Volume 2 February 2015
Black Market III A Recipe for Success
Big Jon’s Blues Bash
Can never have too many harmonicas
Lita Ford Hits Ramona Tragic Lovers Tour Kickoff Sons of Charity Fundraiser
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Contents Feature 3 Black Market III Jams 10 Local Jam Schedule 11 January Charity Jam Reviews 9 Sons of Charity Kickoff 12 Mercedes Moore 13 Big Jon’s Blues Bash 14 Guitars Sing in Ramona 15 Lita Hits Ramona 16 Night of Rock in Santee 17 Casey Mink Brings It to House of Blues
The Team Editor Eli J. Medellin Design / Technology Jennifer Medellin Photography Nick Abadilla Stephanie Pillar Eli J. Medellin Jam Master Mark Eppler Staff Sheri Salomone
Lette
r fro m the Editor
W
e are off to a great start. Our first issue of Boogie Magazine was opened and viewed by over 5,800 people from here in San Diego to as far as Europe, thanks to Lacy Younger and all our friends who helped us push it. This issue, we hope to make the same impact, or better, with Black Market III getting ready to tour throughout the Southwest United States and Europe. Confucius once said, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Sadly, it’s a dream of many but the reality of only a few. Black Market III is one of the few local bands that have worked hard to become self-sufficient and actually make a living at making music and touring. Their feature story in this issue gives a sneak peak into their success and hopefully will be an inspiration to all those who love to make music. January was also introduced us to some new friends. 14 year old Anthony Cullins, aka ‘The Fallbrook Kid’, joined us at our jam session at the El Cajon Grand and blew us away with his electrifying guitar playing and from-theheart singing. We will be sure to follow him in the future. “As long as he keeps his grades up,” says his dad Kenny, “you’ll be seeing a lot more of him.” Also in this issue, we welcome our newest photographer Stephanie Pillar. She’s been a busy lady bringing in the rock & roll side with photos and stories. We are very pleased to have her onboard. Thanks also go out to our friends the Moneymen Michael Head, Willy ‘Back Door Man’ Carmody, Steve Tahmahkera, and Mark Eppler for always being there to back us up at the jam sessions. Also thanks to our new friend Fedis Gray who sat in on bass at The Grand. We look forward to seeing your all of you out there, weather your playing music or hitting the dance floor, or just coming out to support the live music scene. Don’t forget to “Boogie” and smile for the cameras.
Eli J. Medellin
Publisher / Editor
Videography Brad Anderson Special Thanks The Moneymen Boogie Magazine 2
Black Market III
13. The family landed in San Diego when he turned 15. At that time he joined a band with a high school buddy and his older brother and a couple of their older friends. The Wholly Rollers was a Rhythm and Blues type revue and played out locally quite a bit. As members had to go their own ways, Scottie and front man Fred Kokaska stayed together and formed Bare Bones, which through various incarnations still plays today.
by Eli J. Medellin Photography by Nick Abadilla
At age 19 he met San Diego Blues legend Tomcat Courtney and was introduced to the Who’s Who of the blues scene. “I’m meeting all these guys who were at the core of the Blues scene, guys like Eric Lieberman and his band The Jukestompers. Eric’s former band was the highly regarded Rhumboogies, featuring Earl Thomas as the vocalist,” said Scottie. Scottie says that he learned the Lightnin’ Hopkins style guitar playing from Tomcat as well.
A Recipe For Success
A
fter having a smashing success with The Mississippi Mudsharks in the 90’s, then again in the mid 2000’s, Scottie Blinn has learned the lessons of the road from his own experience as well as from the the experiences of those he’s had the privilege to work with, and has formulated his own solution to a successful band. He calls it Black Market III.
Black Market III is a Rock & Roll business, with sponsors and merchandise carrying a trio of musicians on tours throughout the United States as well as Europe. Who is Black Market III? Are they a blues band or rock band, or metal band? How did they get to this level of success? We caught up with Scottie, Roxy Coverdale, and Gavin Glenn at a beautiful hillside home that Scottie and Roxy share together, with a scenic mountain view of Lakeside California in San Diego’s east county. We are quickly greeted by a Dachshund named Lloyd who has to check us out and make sure we’re ok to come in. Right away I notice a collection of new and vintage guitars displayed on the wall, and Scottie had a story for each one. While Gavin sets up his drums in preparation for rehearsal, we take a seat in their living room/rehearsal room/studio for a close-up intimate interview with the trio to find out their secret recipe.
Scottie Blinn
Scottie Blinn’s influences are too numerous to name. They range from T-Bone Walker and Lightnin’ Hopkins to ZZ Top, The Clash, and Social Distortion. His sound is a hard core mixture of everything in between. He grew up moving all over California and he started playing guitar at age
In 1992 he formed his own band that grew to be very popular called The Mississippi Mudsharks. Between 1992 and 1999 they spent most of those years playing seven nights a week and touring the Western States and Europe. “It wasn’t so much there was lots of places to play, it was just San Diego wasn’t as oversaturated as it is today,” said Scottie The Mudsharks took a bit over a six year hiatus while Scottie formed another band called the Tiki Torchers with Dave Uosikkinen of the Hooters on drums, and Tim Butler of Hot Rod Lincoln and Sha Na Na on bass. He got back together for a “one night show” with his drummer from the Mudsharks, Tom Essa, in 2006. They had so much fun doing that show, and since Blinn had already accumulated two records worth of material, they decided to make another go of it. This time they would not be doing the seven night a week local and U.S. gigs as before, but opted to continue doing their European tours since they had already established themselves there before, and Blinn had kept building upon that with his other bands. They continued recording and touring for a few years, then around 2009 they called it a day.
Gavin Glenn
Gavin hails from North Carolina. He was raised in a family full of musicians. When the family needed a drummer, he was it. You can easily tell by his drum style that although he grew up around the R&B and Funk
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scene, he was most influenced by Punk and Heavy Metal. One of the biggest professional bands he played with was Red Lotus out of New York. While with this band he also got to tour in Europe, until the singer got married and started a family. They tried going back to Europe as a three piece when Gavin receives a Facebook message from Scottie asking, “Hey man, what are you doing when you get home?” He said, “Playing with you! I’ve been with them almost three years now,” said Gavin. While not touring Gavin is also helping out in the studio and doing some live shows with The Sickstring Outlaws.
Roxanne Coverdale
Roxy was raised in Chula Vista, California. Her musical influences come from what she heard around the house growing up with her parents and older brother and sisters. It ranges from Big Band to Classic Rock to Mexican music. Although, her favorite band is Led Zeppelin. As opposed to Scottie and Gavin, this is Roxy’s first band. She and Scottie had been together long before BMIII and she had even gone on the road with him while he toured with his other bands. With Scottie’s encouragement, she started picking up the bass first as a relief from her stressful job.
“He’s always wanted me to pick up an instrument and I’ve always loved the bass. I think it’s a highly underrated instrument. I always hear the bass when I hear a song,” said Roxy. “He’s always wanted me to pick up an instrument and I’ve always loved the bass. I think it’s a highly underrated instrument. I always hear the bass when I hear a song,” said Roxy. So with couple of bottles of wine and Lloyd hanging out with them , Scottie taught her to play the bass while just jamming in the living room. They would jam like this on and off again for a few years while Scottie was still touring with the Mudsharks and Roxy was honing her skills as a bass player. Around 2010 Scottie was concentrating on how to proceed professionally as the Mudsharks started to phase out, so he approached her with the idea of getting serious and starting their own band. “The whole idea was for us to get some small coffee house and winery gigs and do a real quiet duo - something to do just for fun,” said Scottie. “I wasn’t touring with my former band...I was pretty much in between. It was just the right opportunity to start something and see it through.” For the next year they practiced up to five nights a week and put their dream set lists together. Next they connected with a drummer, 23 year old Haley Allen, and after a few rehearsals they realized it was something special. Scottie and Roxy asked Haley how she felt about going forward and really making this a successful band. Haley was “in”. Doing something just for fun was not really in his capabilities. “I’m either a thousand percent in, or I just don’t have time for it,” he said. It was time to start recording and touring. For Roxy’s very first gig in front of an audience, they showcased four songs at Chet Cannon’s jam session at the Downtown Café on a hot El Cajon Sunday. “It was about a hundred and two degrees,” exclaimed Roxy. “A lot of friends and family from Chula Vista came to see us,” she said. “I was nervous and excited. It took several days to come down from that high.” Yet, that would be just the beginning of her career as a musician.
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After the band had already been touring and becoming financially lucrative, and while she was still working full-time, Roxy came home one day and told Scottie she was ready to do Black Market III full time.
The Music
“We don’t consider ourselves a Blues band,” said Scottie. “We have a deeply rooted Blues foundation. My soul is in the Blues.” Scottie explained that having that solid foundation allows everything spring boarding from that to make sense. They credit Tom Waits as a main inspiration for the band, as he is a “story teller” with a Blues foundation. “Calling it a blues band would limit our audience.” said Gavin. With that unique Metal and Punk bottom, they have quite a Metal band following as well. “In Europe some of our biggest fans are the metal kids, and we get put on bills with Metal bands occasionally too” he said.
Touring
Since 1995, Scottie has toured with his bands through Mexico, England, Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg and is now looking to hit the Scandinavian countries and the Eastern European countries such as The Czech Republic, Poland and Romania. Scottie’s main ingredient for touring is building relationships. “We used to have an agency in Europe and still occasionally do some shows through them, but now mostly book our ourselves through the relationships we’ve nurtured,” he said. When the band tours they return to the same clubs and people where they’ve played before. “Those relationships are our starting point for the next tour, and we build from there.”
“We’ll get write-ups in Blues magazines and then the next week we’ll get one in a Rock and Metal magazine like The Catalyst,” said Scottie. “It opens up people to different styles and exposes us to a much larger audience. We like to go see and play with bands in many genres.”
As much as it is a business, it is mostly the relationships that the band has cultivated and guards carefully. “We don’t even say that we have fans. We have really connected friendships with people that come out to see us all the time,” said Scottie.
The Band Name
When touring, the band will often find themselves being invited to stay with friends that they have made on the road. “They’ll say, ‘oh we see you have a day or two off. Why don’t you come stay with us?’ ’”
Scottie and Roxy originally came up with the band name from a Tom Waits song called “Black Market Baby.” Soon after labeling themselves as Black Market Baby, they found out about another band out of D.C. that had made the name popular in the Hard Core Punk scene in the 80’s. Scottie contacted one of the band members through Facebook, explained the situation and asked if it would be ok to use the name. Since the other band was no longer very active, and had derived their name from a 70’s TV movie about babies being sold on the black market, they had no problem with another band using the name in a different genre.
“It was people from a Facebook group called The Eighties Hard Core Kids saying ‘Who the hell do you think you are?’” Shortly after, Black Market Baby’s (Scottie and Roxy’s) Facebook page starts getting hate emails from fans of the other band for stealing the name. “It was people from a Facebook group called The Eighties Hard Core Kids saying ‘Who the hell do you think you are?’” Apparently the other Black Market Baby band had taken notice that Scottie’s band was taking prime space in the search engines and affecting their merchandising sales and so forth. The singer had sent the link to the Facebook group to insight an online riot. After Scottie called him to ‘discuss’ this situation, The original BMB once again reached the group to admit that the singer had indeed allowed the other band to use the name. However, the damage had been done and after mauling it over, Scottie and Roxy decided that maybe Black Market Baby wasn’t such a great name after all given the negative connotations. Since they had already been marketing the name and getting noticed, they tried to figure out a way to just change it a little. Since they were three they tried Black Market Trio, but it sounded too much like a jazz band. So they incorporated the Roman numeral III. “Of course now that gets confused,” said Scottie, “people say Black Market the 3rd...Hahaha!” Roxy chimes in, “It seems like every night we get, ‘Why Black Market III?’” to which Scottie replies, “Hmmm...” pointing at each member.
As for the business , “First and foremost we love music,” said Scottie. “We love playing live in front of people, and we love recording.” “Obviously,” he continues, “the only way you get to continue doing that is to have a smart business sense and plan so you can actually afford to do what it is you love to do. If you’re doing it just to make money, it’s the most ridiculous thing in the world. When you are into anything you do for the right reasons, the money will come.” He goes on to explain that some bands want to be a success right away, thinking that a tour to Europe or even a state side tour would mean automatic success. He is often approached about helping other bands, but has to keep it realistic. “Yes of course I’d love to help out, but there is a whole grocery list of things that need to be in place and accomplished first,” he says. “It takes building a name and relationships. You can’t expect to go book a festival for the first time and ask for thousands of euros. It doesn’t work that way just because you’re an American. You have to first put in the hard work of networking and selling records...and be impressive on the stage as well.” One of the ways they find to network with other bands is to have mutual interest touring. They find a band who is popular in a region where they are not known, and the other band will have a mutual interest in touring where Black Market III has worked hard to establish. So they recommend and help book each other in these areas, or even book together as a double bill. In that way they cross introduce bands to fans. “We create a circuit that everyone can benefit from,” said Scottie. BMIII has done this successfully with a highly regarded West Coast Jump Blues band from Fresno, CA called the MoFo Party Band both in the States and in Europe. Coming up, Scottie and Roxy as the duo “Black Market II” are co-headlining a tour with another couple from Austin, TX called The Division Men. When this other duo arrives in California in midFebruary for the “Tragic Lovers Tour”, the two bands will head out through California, Nevada and Wyoming where Black Market III is already established, and then they will continue through Colorado, New Mexico and Texas where The Division Men can introduce their fans to the band from California. As Scottie sees it, “Number one, you know that the quality is there and number two, everyone involved with booking these tours [bands as well
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as clubs] knows that over the course of two or three time around, we’re looking at everyone doing very well financially from the night.” I asked Scottie for what he saw as the biggest difference between touring in Europe versus the States. He replied, “The biggest difference is, over there, it doesn’t matter what day of the week it is. People are there because you’re there. Also, there’s a much bigger respect for what’s going on, for the music and the performance,” he said. “For instance, there’s no televisions in the bars, or if there are for sports they don’t even consider leaving them on. Here, most places have one or more TVs on while a band or even a solo musician is playing. To me that is at the very least distracting, and at the very most disrespectful.” He continues, “We strive to make each performance a show, something special, not just be the band in the corner of the bar playing songs like a jukebox.”
Promotion
“Both the club and the bands have to put 100% in getting butts in the seats,” said Scottie. The clubs are expected to promote but the band plays a huge part in promotions as well. They network with radio DJs, hang up posters, and always remember to utilize social media as well. They have figured out the successful way of using Reverbnation and Facebook, noting that is equally important to follow up after they had already posted a week before the show. “You learn what to do and not to do, and figure out how to post when people are going to actually see the posts.” Posters still play a big part in promoting, and they make sure to hang hard copy flyers where ever they will be playing and make the digital copy for the social media sites. “…and not to say that every one of our shows is packed either [locally],” said Scottie. “We might have sixty or seventy friends show up and then a
couple of weeks later, there might be ten. There’s just so much out there, but you put in the same consistent effort every single show then at that point, you’ve done everything you can do. So, you can’t feel bad about it.” Scottie goes on to point out that when clubs work hard to promote and they hire quality bands that work equally as hard to promote, they are the clubs that get noticed as the “happening” spots for live music. The band also has sponsors that they have, again, built relationships with. Sponsors such as Quilter Amps, Boulder Creek Guitars, Motor Cult Kustom Kulture Clothing, T-Cymbals, Silverfox Drumsticks, Dunlop Guitar Accessories, Black Widow Drum Web, Grover Percussion, and Powell Drums also help spread the word through their own advertising.
Veering Left
At the end of our time together, Gavin brings everything to a comical conclusion, referring to Roxy’s antics on the road. “I love touring with this band… because of shit Roxanne says,” said Gavin.” It seems that although she is never in a bad mood and is timely and responsible, Roxy has a disturbing sense of humor as well. From her oneliners on tour like “What the fuck day is it anyway?”, to putting on her dark sunglasses, rolling up her hoodie and proclaiming, “I’m goin’ Uni-Bomber on your ass” when Scottie and Gavin are “being boys”. She maintains that she had never wanted to be the burden that one might think of the only girl in the band. Rather, she prefers to think of herself as the “I Love Lucy” character alway trying to find a way to get into Ricky’s band. In closing Gavin proclaims, “Being in a band that you consider Family does not suck.”
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Tragic Lovers Tour Kick-off Sons of Charity Fundraiser Photos by Nick Abadilla LAKESIDE, CA, February 15 - Great night of Rock & Roll as Scottie Blin and wife Roxanne Coverdale kick off their Tragic Lovers show teaming up with husband and wife duo from Texas J. Spencer Portillo and Caroline Rippy Portillo raising money and awareness for Sons of Charity and the fight against Neuroblastoma. The show was at Scottie and Roxanne’s Lakeside home and was attended by more that seventy five very generous individuals shelling out some big green backs for items on auction. View more images at BoogieMagazine.com
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v
Ready to Jam?
Calling all Intermediate & Advanced Musicians Tuesdays
Wednesdays
Thursdays
Sundays
5147 Waring Rd, San Diego, CA
1055 5th Ave, San Diego, CA
2330 La Mirada Dr, Vista, CA
182 E. Main St, El Cajon, CA
Tom’s Band Camp* 8:00pm - 11:00pm Pal Joey’s Cocktail Lounge *First and third Tuesdays
Jamming Out 7:00pm - 11:00pm The House of Blues
Blues Jam & Open Mic 8:00pm - 12:00am The Pour House
1903 S Coast Hwy, Oceanside, CA
Aztec Open Mic 8:00pm - 12:00am Aztec Brewing
Chet’s Patio Party Blues Jam 2:30pm Downtown Cafe Bar & Grill Big Daddy Deluxe Open Mic 2:00pm - 6:00pm PK’s Roadhouse 155773 Grand Ave, Lake Elsinore, CA
What’s a jam session?
Each show is a unique experience where musicians show up, sign in, and play impromptu versions of well known songs. The leader is whoever steps up and chooses song, key and tempo with only has a few seconds to explain to the rest of the musicians. Each set has different musicians and sets are determined by the coordinator. It sounds like a mess but somehow it always seems to work out and turns into an exciting event for participants and audiences alike.
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January Jam @The Grand Story by Eli J. Medellin Photos by Eli J. Medellin and Daniel Ogas El Cajon, CA. January 17- Our last jam session at the El Cajon Grand was amazing. Another successful jam session with some of San Diego’s finest musicians. The show started out with a surprise guest from Fallbrook, 14 year old Anthony Cullins (aka The Fallbrook Kid) was escorted in by his dad Kenny and the whole Cullins family. Jaws were dropping all over the place as the kid amazed us with some blues guitar skills reminiscent of young guitarists Joe Bonamassa and Jonny Lang. Since the club is a 21 and over venue, young Anthony had to leave as soon a he finished playing. It was an act hard to follow, but the afternoon show carried on thanks to the many talented guests in the audience such as Harmonica John Frazer, Bob Pruitt and Lumpy of the Dependables, James Brown, Victor Franklin, Gary Orlansky, Sheri Salomone, Steve Douglas, Paul Brink, Paul Whitaker, Terry Lee Fenwick, Tom Tice, Perry Lee Witt, Harry Williams, Junior Torres
Howard Bennett and our new friend, Fedis Gray. Rhythm and the Method closed the show with Rhythm Turner on vocals and harmonica, Evan Turner on lead guitar, Laura Payne on bass guitar and Papa Shawn Turner on guitar and Paul Whitaker sitting in on drums. KGB’s Big Jon was on hand, as always, to help out with the MC responsibilities but also got in on a jam playing guitar and singing. With his help, throughout the last three jam sessions, we have been able to raise more than $1,000 going to Coe’s List of charities, helping needy families in the San Diego area. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the musicians who have been there to help out at all our jam sessions, The Moneymen. We could not have done all this without them. Big hugs and and very large thank you to Michael Head, Steve Tahmahkera, Willy ‘Back Door Man’ Carmody, and our own Mark Eppler. Thanks to everyone for giving us the jump start we needed to make this work. Jenn and I wish you all a killer 2015 filled with music and friendship. View more images at BoogieMagazine.com
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Mercedes Moore Story and photos by Eli J. Medellin
SAN DIEGO, January 8- Mercedes Moore has all the charm and beauty combined with a soulful voice that makes her one of Boogie Magazine’s top divas. Together with killer guitar player Scot Smart and the band, they drew a swinging dance crowd the dance floor at Tio Leo’s Lounge. View more images at BoogieMagazine.com
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Big Jon’s Blues Bash Story and photos by Eli J. Medellin SAN DIEGO, January 10- Big Jon’s event had to be the big party of the new year. It was like a family reunion at Proud Mary’s that night. Seemed like everyone knew everyone else. Some of the best harmonica players were there to perform. Many musicians in the area came to see the show with all of their friends and everyone stayed for the whole show. Big John opened the night with his own band and then sat in with others. The stage salon harp Bubba McCoy, Troy Sandow, Billy Watson, Bob Corritore, James Harmon and topping the night with Kim Wilson. Some other well known musicians graced the stage such as Jr. Watson, Kedor Roy, Nathan James, Marty Dodson and Barry G as the Master of Ceremonies. View more images at BoogieMagazine.com
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Guitars Sing in Ramona Story and photos by Stephanie Pillar RAMONA, January 24 -Texas guitar slinger Eric Johnson and American jazz guitarist Michael Stern gave a command performance of instrumental rock at the Ramona Mainstage on Saturday night. The Taz Taylor Band, with UK born Taz Taylor on guitar, Barney Firks on bass and Val Trainor on drums opened the show to a sold-out crowd, some coming to Ramona from as far away as Anaheim where the annual NAMM events were taking place. Also opening that night was Points North, a progressive, instrumental rock band out of the San Francisco Bay area, fronted by guitarist Eric Barnett, played a phenomenal set, as anyone who has heard this band before can attest, they always do! Their very dexterous bass player Uriah Duffy is a former member of Whitesnake, and drummer, Kevin Aeillo, also has an impressive history in the music scene having played with numerous, classic Blues acts such as Etta James and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band prior to joining musical forces with Eric and Uriah in Points North. Guitarist Eric Barnett cites Eric Johnson as his favorite guitar player and primary musical influence. You could see how much this evening meant to him during his passion-filled, performance of the song, “The Source“. after his heartfelt and inspired performance he wrote in his Facebook page that Eric Johnson is “the man who’s tone inspired me to play instrumental music and try to make the guitar sing”. Well, I have to say, both Erics made their guitars more than just sing that night! View more images at BoogieMagazine.com
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Lita Hits Ramona Story and photos by Stephanie Pillar RAMONA, January 25- Legendary rocker Lita Ford hit the stage, the show aptly titled, The Bitch Is Back! In her black leather, her blonde mane flying, and wielding her signature B.C. Rich Warlock guitar Lita played to a packed house of enthusiastic fans. RDG, started the night off in true hard rock style. The threepiece instrumental band is fronted by the massive but nimblefingered guitar player, Raymond DiGiorgio. Ray, along with his bandmates, drummer Bill Ray and bass player Deron Ireland, is so entertaining, you tend to forget that there are no lyrics to the music! Allison Chains, the world’s only female Alice in Chains tribute band, put on a rousing performance of such Chains standards as, “Rooster,” “Would?” and “Down In A Hole.” The band line-up includes Allison the lead singer, Misai on drums, P-Nut on bass and Felicia Villani on guitar. They finished their set off with the
heart-thumping “Man In The Box” and a shout out to Lita Ford from their obviously, excited lead singer, Allison! Rammoth, the next band up, is one of San Diego’s home grown original bands. With their set packed full of loud, fist-pumping, Hard Rock and Metal originals, they further primed the crowd for the Queen of Metal soon to follow! Rammoth is lead singer, Gary Pacini, Alex Alvarez on drums, Brett Baugh on guitar, Mike Kearns on guitar and Ted Staub on bass. Lita Ford is touring with drummer, Bobby Rock, bass player, Marty O’Brien and guitarist Patrick Kennison. Switching between her Black Warlock guitar and her white prototype double neck guitar (guitar alone, weighs 12 pounds!). Lita worked the stage and the obviously, adoring crowd like the consummate professional she truly is. She closed the night in style with my personal favorite, “Kiss Me Deadly”! Watch for Lita’s biography coming out in April of this year! View more images at BoogieMagazine.com
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Night of Rock in Santee Story and photos by Stephanie Pillar SANTEE, January 31 – Four of San Diego’s home grown hard rock and heavy metal bands hit the stage at Santee’s Second Wind. It was an excellent night of rock as Rammoth jump started the night with their heavy-hitting, metal sound. The Rammoth Metalband is Alex Alvarez on drums, Brett Baugh and Mike Kearns on guitar, Ted Staub on bass and lead singer, Gary Pacini. On Descent soon followed with lead singer, Justin Hedrick, Louie Borja on guitar, Stu Bacca on bass and the always entertaining, very flamboyant drummer, Rogelio Estrada (Jr)! We were all treated to a bit of a surprise performance when Rogelio Estrada (Sr) switched up with his son for a couple of songs. The elder Estrada, well known for his masterful drum style with Relax Max and Monsters of Rock, was also very impressive on the metal side.
Seventrain’s star has risen, opening for such acts as Pat Travers, Michael Schenker, Skid Row and Puddle of Mudd as well as being nominated for Hard Rock Album of the Year in the 2014 San Diego Music Awards! Their sound is blues-based, hard rock influenced by AC/DC, Alterbridge, Audioslave, Kings X, and, of course, Led Zeppelin! Seventrain is fronted by the guitar-slinging, lead singer, Jon Campos and rounded out by Eric Horton and Jef Poremba on guitar, Steve (Dino) Andino on bass and Joel Maitoza on drums. Topping off the night was Bloodlines with Shawn Salerno, Tommy Johnston, Paul Vouaux Sr, and Paul Vouaux Jr fusing different styles of rock with rock-solid grooves, hard, melodic vocals, and blistering guitar solos. View more images at BoogieMagazine.com
Seventrain performed in the third spot. Their self-titled, debut CD was released in February, 2014 and over the year,
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Casey Mink BRINGS IT TO THE HOUSE OF BLUES Story and photos by Stephanie Pillar SAN DIEGO, CA, January 9- A couple of times a year, the San Diego House of Blues hands the reins to the main stage over to Casey Mink. Casey is the leader and founder of the infamous local cover band, 6ONE9. Casey lines up two to three additional cover or tribute bands to play with 6ONE9 for the evening. This gives some of our local bands an opportunity to play for the very first time under the star studded lights of the House of Blues main stage! The lights and the amazing sound system at House of Blues seem to inspire the bands to play at a whole new level. The performances on Friday, January 9, were no exception! First timer, Relax Max kicked off the night in spectacular fashion with “We All Die Young”! With the hard rockin‘ vocals of Laurie Vreeland, Leah Macks Cerantes Stephenson on Vocals and Guitar, Sergio Estrada on Guitar, John Osmon on Bass and Rogelio Estrada on Drums, Relax Max covered songs such as “White Rabbit”, “Purple Rain” and ended their set with a spectacular acoustic version of “The Trooper”. Arena, “the Total Rock Experience”, hit the stage after Relax Max. Arena, covered songs by the legendary 70s and 80s Hard Rock bands such as Journey, Van Halen, Styx and Foreigner. The band
is led by Mark Gregory on Lead Vocals, Mike Walter on Guitar, Eric DeLand on Bass, Dave Hart on Keyboards and Joe Zalak on Drums. 6ONE9, no strangers to the main stage, took over from Arena blowing us all away with such crowd favorites as No More Tears, Metal Health, and Hot For Teacher. If you are at all familiar with Hot For Teacher, you know this song is highlighted by an amazing drum solo. Seeing the jaw-dropping, eye-popping, Jorge Palacios perform this drum solo is not to be missed! 6ONE9, is fronted by Casey Mink on Lead Vocals and Guitar, with Greg Rupp on Lead Vocals and Bass, Jef Poremba on Vocals and Guitar and Rick Springfield’s drummer, Jorge Palacios on Drums. Madmen, an Ozzy Osborne Tribute Band, finished up the evening in true hard rock style with their spot-on renditions of such Ozzy classics as “Flying High Again” and “Steal Away” as well as the Black Sabbath classics “Children of the Grave” and “The Wizard”. Madmen is Scott Billion on Lead Vocals, Steve Cox on Guitar, Pete Stone on Bass and Javier Vega on Drums. Be on the lookout for the Casey Mink’s next edition showcasing San Diego’s best local cover and tribute bands on the House of Blues main stage! View more images at BoogieMagazine.com
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