HooooOOOOOoooolllllyyyyyyy dog shit!! To say that a Legendary Rock God died today is the understatement of all time. Eddie Van Halen... wow. It was probably one of the worst kept secrets in Music at this point (He had been flying to Germany for cancer treatment for years now), and David Lee Roth kind-of let the cat out of the bag about what was going on with Eddie's health while promoting his shitty residence here in Vegas, but still, when looking at a rockstars mortality in black and white on a computer screen, it all just makes you think about the precious gift of Life that we all take for granted day in and day out. Happy or sad, rich or poor, when it's your time to go it's your time to go, and there ain't nothing anybody on this big blue marble spinning around the sun can do about that. Death and Taxes. Both are inevitable. Man, what a loss. 
     Many is the hour I spent blitzed out of my skull hanging out on the sidewalk outside of the Ticketron office next to the Sears at the Stonewood Mall in Downey all night long, waiting along with an equally inebriated mob of buffoons for the chance to buy tickets to what was always the concert of the year, the local Van Halen gig. That was the only Ticketron office in the area that allowed overnight line ups before tickets went on sale at 10 am the next day. Oh the stories I could tell about those particular nights! 😆 Sometimes I got to see Van Halen twice in one year (I was there when they parachuted into Anaheim Stadium in '78!!) but one thing's for sure, Van Halen concerts were LIT! One of the best live bands to ever tour the Earth. Whether from the nosebleed seats to the 3rd row on the floor, it was always a good fucking time watching the band ripping shit up for me. I'm not even a guitar guy per se, but I loved watching Eddie Van Halen play live in concert, in his element, living out his dream, all while making the most glorious sounding noises from pieces of hacked up and chopped up wood and strings and jerry rigged electronics, all highlighted and marked up with spray paint and tape, I mean, that has to be a blessing of some sorts, right? LOL I mean, I kind of knew I was in a 'presence of greatness' thing, watching my generations Jimi Hendrix, so to hear of his passing, officially, just hit a raw nerve. What a tragedy. What a loss. I only saw the guy offstage once, while hanging out in front of the Coconut Teaszer club in Hollywood waiting to get into a Butt Trumpet gig. The people in line were yelling at him as he drove by in a sick red Lamborghini, telling him to come in and check out the gig. He made a monster of an illegal u turn and pulled up alongside the sidewalk and asked who was playing and when he heard the name "Butt Trumpet" he started laughing, shaking his head 'no' and speeding off. He seemed like such a normal guy, not rockstarish at all, even though he was sitting in a car that was worth more than my parents house! My condolences to his family and friends and everyone that knew him. The world is a much sadder place without him. This fucking sucks. Call me sentimental but I liked the last Van Halen album. I was looking forward to hearing more new music from the band, and now the only way that's gonna happen is by flogging a dead horse and scraping the bottom of the barrel for detritus. Lame.
     Today is one for the history books. Crank that shit up loud and say the magic words that the brothers in Pantera used to say when getting their party on: Eddie Van Halen!!!  This date will forever be etched in time and celebrated over the years, much like the birth of Jesus Christ or the day that Kennedy was assassinated by his own government. The guy lived the life of a thousand men, and existence here on Earth just got a little less interesting and a lot less fun that's for sure. RIP Eddie Van Halen. Gawd knows you earned it and deserve it. Cheers! 🍻

I always said if you wrote a blog on a website I would read it, and since I did a podcast myself a while ago, I feel it's only fair to tell you about a local podcast that talks about all things local music related, as well as whatever the hell else pops in their head or what they feel like talking about that I've been listening to lately. The podcast is called Can We Say That?, and it's run by Jimbo, drummer extraordinaire from IDFI who currently plays with Punk Rock Jones in Kapitol Punishment. It's basically a bunch of friends just sitting around, having fun, talking shit, and just keeping things interesting while talking about anything and everything they feel like talking about. Pretty good stuff. The Local Bands episode was really fucking good. Them talking about how Mike from Guilty By Association's singing is live was spot on! LOL He's always got that damn beer bottle in his hand! 🤣 They've also had episodes testing out new equipment, conspiracy talking, breaking in new hosts, the #metoo movement, and fixing up their cars and other manly stuff. There's 3 guys doing the podcast, and besides Jimbo I'm not sure who the other 2 guys are, but they're funny, insightful, and a real easy listen on the ears. I dig it. If you're feeling cooped in from all this shutdown shit, and miss hanging out and bullshitting with your friends at bars, talking about what's going on locally band wise and whatnot, then check out the  Can We Say That? podcast and see what you think of it. I'm betting that you'll dig it. 😎

While in the process of cleaning out the skeletons from my closet recently I found a DVD labelled 'Website 2004' with a plethora of stuff I thought I had lost forever. Pics, gig/show reviews, y todo! It was quite the trip down memory lane going through it all to say the least. 16 years ago... what a trip heh I'm slowly in the process of putting everything on there back up on the website, since there's not much going on locally that I'm interested in promoting or talking about. So click here to read about Thunderfist and Sloka rocking the Double Clown one Thursday night, or you can click here to see the photos I added to the Agent Orange / D.I. / Guilty By Association / Sloka @The Boston gig review. I also added a whole bunch of pics, mostly from the year 2003, so if you were around then or might be interested in pics of the Las Vegas scene from 17 years ago than you can go here as a jump off point to check all those out if you're so inclined... heh

     Ya know, 2020 can just go suck the big one at this point. As if you needed any other reason to be bummed out for a bit, comes the heartbreaking news that Ron Heathman, guitar  virtuoso from the Supersuckers who had morphed into a certified coffee brew master extraordinaire, has passed away. The Loud Pipes played a shitload of gigs with the Supersuckers back in the days (the gig at the Boston in '04 is the stuff of Legend), both bands had sponsorship from Zinky Guitars, and I was more than fortunate to be a fly on the wall when Ron and Jesse would hold court and talk gear and BS every time they ran into each other. When I first met Ron I made the obvious joke of asking him where the cocaine was (Ron's Got The Cocaine) and he started reaching into his front shirt pocket, setting the room into fits of laughter. He was a cool dude, and watching him rip through all those classic Supersuckers songs was truly a blessing. I've lost all the pictures I've taken of the band over the years, but that doesn't make the memories of all those fun filled, alcohol fueled, debaucherous times any less vivid or grin inducing. I'm proud to have known him, proud to say he was someone I met, and even prouder to say I saw him play. He was definitely one of the truest most Rock and Roll dudes I've ever met in my life, and he will be missed that's for damn sure. Condolences to his family and friends. Let's pour ourselves a strong drink of your choice and spend some time listening to some Supersuckers at a ridiculously loud volume like I currently am, and raise your glass and give a toast to a guy who was truly one of the good ones, the legendary Ron "Rontrose" Heathman. The world is just a little bit darker today because of his passing, and that fucking sucks. RIP Ron. Go easy. Step lightly. Stay Free. Salud!

     There are literally years and years of stuff lost from this website, and by lost I mean it was once there and now it's not. Show reviews, loads and loads of Idle Gossip, videos, flyers, music reviews and the most painful of all the losses, the Pictures. Oh the Pictures. 💔 There's many reasons why stuff gets lost, but I don't wanna get into it. Whenever I find a snippet of anything that's not on here, from wherever I find it at, old CD's and DVD's mostly, I immediately post it before I forget about it. Now either for Throwback Thursday or Flashback Friday, depending on what day you're reading this, I wanna tell you about 2 Show Reviews I found recently, one from 2003, the other from 2004, and both equally funny for very different reasons.
     The first one from 2003 is a write up of a Local night at the Double Clown that saw 1/2 Ast, The Dirty Babies, The Needles and Bobrocks co-mingling with the Hell’s Angels as the night ended with a bottle throwing melee started by Roy from The Black Jetts. Aaaaaahhh, the good ol' days 🤣🤣🤣 Click here if you're interested. The second Show Review is from 2004 and it's about when Agent Orange, D.I., Guilty By Association and Sloka played The Boston, the "new" Boston on Flamingo / Maryland, not the one that used to be on D.I. / Jones. That one is funny because of me slagging off GBA and also not remembering the stealing beers part of the evening... heh. Click here if you wanna check that out. I tell people I used to be fun and do fun and interesting things all the time. Unfortunately this is a testament to how stupid I used to be, and how interesting the Las Vegas used to be 15+ years ago...