About a 100 mile trip. I started at 5:30PM and had to deal with horrible 101 traffic. I stopped near Calabasas for a while and waited for it to die down. When I got to Sunset, I parked by the Palladium and hiked a few blocks to the bookstore. I got to Andy McKee’s performance right before he started played “Drifting”, which was perfect.
To spectate, I found a spot by the Business and Money Management section and got a little book stool at the end of the aisle. I stood on that and took pictures. He played “Never Going Back Again”, by Fleetwood Mac, a new song (it had lots of harp harmonics) and “Rylynn.” I’m glad I took a chance driving out there- it paid off. Andy was as humble as he was incredible.
I jumped in the car and drove down to Sunset Strip. I went to that neat drive-thru McDonalds on Sunset and Laurel for coffee and then parked across the street from the Rainbow and Key Club. I immediately went to the Whisky. First band was too loud, so I went back to the car and charged up my phone for a while and waited for the next band there.
The second band, Z02, was very good. They also have a cool website: http://www.zo2.com/
Jeff Scott Soto’s band was amazing. Howie Simon is an incredible guitarist. Pontus Norgren (from Hammerfall and Talisman) played a song with the band and is also a great guitarist. That was a full on shred-fest. They even played a Steel Dragon song- Stand up and Shout. I definitely got a much needed dose of awesome hard rock guitar playing.
Fozzy was a little too loud and unpolished for me. I bailed after two songs around 11:30. Sorry, Y2J.
I stopped back at the Canyon on the way home and caught the last set of the Spazmatics. I watched people get knocked off the mechanical bull for a while, sat and checked stuff on my phone while the DJ played music and then heard five or six 80s songs by the band. I left when they played a Wham tune. As usual, they played well, but something was “off” about their performance. I got home about 1:30AM.
8 hours and 3 shows- not bad!!
2011 Concerts 
9 Responses to “Andy McKee at Barnes and Noble on Vine, Zo2, Jeff Scott Soto and Fozzy at The Whisky, Spazmatics at Canyon 1/14/2011-3 SHOWS!”