Last In Line

[Stadler]

So I had quite the experience Friday.   Last In Line, the band with Viv Campbell, Vinnie Appice, Phil Soussan and Andrew Freeman - essentially the Dio "Holy Diver" band with a new singer - played about 12 miles from my house.  My buddy called and said "Dude, I've PLAYED there, it can't seat 50 people tops. We've got to check this out."

Sure enough, we get there, and it's a basically a bar, with a banquet room right next door (a different room than my friend played, but not much bigger).  The stage was set off by a metal barrier, but was only six inches higher than the floor.   I was standing on stage right before the middle act, and the singer actually had to tap me on the shoulder to move so she could get on stage.  I was right in front of Viv, and when he came to the front of the stage to hit his wah-wah pedal, it was actually kind of uncomfortably close since I was eye level with him!   Andrew, the singer, is from the next town over originally so he knew people; he actually stuck the mike out to a guy he knew in the audience who was behind me, so at one point (see the picture) I actually heard him singing acoustically, not through the PA. After the show, Viv handed me and my friend one of his metal picks and said thanks.

Before the show, Andrew, Phil and Vinnie were all walking around (it was very chill; there was only about 100 people total there) and no one mobbed them or even bothered them.  Vinnie's wife/girlfriend manned the merch stand.  My friend knew the owner (remember, he played there) and the guy said "hang after if you want; I can't promise anything because they're charging for a meet and greet, but I owe them a steak dinner at midnight, so..."  so we hung.  After the show, Andrew came out and hung with his buddies and was VERY cool.  Talked to anyone and everyone who walked up to him.  Phil was quiet (most people didn't know who he was) but Vinnie came out and talked with my friend and I, and we actually walked out to our cars with him and his wife/girl.  Viv came out but kind of made a direct line to the door with just head nods and "thank you's".

For the gear heads, he played that original Les Paul that was on the "Holy Diver" record, and other than the wah-wah, he didn't use a single effect; just fingers, guitar, cable and amp.   Setlist was probably 55% Dio and 45% Last In Line originals (they have two albums).   The clear highlight for me was "Egypt (The Chains Are On)". I thought I would miss Dio, and it would be hard to watch without him, but Freeman is a good singer, stayed in his lane, and it was such an exceptional experience that it made it worth it.

Only the third photo (of the live photos) has any zoom.  In the first two I could have put my hand out and touched the strings, without reaching.

[zappafrank2112]

I saw them open for UFO a couple of weeks ago, and thought it was great.  It was really cool to be able to be right in front of musicians who otherwise would be up on a huge stage on the other side of the arena (some of Andrew's spit even landed on me, ewwwww haha)

The Dio stuff was only a fraction of their set - mostly stuff from the new LiL album and a couple from the debut.  But to see the Dio stuff from as much of that band as we can get (RIP RJD and Jimmy Bain), along with an established guy like Phil Soussan was great.  And Freeman sounded tremendous, really did the material justice.

As if often the case with a lot of classic stuff, as I watched the musicians, it *seems* to be so simple, but that's probably a side effect of them being masters of their craft.

I will say that Rainbow in the Dark sounds odd without the keyboards, though!