Universal Amphitheater

November 14^th, 2002

Reported and gleefully experienced by Ken Boyd

 All Photos by Ken Boyd and Joe Montoya © 2002

Every Dio show I have had the pleasure of taking part in has been an incredible experience, and this one was absolutely no exception. The whole event proved to be an exercise in seeing old friends, hearing some really good tunes and just plain good time/rock n roll weekend that seemed to get better at every turn.

When I first began my planning to come out it seemed destined to failure. Due to my work and college schedule I was unwilling to make the drive out so I started looking at taking other modes of transportation. The bus would take 18 hours each way of road time and was under $100 while a train—which was actually somewhat appealing to me after my travels by train in Europe—would take 8 hours in each direction, and also was about the same price. Finally I think I totally lucked out when my wife found some great round trip airline tickets for less than either other mode and only took ONE hour each way—how could I resist that.

Joe Montoya was gracious enough to not only pick me up from the airport, but opened his house to me for the duration of my trip. These are the types of friends that hold the test of time. This proved, in many ways, the best part of the trip.

Any of you who have met up with me out there on the road know how I am about giving gifts to all I meet up with, and this time was no exception. I brought down a pack of five Dio DVDs for Joe that proved to be a  really great time while knocking back a few and getting wound up for the shows!

In addition to gearing up for the Dio shows (we went to Universal City as well as Anaheim—of which Joe will be reporting on to all the fans in this issue as well) we went one night to check out his band at their practice studio. They really kick ass and I most especially enjoyed a tune called FLOW. They did a cover of The Man On A Silver Mountain for me. You can tell that Joe is greatly influenced by Ritchie Blackmore as you can hear it in his playing—and wait until you hear who has agreed to be their new singer!!!.

Likewise, we did a lot of other things as I was out there a good part of a week. We went out to several beach and ocean cliff areas around Redondo Beach that Joe knows well. This almost became, for me, a vacation as much as a nice trip out to a couple of Dio shows. All in all it proved a wonderful, relaxing time away from third quarter exams—who the hell needs chemistry and physics when you can have Dio, right?!?!

While getting ready for this show we were joined by all the guys in Joe’s band. The drummer Jeff Bostick, an energetic player, proved to have a great sense of humor and kept us laughing all the time. The bass player, Al Lujan, listened to much of the same music as I and we had a great time talking about all the concerts we had experienced over the years.

Traffic was insane as we hit the road—taking two full hours to get across a section of city that I was told normally only took 45 minutes at worst. But at least we had a good stack of Dio boots and some great company. I mean when you are locked in traffic, there is not a whole lot you can do about it.

As soon as we arrived, you could tell the energy of all of us hyped up a few notches—you know that feeling I’m talking about! And those of you who have ever been to Universal Amphitheater know that you have to walk from the parking area nearly a mile of concrete and shop filled pseudo-city to get to the venue itself—ALL the way at the other end.

The first thing we did was check the box for our passes and what not. I ran into several people I had not expected to be at this show. Kyoko, a HUGE, long time fan of Doug Aldrich came all the way from Japan for this and a few more shows. She was really soft spoken and I found it very pleasant to meet her in person after passing so many messages back and forth across the internet. Also there was Atomic Chaser & The Rocker from rockandrollstation.com. They remembered my site and talked about their show hopefully coming back on line soon. They are close friends with Tracy G so we spent some time talking about his projects since Dio.

Security proved a bit formidable here as there were several string of security people, each looking for a different aspect of venue requirements. In fact my metal parking sign—the Mascot for Dio Fan’s Place was taken away along with my gifts for some fans I was to meet here and the next show. And, they just threw them in a pile with a bunch of skateboards and other items not permitted into the show. Fortunately, the head of the security up front, Javier, saw my passes and pulled all my stuff aside—telling me it would be there when I go tout of the show. Well, if it were gone when I got back, all I could hope was that it got a good home on the wall of another Dio fan.

The venue itself, Universal Amphitheater, has always been an enjoyable place for me to see a show. The layout is great and there really isn’t a bad seat in the house, despite it can still fit a couple thousand people. The decor is classy—dark burgundies for draperies and soft seats. The security is professional and, for the most part, well informed. (Unlike many venues where the security is found from behind some dumpster they are scrounging in or the local boozer from a nearby strip club!) Its semi-circular design makes access and exit easy, and—most important—the quality of sound is simply on par with the best of them.   

The opening acts were the bands Hammerfall and then Kings X. Normally I like to enjoy the opening acts and get geared up for the finale with Dio, but this time I found myself wanting them just to get off stage and bring on the master. Nothing against the bands—Hammerfall did some great old school metal and Kings X had some real heavy hitting Hendrix flavored contemporary slam rock! Joe and the others felt the same as we ended up walking around the venue BSing to kill the time until the main act!!

Out on the lawn outside before the show they even had a band playing to those coming in—I knew them from somewhere, at least the singer, and I think they had opened for Dio or something somewhere along the line in the past, just memory would not serve up the details. Also I never got a chance to talk to the guys in that band as the time for Dio to hit the stage was coming close!

Joe had got us the best tickets in the house—right on the floor in the pit. It makes me miss the days of general admission, when it paid off to get there early and hang out in the line to get a good seat. I backed off one row to have an elevated position to take my photos while Joe and the boys went down right up front on what would be Doug’s side of the stage.

The lights darkened and the Killing The Dragon Into build to a roaring level of anxiety—another Dio show kicking off and kicking ass! Doug’s guitar ripped into life and Ronnie burst on stage, that bright smile blaring in the spot lights.

No surprises to the set list:

New Intro

Killing The Dragon

Children of the Sea/ Egypt (Medley)

Push

Drum Solo

Rock n Roll

The Man On A Silver Mountain

Guitar solo

Lord of the Last Day

Fever Dreams

Heaven & Hell

Don’t Talk to Strangers

Stand Up and Shout

Holy Diver

Encore:

The Last In Line

Rainbow In The Dark

We Rock

To this point I had not yet heard Doug do the Magica tracks live—only sampling the Tilberg show provided by our ever skillful dio_jack, Jacob! I have to say that he handled the material very well (not that I ever doubted it after seeing how he handled the Vivian material, when last I saw them in Phoenix) and gave it a slight twist of his own style while delivering justice to the original compositions.

Here are just my general impressions on each band member’s performance for the night:

Ronnie James Dio:

As is always the case with this frontman, Ronnie was in top form. His voice sounded great and his energy level was high. He was dressed in the black fitted pants and a simple black velvety tunic—coordinating well with Jimmy for the retro feel. Not only did this man slay a dragon this night, but (vocally) kick the shit out of a good sized audience to boot!

Doug Aldrich:

 I just cannot say enough about this guy’s playing. Every time I see him, he just has more and more likeable attitude on the stage. I still don’t get the “snake movement” reference that some have attributed to him, but I do so enjoy his hunkered down and dirty stances and postures. His dress was the typical black pants, boots and unbuttoned black shirt with gold trim. I am no guitar player, but I have to say, his playing was absolutely inspiring, quite often motivating the crowd to stand up and shout or simply throw a fist pounding into the air!

During his guitar solo, Doug broke sting and I was confused if it was part of the show or the man was just ad-libbing, but he pulled a Ritchie! While his tech was prepping another guitar Doug threw this one with the broken sting onto the stage and started playing it with his foot, banging it against the monitor and the stage floor, pitching it up into the air—it was just amazing showmanship.

Simon Wright: 

I am a big advocate of this player. He has always proved to put forth a nice, solid playing that holds the whole thing together. His solo was different than he had been playing on the opening tour with Deep Purple and the Scorpions, and it a nice enjoyable change—and it should be noted that drum solos usually just bore me, so it is nice to see a change up to keep it interesting. Also keeping it interesting, During Fever Dreams, we saw the monitor Simon has to his immediate left fell right over on his high hat and snare—Turbo running out to right it as quickly as possible and not missing but a single beat. Other than that the night was free of any further troubles for Simon. He seemed very concentrated and just right on with his playing all night. His audience participation part was pretty crowd effecting—the house lights coming on every time he would stop playing to get a shout from everyone!

Jimmy Bain: 

He and Ronnie did some great stage stomping interactions with the crowd and simply looked like they were having a lot of fun. His bass playing was solid and pretty loud in the mix—at least seemed to stand out a bit more than I remember of a usual show. He was dressed in a strange dark velvet pant and shirt suite with gold braid and flowery design down the pant piping and arm sleeves—very retro looking and I thought it looked really great on him! 

Scott Warren:  

He was in pretty good form, musically. He went bare-chested with a black open jacket which made if fortunate he was not the center of attention. His hair looked good and he played well—though leaving the stage in between duties on stage with the keys.

Before the show was out, there was one guy jumping up on stage in the middle of the show and Willie chased him over to stage left, getting ready to bounce the fool off the end of the stage when he opted to throw himself off into a pile of chairs at the side of the stage area.

At another point Ronnie called out “Hey Joey!” when he recognized Joe Montoya up front in the pit. Ronnie also showed some further great antics by jumping up on the light raisers (that were never used, oddly enough) at the front of the stage, along with Doug and Jimmy. Also, something else new, Ronnie was touching the evil eye prongs with many fans—where his pinky finger would lock with the fan’s upheld index finger and visa versa to form two interlocked evil eye signs!

The crowd was really responsive and went wild for Holy Diver, and when the backdrop switched from Killing The Dragon to the Holy Diver album cover, Ronnie looked a bit surprised when the crowed went total blitz in the middle of the song—I think he expected it to switch out either at the beginning or the end of the song, as he turned to see what everyone was shouting about. The fans truly enjoyed the Heaven & Hell cut, and I was quite surprised to see more people than I would have expected singing along with the words to the two Magica tunes.

Finally,  this one fan leapt up on the stage as the band was taking a bow from the killed encore sessions. He did not run up and molest Ronnie, instead just sort of bowing down and pointing to Ronnie and clapping his praise. Instead of booting him off the stage Ronnie gave him a hug and then let him go his own way—though you could see Willie yelling mad at security where he got access.

Aftershow there were SO many people back there, it was kind of crazy! I ran into a ton of fans as well as a number of music celebrities. Missing them through the whole show—only a quick greeting at the gates—I finally ran into Joey Niji and his brother. Amy, the Pretender, along with a good friend of hers were also there and we got a chance to spend a good measure of time chatting and it was so great to finally meet her in person. Strangehighways never made it back stage, though I had seen her down in the pit during the show. Not seen since Phoenix, I ran across Larry and Lorie George along with their eminent benefactor Thomas Krause—who told me this was his 20^th show for this tour alone!

Then I was pleasantly surprised to run into several musicians. Jeff Pilson and I  had only met in person once, but spoke on the phone and through the net, and he seemed happy when I asked him about his current music project, Underground Moon. I was also happy to see Ray Luzier—drummer from the David Lee Roth Band and prior worked with Tracy G in Driven. Marco Mendoza, bass player for Thin Lizzy, was more than happy to take photos with others, despite this not being his gig. Naturally, Wendy Dio was present, though I only had a chance to say hi, as she was quite busy making the rounds. I was VERY happy to see that Roger Summer was back as tour manager this time around and I wish he would not have been so busy so we could catch up a bit, but it was nice to see him back, as I said.

Naturally, all too soon—though it was, in truth, a couple hours—they began ushering all the aftershows out. Ronnie had still not come out—though we had run across all the other band members sans Jimmy Bain. When they were ushering everyone out I had been talking with Doug who was gracious enough to take photos and give out picks, so we were pretty much the last to leave.

It still seemed a great night, even though we had not had the pleasure of Ronnie’s company, and we still had one more night in another city and another aftershow. So we headed back to the security office to see what we could find out about my Dio Parking Sign.

As it turned out this was just the beginning of the evening’s antics for us!

Lo and behold that sign was NOT lost and a wonderful security woman went all the way back to the front of the venue’s security posts and found my entire pack—everything still in tact! (Thanked be the gods too as I had an original sketching of Tracy G that was really skillfully done by another fan that was to be a gift when we picked up Isabeaux tomorrow, her being such a HUGE Tracy fan!) and by the time all this was taken care of, the entire security force had left for home.

So, we opted for a bit of adventure…Going back across the stage that Ronnie had just performed on, the crew was almost done packing everything up. That was when we ran into Bo and Turbo as well as Roger. We were really just chatting, thinking everyone had already left by this time when I saw Doug crossing the parking lot from the bus to a building out back. So we all followed, simply walking right in.

Strolling in and sitting down with some fellow fans we knew, Willie walked straight over to us, pointing to each in turn: “Come with me please” was all he said. “Guys, this is a VIP section only, but wait right here and I will see what I can do.” Willie is the one that makes it happen if you want to see Ronnie so we did as he indicated, and stayed put right outside with the limo Dio was riding in.

The limo guy was pretty cool and let us check out the monster truck/mobile bar limo that the band were to ride in—he was actually pretty cool to talk to while Willie set verything up for us to get some face time with Ronnie.

I have always liked Willie Fyffe—he has such a strange sense of humor, always either cracking me up or leaving me wondering if he is being serious, LOL! And he has always been cool with me about seeing Ronnie and the band since I am always cool with him respecting how difficult it must be do put up with us pain in the ass fans night after night! LOL!!!

First thing when Willie brings us back into the VIP building, Jeff goes over to the catering tables and starts scarffing down the veggie selection—joking about having Simon sign his plate! LOL! I told you he was a funny guy!

When Ronnie came over he grabbed Joe with his usual friendly embrace. Telling him that his banner—lost on the last few nights opening for Purple had been found and Ronnie and the guys had I hung up in their rehearsal! BAD ASS~!!

Joe, Al and Jeff are all in the same band and they told Ronnie that they were looking for a singer and, without missing a beat, Ronnie said he was free in a couple of weeks! LOL!! Great! It just doesn’t get any better than that!

Ronnie asked about Joey and his brother or cousin and said they probably got kicked out due to their home made laminates—which I made darn sure to tease the boys about the next night when I saw them again! LOL!

He took photos and signed a few more pictures.

I am always surprised at how strong Ronnie’s hugs are, and this time was no exception. He asked about AnnMarie—she could not make this trip as she was stuck with exams where I got out of all of mine except Chemistry. When I showed him the sign, he called some people over to take a look at it, saying how great it was. I had not seen Ronnie in quite some time and so it was really nice to spend a bit of time with him again.

I want to take a moment to give much thanks to Willie Fyffe for topping off the night in a way that could not have gone much better!

Fortunately we were so excited after that, that we kept quite awake all the way home and dropping everybody off—it was about 4:00 AM by the time we got to bed and rest up to do it all over again in Anaheim.

To close off the weekend we went out to the infamous Rainbow Bar & Grill (Where the original name for the band Rainbow was derived from, as well as the place on that fateful night when Ronnie ended up joining Black Sabbath) where the owner, John, showed us on a personal tour about the club when he saw my jacket and asked if we were Dio fans. He even asked some police officers in the booth with the large Dio photos so that we could all sit there for some photos that he took for us.

Great guy and a great place!

Make sure you check out Joe’s review of Anaheim on the next night!