BB King Blues Club Review
Another show tonight, BB King Blues Club, right in the heart of New York City's Times Square. I heard about this place a lot but never been there until today. I had my exam at 7 pm today but moved it up to 2 pm so I could make it to the show. I took the train to the city and s soon as I made the turn on the street of the club, I saw EUROPE on clubs billboard. I literally ran. I met up Danielle, Diana NJ and her husband at the club today. We hung out at the bar and talked about Europe with a few other Europe fans including someone visiting from Massachusetts I beleive. When Europe started their sound check we tried to take the peek but a staff member of BB told us we coudln't watch it. Back to the bar. As we sat there Tour manager Daniel came over and we chatted for a few. A few things he said about Europe was, that the guys are very hard working and that's why he chose to manage them. Also the guys were planning on moving to USA, probably he was kidding. He also mention the guys were not wild at all. No breaking of stuff in the hotel room, no mess for him to clean after. He told us he will be with Europe for a long time. Ok now time to get in the venue and actually this show it was right on time. Well it better have been I will tell you why in a few. Ok in BB tables are set up and a minimum of $10 food must be purchased. Thankfully Danielle was there early to reserve a table for us 4. Having the luxury of picking the best table in the house, we picked the best table in the house, one right between Joey and Norum. We ordered our food and ate and waited for opening band to get on. The opening band was called Garlic.(hahaha you think it's hard searching for Europe on Google? Try searching for Garlic.) This was a signed band or at least they had two albums out. This group was pretty good actually. I thought bass player was kind of a Nikki Sixx wanna be or looka like. lol. But the point is they rocked. Solos were awesome and the songs were great. They tossed around some free cds. Ok now announcer comes on and started announcing upcoming shows. Remember I mentioned this show tonight better have started on time. Well we were all in for a shock. He announced that this whole show tonight was being broadcasted LIVE on XM radio and the crowd just went nuclear. Not sure which station it was on tho. But it was estimated that about 4 million listeners were going to listen to this show live. Ok by this time I was pumped up more than ever. Announcement made before the band got on stage. As soon as Ian got on stage I pointed at him and to my surprise he pointed back and smiled. Everything was going smoothly. I was WAY more energetic in this show than Jaxx and trust me I was energetic at the Jaxx. Now the coolest thing happened. I beleive it was after they played Hero. I started screaming out of my lungs "Seven Doors Hotel" over and over again. If you happened to hear the XM show maybe you heard me :-) Joey said(don't quote) we are going play a different song from out set list tonight since someone/people have been asking for it. Guess what fellas? Mic starts playing intro to Seven Doors Hotel. I almost passed out. Now Daniel mentioned something about a new song being playing tonight and I thought it was Dreamer since it was played Sunday night at the Baltimore show. But anyways awesome huh? Right before Yesterday's News we started having some problems. Two jerks in leather moved up front and started pushing around and standing infront of the people on the second row of table and I thought oh no not a fight. But anyways secuirity came in and kicked them out. Thought it would be over? Nope. There was another crap weasel from Argentina who was WAY to drunk. He was trying to push me away and get on my chair in my table. I just looked at him and he whispers in my ears "you want to fight? If you want we can meet outside". I whispered back saying you want to fight go to Harlem and fight, you want to watch the show just stop acting up. But his buddy came in and told me he was drunk and that was it. But these 4 crap burglars kept me away from banging my head during Yesterday's News. {:-( It's so annoying when you run into drunk people at shows who want to fight you. But anyways show went on and by this time the whole place was rocking. I was rocking SO hard and at several points I seen a few eyes of the audiences staring at me and just smiling, I guess maybe because I sang along every single song and played the guitar solo through my mouth and banged my head like I was Cliff Burton of Metallica. But anyways it was great. During the break after Rock The Night, the Swedish fans were screaming something couldn't make out what there were saying but at the end of the show they told me they were screaming "We want more" or something. Show ended as usual with The Final Countdown. The whole show was loud as hell. The only problem is that I couldn't hear Joey singing, I guess the Microphone volume wasn't set up right or maybe because I was right in the middle. Other than that everything was great. Three of us managed to meet the band after show in the club. When the boys came out they seemed very happy. The boys kinda remembered me from Jaxx I think. They definitely remembered Danielle and Diana. After they came out this is what happened. Joey said "Hey what's up man how is it going!!!" This time I spoke with Joey and nervousness was kinda gone. I told him how great the show was and so on. I told Leven that my girlfriend is in love him and he said "That's not good for you and asked who my girlfriend was" lol. Then after I reminded him of Jaxx he was like "Oh yes yes". Danielle asked him if he is enjoying NYC and responded with an "of course". I said bye to him and told him see you in Philly. He seemed surprised to hear that and asked if I was going I was yes to all the remaining shows. He said "Good see you there". Ian and Mic were standing there. As I was waiting for Leven to sign my stuff, Mic kinda looked at me and said "Hey, what's up" and I answered with the usual and congratulated for this great show. Now I was between Mic and Ian. Mic was talking to a girl and I was waiting to take a pic with both of them and Ian told Mic "Mic you want to be in this picture or what" in a playful way. And Mic said "of course of course I do". I spoke to these guys for a few and told them that LIVE on XM was great and they deserved and also pointed out that it wasn't mentioned on the Band Webpage. I guess if it was XM stock price would have went up today. ;-) Mic looked at me and told me and I quote "This guy rocked during the WHOLE show" talking about me. And the Swedish girls behind us agreed. I could thank Metallica's Headbanging 101 video(Live, Burge, Shit videos) for teaching me how to rock hard and last the whole show. I didnn't think I was going to meet the band today but got very lucky. I had no album to get signed, but I did promise my little brother I would get him an autograph. And also I told this 16 year old kid from England that I would get him an autograph as well. They guys gladly did it and put their names on the pieces of papers, also signed my pass. But Norum is missing from all of them. He left early.
Can you blame him? He just did put on the greatest concert EVER. Unfortunately I didn't take a camera with me thinking BB wouldn't allow it but it was allowed and I pulled my hair for a few for not bringing it. Also when Ian was signing my brother's paper, he asked how old he was that he was too young to come to the show, 16 I told him and he said that his son was just about the same age and after asking if his son was on Hero video, he informed me he was. Another thing worth mentioning is that I met this lady from Tokyo who has been following the band around since '86 and she claimed that she have been to every Europe show since then and I beleive her. Because she showed up VERY late and a seat was reserved for her on the very front row, the second best table at the house.
What a great show. I am 2 for 2 for meeting Europe after the shows. I don't think I will seek opportunity to meet them backstage again this tour because I just don't want to annoy the guys and give other fans the opportunity to meet these guys. I hope the guys didn't think I was annoying for going backstage twice in 2 shows. Althought Friday show I will try to meet them by the bus to have STFD, EUROPE, TFC and JT's third solo album signed. Well that's about it for BB King Blues Club. I hope I will see some of you in Philly, Sayerville and Allentown. BTW if anyone recorded the XM show please do share. It will be really nice of you. Picture will be posted on my in a few days I will inform you when they are posted.
Email: europepage@hotmail.com
