All right, now that I have a day to gather my thoughts after seeing The Winery Dogs at the City National Grove of Anaheim, last night. I will say this. What a great show. It's a nice feeling when you have three great showmen that's really f'en good at their instruments come together and they were a well-oiled unit. I didn't think Sheehan and MP would be the greatest fit harmonizing with Kotzen vocally, but it was a solid fit. I also didn't mind Sheehan's bass solo spot, but I think it lasted a bit too long than it should have, but it's still good. After his bass solo was done, he segue nicely by playing the bass intro into Ghost Town (one of my favorite from the Hot Streak album). Kotzen had some time with the crowd only by himself with a keyboard and played something from his solo stuff which was very lovely. Oddly enough, I thought there would be a MP drum solo, and I was quite shocked when it didn't happen. That stated, he was very entertaining on the drums as he should be and very engaging with the crowd, making a lot of "I see you there, keep that enthusiasm going" pointing gestures.
Now the sad news. I didn't care about the first two opening bands. There was this one band that played their entire set instrumentally. It sounded nice and trippy at times and very flashy, but there wasn't anything memorable or something I want to listen to again. These are the moments where you truly do appreciate bands like DT where they can do the flashy stuff, but is able to keep the song together that makes you want to relisten to the song and the vocals and the lyrics. The first opening band was not that. The second opening band had that classic party rock vibe to me which was not going to do it for me from the get-go, but they sounded all right. Just something I wouldn't care to listen to again and I think the crowd was polite about those bands, but I don't think they care much for it as well.
Also more sad news. This place holds around 1,700 people and I think I can spot at least 500 people being there when Winery Dogs came out and I would think that 1,000 people being there was pushing it when it comes to the actual attendance. It's a bloody shame since the Groupon Voucher that costs $17.50 for this show was there for the last few weeks and only about 40 people bought it. Heck, there was one guy outside that was looking for a cheap ticket and I thought "Dude, if you took a look around in outlets like Groupon, you would have nabbed tickets at a lower price like I did." This was my view for the ticket I got for $14.00 behind the rail of the front section of GA. Pretty friken sweet, honestly. I felt that Winery Dogs honestly deserved to have played in front of a packed house, because they were really good from start to finish and the crowd was appreciative of them and the band noticed that as well and responded in kind.
Overall, yeah. For $14.00 for the ticket and $12 for parking, I had a tremendous time and probably got the best value this year for the price I paid to be at this show. I honestly enjoyed seeing Winery Dogs last night more than seeing DT back in March (the one guy standing on the chair really ruined a lot of the enjoyment of the show for me). I put this as my third favorite concert of the year so far, behind Within Temptation and Switchfoot, but if those shows didn't happen this year, I probably would have pegged The Winery Dogs as my favorite concert of the year at this point. Cheap ticket, cheap parking, great vibe, and venue next to Angels Stadium and all kinds of restaurants? What's not to love? I know that Delain is playing a show in this same venue in October and after the atmosphere I had at this place, I wouldn't mind buying a ticket now.
Go see these guys if the opportunity presents itself and the price is fitting. They did say that three years of being gone was too long and they want to do a new album and come back to doing shows again and it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. I wouldn't mind doing it again.