*this is my friend Kevin Ganley in the picture. The other guy is….
This review is in and around about from his show on Wednesday March 15th 2017
A few days late is better than never, and I had a really good time at the show so I feel like talking about it now. So I am. So here is my blog post on the show.
Opening band was Grum, I had never heard of them before and at first, I thought it was just a funky quirky two-piece, as there was only an acoustic guitarist and a drummer on stage playing some experimental tunes, and they were good. My friend Kevin and I were there bright and early so we grabbed a seat right at the front at a little bar table, and I think this was even closer to the stage than we were when we saw Red Dragon Cartel (the great Jake E. Lee’s band) at the Bourbon Room a couple of years ago. But the Brass Monkey actually has a decent size stage, which almost wasn’t required for John’s set as it was just him and an acoustic guitar. That was all that was needed.
So after a few warm ups from the two members of Grum, suddenly a vocalist and then a bassist walked back from the crowd to the stage, and the set was on! A bluesy and hard rockin’ sound is what came next; the vocalist, who’s name I don’t know but he was super friendly with the crowd earlier on and mingling with them, had an amazing set of pipes and could really wail and get some excellent high notes. I never had heard their music before and had no expectations, but this band exceeded what might have even been mild interest at the start. You can find a link to their Facebook page below as well, should you wish to learn more!
My friend Kevin Ganley is a huge music fan, maybe almost as big of one as me! But he’s not, I am the biggest. But I can say that he knows much much more of John Corabi’s work outside of his awesome 1994 Motley Crue album than I do, as he’s followed his career singing for Union, the Eric Singer Project and most recently the Dead Daisies. I do know that he played rhythm guitar in Ratt for about six years from 2000-2006, however that stint was less than memorable overall, as there were no releases of music and he did not sing on anything. It was little more than a paying gig for him, along with Jizzy Pearl fronting the band. But I digress. So Kevin knew the potential for other great songs, but I was really looking forward to hearing tracks off the MC ’94 album that will never get played or be heard anywhere else, ever. This show was a real treat for me as he delivered on the songs, playing ‘Loveshine’, ‘Misunderstood’, ‘Drift Away’ and of course the hit ‘Hooligan’s Holiday’. I was never a fan of that particular track, but if I didn’t mention it before, this was an acoustic show and the way it was arranged and played on this wonderful night made me wish that this was the album version that has settled in for 20+ years. In other words, he made me like the song. Forced me to, if you will. But I can safely say that I did not mind being forced like I was. Is there another word I can use here instead of force? I didn’t think so.
Other tracks were played, and the acoustic arrangement of his original material was picture perfect, I would say that they made me an even bigger fan. Of note would be the covers he played, such as Aerosmith’s “Seasons of Wither” and Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May” which he asked for audience participation in the singing, however when the crowd seemed to not know the lyrics, John opted to just skip to the last verse and finish the song. Classic. He got his wish of the crowd singing when he covered Kiss’ “Hard Luck Woman” and everyone, including myself and Kevin with terribly flat singing voices, sang along with gusto with him and he even played along on the guitar while the crowd sang. John also told some funny tales of his 30+ hour trip up here from Nashville and polite interactions with the Canadian border security; hell, myself and Kevin even arrived at the venue at the same time as him, as HE was pulling in to the front parking lot of the Brass Monkey with his cube van and Tennessee plates (damn, should have gotten a pic!) and arriving with little fanfare, but it was cool, there was no rock star fluff, it was a guy putting on a show and a great one. Damn, what a voice he has, in tune, melodic, powerful, he could sing the bar menu and it would have been interesting. I had never seen him before Live and this was definitely something I have missed all these years, as I heard he has played in many places in Canada for several years. My only regret: stepping out of the line up for pics and autographs so I could take the photo of Kevin above, but it made his night and mine was already made when the show ended. John played a solid 2-hour set and then informed the crowd that it was WHISKEY TIME and headed for the bar, then to start the meet and greet. If he comes back again, and it sure sounds like he will, I’ll be making Kevin take the pic this time!
Now, my apologies, as I don’t know all the songs he sang, don’t have a set list to provide, can’t name all the songs, didn’t take any pics of me or him, and I’m not reviewing each song by song one by one. This is more of a blog just about the show and my experience, as opposed to an official review. So if you’re looking for an official review, well, I want to thank you for checking out my blog post instead. Now below, I will link to some Live! VIDEO that I did during the concert that was originally posted on the Sebcamco Facebook page, as well as the GRUM Canada band official Facebook page I promised at the top of this blog, and of course a little bit of self promotion for me, Chad Vice, as I also recorded an episode of my Nobodies Are Somebodies Podcast with returning guest, the aforementioned Kevin Ganley, right before we went to show. We also drove around for about 3o minutes looking for a McDonald’s to have a quick bite before we went in, and then parked, ate our classic McD’s breakfast (served all day now woohoo!) and downed our McD’s coffee right in front the Tim Horton’s, and like I said arrived just in time to venue to see John Corabi arrive. So I think that was timed appropriately, all in all? Yes.
So check out some important links below, all have something to do with this blog post, and thanks for reading! Until the next one, where I’ll thank you again!
GRUM Canada
GRUM on Facebook Live! on the Sebcamco Facebook page
John Corabi Facebook Live! on the Sebcamco Facebook page
John Corabi @ The Brass Monkey Live on Twitter
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