Lunatic's Serenade
Vegas Rocks Awards, Las Vegas
Nevada – November 23, 2014
Talk about your rock n' roll crazy nights! I'm at the Palms Hotel/Casino in Vegas where I had the chance this time to witness the Vegas Rocks! Magazine Awards - a local magazine that showcases local acts from Las Vegas. Tonight, they award the bands that are making headway in the local scene, along with awarding individuals for their iconic influence.
As this was my first awards gig, I had no idea what I was in store for. I arrived on time to get my review ticket, stand and wait with the other reporters and photographers and try to look like I knew what I was doing...
RED CARPET: All the bands came walking in and posed with Sally Steele, the owner/CEO of Vegas Rocks! And she was the one responsible for putting on the event. (vegasrocks.com) This was new to me, standing behind pro photographers with their fancy cameras and I with my iPhone 3G, but it was cool to be there and get some good shots. I was curious as to why Flavor Flav was there... He was milking the spotlight and stole another 15 minutes hamming up to Michael Anthony (Van Halen/ ChickenFoot).
SHOW TIME: After standing for over an hour, my ticket allowed me to be with those cool photographers, meaning I got to stand some more. This would be cool if I didn't have a warehouse job that keeps me on my feet all day, but I would stand a month of Sundays for rock n' roll! The show kicked off with a couple of killer tunes by Danny "The Count" Koker's band "Count's 77". (Danny is also the dude on the Counting Cars TV show and owner of Count's Kustoms here in Vegas. (countskustoms.com). This would have been a good set if Flav didn't crash C77's last song. He rolled up on Dan and his band mates signing for hi-fives and stumbling across the stage. It was a distraction. Flav also presented the Ambassador of Rock award to Danny Koker (after spending 5 long minutes thanking Sally Steele. (ok, that's cool), going on about Public Enemy getting in to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame and so on.
The Best Vegas Hard Rock Band award was the first to be handed out...And the winner is...
Obsidian Order. (reverbnation.com/ODSIDIANORDER). Next was the Best Creative Direction award going to "Crackerman". On the Carpet the singer handed out CD's. Devil City Angels (thedevilcityangels.com) took the stage next (sans Flavor Flav ). This band consists of guitar guy Tracii Guns from L.A. Guns, Poison drummer, Rikki Rocket, from the group Cinderella , Eric Brittingham and singer Brandon Gibbs who was in the group the Gibbs Brothers. This band is not the glam style rock the dudes came out of. More bottom end and some killer distortion on the bass! They also received the Best Super Star Union award.
"I had no idea what I was in store for."
Oz Fox of Stryper produced Chaotic Resemblance, the winner of the Vegas Star of Tomorrow award. (facebook.com/Chaotic-Resemblance) The 80's Survivor award went to Marq Torien of the Bullet Boys.(bulletboysofficial.com) Representing the L.A. scene was Dope Throat who received the Hollywood Rocks! award. (facebook.com/DopeThroat) The Best of Vegas award went to Dane Davis (danedavismusic.com) Dude sported a keen Top hat. Good thing my daughter wasn't there or she would've stolen it! Stephen Pearcy, the founding member of RATT received the Voice of 80's Metal award. (stephen-pearcy.com)
In remembrance of Wayne Static there was a short film of clip put together from several interviews by VR! Magazine. It was emotional for a lot of us, but it shook Sally the most because Wayne is a good friend of hers. (R.I.P. Wayne! Rock lost its shock when you left us.. Peace to the family with love and prayers...HMS) Rudy Sarzo (you know... Ozzy's long-time bassist from the 80's?!) introduced the band Wes Cage. A vicious powerhouse of Death/Industrial. (wescage.com) They brought the darkness with them and when they left the stage, it lingered. The award for Best New Artist went home with them. Well deserved.
Best Rock Tribute Band award was handed to three dudes who "Smells Like Nirvana", and the Best Vegas Rock Band award went to Leona-X. (leonaxrocks.com) Great White was there to put some of that dirty groove rock in the house. (greatwhiterocks.com) Another highlight for me (especially as a bassist) was seeing Michael Anthony of Van Halen receive the Inspirational Icon award !!" (madanthonycafe.com) Indeed, an inspiration and influence on my playing. Mike mentioned that the American Music Awards were the same night as the VRMA show. He said "You know what's missing from the AMA's?! Rock N' Roll! Let ‘em have all the One Direction stuff! This is what it's all about right here !" Another treat to see were the two masterminds behind the great rock band TOTO get awarded. Steve Lukather (stevelukather.com) and David Paich (toto99.com) received the Music Lifetime award. If you like good music (and I know you do) and haven't heard the great TOTO - do it now!
After that, John 5 (Manson /Zombie), Blas Elias (Slaughter) and Michael Anthony took the stage and rocked some vintage Van Halen tunes! Kicking off with "Somebody get me a Doctor" and the Kinks cover tune of "You Really Got Me". Then everyone joined in on an all-star jam of "Aint Talkin Bout Love". You gotta’ hand it to the old guys, they know what they're doing! They all wore big smiles and just threw down some old school rock!
Thus ends a perfect night. Hope I can do another one. Too much fun. Extra special thanks to Sally Steele and her wonderful crew for putting on a great event. Special thanks to Danny "The Count" Koker for being cool. Rock Out, Roll On!!
Tim Duran, HMS
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