Well here's a long review of one incredible magic night with Mr. Big. They've been a band of virtuoso players who, unlike other "supergroups", have shown themselves to be greater than the sum of their parts. And it's great to have them playing outside of Japan again!
The closest they were coming on this tour was New Haven, Connecticut. I left work (near Boston) a little early and proceded to drive down. Tons of traffic, horrible weather (the rain made it impossible to see more than 100 feet in front of my car), and 160+ miles to go. But I made it there in one piece and before the first band got on.
The club at which they were playing was "Toad's Place". I had been there once in the past, to see Geezer and Bruce Dickinson (and I have a whole other review for that night!) After finding a place to park on the street, I made sure I had my ear plugs, black sharpie (almost universally hailed as the best marker for autographs), and several Mr. Big CD booklets slid into a case. I went to a convenience store on the same street, where I got cash from an ATM, a few power bars and some weird cactus Snapple drink. I wolfed down my "dinner" outside of the club (where only one other person was waiting), and finally went inside.
After paying $15 for my ticket, my Connecticut Dio friend, Big Jim, walked up to the doorway. He saw me and said "Bill! What are you doing here?" It turned out that Jim's band was opening up! So I knew I'd finally get a chance to see him play live. I also ran into Brendan, one of the other guys I know from the Dio fan circuit.
I went right to the front of the stage and toward the left, because I knew Billy Sheehan would be at "stage right", as always. I watched Jim's 4 piece cover band, Chain Reaction. They did a bunch of metal classics, starting off with "Mob Rules" and "Somebody Get Me A Doctor", and also did songs like "Wasted Years", "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap", "Enter Sandman", Motley Crue's "Wild Side". (And you should already know what bands do those other songs!) I thought they handled some of those songs rather well for having just one guitar player. They also mentioned that this show was going to be broadcasted on the web! I was wondering if I'd make it on there.
I looked around after their set and thought "OK, I have to go to the bathroom really bad, but it doesn't look like anybody will take my spot." So I briefly said hi to Jim, went downstairs to take care of my business, and came back to find out that the couple next to me had moved over a few feet, where I was! Bastards! But there was still a space next to them, further to the center. So I got to stay there for the entire show. And I talked with them alot before and after the show. So it all turned out OK.
So the second band, Jonny Law, came on. A trio a bit more on the funky side. And no, I don't one of those hardcore bands with a slapping bass player. I had never heard of them before, but I guess they've been around for a while (or were lying about a bunch of things). The singer had a nice Musicman bass, and it was some signature model. I was trying to read the signature. The guitar player broke a string at some point and had to switch guitars. And while they were waiting for him to get ready, the bassist and drummer started playing Van Halen's "Ice Cream Man." Amusing!
I couldn't help but noticing that they gave both of these opening bands barely any room on stage. There was literally less than a foot of space between the front of the drum kit in the center, and the monitors on the front of the stage. It was a balancing act for Chain Reaction's singer to go back and forth. At some point, when Jonny Law was introducing the drummer, some lady yelled "Bring on Pat Torpey!" They made some joking remarks back. I think it's really rude and inappropriate to boo or similarly put down an opening band. Sure, I went there to see Mr. Big, but I know what it's like to be an opening band, and the main acts is NOT going to come on any sooner if you yell at the opening act. I'm respectful, give some applause if I'm up for it, and wait it out.
Anyway, on to the main show...
Before the lights went out I took my copy of Chain Reaction's set list (which I saved when they were finished), and with my marker I wrote "WELCOME BACK TO THE USA!" in thick letters on the back. Crude, but I knew they'd be able to read it if I was right up front touching the stage, and I wanted to express my thanks for them finally playing in the States again. I heard some cheering and looked to my left to see Billy Sheehan and a few roadies walking over to the back of the stage from the side of the club! He looked over and saw those cheering him on. He smiled, and humerously put his palms together for a humbled bow.
The lights went out. This was it! Or was it? There was some delay with setting up Billy's equipment, and one of the roadies was holding Richie's guitar on the other side. Finally, Pat came out behind his kit! Billy, Richie, and Eric came out to the stage! Mr. Big finally hit the stage around 11:45. Everybody on my side was screaming "Billy! Billy Sheehan! Woo!"
The band started off with "Electrified". I had my hands up, either clapping or pointing or holding fists in the air, screaming, moving around. And I hardly stopped for the rest of that night. I've been to too many concerts where the front row positions were taken by beer-guzzling dickheads who move like statues the whole time, not even a single cheer or singing along. So whenever I've gotten a front row position, I show that I deserved that spot!
When Eric came out on stage, before he picked up the mic he leaned over and grabbed my hand with his right hand, and another guy's hand with his left hand. He just held them for a few seconds, closing his eyes and smiling. I could tell he was glad to be playing here. During the first song, I held up the little sign I made. I held it up towards Billy, and he saw it. He pointed right at me and smiled in thanks. After the first verse, Eric saw my paper and he took it, holding it up above his head, showing it to the rest of the audience! The audience screamed back! Then Eric handed it back to me. "Damn," I thought, "How COOL is that?!?" I held it up later, hoping Pat would see it. He looked right at me for a second and smiled back. I think Richie saw it, but he had this blank look on his face (more on this later).
I was screaming with excitement after the first song. Next was one of my all-time favorites from Mr. Big, "Take Cover"! I sang along with all of it. I looked down towards the rest of the front row, and saw one or two others who were singing along too. I'm always glad to know I'm not the only one buying these albums outside of Japan!
Now I couldn't hear Richie too much from where I was standing, since I was right up in front of the stage and on Billy's side. I had some trouble hearing Eric's vocals for the same reason. But it didn't disappoint me, because I am a huge Billy Sheehan fan in addition to a Mr. Big fan. And I got to watch him right up close, shredding away at the bass. At some point one of his bass knobs came off. He looked down and noticed this, then looked up at some of the guys in our section and shrugged. He kept on playing, but the roadie fixed it during Pat's drum solo. Though it fell off again later! Oh well. I've heard Billy talk about all those little embarrassing stage mishaps like that before. I guess it's not as bad as the time Paul got his hair caught in the electric drill.
Here is my attempt to recall the setlist. I'm not really sure of the order around the middle, but here are all the songs to the best of my memory. [7/6/00 NOTE: I later checked this with the set list from the NY show, and made some alterations so as to be more accurate]
30 Days in the Hole Colorado Bulldog encore 2: Mr. Big |
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During "Green Tinted 60s Mind", all the instruments cut out on the chorus with "Hanging out with Janis, moving to Atlantis..." It was just the 4 of them singing. Wow, beautiful harmonies! On "Price You Gotta Pay", Billy Sheehan picked up a harmonica that was hanging off of his mic stand to play the harmonical solo, with his bass still strapped and hanging from his shoulder. While he did this, Eric stood behind Billy, and reached around him to play his bass behind Billy's back! The audience went wild!
Eric picked up a 12-string acoustic guitar for a number of songs, which Richie handled all the electric parts. I was wearing a Maudite beer T-shirt with a devil on the front, and when they started into "Dancing With My Devils" (my favorite song from the new album), I held up my shirt as I was cheering. Billy looked down and nodded at me, laughing. Pat also saw me at some point and stopped to look and grin.
From what I could hear of Richie, he sounded like a great singer too. He even sang a full verse of some song (I'm racking my brains here, but I can't remember which one!). [NOTE: I did remember, weeks after writing this review. It was "30 Days In the Hole"] A lot of songs had their "break downs" too. During one song the band laid back into a groove and started singing "Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping, into the future..." a few times (from "Fly Like An Eagle" by Steve Miller, if I'm not mistaken)
No drill solo during "Daddy, Brother...", however Billy went into his bass solo at that point. And now allow me to say some words about Billy. We all watched his solo in awe-stricken silence. He had one of those keyboard-like pedals on the ground, and held down some of them to play chords behind some of his solo parts. Billy is simply amazing to watch live. He's doing all this spinning around, bass neck bending, switching his strap from one shoulder to the other (presumably when one shoulder gets tired. Though an inflatable "pump" guitar strap solves this problem for me). He is also so knowledgeable of his instrument, listening to all different sorts of players and being very fitness-aware (because some can get hand cramps and related injuries if they don't warm-up, or if they have bad technique, etc.). Though I think what I love the most about his playing is that he can do all this mind-blowing solos, but he can also play a simple yet amazing bass line when the song calls for it. As a bass player myself, I've always tried my best to master both.
A few people around me were taking lots of pictures. I really wish I brought a camera that night, especially after the show (more on that in a bit). I made sure to lean back out of their view when they wanted to take a few close shots. Some of the guys, especially Eric, posed for a few. Once Eric raised his foot and made a stomping motion towards the camera as the lady next to me took the picture. (And at some point when I was talking to her, I gave her my card with my email address, so hopefully I'll end up hearing from her, with some nice concert pics!) Now I mentioned that I was really jumping around throughout the whole show, but looking back and forth along the front row, it looks like I was one of the only ones moving, so I guess I really stuck out. I thought "Maybe between this and the sign they might remember me. At least for a few days..."
Now there always seem to be assholes in the crowd of every show I go to. For almost the entire night, things went fine. Nobody pushed me around or tried to muscle into a front row spot and move me out of the way. I fucking hate that. I'm starting to wish that they didn't serve beer at these shows. The guitar player from the first band was behind me with his friend, screaming. That's fine, but then they were pushing up against me. At this point my balls were about to get crushed against the waist-high stage. Ain't happenin'! I held my ground and finally they went away. The drunk's girlfriend was there, saying something about him. I guess trying to apologize for his behavior. At some point I think I heard her turn to him and say "Don't Start". But all in all, compared to other concerts I've been to, I'd say the asshole level was near minimum.
Mr. Big did two encores that night. At the beginning of "Colorado Bulldog", Eric grabbed his mic stand and held his mic over Billy, who made the little dog growl. At the end of the show, Billy went right up to me, and I could see him shaking his head a bit (probably because of my undying enthusiasm...hee hee hee) and shook my hand, saying "thank you!" Eric shook a few hands (including mine, again!) on his way off the stage. Richie and Pat seemed to be in their own worlds.
A few years ago, I emailed Billy Sheehan and he wrote me back. Now I got to see him from right up in front of the stage. Then I got to shake his hand. What's next? Yep, meeting him after the show.
As I mentioned earlier, I had been to this club before. It's where I met Geezer Butler for the first time (another bass idol of mine, hence the name of my email address). Now usually bands like this are cool about meeting their fans afterwards, and it's the security that are dicks about fans being around after the show. I wasn't sure whether to wait out front (like I did for Geezer), or wait downstairs near the dressing room. So I went downstairs. There were about 6 or 7 other fans there (the number grew to 15-18 at some point), with bootleg covers and pens in hand.
After waiting for a while, Billy walks out into the hallway! He signed a few things, and hung out with us the whole time, talking to the other fans about bass stuff and some of the many other music projects he had worked in. He talked about the Talas shows in Buffalo. ("The Mayor announced it as a 'Talas Day'", "Scalpers were selling tickets for $300", "Our 'rehearsals' mostly consisted of just sitting around and talking about the old days!") He also talked about David Lee Roth ("The last time I saw him was in St. Petersburg", "He's always been one of my favorites") and the whole Van Halen line-up change soap opera. I personally got to ask him a few things.
I asked if he was a Scientologist, since I heard (from some militant anti-Scientologist person I know) that he is, and that "Niacin" was actually named for something in that religion, and not what I had heard (B3 organ -- vitamin B3 -- Niacin). I made a point to mention that I really didn't care one way or another, just curious. He said yes, he's been a Scientologist for 30 years, and John Novello (the B3 player in Niacin) was also one, but not Dennis Chambers. He said Niacin was also one of the things Scientology uses to help "clean" the body of other drug addictions, but the name still came from the fact they used a Hammond B3 organ. He further explained that Scientology has nothing to hide, he doesn't proselytize, that the media has warped some things around. Personally, I don't know what to believe about them, but it ultimately makes no real difference to me what my favorite musicians do in their spare time; good music is good music.
I mentioned to Billy how I heard him on the Alice Cooper tribute album, "uminary Stew." He said "Oh yeah. What track did we do?" I told him it was Cold Ethyl, with Vince Neil. He kinda sighed and said "Yeah, they were going to bring in the guys from King's X, whose one of my favorite bands. But they ended up bringing in the Motley Crue guys." He said that he was't too happy with that. There were a few things I meant to ask him, but forgot about (What was it like playing on Glen Tipton's solo album, and who the hell is "Trapped In Toyland" about because I had a hunch). Some lady had him sign two 12"x12" promotional cards for "Lean Into It". He looked at them with his draw dropped and said "Where did you get these? I've never even seen these befo re!" She said she contacted EMI records, or something like that. Though MY jaw dropped when I over heard him saying he did a cover of Burn. I said "No way! The Deep Purple song?!?" Billy said yes, and that he duplicated the keyboard solo on bass. This I GOTTA get my hands on.
Though most of all I had to thank Billy for his bass playing inspiration and all the great music over the years. He signed the 3 CD covers I brought and shook my hand a few times. But this whole time, he was just talking to us as one music fan to other music fans. Damn, he the coolest!! And now I can cross off another name from my list of "People I have to meet some day before I die." I can also now say that I've met my three all-time favorite bassists from the hard rock/metal scene (Billy Sheehan, Steve Harris, and Geezer Butler).
Pat Tourpey stood by the doorway, and I got him to sign my three CD booklets too. He didn't seem all that interested to be there. Not a rude prick, but not "into it" like some of the other guys. Whatever, maybe he was just exhausted. I over heard somebody asking him about Paul, and why he wasn't playing any more. I was interested in hearing about this, since I hadn't heard anything about it. Pat just shook his head and said "Paul just left. That's really it. He just said 'I don't wanna do Mr. Big anymore.'"
Richie Kotzen eventually came out to sign some things, and walk to one end to get a guitar case and walk through the hallway again. Now this guy was out of it! He signed our stuff, but just had this blank look on his face. I said "Excellent show! You sounded great! Welcome to the fold!" He looked really confused and said "Oh. Thanks." Weird! Though he posed for a few pictures, as everybody else did here and there. Damn, I wish I brought a camera. I just bought a new camcorder, but I wasn't going to risk taking it to the club, especially since they probably wouldn't have let me in with it in the first place.
Well 3 down, I knew I had one more to go. Sure enough, Eric Martin came out near the end, signing a few things. I asked Eric if he'd talk to Paul (Gilbert) recently. He said "Everybody's asking me that. He sent me a copy of 'Flying Dog' [Paul's latest CD] and a few guitar picks." Eric went into the story about Paul leaving the band. He mentioned how there were these rumors going around, and a few things that Paul said in some Japanese magazines. Finally they confronted Paul and asked if it was true. Another fan who was there asked Eric "what happened to your hair?" (since it's short now) Eric explained that he had this friend ("and she always cuts my hair") who snipped it right off when he had it in pony tail. Later on there was a contest in Japan, where each member of the band put in something as a prize. Billy Sheehan put in some kind of ninja stars, Pat and Richie (or was it Paul then?) donated some things, and the prize from Eric was his hair, in a plastic bag!
When Eric signed the back cover of my "Lean Into It" CD booklet, he said "Look at these ladies in this picture. Hey Billy, is this the one with your sister?" I held up my folded-up sign in one hand and said "Eric, thanks for holding up my sign." He said "Well I HAD to. Thanks for doing that." Now after meeting so many of my favorite musicians, I've gotten better and better at keeping my thoughts together and remembering what I wanted to say, instead of standing there dumbfounded to the point of not being able to think at all! But the sappy praises finally came out as I stood there next to Eric. I said "Thanks again for coming here to the states", "I drove all the way from Boston to see you in this weather, and I'm glad I did", "Thanks for a real magical night and all the great music over the years; some of it has really touched me", yadda yadda. He was so humble through it all, and we exchanged "thank you"s back and forth. He said "Hey, we're just here trying to put on a good show!" I asked him to sign my CD cover "To Bill" (the main point of an autograph, IMO, is to remember that moment in your life's time when you were face to face with that person). Eric asked "Bill, or Billy?" and I said "Bill, please." He first wrote "Bill", and then stopped to think before he signed the rest. Finally he signed "THANX, BOSTON BILL -- ERIC MARTIN"
With all my autographs in hand, I thew on my jacket and headed for the exit. Outside, I talked to the couple who I met before the show. She waited outside that whole time, no thanks to the security. Fortunately, she finally got to go in for some signatures and pics with Eric and one of the other guys. I talked with her husband about some of the bands as she was inside. When she got out, we chatter for a little longer, then said good-bye. I got to my car, finally made it out to the highway, and drove all the way back, naturally blasting some Mr. Big to keep me awake though the ride home.
This was my second time in New Haven, and even through it's over 160 miles away, the trip always seems well worth it! I would have written the review when I got home. But I was SOOO tired by the time I got in (3:30? 4AM?)
And this concludes my concert review from one of the most talented rock bands in the busniess: Mr. Big. They never dropped off the face of the earth, folks! Buy the new CD "Get Over It"!
Thanks for reading! Or did you just scroll straight down to the bottom of the page in impatience? :P