Ted Nugent @ Wellmont Jul 22, 2014
First of all, kudos to "the Nuge" for keeping ticket prices low. I got fourth row balcony seats for $20. General admission floor tickets I believe were only about $65. A big FUCK YOU to the township of Montclair, or whoever they commissioned for parking services, as they were trying to charge patrons $20 to park in what are normally municipal lots. When I first started going to shows at the Wellmont, parking was free. When I saw Megadeth there a few months ago, parking was $10 which I was a little annoyed about, but it was still reasonable. Especially because it was winter and I didn't want to walk. To charge $20 when that is the cost to attend the concert is absurd. My buddy and I parked a few blocks away for free. I intend to walk to the venue whenever possible from now on.
Secondly, I was amused by the 50 or so picketers outside the venue. I didn't get a good look at all of the signs or hear the chants, but the few signs I did see said "Love Not Hate" or something to that effect. True, Ted is an outspoken republican who supports the NRA and hunting, but I have never heard him preach hate or do anything harmful to animals besides kill them and eat them. It seemed kind of stupid to picket to me. Ted addressed this by saying that if you still have haters after all the years he has been around, he's doing something right. He also said he would play them "the greatest love song of all time" and then busted into a blistering rendition of "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang!" In my opinion this was the second most memorable song of the night.
Let me go back to the beginning. So, the doors opened at 7PM and by the time we found free parking and walked into the theater it was almost 7:30. I asked the usher if there were opening acts and he told me there would be two of them. It turned out there was only one and they didn't start until 8. No doubt a ploy to sell more $8 beers. Fortunately, the openers played for about 45 minutes and they rocked. The band was Pistol Day Parade who are also from Detroit. I had never heard of them before this night, but they picked up a few new fans for sure. They are straight up rock and roll in the vain of Pop Evil, Sick Puppies, or Shinedown. There are two guitarists, which gives the band a nice full sound. The singer has a gritty rasp to his voice which I like, but he can also smooth it out when he wants too. Except for the drummer, the other guys in the band sing back-up and they are quite talented as well. The musicianship and the sound were pretty tight. I was impressed, especially for an unknown band. Highlights were songs like "New Life, Not Today, and Even When High." Their next to last song was a cover of "In the Air Tonight." At first I was thinking this was a bad idea because its been done before and it is a hard song to make sound fresh. They definitely pulled it off though. They did the classic version justice and managed to make the sound heavier at the same time. They finished up with their current single "Rockstar's Girlfriend." This song is definitely their most commercial, complete with a very simple chorus and "na na nas". Even though it's a little too poppy for my taste, it was hard not to sing along.
After their set I wanted to go pick up a cd and try to meet the band. The drummer was the first band member at the merchandise booth and it turns out his name is Jason and so is the bassist! All of the guys were very cool and willing to chat. We learned that they got picked by Ted to be the support band without having ever met him before. I thought it was cool that he picked them from a list and was loyal to his hometown of Detroit. I was a little bummed that the band didn't know Nonpoint nor their cover of "In the Air Tonight." Hopefully, they will remember to check it out and I will have taught them a thing or two about a good band! The other bummer was when I bought my cd the merch guy said it's normally $10, but they were told to "price match" so it was selling for $20. WTF is this crap!? I don't know for sure, but I'm betting this was the venue that set this rule rather than Nugent's camp. This is wrong on so many levels. The bands should be able to set the price for their own stuff. It is their property and they are the ones that should be able to judge what is a reasonable price for both the fans and themselves. I hope the band gets the extra profit, but I'm sure the venue is taking a cut. Bastards! Anyway, I got the cd signed by all of the guys, so that made it worth it for me. Maybe the next time the band has to raise prices they could at least throw in a couple of free stickers or something.
At 9:30 Ted Nugent and his band came out. They played for over an hour and sounded amazing. Ted kept boasting that his band is the tightest in the game and he may be right. Derek St. Holmes (61) plays guitar and is lead singer on some of the songs. He is an amazing guitarist and even a better singer. Ted is almost 66 and he still rocks as hard as when he was in his heyday in the 70s. His new single "Shut Up and Jam" worked into the set well with classics such as "Hey Baby, Turn It Up, and Cat Scratch Fever." At one point, Ted paid homage to the originators of rock by giving shout-outs to Bo Diddly, Chuck Berry, and multiple mentions of the recently deceased, Johnny Winter. This shows the class act that Ted is. I also liked that his only backdrop was the American flag. He played about six guitars throughout the set. Each one sounded like it was made for him. The finale in the set was the best song of the night, "Stranglehold." After that the band went offstage for a minute before returning for an encore of "Great White Buffalo." My ears were still ringing the next day, but it was definitely worth seeing these two awesome rock acts throw down.
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