou...
And so did Kiki!
Actually Kiki's closer... Axl is a tragic comedy...
Ram and Metalman might be gettin' a little harsh callin' him a "dipsh*t" or "piece of sh*t" but the sentiment is right...
What is with this kook making audiences wait around for four hours and for what seems like nothing more than the sheer hell of it?
And, Miss Kiki (love your name, BTW), it's so nice of you to want to have my babies, even if you do like Van Hagar's "Poundcake". Whoever you have kidz with, it will be so cool cuz they'll be Glam Metal Kidz! You're awesome!
Since you liked my shredding of Waxl, check out my latest critique of clowns like Journey on Al's now classic, but fairly recent post, "Confessional: I Love Bon Jovi But I Don't Like 'Runaway'" where you previously defended "Poundcake" and fairly successfully, I might add...
I'd also be interested to see what other songs are your pet peeves besides VH's "Dreams", which I am now going to force myself to listen to again. Glad I'm not the only one who thinks "November Rain" should actually be retitled "Acid Rain" but I gotta say, I'm kinda alright with "Don't Cry", though the video is nauseating. I had a summer of seeing Stephanie Seymour out in the Hamptons after she busted up with Waxl. Poor girl. He mistreated her, too, if you all will recall.
A Class "A" Jerk all the way, this Axl Rose, for real. Avoid him in the stadiums and avoid him in the clubs, kidz!
p.s. Are you kidz comin' to M3? I'd really love to meet all you characterz along with all the rest of you Bringbackglamsterz! And as far as beer runnin' out there, Kenny O and Sweet Lou, ain't gonna happen cuz I'm buyin'! Anyway, sure hope y'all are gonna be there... I'll be the guy down front with the corn rows and the vintage G'n'R t-shirt... Not... (I will be down front, tho...)...
I just got back from the beach (finally it was 80 degrees down here after the worst winter since 1922!) with an idea for us. Let's write a play based on "Waiting for Godot" called "Waiting for Axl".
We can rewrite the story about Jackaxl's tragic comedic downfall and everybody that had to witness it... er... wait for it. You are one awesome Metal chick! You know your Glam Metal like nobody's biz and also know what "Waiting for Godot" is!... er... um... exactly what the hell is it, anyway?
I know it was somethin' I was supposed to read in my lit class as a senior in high school but I was too zoned out with all my creeps in the parking lot crankin' up the Pistols and rollin' up the funny ciggies. I know, I'll wikipedia it so I can know what the hell I'm talking about... or at least, appear to be.
"Waiting for Godot" is a play by Samuel Beckett from the theatre of the absurd movement. If you read the play and are interested, we could talk about it. I'm a big theatre of the absurd fan.
- Allyson
You boyz need to come to M3 and Kenny O, puleez go back to Al's now classik, "Confession: I Love Bon Jovi But I Don't Like 'Runaway'" and shred up some songs for me.
I know you made blanket trash talk about bands, but what about your Pet Peeve songs? I'm curious to know, bro.
Metalman, er... um.. Dad?... same with you, bro... Wanna hear what songs you could live without.
Yeah, I dunno if you knew this, Dad... I just saw Kix up in Baltimore at Ram's Head Live!. It was like the 20th time I seen 'em and as I told Heather (where the heck are the NirVanas on here, anyway?) just when I was talking to her, I realized I hadn't seen Kix since '91 at Limelight in NYC after seein' 'em so many times at the Seagull, Network, Sandbar, Hammerjack's and even the U.S. Naval Academy opening for Cheap Trick.
Tell you what else, they haven't slowed down a bit, though they really do need Purnell because as manic as Whitman and Younkins are on stage, he was 10 times more jumpy! I swear he used to hop around like he was getting electrocuted or sumethin'.
Everybody watch him on YouTube. You'll see what I mean. I still think, tho, they will win the battle of the bands at M3, as much as I think Schenker's boyz will give 'em a run for their money.
Funny, I used to see 'em when they were the Shooz and the Radiators at Maude's in Annapolis, too! Of course, I was 12 at the time, hahaha!!!
And Metalman, I really want to go interview Purnell in Hagerstown. Al told me there's no way to get to him but I bet he's probably under a '38 Ford in his garage, is what I heard. Maybe I'll try to find him this Summer. But something tells me I should bring Cesar the Dog Whisperer with me, tho...
Hey, Al! I will read "Waiting for Godot" and we will discuss! Maybe Kiki can, too! We will also discuss developing a treatment with Kiki called "Waiting for Axl" based on it, if we think it could work, hahaha!!! Hmmmm... Theater of the Absurd, eh? No wonder you have this site.
Maybe someone just wants to steal the idea of doing a play off of this, which I would prefer actually, because I just want to go see the play rather than us having to kill ourselves writing, directing and producing it. Don't you like how I'm trying to coax you into actually doing this wack project?
Who should star in it? I was thinking Jackaxl as himself. Prob is... when the h*ll would we ever know if he'd be standing there when the curtain rises? I know, I saw Kenny O performing in footage of his band, Drugstore Valentine. He could play him!
Kiki... Where art thou?
Steve wrote the book on being THE frontman. Enough bands certainly stole EVERYTHING for him and NEVER gave him the respect or acknowledgement that was deserved. From style to performing, Steve WAS THE one that frontmen STOLE from. STEVE WHITEMAN RULEZ!! Parnell may get all the accolades for the writing, but Steve single handedly had more of an impact and influence on ALL bands "glam" or "hair" from the 80's than any other one person. He doesn't get a nth of the respect that he truly deserves. Go back and check out the earliest of KIX vids, you will see Bret Michaels, Joe Elliot, 1980's David Lee Roth (guess the Jim Dandy theft was too passe by 1987), Gary Cherrone, and any other 80's "party" band ad nauseum. There aren't enough words in the english language for my respect for all things KIX.
True, a lot of our boyz may have lifted from Whiteman's du jour 80's dance with the devil moves, but thoze are really just an amalgamation of Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Plant, Mercury, Daltrey, Zander and Chubby Checker (did I forget anyone?).
Also, don't think for a minute Purnell didn't have sumthin' to do with it. Look at his moves in thoze early vidz (I saw it with my own eyes way too many times) and you know he choreographed the whole thing.
Kix was his baby. The music. The words. The image. The moves. The Logo(s). Maybe not all of the vids (I don't think he would have come up with the corniness of "Bodytalk", even tho I think it's hysterically cool now and it can still be caught on Metalmania occasionally along with most of the others), Maybe some of the album covers.
I'm going to speculate he just fried out on it all after he realized all that work, touring and platinum success ("Blow My Fuse" and the Top 10 single, "Don't Close Your Eyes") didn't add up to a dime, as he has said himself, basically throwing up his arms and packing it in.
It's perfectly understandable. But one has to wonder if he had just stuck with it just a little longer, he might have actually shown how to pull elements of grunge into their schtick the same way their first couple of albums borrowed elements of New Wave in not just the songwriting but everything from Whiteman's delivery to guitar and keys sound and overall production. "Cool Kids", "Body Talk", "Loco-Emotion", "The Itch", and "Sex" are prime examples.
Purnell might have been able to actually infiltrate and pull off a grunge revolt. But the tide of the sheepish record companies overtook our Glam Metal World and we know what happened after that.
Hell, then I wound up listening to all that alternative crap and the stuff I really liked was kind of an amalgamation of Glam Metal, New Wave, Punk and 70's Hard Rock, Glam Rock... stuff like Nirvana, STP, Alice in Chains, Jane's Addiction, Hole, Smashing Pumpkins, etc., etc.,
All the other crap I pretended to like was really for the chix (Brit Pop, Electronica, etc). I actually didn't listen to Kix or any of this stuff from like '93 to 2000.
I guess the New Millenium and the closing of the local Tower Records made me reflect back and just go get it all. I really did find a lot more that I didn't get when it came out originally. The stuff just started appearing out of nowhere at that Tower. A lot of it was gettin' the CD's where before I only had the tapes.
Now, with the internet, as I'm sure you are all experiencing, with great sites like this (this one being the greatest with all the great tipsterz) and Ebay, Amazon, Gemm and others, you can find pretty much anything, stuff you somehow missed the go 'round (I did, anyway... Vamp, "The Rich Don't Rock", anyone?) and if you have set out to make it your goal to literally get EVERYTHING, you are going to come pretty close.
I'm now finding killer original Demos and Indy stuff that was on the Kolodners of the world's desks when the call from Seattle came in and they threw it all in the proverbial dumpster.
I sometimes fantasize that some of these extraordinary Demos circa '90 to '93 were actually pulled from the dumpster behind Capitol Records in L.A., once in line for multiplatinum cultivation and then instantly, nothing more than chromed plastic headed for the recycling plant.
...then, miraculously, some dirty faced reptilian Hollywood Strip street urchin with torn Spandex and smeared mascara (looking like a cross between Tommy Lee circa '81 and one of those wasted looking, dirtied up leather dudes on the motorcycles in Mad Max) leaps up and snatches the demo out of this air as the dumpster was pouring it into the Garbage Truck along with all those unsent Andy Taylor Promo Singles and various other AOR/Glam Metal detritus...
And the Demo sounds like Wildside meets Ratt and nobody's ever heard of the band or heard the Demo (i.e. Sweet Cheater, "Eatin' Ain't Cheatin', now available on iTunes!), for that matter. The stuff's out there. I suggest to all that you buy everything from '80-'93 (maybe the occasional '94-'95) -- Majors, Indies and Demos -- everything you can find! I have made some great discoveries in this regard... and, again, Thanks to Al and Everyone here for all the great tips...
...but I digress...
As far as Whiteman is concerned, one thing that is all his own is that voice! I just saw Kix, as you may know from my previous comments, and the man hasn't lost a step. AND the dude's 50! The man looks and acts like he's 20 (Body-wise, for real. Squint for the face).
And as I've talked about before, that blonde lead guitarist from Warrant once lamented to me after a show at Limelight, NYC, "If only we had a singer like the guy from Kix".
I guess we don't need much more in the way of proof of a lot of what you claim, Sweet Lou.
Whiteman certainly runs circles around the bloated Henry VIII figure Jackaxl has become...
Joke's on me, kidz!
I just realized something. If the man they're waiting for never shows up in "Waiting For Godot" and we base "Waiting For Axl" on it, we don't need anybody to play him!
All we need is Sweet Lou and one or two others to play the couple of people who don't seem to mind waiting an eternity for Jackaxl.
That's right!
You're bringing it all back to me!
Sunday night was Metal Night at Limelight!
Talk about the perfect example to Bring Back Glam!
Metalman, you've done it!
Were you there for Britny Fox/Warrant?
How about Bang Tango/Gin Gypsy?
I saw Kix there, too.
I wasn't at the last Kix show there cuz my ex called me to go and I had a new chick. If I had more guts, I woulda cashed in the blonde and gone and met the brunette, but the blonde had flown in from San Francisco and I just couldn't bring myself to do it.
Plus I think I was just plain scared of that blonde... The girl was an absolute amazon (and I don't mean that in a bad way, xcept she probably woulda kicked my a*s!)...
I'm curious to know what other bands played on Sundays. I missed too many. Can you name some of the others if you saw 'em there?
Did you go to the Cat Club?
That's where I saw nearly everyone from Alice and Chains to White Lion.
Sweet Lou!
Glad you are comin' to M3!
Can't wait to meet ya.
Awesome you got Bang Tango back in Pittsburgh. Love 'em!
In fact, "Someone Just Like You" is one of my Top 10 Glam Metal Songs Of All Time, for sure! Wish I could come up for that just don't have the $$$...
Speaking of which, I wonder how much $$$ it would take to get Purnell back, Dad. Then we'd have to pay the band, too, to let him back on stage.
Personally, I'd also like to see him work with John Palumbo (of Crack The Sky fame), his writing partner for some of the stuff on "Blow My Fuse". Those guys are two total geniuses and would just make a killer album, whether it was a joint project, a Donnie Purnell solo project, or best of all, a new Kix album. Lord knows, they are overdo.
Even if Purnell went the Dee Dee Ramone/Brian Wilson route (eerie thoze two were also bass players) and just provided Kix new songs, that would be at least something!
Come out from under that '38 Ford, Donnie!
"Red Light, Green Light, TNT"!!!
EPILOGUE: It saddens me when someone who you know could just run circles around nearly everyone on stage and in the songwriting department throws in the towel when he could still be rockin' everyone's soxx off!
But we don't know what the story is, so I say leave him in peace. I wish he'd write a book or grant an interview to Allyson or somethin', tho.
Talk about "Waiting For Godot" or "Waiting for Axl", how about "Waiting For Purnell"?!
I'm afraid we'll all be 70-year-old dudes with long beards wearin' vintage 80's Kix shirts before we might be so lucky as to get a Purnell sighting.
But we can always pray to the Glam Metal Godz, Purnell might pop up on stage and tear the place apart as only he can. I just hope I'm there and all of you, too, as it is one site to behold (and hear), as I'm sure, Sweet Lou will attest.
Now that would top any campaign to Bring Back Glam I've ever seen mounted, if we could get Purnell to come back...
Metalboy!'s Metal Tip #1: Drink an 8 ounce glass of 100% Just Juiced Raw Organic Apple Carrot Pineapple Beet Celery Parsley Ginger Juice (light on the Beet and Ginger for me, thanks) and that hangover will be gone, I swear (and you will have gotten more real vitamins, minerals and nutrients in that one glass than you'll get in the 16 cooked meals you'll eat the rest of the week).
I have an idea...Metalboy! For my TV show, lets make the trek and get Stevie and the boys with Purnell and set up a GLAM SUMMIT!!! hahahahaha I can't WAIT to see KIX at M3!!!