We saw Led Zeppelin....

2 in concert.

Saturday night The Tank and Mick-Tank ( my nefew) donned our finest black t-shirts, cleanest dirty jeans and set out for the show. Now LZ-2 was stumbled upon by way of the radio blaring between CDs switches in the car, one of our local idiots errr..DJs was spouting off about free tickets to either a D-team basketball game or Led Zeppelin 2, I could tell by her snide-y-ness that LZ2 is way cooler than her Nickle-back spinning ass could fathom so when time permitted I looked them up on the ole' 'puter, sure enough LZ2 in concert at La Zona Rosa...I ask Mick-Tank if he'd care to join his rickety old unc to the show, as LZ not LZ2 is one of his favorite bands amongst other shit that is older then him by 20 years!(the boy was raised right). He was down, maybe for the show but definitely to get the hell out of his dorm for a few hours!

After some burgers we set off to the club, there was a line 50 deep, with more piling up behind us so I thought these guys must be ok so I was pretty stoked. Frankly the idea of covering Zeppelin songs is not original...be definition obviously and dressing up like them circa '73 playing the exact instruments for a particular song and mimicking their mannerisms is also not original, by the very act of acting like someone else again originally is out the door! Having determined that there would be zero originality taking place helped to settle my mind because it is a very fine line between flattery and mockery, these Chicago natives pulled it off, they obviously revere Led Zeppelin to the point where they are not merely doing LZ covers they transform themselves and the result was a very strong 8.5 howitzers outta 10 from The Tank.

Where to begin...drums, having dabbled all my teen years behind a drum set I can tell you straight off that Bonham's shit is a mental and physical marathon, each song an exercise that would make a Navy SEAL need a blow. The time keeping alone is demanding, in order to achieve his sound one must beat the living shit out of the skins, add the fills, the crash blows, the goddamn foot work and I'm telling you just beating out Black Dog kicks your ass! Their Bonzo is as capable a player as I have ever seen he has almost mastered the master, I say almost because somethings can not be duplicated and obviously Bonzo was a once a millennium guy. Though he wore a wig, the "The Song Remains.." bandanna helped keep it looking real.

LZ2's singer had the one thing that cannot be found very often, his voice, this guy sounded like Plant circa '73 not a little bit but ear-illy so(...get it.. ear-illy),he could have been chanelling Plant, it was that close. Where their Plant faulted was the ocassional lyric fluff which sometimes can be overlooked but fluffing Kashmir.....really, dude everyone knows the words to Kashmir, if the19 year old girls dancing as if for a Sultan knew every word than the dude doing Plant into a mic better damn sure know the words! But over-all very little to bitch about, his mannerism spot-on, real hair, fresh perm and blonde color, clothes, the occasional Plant song intros and mid-song diversions well studied, he even did the fairly rare " If you are going to San Fransico" medley.

Jonesy, frankly this guy might be the most talented of the bunch, playing a P-Bass, a sunburst and an all black model that was really sharp. A old looking Hammond ( yes they did Stairway) and even the mandolin! Really solid player, only complaint, the wig was a little funky and he moved...moved way too much. Watch any Zeppelin footage and JPJ is the epitome of mellow, that is what bass players of his generation did, stood back and layed it down. Entwistle, Wyman...for every Jack Bruce, you can find a dozen JPJ. Hard to fault the guy too much, not shaking your ass to The Ocean or Communication Breakdown is hard to do and the dude could straight rip!

Pagey, this guy was really really good. Without the advantages of overdubs or a rhythm player he made it look and sound rather easy. Playing the intricate stuff that Page is capable of playing and acting like him cannot be easy, one must pay attention to ones playing, duck walks and facial expression take a back seat, so their Pagey was more a player, like their Jonesy, player first, actor second and again the guy pulled it off.
Again a wig I think but he had all the right gear, the sunburst Les Paul, the double neck EDS and get this even a black and white Danelectro! He did Black Mountain Side and Kashmir with it, real metallic sound, very cool. he also did the bow thing and had a theremin!!!! Only complaint and it is not his fault he looks like Paul Rudd...(see below).

Overall really enjoyable, LZ Rosa has horrible sound unless you are right in front of the band, which we were until baby-hulk-frat-boy decided to "dance" in front of Mick-Tank and myself which forced us to move outside the golden sound area. (You see dwarf-hulk got my Irish up, and not wanting to subject my nefew, to his uncle and some dwarf-hulk-boy throwing blows during Immigrant Song we moved to the back of the venue.)

Highlights...
19 year old girls dancing to Kashmir like belly dancers!

Nobody's Fault...dude could play the harp like Plant too, really cool to hear this done live ballsy but they delivered!

Moby Dick sans finger solo which was just awesome, but this big fat jerk talked the whole time to his buddy about how " I could play that, it's not that hard...blah, fucking blah..." Fat ass could barely stand without breaking a sweat, much less play Moby "fng"Dick! Dude needed a reality check bad!

Did I mention the 19 year old girls dancing....

If you get a chance to see these guys do it. They look more like LZ now but here is a sample of samples....




I can smell....Sex Panther..from here!

nice crowd....Little Texas was huge...once....there is a connection if you know the lyric...a reach, yes, but it's my blog!!



60% of the time, it works every time!



now let's go see of we can make this little kitty purrrrr.....

Keep Blasting!!
The Tank

The Armory

I want to officially introduce a new element to ESG.

Tank's Bombshell Armory!!

Like most dudes I really, really love beautiful women, so much in fact I married one! What is more kick ass?

I also respect them with a reverence from another time and out of that I ultimately appreciate timeless beauty, I consider myself a good judge of it, line, symmetry, colors, things in balance and harmony as nature intended and of course hotness!

Now don't think ESG is going to become a site where pics of naked chicks pillow fighting is the norm...nope in fact the Armory will be reserved only for iconic examples of beauty, most will be recognizable,others not so, but rest assured they will be worth admiring and fully clothed!

Submissions accepted and I will update occasionally, but only with those that meet my exacting standards.

Below a few of examples plus something else I love, laughing!

At the very bottom of ESG the first installment.

                                     Amy Adams, Tank loves him some Amy Adams...

Bridget Fonda the face of the '90s? oh yeah and she was in Easy Rider!

Natalie Portman...words do her no justice. 

Zooey Deschanel she does it all act,sing,model..oh and she is in one of my favorite Drunk History episodes...

" i didn't take my pants off or anything, did i?"

This is a riot! Natalie and the dude from " The Hangover"!

Between Two Ferns With Zach Galifianakis: Natalie Portman from Between Two Ferns

Seems like yesterday...

I was talking with my sister, CAT- Tank and we had the..."remember where you were when you heard so&so died" talk. Got me thinking about Bonham, Lennon, Rhoads, Burton, Vaughan,Cobain...and even Selena!

John Henry Bonham is the patron saint of ESG and his death on Sept. 25, 1980 really shook me ( no pun intended) and I cannot remember the specifics, maybe it's a memory repression so as to protect my fragile psyche! But I do recall thinking it cannot be true! When it was finally in the newspaper, a little write up on the 4th page or some shit, i went to my room, put on my headphones, put on I..then II,III, IV etc... reading the article over and over and cried, it hurt so fucking bad! I 'm crying now...always have, always will.

Lennon, Dec. 1980, I was sick with something and had already been in bed for a couple of days, I had my trusty clock radio on KLAQ and the news broke in the evening, the lady DJ cried ( then and I knew she was not lying...) as she spoke and played Strawberry Fields or Day in the Life...as I drifted in and out for days on end I recall really hearing the Beatles for the first time, really listening and finally "getting it".

Randy, March 1982, this one hurt too, the Madman tour had just been through our town in February literally like two weeks earlier! I was just walking outside my folks front door when my brother pulled up jump out of his car and said real matter of fact..."Hey, Randy Rhoads just died..."...I recall saying something along the lines of 'hahaha Fuck off" or "hahaha, Shut -up" but I knew he wasn't joking because he knew I took this shit very serious...he said he was sorry..I had just seen him! Kicking so much ass, one of the best players I'd ever seen up to that point!...I was physically ill, I cried, I'm crying now....

Burton, Sept. '86. I'm pretty hazing on this, I was living by myself in a small apartment on Partello St. behind my old high school... I'd been dumped by my HS sweetheart so I was a total mess but had a good job for 19 years old and blew loads of dough on herb and Bush tallboys...jammed tunes all night and day, paying off the complainers ( these two old gay guys) with cases of Budweiser and the occasional pinner. I heard rumors that Cliff was dead, ( Mr.666?) but Metallica was not a main stream band...yet..but it was confirmed in Kerrang with full page spreads taken out by friends and family. This gave me an excuse to get really plastered for a few months...I came out of it...got a better, more fun job with the afore mentioned Mr. 666, met an even hotter chick and all was well until...and justice came out! hahaha

SRV, August 1990, I had followed the hotter chick mentioned above to school in N. Texas and had snagged a gig at the University book store, bagging books for frat boys and North Texas debutantes, real shit gig but I was desperate having gone out there with my brother, our Camaros and very little else. Again my brother broke the news and he was bummed... he walked up and said "hey man Stevie Ray died yesterday, sucks hu?" Yeah man still sucks 20 years later. I was lucky enough to see him twice once at a fest '89, outside about 110 degrees about 10 feet from him tripping on 'shrooms! And another time at the Colosseum, he stopped in the middle of a song cause a fight broke out, he told everyone to cool it or he would call the gig off! Shit was quite after that and he killed it for two hours, best player I ever saw something like supernatural or superhuman at least was happening. We miss you Stevie!

Kurt,1994... man you know I got to think on this... I was bummed, not catatonic but it was profound it felt like losing a friend, I think cause he was my age, from my generation telling the man to shove it but not in a hippie way. Kurt symbolized a lot of what me and my friends were about; partyin', diggin' Sabbath one minute, then Bowie to Misfits to Neil Young to Slayer, I know we could have hung out.

Selena 1995, though not a fan I still remember this because of the way it affect those around me. My friend and co-worker Juanito walked in crying like a little boy! I ran over and asked him what happened? He said Selena was murdered! He wept like he had lost his mother, again I think she represented much more then a singer especially to people like Juan who came to America to find a better life. Although she was a Texan, she symbolized the American dream to him; hard work being rewarded because this is the ultimate meritocracy. And the fact that she was killed at such a young age made it that much harder, my boss sent him home, I thought that was cool, people wrote memorials on their cars and drove with their lights on for months.

If you have a "..I remember where I was" story, please share. Till next time dig this.

This is from a BBC special with a great story from Jason.



Double Fantasy came out just before his death. This always takes me back to 1980.



Dig them White Marshall Stacks! I read somewhere that the Randy didn't like this Sandoval? He seemed to play it allot.



SRV, ACL, KICK ASS! Best left hand ever?!?!
Pretty clean strat for Stevie must have busted a string on "Lenny".



Fairly tight version of Love Buzz...was Kurt an underrated player?



How's about some Hollywood stereotyping...Anything for Selenas...

Belated Birthday wishes to Dolly!

The Tank dropped the ball yesterday as pointed out by Mr.666...it was Ms. Dolly Parton's Birthday yesterday!

Born in 1946 in Tennesse and absolutely killing it ever since!

Her talents, errr, huge, the voice like that of a dixie angel!

Great song writer and from all accounts one classy broad!

Happy Birthday Dolly, The Queen of Country Music!!

My favorite Dolly song. ( Yes, The Tank has a favorite Dolly song...doesn't everyone?) and when the hell are Big Bells coming back?!?!? I can't wait!



This is ESG, the Zeppelin connection....don't worry it's very short...
Ain't it cool that Dolly finds the good in everything, this song has been villified by bible thumpers for 40 years and Dolly says screw you I'm gonna sing some Zeppelin for God!



I do like this too, her version of Collective Soul's "Shine"...that is Nickel Creek doing the pickin'...( The Tank likes them too!)



Dolly pluckin' n pickin'

...It's not so easy to be the teacher's pet

The Tank goes back to school today, so posts maybe less frequent than they already are....at my age school is less of an intellectual challenge and more of a practice in patients...so here's to me not braining some jerk-ass for texting all through Algebra!

In honor of school here are more videos!

some Zenyatta Mondatta fo yo ass...



Rod and Rod!



The original School song...check this '76!

No Sleep 'til Hammersmith!

Rock n Roll was meant to be listened to and seen live; real people doing the thing that they have given their hearts and souls into usually since the time they were very young! What is more kick ass than guitars and drums and amps and lights and smoke and anticipation, but when recorded they often lack, either the sound quality or the performers aren't in their proper frame of mind, if you get my drift, or things are done in the studio that cannot be duplicated in a live setting.

Here are some acceptions coincidently from shows at a little place called The Hammersmith Odeon!

Bruce could straight RIP! I.M. was always tight, Harris always immulated UFO in live should sound like the recording, thanks Steve!





Not the famous Christmas shows from'75, but from '79, Roger in all his awesomeness!


Ziggy retires but we get '73 Forever!



I know what you are thinkin" with that title "wherez me bleedin' Mota'ead"! Well "No Sleep" was not recorded at the Hammersmith! Just like Lemmy to keep us on our toes! So here is something recorded somewhere else!




Strangers in the Night maybe the best live album ever....this is a couple years earlier. I've never seen this! Oh shit! The Tank has big metal goose bumps! I took off my shirt too! Oh shit!!! I forgot all about the damn Hammersmith! THIS RULES!


WATCH THIS AGAIN!!

..you really ain't that young.....

Scattershot postings this month are to due to bronchitis.....sinus infection.....ear infection....and "an acute allergic reactions to seasonal air born pollutants"! Which of course in turn make The Tank a snot factory!!!

If you watch American Idol keep this in mind! Steven really was the shit.



This has bonus bonzo intro! ....



The Stones always make me feel a little better..anyone know what ever happen to the other Mick?



Stay tuned for a fabulous frenzy of new stuff...post snot!