Lights Turn Up The Heat At Citywalk!

I am not one that usually goes crazy about my birthday. If I want to do something, i'll plan it myself! I've had some great birthdays that way. Destination birthdays like San Diego, Vegas and Catalina have been fun as are the birthdays where I was at a concert. In fact, my first Bon Jovi show was at Irvine Meadows on my 22nd birthday! THAT was a fun one!

This birthday was like that one. The night started out with a circus atmosphere as some crazy Cirque Du Soliel kind of act came out and perfomed some performance art kind of thing. Then my friends in Lights hit the stage. How cool! Well....not literally! It was 110 degrees and humid! The guys were at their energetic best! It would be understandable if the guys used the weather as a reason to coast, maybe play at 50%. Think about it, if we were DYING watching them, under the lights the guys must have been miserably hot! Much to the credit of their professionalism and dedication to their audience, the band didn't back off one bit! Coming onstage after a great introduction by no less than LA music icon Richard Blade, the guys opened up with "Escape"! Despite the heat, the song got the crowd up and dancing and they stayed that way for most of the two hour show! Playing outside on a stage in front of the Hard Rock couldn't have been easy in the heat but despite the temps, the band made sure the night was a party! The crowd loved them and stuck around in the heat to hear favorites like "Be Good To Yourself" and "Lights". Front man Juan Del Castillo and guitarist Jonny Papa kept the crowd entertained while Casey McNerney and Michael Thompson kept them rockin! Keyboardist Jeff Vincent got in on the action as well, sharing vocals with Juan on "That's The Same Way"! As usual, a great job was done by all!

From dinner with friends at the Hard Rock to a great show by a great band! This was a birthday to remember! What a way to kick off summer!

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The Road To Bigger and Better Things

There comes a time in life where we all hit that fork in the road. You know, the one that if you go to the right, you can play it safe and not have to worry about expectations or results. But what about that road to the left, the one where the stakes are much higher and you are now expected to deliver? The delima is that you know one road is familar, safe but also know that the other road may lead to bigger and better things. One road leads you to the local hangouts, the same places you started out it. You play dive bars where you pack the place with friends and family, the bartenders know your name and the sound sucks but no one cares because you are a local sensation. The other road leads to places you have dreamed of playing, places like Vegas or a killer club packed with beautiful people and sound to die for! Do you play for those that love you or believe in yourself enough to know that you can win over a crowd that has never seen you? Do you kick the bar up a couple of notches or stay in the garage? If you were Lights, which road would you travel down?

The band answered these questions with a bang! Over the past couple of Saturdays they played two amazing shows! Their journey down the road to bigger and better things started with a trip across the desert. Past truckstops, rest stops and huge thermometers, the guys hit the road and headed to Henderson, Nevada. About 10 minutes outside of Vegas sits the gourgous Green Valley Resort and the Ovation Room. Not your local dive bar, the resort was beautiful and the club was one of the most incredible places I have seen the guys play in! Renovated with all digital sound and top notch video screens, it is a modern rock club supreme! The bar in the back opens into the casino so that the excitment of Vegas mixes with the energy of rock and roll to create an experience that is off the charts in energy!

Amidst the ching-ching-ching of slot machines, Lights rolled the dice and took full advantage of both sound and video by putting on a terrific show! This was Vegas, baby and the guys brought their "A" game. But it wasn't easy at first as Vegas crowds are notoriously laid back and hard to win over. The crowd started out small as the band treated them to great songs like "Any Way You Want It" and "Escape".

As often is the case with Lights, once people heard the music, they come in and become part of the excitement. On this evening, the music filtered out past the bar into the casino and was awesome enough to tear people away from those penny slots and nickle poker machines. No small feat but the guys in Lights are more than up to it! By the second set, the club was filled with Journey fans dancing to "Don't Stop Belivin" and "Lovin Touchin, Squeezin". Front man Juan Del Castillo pulls the crowd in with his magnetism and vocal ability. However its the one two punch of Jeff Vincent on keyboards and Jonny Papa on guitar, combined with the driving rhythm section made up of Casey McNerney and Michael Thompson that keep the crowd on their feet and dancing to the hits. These five guys perfom the complicated Journey melodies, harmonies and rhythms without a hitch. In fact, the talent of these guys was on full display in their solos! Michael gave the crowd a little "Hot For Teacher" mixed in with the Journey and Jonny wowed the crowd with his rapidly developing guitar skills. Even the man usually behind the keyboards got into the action as Jeff came out front and showed the crowd his rarely used guitar skills. Who knew the guy could rock out like that?

Lights took a gamble playing for a crowd that never heard them and it paid off big time! The crowd was buzzing after the show and can't wait for them to come back. But could the guys keep it up at this level? Could they continue to grow out of the bar band scene and into bigger, more sophisticated venues?

There is a crowd of people in Long Beach that can tell you Lights are more than ready to move on to the next big venue! Vault 350 is a beautiful club amidst the buzzing nightlife of Pine Street. The venue felt like a converted theater with the marquee out front and the huge stage! The place is spacious with lots of seating, big dance floor and even a balcony! Aside from atmosphere, the sound was amazing! Even up front you could hear guitar riffs and vocals where in most venues the fine nuances of the band get lost up front. And you weren't blown away by volume, which was nice.

None of that makes a damn bit of difference if the band doesn't bring it and boy, did Lights BRING IT to Long Beach Saturday. If Vegas got their "A" game, then Long Beach was given the "A++" game! The band was into this show no other show i've seen! It was clearly night where the energy of the crowd rocked the band as hard as they rocked back! The steady pounding rhythm section of Casey and Michael, along with guitarist Jonny and keyboardist Jeff is a musical combination that can't be be beat! Add to that foursome charismatic front man Juan and you have the makings of a show to remember!

The energy was cranked to 11 from the get go as the band opened with high-octane songs like "Escape" and "Anyway You Want It". Bassist Casey has said that he is most comfortable playing for energetic crowds that are into the show and it truly showed Saturday night. Casey, along with Michael, form a steady rhythm section that can pound the rhythm in songs like "Separate Ways" and then turn around and play groovin beats in songs like "I'll Be Alright Without You". The same flexablity also shows in the playing of guitarist Jonny Papa! His talent shines equally between rockers like "Be Good To Yourself" and ballads like "Faithfully". Jeff showed that he isn't just a keyboardist when he shares lead vocal duties with Juan on "Just The Same Way". And what band would be great without a magnetic front man? Juan isn't just a voice, he is an entertainer and draws the crowd in with his charm and talent like no other front man on the club circuit today.

Saturday night at Vault 350, like the Saturday in Nevada before it, was a resounding answer to the question of which road Lights wants to travel down. Shows like these two prove that this is a band that isn't going to be happy playing for beer money at the local dive. They want the premium shows in the best places and have the talent and drive to get there. Today Vegas and Long Beach, tomorrow.....who knows! The sky is the limit for this band but what I do know is it will be fun to take the journey along with them.....pun intended! :) Like this post? Please share it, bookmark it or leave a comment.

Another Venue, Another Weekend, Another Show!

In Rock and Roll, the live show is like a party! People gathered in one place, with a common goal in mind: to cut loose and have fun. Like any good party, at a good rock show you have many elements combining to make a great experience for all involved. Food, a well stocked bar, a fun crowd, those elements are important. But there are two elements that are above others in figuring out the success of the party!

There definitely has to be music and I will tell you about that later. But first there has to be a place for the party to happen. In rock, this is called the venue. The venue is the host of the party. One of the things that makes following Lights so much fun is that their venues are so varied in type and place. Case in point: the last couple of weeks saw Lights play two festivals in two completely different areas of Southern California, a Casino in the desert and their hometown stomping grounds (a bar).

We started off on a blazing hot day at the Strawberry Festival in Oxnard. This party was to celebrate all that is strawberry! From the unusual (Beer and nachos) to the ordinary (margaritas and pies) everything is strawberry. Once everyone got their fill of strawberry nachos and margaritas, festival goers settled in under the hot sun to see a hot band. Lights wowed the crowd with their amazing sound. Both adults and kids alike danced to songs like "Don't Stop Believin" and "Wheel in the Sky". I heard more than one person say they stopped to listen because they were Journey fans and Lights were the best they heard since they "saw Journey back in the day".

The following gig found the band at a venue as different from the Strawberry Festival as the weather. Instead of a hot day in a strawberry field in Oxnard, the band found themselves in rainy, chilly Indio at a casino in the desert. Fantasy Springs resort is a beautiful casino in the California desert. The band was set to play outside as part of the resorts "tribute fest", to kick off Memorial Day weekend. However, showers and tornado threats moved the party into the lounge inside. While the sound system left a lot to be desired, the band did their best to entertain the crowd and entertain they did. The lounge was packed and despite challenges with the sound, everyone danced and grooved to their Journey faves.

The following Monday brought the band back outside to a festival and easily their largest crowd ever! Fiesta Hermosa is Southern California's largest arts and crafts festival and is a party to celebrate the unofficial kickoff of summer, Memorial Day. With the stage located at the end of the pier, right off the beach, it is a wonderful place for a show! The weather cooperated as well. Not windy, not overly hot it was a beautiful day to be outside. About 2,000 other people thought so as well. When the band started to play, there was room to sit, room to walk around. By about 3 songs in, there wasn't an empty seat to be found, people were standing all along the walkways, sitting outside the restaurants and bars really enjoying the music! And it stayed that way for 3 hours! Even when the band took a break, no one left! By the end of the 3rd set, Lights gained many new fans.

So we had parties to celebrate Strawberrys and Memorial Day. This past weekend, we had the reunion party. Lights got their start in one of most popular rock clubs in the Valley, Paladinos. Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora wrote "Who Says You Can't Go Home" and Lights definitely take that to heart when they play Paladinos in front of the friends and family who have supported them all along the way. It's fun to see the band there as it gives them and their fans alike to catch up with one another, see people who can't make it to places like Indio or Oxnard. And Lights seem to crank it up a notch when they play at home. The energy level was off the charts and the sound awesome.

Ah yes, the music! No party is good without music. While all of these venues and shows were unique in their own way, the music was the one constant element making them all terrific. Be it in a strawberry field in the heat or a lounge inside because of the rain, the guys in Lights are so talented that the music transcends weather, travel, even sound issues. They turn any venue into a party with their energy and music. I especially love the new "I'll Be Alright Without You" but crowd favorites "Don't Stop Believin" and "Open Arms" get the crowds up and dancing no matter the place or the venue.

The party is where all the elements combine into a fun evening. When you have interesting venues and a band as wonderful as Lights, good times are had by all and the night is certainly guaranteed to be a party. Like this post? Please share it, bookmark it or leave a comment.