Friday night live music tripleheader

[Jim Price]

I don't often attempt them these days, but on Friday night I did a live music triple-header, catching three totally different acts at three different area venues. Here's what I saw (full-blown weekend recap coming later)...

I started out with the early dinner performance of The Britz at Burgi's Roundhouse. The Britz feature Andy Rhody ("RamRod 1") on guitars and programming and Mick Jagger's evil twin, Skip Stone on vocals, tambourine and shakers. The pair mixed it up between electric and acoustic Stones classics, and did a very good job with it. Skip was all-out Mick, and in Andy has found somebody with an equal passion for the music who can play his guitar and harmonize with Skip well. In lieu of a full Stones tribute (which is a future possibility, once Andy and Skip find the right musicians), this is a damn good Stones tribute show worth checking out.

I then roadtripped to Ebensburg to check in with The Collective at the Castle Pub. Although I have seen this Wilkes-Barre funk/R&B/hip hop juggernaut several times at the 4D's and Pellegrine's, this was the first time I had seen them in a situation where they had to win over a new room and crowd. This brand of urban-flavored music isn't my preference per se, but I appreciated the performance The Collective gave. Their brand of rap/hip-hop had a melodic base to it, and it was actual musicians playing keys, bass and drums rather than digital computer beats and samples. This band is very good at what it does; good grooves and enthusiasm. Attendance was slow early on, but the crowd started arriving late in the first set and into the second, and soon the dance floor was busy. Convinced that The Collective had conquered the crowd in this new market, I proceeded to my third stop...

I arrived at City Limits in time to catch most of the last set of I Enemy's return performance. Erick and Matt Karlson are back at vox and drums respectively. The music is modern-geared metal, with ample dosages of Tool, Filter, System Of A Down and more. The big difference is visual. Erick was painted up like Maynard Keenan. Lots of interesting lighting, props and theatrics; I understand that during the early part of the performance (before I arrived), Erick was interacting with some video screen footage. I Enemy now finally has some original tunes, too. If they can keep this line-up together, it seems like this new edition of I Enemy has some vision and imagination, and could evolve into something special. Worth keeping an eye on.

Feel free to post below…Who did you see this weekend?

[bassist_25]

I-Enemy getting back together is awesome!!!

[songsmith]

JP, you missed what was probably Blind Jonny Death's best Hitching Post Show so far!----->JMS

[esa]

JP, you missed what was probably Blind Jonny Death's best Hitching Post Show so far!----->JMS

It was our first time...and it was awesome!

[redawg]

I really enjoyed The Collective. They said their guitar player was sick and couldn't make it. Their drummer totally blew me away. It was a pleasure to watch him play. Real nice guys. They were all down to earth and friendly. None of them had an ego problem. They will definately be returning to the Castle real soon. That was a long ass day for me. As I was DJing the night before, some drunk chick spilled part of her mixed drink all over the light board early in the night. The lights totally went crazy. I did over half of my DJ show with a couple of lights that I just plugged into the wall. I thought for sure I'd never be able to fix it. I was so stressed out I stayed up all night thinking about how I was gonna fix it. I showed up at the Castle at noon Friday not knowing if I was gonna have a light show for them. I took the circuit board out and sprayed almost an entire can of contact cleaner on it, blew it dry with a can of computer duster and slapped it back together. ALL of my light programs got erased. It's taken me hours and hours to put all of my programs back in.

[DMFJ03]

Red - that sucks about your lights man! You just got those things dialed in too! What a pisser!