Beatallica and Cardboard Vampyres. Summerfest Rock Stage. Milwaukee WI. 9 July 2005. Around 78 degrees around dusk.
OK. Beatallica.
Does it need to be said? Beatallica rocks. No ifs ands or buts about it. Beatallica is the rock. Great set, and for the first time that I've seen them, they didn't wear the wigs. Maybe its the freedom from Sony/ATV.
The Cardboard Vampyres.
For those of you unfamiliar- Billy Duffy from the Cult and Jerry Cantrell from Alice In Chains
and some other guys...
They're a part time cover band. From what I heard, they're doing 6 shows this summer, and this was one of them. Among some of the songs they did: Seek and Destroy, Now I Wanna Be Your Dog, Ace Of Spades, and there were a few other songs I recognized. Of course they had to do some Cult and AIC songs: Wildflower, Sun King and Love Removal Machine from the Cult and Would?, Man In The Box, and some other AIC song I didn't recognize.
Jerry was all smiles, and the spotlight was on him a lot of the time (and a majority of the crowd was there to hear AIC songs). He was playing a blue Les Paul and occasionally pulled out the AIC G&L Rampage with the nudie pics on it. Billy Duffy played the goldtop LP and I think he also had a natural finished LP at the start of the show. He was a lot more animated than I've seen him with any of the Cult shows I've seen in the past 5-6 years, or any footage since the 80's.
Those guys probably have enough money to live comfortably for the rest of their lives, but for some people, playing is in them. It seems like they're doing what they want, the songs they want, on their terms, not going out of their way to make product for a record company to sell. They're having fun, and it shows.
