I honestly cannot believe that I completely forgot about Nikki's birthday!!!! What kind of Sixx fan am I? On the 14th, I was going through my address book and ran across various birthdays when it hit me that I completely missed the 11th. OMG... And then I couldn't even find time to update my site until now. And even now I really ought to be straightening up my house instead of updating my site, but ya gotta make sacrifices somewhere. LOL So, I guess it's a Happy Belated Birthday to Mr. Sixx. Hope it was a good one. :)

While we're on the topic of updates... check out scottihill.com. He just put up some new pictures under Visuals and they are really cool. If only half the pictures I took would look that creative, I'd have it made. *hehe* Still no news on when their new album will be released or if they're going to tour next year. Of course, it'd be nice if Scotti would write back more than just once every 2 months. *grin* LOL

Speaking of tour news... OMG, I know of two very awesome tour packages that are being put together for next spring/summer!!!! They haven't officially been announced yet as far as what bands each tour contains, but I can say that one package is headlined by RATT and the other is co-headlined by Cinderella. Ought to be a busy summer filled with road trips!

Not much else going on. Been busy preparing for the holidays. Slowly working my way out of my BAH HUMBUG mood. Still no snow. I've been told you can't just do the snow dance and chant *SNOW snow snow snow SNOW snow snow snow* but that you also must be wearing the headdress. Well damnit, I don't have one. Someone send some snow to Chicago by Friday please. :) Hope everyone has safe and happy holidays.

Okay, so now I feel a little silly. Just found out from Bobby today that the recording of the national anthem that they play before their show is actually Jimi Hendrix. LOL DUH TO ME! But then again, how the heck was I supposed to know that? ;) Either way, they feel it's a bit long and drawn out too, so they may be changing it soon.

Wow... what a past week. I've been busy! LOL Last Saturday we drove up to St. Paul, Minnesota to visit some friends and go to a RATT show. Unfortunately, after one too many cranberry absoluts, the evening is a blur. *grin* I'm fairly sure the show was entertaining and we certainly had a good time, but man was my head about to fall off the next day and the 7 hour drive home in the rain was a miserable one!

Then on Tuesday (11/20) we had not one, but two RATT shows in one night at the Elbo Room in Chicago. They are not kidding when they call it the elbo room. Very little room, very small stage. Is cozy the right word to use? *snickers* Regardless, after finally finding a place to park (I hate the city!!!!) we made our way in through the crowd, met up with a friend and grabbed a spot near the stage. Their intro is a recording of Warren playing the national anthem. It's really cool, but very long and I thought maybe it would have been more captivating had he been on stage playing it live. Then the set list is as follows: Chain Reaction, City to City, Wanted Man, I'm Insane, Way Cool Jr., Shame Shame Shame, Lack of Communication, Slip of the Lip, Back for More, Walkin' the Dog, Nobody Rides for Free, Lovin' You's a Dirty Job, Lay It Down and You're in Love. Then they do Body Talk and Round & Round as an encore. Both the 7:30 show and the 10:30 show were totally packed. They changed the set by 2 songs the second time around... I think they might have had Dance Dance Dance in there. We hung out with the guys a bit in between shows and with Warren for some time after the second show. It's always nice to catch up with them when they're in town. :) I think we got home some time after 3am and thankfully enough did not have to work that Wednesday, because we had yet another show that evening!

RATT at the Brat Stop in Kenosha, WI. This gig came about kinda funny... my best friend had called the radio station to request a Beautiful Creatures song and somehow got to talking about RATT. Well before ya know it, the DJ tells her to get RATT to get in touch with him about booking a show. So she calls me, and I got through to Bobby and their booking agent. The gig gets booked. WOOHOO! So close to home too!!! Can we say SOLD OUT SHOW? OMG, they were turning people away at the door and even thought they would have been able to book 2 nights in a row there. The Brat Stop was packed! It's a nice venue, in my opinion, though if you ask Bobby, he'd probably say the monitors sucked. *hehe* They put on a great show too. The crowd was SOOOO into it! They sang along in all the right places and it was LOUD. There was one thing that bothered me, and I'm going to bitch about it here because it's my website and I can. We were about 2nd from the front row on Corabi's side with some other cool people around us when just before RATT hit the stage, this chick comes barging through dragging along another girl saying "EXCUSE ME, WE'RE SPONSORS, LET US THROUGH. WE SPONSORED THE SHOW." and they just shoved everyone aside, causing quite a ruckus and squeezed in right in front of us where another guy who went off to buy more beer had been standing. Well that guy's friend told the woman that the spot was taken. And she says "We're so and so (they were so rude I'm not even going to promote they're stupid company) and we paid so you guys could see this show! Do you know what that means? We figured we might as well be up front and enjoy it." OMFG!!!! Can you believe this chick?! She's flashing her little radio station VIP laminate (which let me tell you, means squat because hundreds of people had them that night) and going on and on about how this show wouldn't have happened if she didn't sponsor it. LMFAO!!!! I love clueless people. I wanted so badly to flash my all access band laminate at her and tell her "Yea, well I sponsor the band's website and you don't see me going around being incredibly rude to their fans and pushing them around and acting high & mighty about it." ARGH! She really irked me. Then after the show, I don't think she realized I was one that she shoved aside before the show because she was being all nice and talkative to me. She's lucky I'm a nice person. LOL I'd tell you to never buy anything from her company, but I'm not even going to say the company's name for fear of giving them any promotion. *grin* Okay bitch session is done. :)

After the show, Corabi, Jizzy and Robbie came in to sign autographs and take pictures. No Bobby. No Warren. UGH! But then Flynn comes to me and says I have a voice mail from Bobby on the cell. So I call him back. He went back to the hotel right after the show. I told him I had thought it was a really good show and that's when he said the monitors there were terrible. Oh well, maybe from a musician's point of view, the show wasn't so hot, but let me tell you, 1,900 screaming fans in the audience can't be wrong! ;) After that we hung out for a while on the bus and chatted, I love the stories we pick up from aftershows. *HEHE* And got home around, hmmm, 3am I think? I had to get up the next day and prepare for Thanksgiving dinner, so I went straight to bed as soon as we got home.

And that's my Week in RATT review. No more shows planned for a while that I know of. Hope everyone had a good holiday. :)

Just a little update...

Bobby Blotzer is working on a solo project to be released on Metal Mayhem Records towards the end of February 2002. John Corabi will be doing vocals and Bobby will be handling all other instruments, with the exception of guitar leads. I am definitely looking forward to this one. I'll keep ya'll posted if I receive any other information.

Also, Skid Row is still working on recording their new tunes... still no definite release date on that new album. I've heard anywhere from January/February 2002 to early spring. I hate being patient. :)~ But somehow, I know it'll be worth the wait. In the meantime, check out !i L O S :: M A C H I N E i! for some cool Skid Row pictures taken by Scotti.

What else... L.A. Guns has yet another new bass player. Danny (of Faster Pussycat/Newlydeads/Motochrist) will be joining the band and more than likely recording their new album with them, which they have already started on. Muddy has moved on to play bass in a band with Gilby Clarke, called Colonel Parker. LAG is currently doing a few shows local to their area and has no plans for a real tour until next year. No tentative release date has yet been provided on their upcoming album. An IRC chat has also been added to the L.A. Guns site. Feel free to stop by and hang out.

I think that about does it for now. If I hear anything else, you'll find it here. :)

So I was bored and decided to give my website a new look. I never spend much time on this site, unfortunately, because I have so many other sites to look after that must take priority. But I kinda like this look, eh?

I'll try to go through it and update most of the pages over the next week... I know some are outdated (such as that damn tours section!!!) As always, my email is open. Enjoy the holidays... they're already upon us. BAH-FRICKIN-HUMBUG. LOL    ~Cherie

I finally developed the rest of my Skid Row pictures and scanned a few more for my Skid Row page. Check it out. :)

I also scanned in a few pictures of my kitties and a new picture of my lil punk from Halloween. The new pix are in the MY STUFF section.

RATT tour dates should be released soon. I'll update the site when I receive them. The only one I'm aware of at this time is at the Brat Stop in Kenosha, WI on November 21st and I will certainly be there!

Finally! I have scanned in my Beautiful Creatures pics and made them a page. You can click on that link above or you can go to MY STUFF in the main menu and click on Concerts. I did a quickie show review on that page. They put on a great show and I wish I could have gone to more, but it'll have to wait until their next tour. :)

Why did it take me so long to post them? Well I was busy putting the finishing touches on a new website... http://www.fantazticfotos.com Check it out if you have time. :)

In other music news... RATT will hit the road again soon. Dates will be coming soon. I do know of one date already... hehe... thanks to my friend and I, they will be playing the Brat Stop which is a lovely 30 minute drive from home. That's on November 21st. When I am made privy to the rest of the dates, I'll get them posted ASAP.

As for L.A. Guns, they are planing to do dates in their area for the remainder of November, and then possibly make up the west coast dates that were cancelled when they were stranded in Alaska in September. If they make those dates up, it will be late Nov. into early Dec. Later in December they will start working on their new album. :)

I don't know why I haven't promoted the site more in the past, but since I just updated it today, check out Union Entertainment Group, Inc. for information on Nickelback, Saliva, Default, Oleander, Racer X, Paul Gilbert and more...

I know, I know... I owe you guys an update from the Beautiful Creatures' shows... but you're not getting that just yet. I've been kinda busy and haven't had time to write it up. But I did want to post about the 3-Wind with Nikki Sixx over at Metal Sludge. It's an interesting read. Pretty much confirms everything that we already knew anyway, but it's nice to read it from the man himself for a change. So anyway, check it out.

Anywho... we got back from Hershey, PA last night around 12:15am.  Really long, really cool drive.  I love driving through the mountains... literally!  We video taped the trip home when we went through the tunnels.  Haven't watched it yet, but I'm sure it's pretty cool.  We left home Friday night at 11:37pm on the dot.  2 1/2 hours later than I had wanted to leave of course, but no biggie.  Arrived in Hershey around 2pm and checked into the extraordinarily over priced Days Inn hotel.  (At least the bed was comfortable!)  Slept until around 5pm, got ready for the show and headed off to find the venue.  It was only supposed to be a minute or two from the hotel.  Well, we turned the wrong way out of the hotel parking lot.  Found the Hershey Cocoa plant.  LOL  The street was lined with Hershey chocolate kiss shaped street lights.  Kinda cool actually. (Also, the whole town reeked of chocolate!  Which isn't necessarily a bad thing)  So we turned around and headed the other way... started to end up back on the tollway outside of town.  HMMMM... turned around AGAIN and headed back toward the hotel.  Well damnit, I couldn't find Mill street ANYWHERE!!!  Finally we turned down a street with no sign and go figure, there was the club about a block down the road.  Found out that Skid Row didn't go on until 11:30pm, so we went back down the road and found a place to eat.  Friendly's was the name of the restaurant.  Of course, since we were already dressed for the concert, we received a lot of really strange looks from people (I wouldn't consider that very friendly!).  LOL  Let's see... got back to the venue probably around, um, 7:45pm I think.  Our friend, Mike, Skid's tour manager, needed a ride back to the hotel, so we didn't stay long.  Got back to the venue around 8:25pm.  People were already starting to gather by the stage.  DAMNIT.  LOL  I knew they weren't going on until 11:30pm but to secure my spot, I had to stand up there from 8:30 until then!  ACK!  It was worth it.  I would like to thank the two guys I met that let me share their space up front by Scotti.  THANK YOU!!!!!  :)  

The opening band went on around 10pm.  They played for about 50 minutes.  Mostly cover songs, so it was tolerable.  Skid Row's set list had been taped down to the stage already and I noticed that it was COMPLETELY different than all of the past shows I had been to.  And I thought that was cool, it'll be like a totally different show!  (duh to me...) Brent (Scotti's tech) was taping down his pedals when I asked him when they changed the set list.  He said "They didn't, we did, as a joke"  (We meaning he and Mike)  OMG, I can't believe I totally fell for it.  LMFAO!!!  They ended up playing their usual set anyway, with Quicksand Jesus and both encores (Slave to the Grind and Youth Gone Wild).  Really a fantastic show... even after seeing them 6 times this summer, I have an awesome time at every one... even after driving 13 hours straight just to see them!  :)  They picked on Phil most of the night.  Stealing the pedal to his bass drum, unscrewing the cymbals... Rachel even stole his entire bass drum at one point.  LOL!  I could hardly see Phil though because of this retarded pole just to Scotti's right side.  UGH, I HATE THAT.  I took some pictures, but only to finish up the roll of film I had started at the last show I had been to.  :)  The stage was kinda small, so I didn't have a lot of opportunities to get good shots.  If they look half-way decent when I get them developed, perhaps I'll make a page on the site for them.  We got some group shots with the band after the show too.  Hung out in the dressing room across the parking lot which was actually a room at a really cheap motel (LOL!) until 3:45am.  Heard lots of hilarious Skid Row stories!  A big THANK YOU to Scotti for not rushing the band right back to New Jersey after the show.  :)  You rock.  BTW... if you guys haven't checked out his website yet, do it now.  www.scottihill.com and make sure you click on all the pictures... you never know when there's a link hidden in one.  ;)  HEHEHE... And if you're at work, make sure no one's around because you will undoubtedly burst out laughing.  Oh, and thanks to his site, I had Flynn holding the video camera in my face while driving and asking me where we were going.  *rolls eyes*  Thanks for giving him ideas.  LOL!!!

I can't believe I'm going to have to wait until next year to see them again.  And I really can't believe I have to wait until next year for the new album.  NO FAIR.  But I'm sure it'll be well worth it.  :)  

Leaving Pennsylvania we saw a sign that said "BEWARE OF AGGRESSIVE DRIVERS"  LMFAO!!!!  It was a real road sign too.  Were they trying to tell me something???  hehe... actually, I was a very good driver on this trip... I kept it set at 70mph the entire way instead of doing my usual 80-85 mph.  :)  If renting a car for a road trip, I highly recommend the Chevy Impala.  Even though it's a butt-ugly car on the outside, it's very comfortable and roomy on the inside.  :)

Beautiful Creatures to look forward to twice this week... Wednesday and Thursday.  I don't think either venue allows photos, but I'll post reviews of the shows by the weekend.  If you haven't checked these guys out yet, I don't know what you're waiting for.  ;)  www.beautifulcreatures.net 

Other than that... huh.  L.A. Guns made it to the UK today and will go forward with the dates scheduled as planned.

I have yet to find Hair of the Dog's new CD, IGNITE.  Hopefully someone had some luck finding it!  I think I'm going to have to order it online.

Have I mentioned how much I'm looking forward to my Skid Row road trip next week?!?!?!  ;)  Ecstatic!  

Alrightie... over and out.

I spent a good part of my day cleaning up my office.  What a mess.  I have a zillion concert pictures to organize into photo albums.  I'm going to need an entire room just to store them all.  I also found alot of missing CDs that have worked their way out my collection to be scattered about the house.  I still have to go alphabetize those back into where they belong.  I found alot of old posters, and 8x10s, and magazines too.  I found a Hit Parader from 1991 with Skid Row on the cover.  I put all of it away for when the new office upstairs is finished, then I'm going to frame everything and cover our walls with ROCK-N-ROLL.  Can't be anything wrong with that!

Just a few more weeks until the Tantric, Oleander & Beautiful Creatures shows.  I'm really looking forward to them.  I often wonder what on earth I would do without music in my life... to all those musicians that write it and perform it, I thank you.  :)  Music has been a part of my life since I was 11 years old and first borrowed my brother's Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Southern Accents cassette.  He never did get it back... ;)

I really don't have a whole lot to update the site with right now (mostly just useless ramblings... LOL)  I have heard rumor that L.A. Guns did make it out of Alaska yesterday.  I'm waiting to hear back from Steve (Riley) with some confirmation on that.  I'm getting alot of email asking if they will reschedule the week of shows that were cancelled... I don't necessarily think they'll be rescheduled, but I know Steve said recently that they were attempting to put something together for the last few months of the year and hopefully those areas that missed out will be included at that time.

Hmmm... what else.  Skid Row is going back out to finish up the last few dates on their tour starting this Thursday (9/20) in Jacksonville, FL.  There's a total of 6 dates before the end of the month.  I highly recommend going out and catching a show near you.  I know of a couple people who are traveling quite a ways for the last gig in Philly on the 29th.  Tempting as it may be, and even though it is on a Saturday, I absolutely can't afford to get my butt out there for it.  *sigh*

RATT is currently out on tour.  Dates are available through the first week in October on their website... www.therattpack.com.  They are supposed to have more midwest area dates scheduled after October 6th... I'm waiting to receive an update to the tour schedule from their booking agent.  Jizzy has a supply of his books out with him, so hunt him down after the shows and ask him about buying one. ;)  And if you already own I Got More Crickets Than Friends, I'm sure he'd be more than happy to sign it for you.

There's absolutely nothing going on with Motley Crue right now... which kinda saddens me because, well, obviously because I love them.   However, I have heard that Vince Neil will be going out with Quiet Riot and Hair of the Dog... I think that starts in October.  Hair of the Dog's new album, IGNITE, hits stores tomorrow, September 18th.  I don't know what kind of distribution they're going to get, so call record stores to see if they have it before heading out to pick it up.  And if they don't have it, ask them WHY THE HELL NOT?  And you know what?  I'd actually like to see Vince put together another solo album... I think that'd rock, his previous two did.

Well, I guess I'm done for the day.  Questions?  Email me.  :)  *P*E*A*C*E*

For the past 2 days, I have been off work and  I have done nothing but watch the news (something I never do).  Watch them replay the scenes in Manhattan over and over again, from different viewpoints.  And even though I wasn't directly affected by the events, I have had nightmares every time I lie down to sleep.  I can't help but think about all the innocent lives lost and affected by Tuesday's attack.  My son didn't quite grasp what had happened even though he watched it on TV with me.  Since he'll soon be 10 years old, I figured I should do my best to explain to him what was going on, but I'm still not quite sure he gets it.  Hell, I don't even get it!  I look at what is left of Manhattan and it saddens me.  I watch the news reporters tell of those looking for their loved ones, and my heart aches for them.

I've also attended a few chats online since Tuesday.  Kind of like "group therapy" sessions for friends.  There's a lot of anger and hatred out there, as well as sorrow.  I understand that *someone* must and will pay for what has happened, but I don't understand the hatred.  Who has room for it?  With all the emotions I have felt since Tuesday, I can honestly say hatred is not one of them... I'm too sad and sickened to hate.

I think what I fear most is what is going to happen in the future when our President finally decides to take action against the individuals who brought this evil upon our country.  What will happen?  I almost don't even want to know. It scares me.

It's 4:38am.  Today I return to work and to a supposedly *normal* life.  I haven't been out of my house since I got home Tuesday afternoon.  It feels weird and like none of this is real.

Those of you who lost family members and friends, they're in my thoughts every single day.  My heart goes out to you.  Nothing can make it better, but take comfort in knowing that not only your entire country is going to stand up for this, but many others are as well.

I'm going to try and get some more sleep now... *P*E*A*C*E*

I was on my way to the hospital this morning to bring my son in for some EEG testing... after we had registered and sat down in the waiting room, I focused on the television only to see footage of an airplane collide right into one of the World Trade Center towers.  I realized after watching for a few minutes, that this was a SECOND plane that crashed into them!  Words cannot even justify how horrifying this is.  50,000 people who work in those towers, plus all the visitors, their families/friends... And when those two towers collapsed upon each other, I just felt sick.  And then to think while all this was happening, another plane crashed into the Pentagon.  Absolutely unbelievable.  While this will obviously affect our country for some time to come, I certainly hope they find out who was behind the whole thing.  I just wanted to post a note here sending out thoughts and prayers to everyone and anyone, be it friends, family, victims, who were/are involved in today's horrific terrorist act.  :(

I want to add that I will be forever thankful that my friends, their friends and their families who were near today's tragedy are safe and sound.  I love each and every one of them dearly.  *hugs*

The time is now 6pm - Just got back home about an hour ago... man, why is the drive home always SOOOOOOO MUCH LONGER than the drive there?  LOL  We left on Thursday around 4pm (hey, we were actually on time for a change!) and even though traffic was HELL in Chee-cago, we made record time to Battle Creek, MI.  Rolled into town around 9pm their time just like I planned.  Check into hotel, drive to venue, blah blah blah... Even though we arrived so late, I was still able to snag my spot right up front (thank you Kelly, you rock!)  Fantastic show as usual - though still no Born a Beggar... take it off the set list! ;) - actually, Skid Row's set rolls together very nicely, so I should quit bitchin.  *grin*  Can't think of anything really unusual that happened, which is unusual in itself because we're talking about Skid Row here... LOL  I was so damned tired Thursday night.  ACK... got up for work at 6am that morning and didn't get to sleep until, um, man I think it was 3am.  We hung out at the hotel bar for a little while after the show.  Oh, some chick tried to kick Mike's ass at the bar, that was kinda funny, but is that unusual?  HEHEHE...  I hardly got any sleep that night because the AC in our hotel room fried in the middle of the night.  Flynn thought it was gonna blow up, so he got up and turned it off.  :(  Ugh, I need refrigeration to sleep!  

Wake-up call was at 10:30am Friday.  We gassed up the vehicles and hit the road for Mt. Clemens... *mental note to self* bass players should not be allowed to drive.  ;)  I mean, well I normally drive at least 80MPH too, but the left lane, right lane, left lane, right lane stuff is for the birds.  I think we got there just before 2pm.  I tried to take a nap, but Flynn flipped on the TV and had Jerry Springer on.  OMG... where on earth do they find people for those shows?!?!?  Unbelieveable.  So anyway I didn't get much sleep.  It was supposed to be an early show (8pm) so we got ready and got out of there around 6:15 cuz I was starving.  Ate next door to the gig, checked in at Will Call around 7:45pm only to find we were not on the list so I had to call Mike and bother him. ;)  Broadzilla had just hit the stage around 8pm (don't know what the delay was and to be honest with ya, I was so tanked by the end of the night, I forgot to ask. LOL!) So Broadzilla is a 3 piece chick band and they were actually pretty good.  And as long as I've got my front row spot stage left and enough alcohol to last me through the show, I'm set.  ;)  Actually, there was TOO MUCH BEER last night.  OMG... *phew*  Thankfully enough I have no shows for another month (haha) Skid Row went on around 9:30 (I think).  They added Lamb and Quicksand Jesus to the set last night and took out Slave to the Grind.  I love when they do that because then it's not like I'm seeing the same exact show two nights in a row.  :)  It's really too bad this tour is coming to an end (even though it's been the tour from hell... check out www.scottihill.com for details... hehe, might as well take an opportunity to pimp out his site).  Those of you in or around Florida - GO GO GO!  You cannot be disappointed... really.  Seriously.  I guarantee it.  ;)  Skid Row rocks something fierce.  At the end of Youth Gone Wild (last song) Scotti brought some kid up on stage and gave him his guitar to play.  OMG... I don't know who that kid was, but how fucking cool is that?!

The rest of the night went up in drunken oblivion for me... we had a great time as usual just hangin out.  At least I didn't have to drive anywhere, though I did attempt to navigate.  I hate one way roads, you can never go back the same way you came.  LOL  And it has been proven that guitarists do have some navigational abilities!  ;)

Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures on this trip.  Though there were a couple opportune moments last night that I really wish I had my camera with me.  HAHA  ;)  I've got my pix from the Ottawa show back, maybe I'll post some of those after I've recooperated from the past few days.  Hell that should only take about a week... went to bed at 4am, woke up at 10:30am - last night's hotel sucked.  The bed was hard as a rock, the pillow was lumpy (at least the room was freezing) but I woke up with a killer neck ache and it still hurts.  I think my head is gonna fall off.  See the pain I go through for Skid Row?  ;)  Now get yourself to a show and pick up that new album when it's released... don't worry, I'll keep reminding you.  :)

Next update will most likely be next month after the Beautiful Creatures gigs... you guys know how I am with updates.  LOL   *P*E*A*C*E*

We drove out to Ottawa, IL last Monday night for Skid Row at the Silver Slipper, Inc.  Would you know, it's a brand new outdoor venue adjacent to a strip club?  LOL  The place was great actually... what a perfect venue for a show.  I hope to see many more bands play there in the near future.  The opening band was a cover band called Cheese Pizza.  They weren't half bad.  Very flashy and energetic.  I've definitely seen worse out there.  Skid Row went on around 10pm and put on a helluva show (but don't they always? *grin*)  I believe the only change in the set list was that they played Quicksand Jesus this time around.  They did Ghost again, which I absolutely love that song and can't wait to own it on CD.  Already have the chorus memorized and it hasn't even been released yet!   Next show for me is September 6th in Battle Creek, MI... Skid Row is one of those bands that you just can't get tired of seeing over and over again cuz you never know what's gonna happen... like someone snagging your purse off the stage and threatening to throw it into the crowd... *grin*  I wish I had film in my camera at that time... Scotti would have looked great wearing a purse while playing guitar.  LOL  He's just lucky he's adorable or I woulda popped him one for that. *snickers*  I have updated tour dates for these guys, I'll get them added to the tour section of this website ASAP.  :)  Go see a show!

Aside from my next show being another Skid Row one, I do have 2 Beautiful Creatures shows coming up in October.  One is at the Chicago House of Blues on October 3rd and the other at The Rave in Milwaukee, WI on October 5th.  They are playing with Oleander and Tantric.  Should be an awesome show, no doubt.  I haven't been able to get their CD out of my CD player since I bought it!  If you haven't picked it up yet, I highly recommend it.

L.A. Guns just released some more tour dates... mostly Northwest dates.  I'll attempt to get those updated on this site also, I think I'm a tad behind.  ;)  Too many sites, too little time.  I've got a new motto... Taking over the internet, one band at a time.  HEHE...  :)  Nothing much else to post about really... It's 6am and I just couldn't sleep anymore, so I figured instead of tossing and turning for hours, I'd post an update and make myself useful.  As always, my email is open... drop me a line.  MsWebRaven@aol.com

Yesterday I picked up a CD by Beautiful Creatures.  This is one of the best CDs I have purchased in a very long time.  Thanks to who I am assuming was their street team posting on our L.A. Guns board, I went over to their site and listened to the few songs that actually worked... but it was enough to make me rush out and pick up their CD the morning it was released.  I FRICKIN' LOVE IT!  You'll love it too.  Really.  The first thing that comes to mind as soon as you hear the first few words of the first song is MOTLEY CRUE - CORABI.  You can hear it throughout.  Also a bit of London Quireboys on a song or two.  Best Buy is carrying their limited edition glitter cover and they have it at a great price ($7.99) and I highly suggest that you go pick it up.  I missed them on Ozzfest since I hadn't really heard of the band yet, but I'm hoping they will tour through this way in the near future.  I have got to see this band live!  Check out their website at http://www.beautifulcreatures.net.

I just saw L.A. Guns and Faster Pussycat last Friday at a club called Synergy in West Chicago.  What a clusterfuck.  The two opening bands left MUCH to be desired and the sound at the club sucked ass.  L.A. Guns put on a great set, though you could tell the sound was suffering.  There was a huge disagreement about the contract and actually a lot of shit went down that I just don't feel like rehashing again, but the result was that Faster Pussycat was not going to take the stage that night and the club refused to let L.A. Guns play an extra set to make up for it.  Unreal. We waited around while decisions were being made and then finally went outside to talk to Taime for a while before heading over to Denny's for a 3am snack.  LOL  I figured, no biggie.  I'll see them tomorrow night in St. Louis.  Well let me tell you, that trip was a whole 'nother clusterfuck in itself.  Lots of truck problems on the way down and we never made it to the gig.  ARGH!  That was probably my last chance to ever see Faster Pussycat too seeing as I've heard Greg Steele ditched the band and went back home.  I'm curious as to how that will impact their Japan dates and even their England dates.  Oh well... time will tell.

I'm going to see Skid Row again on Monday in Ottawa, IL.  Can't wait for the show.  They are just so damn good on stage and every show is even better than the last.  I'll post a report if anything interesting happens.

RATT dates have been announced for September through October 4th.  You can find them listed at therattpack.com.

Still waiting on dates for SUPERCOOL.  They just recorded their first video last Sunday and I believe they'll be working on their EP in the near future.  I'm looking forward to hearing that.  :)  It's strange working for a band who's music I have never heard before!  

That's about it.  Go check out Beautiful Creatures and buy their debut CD today!  :)

Got my Skid Row pix developed today.  I added a page to my concert pix (which can be found under MY STUFF in the right menu and then click on Concerts at the bottom of that page) for them and for Faster Pussycat because I had a few of them mixed in on that roll of film.

I also forgot to post about the Voices of Metal show that we went to on July 12th!  We got there a little late and missed most of Vixen's set.  But the 3 or 4 songs we heard sounded great and they had a really good crowd response.  I don't think I'll ever go to a show at Oasis 160 again - their floor set up leaves much to be desired.  They section off the entire front of the stage area and call it VIP and charged $40 admission to that area, and $20 to the rest of the club.  STUPID.  So I couldn't see very well, but I still enjoyed Slaughter's set.  They played all the usual songs and sounded fantastic as usual.  :)  I love those guys.  After their set, we moved to a different area of the club that was less crowded.  Stephen Pearcy & his band hit the stage.  The sound was absolutely terrible.  It kept cutting in and out.  Then I found out from Dana that someone had been evicted from the club and fell into the PA system.  DAMN.  Even after they got it fixed though, there wasn't a whole lot to be desired about Pearcy's show.  The only RATT song that sounded half-way decent was Lack of Communication.  One of my favorites.  He had a decent crowd response, despite the few middle fingers that flashed up in the air throughout his set.  I think if anything, people were upset because his promotion for the tour has been of the original RATT lineup, which obviously is not true... though it could have been because he was so intoxicated he couldn't remember his little stage rants.  Vince Neil put on a decent show - sang every fifth word to each song as usual.  ;)  My only complaint is that he didn't play enough of his solo songs.  I was hoping to hear more of them.

Well... that's my quickie review.  I'm off to rid of some tan lines.  I'll post again when I have time.  :)

I completely forgot to mention that I created this new website for Eric Stacy (original bass player for Faster Pussycat).  He has a new band called SUPERCOOL and you can check out their site at www.supercoolrockandroll.com! 

I know I didn't cover the whole Nikki & Donna drama... but I'm sure all of you know about it by now anyway.  Now you can prepare yourselves for the Vince and Heidi drama because I hear they are no longer together.  I really feel for the wives of these guys.  :::shakes head:::  Sometimes I just wanna shout at them "GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS, YOU'VE GOT A BEAUTIFUL WIFE AT HOME!"  But I guess it's not my place to.  

Anyway, not knowing what is really going on in the Crue world right now... I think they released a DVD some time in June.  I don't have a DVD player, so I didn't really stay on top of that.  I did however pick up The Dirt and that is a fantastic book.  I'm sure anyone who is a fan has read it at least once already.  :)  I finished it in a day and a half.  Hard book to put down and once you're through, you find yourself wanting to read more!

I saw L.A. Guns three more times so far this summer with Faster Pussycat.  We have 2 more shows coming up in the next 2 weeks.  LAG always puts on a great show and their new songs sound better and better with each live show I attend.  Though my only complaint (and what I ALWAYS complain about... LOL) is that Phil changes the words to the songs mid-stream.  ACK!  Faster Pussycat has a great set.  They open with Bathroom Wall (Newlydeads style), rip through alot of classic Pussycat songs (FP style), play 1 or 2 Newlydeads songs and I believe one Motorchrist song.  The lineup is Taime Downe (vox), Brent Muscat & Greg Steele (guitars), Danny (bass), Chad (drums) and Xristian (guitar)... the last three are Newlydeads members, and I don't know their last names.  I've known Brent from his time with L.A. Guns, but it was so cool to meet Taime and I definitely dig their bass player... *grin* Danny is a doll.  I'm hoping to have the pleasure of working with them on the Newlydeads' site in the future. 

I also just attended 2 Skid Row shows this past weekend.  Friday in Valparaiso, IN (yep, same place as last November) and Saturday in Elgin, IL at Sammy K's.  Got into Valparaiso Friday just in time to suffer through the opening bands (yea.)  Skid Row had alot of sound problems... monitors I believe, but they still put on a great show.  I had this big ol' security guy in front of me all night so I didn't see much of Snake... but Scotti is entertaining enough to make up for that.  LOL  Their set consists of four new songs (Hittin' the Wall, Lamb, Thick is the Skin - I believe it's called - and Ghost) and they also jam out Riot Act, Piece of Me, Mudkicker, Makin' a Mess, 18 & Life, Monkey Business, Psycho Therapy, Get the Fuck Out, Beat Yourself Blind, I Remember You, and close with Slave to the Grind and Youth Gone Wild.  (Yes, I stole the set list... HEHEHE)  All the new songs are phenomenal, but I especially love Ghost.  OMG.. that song is awesome and very memorable.  I look forward to their new album with MUCH ANTICIPATION!  Which, by the way, is due for release some time in October.  Anyway, I have a friend on their road crew and he made sure of it that I got the chance to meet some of the guys after the show... which happened to be Snake, Phil and Scotti (Thank you Michael!!!!!!!!).  Flynn was handing out business cards to the guys (gotta promote the business whenever we can ya know)  This comes into play after the show on Saturday night... I mentioned to Scotti that during Psycho Therapy, I was thinking "Boy he sure could use some" LOL... go to a show and you'll see what I mean.  

Saturday, we got into Elgin around 5:30pm and sat through sound check, which didn't officially start until nearly 6:30pm.  They ran through "Piece of Me" and it sounded really good (MUCH BETTER THAN THE NIGHT BEFORE).  Sammy K's is a good venue, though they need more air conditioning!  Skids stage set up looks awesome... it's all red, white and black.  You'll love it.  I grabbed Scotti before he took off and got a picture.  Don't you hate when you blink the first time?  :)  My friends showed up around 8ish I think (I rarely keep track of time) and the first band went on at 9pm.  We suffered right up front through the two opening bands (which actually were not that bad) just so we wouldn't lose our place in front of Scotti.  *grin*  If you ever go see Skid Row, I highly recommend his side of the stage.  ;)  He's a frickin' nut.  But in a very good way.  After the show, my friends and I were sitting in the dressing room chatting and who should walk in but Scotti Hill.  Cool!!  I adore him in case you couldn't tell.  ;)  After a while he looked at Flynn and said "You're the one who gave me that business card last night aren't you?"  RUT ROH...  Turns out he mistook it for the keycard to his hotel room twice and got locked out.  HEHEHE... I know that's not funny, but um, it kind of is.  Hey, at least it got his attention and he checked out our website!  In fact, I believe he said he was going to call us and chew us out about the hotel room key/business card thing.  All in all, we had a fantastic weekend and I can't wait to do it again, but they're on break for 2 weeks and I don't know if there are any more dates around here in our near future.  I ended up with a signed poster, a drumstick with 3 out of 5 signatures on it, 2 of Snake's guitar picks and one of Scotti's picks that I practically had to beg for before he gave it to me.  LOL  If Skid Row is playing near you any time soon... GO GO GO!!!!!!!  And don't forget their new album is coming out this October.  

That's it for now.  I've got 2 more LAG/FP shows coming up.  I'll post if anything interesting comes of them.  I should have some Skid Row pictures posted on this site soon... I've got to get them developed.  My kitties nearly destroyed them today as they knocked my camera off the table.  YIKES!  All I've been doing is websites, work, concerts and tanning... life is grand.  :)  My email is always open... drop me a line. MsWebRaven@aol.com