Surprised to hear Serena lost, and I couldn't even picture the person she played! But I watched the highlights, and Vinci played a HELL of a match. A lot of times Serena looked confused and just very irritated with herself.

To me, a The Firm were a major disappointment. I figured with JP and Paul Rodgers.....wow....on paper, this should be AMAZING. But on record it was ..... meh ..... seemd like Page wasn't really into it.

Yeah I agree. Every time someone changes a website, I hate it. Then in a month or so, I'm fine with it and if I see the old version, somehow it looks REALLY old to me. But for now, the new forum....everything is way too big, too clunky, I don't like the Kashmir font stuff. But I am sure I will get used to it.

Flares, I like your points. For years, we Bob Dylan fans collected crappy sounding bootlegs. And then Dylan and Columbia started "The Bootleg Series", with just some incredible stuff, lots of it better than stuff he released! Would have been awesome if Page did this, but I think the problem here is Dylan recorded enormous quantities of songs, sometimes 30 or 40 for an album that would turn out to have only 10 songs. The others went into the vaults where they eventually leaked out to bootleggers. Zep didn't do this, in fact, I seem to remember JP or someone saying Physical Graffiti had all the outtakes at that point in time. Totally agree with tmtomh, if they had released four CDs of the really good stuff as one package, everyone would have been raving about it!

Well Flares, I'm not saying Robert Plant would agree with you, but he did say something along the lines of "they weren't interesting at all, just bits and pieces of how things might have gone"....just paraphrasing there. Like Hermit, I haven't purchased any of the discs either, and frankly most of the Companion material I have heard, I would be very much in agreement with RP. Some of it (Kashmir) made me wonder "why bother"? Others have def enjoyed them, so kudos to them!

Gawd, I wish he would release an album of the 77 tour. I mean Zep were at the height of their God-like status, and some of the shows were very good. All this 73 and before rules out way too many good songs.

There is a Youtube video where EVH goes into how he came up the striped guitar (Frankenstrat). How he bought second hand wood and how he drilled big deep holes in it so there was room for what he wanted. I think it was pickups, not sure. And when he painted it it was boring, so he wrapped all this tape around it, then took a razor blade and cut some skinny and some at weird angles, etc. It's a pretty good video. The whole Smithsonian thing he did is def worth watching, he makes it look SO easy.

Def agree with this statement. He hasn't sounded this good and make it look this effortless since...well....since a damned long time.

Had no idea George "played for the other team" til he came out. He's done some great stuff with it though since coming out.

My son remarked that he woke up in the middle of the night and looked outside and could see everything. He thought he saw a moose by the garden, more likely a large deer. I did tell him that with these bright moons, you can go outside and cast a shadow, which I always think is pretty cool with these moons.

Driftin' Back from Psychedelic Pill. Neil Young & Crazy Horse. 25 minutes of rumbling distorted bliss!

Don't think I could summarize my feelings any better. RIP Roddy!

Kind of repetitive, but Happy Birthday Strider!

Slash in GNR was pretty amazing when they first arrived on the scene. The drums in Paradise City are some of the most "Bonham-like" for power that were on the radio in that time frame. All in my opinion, of course! I was a Kiss fan back in the day, they were def huge.

Sorry man, to mention Kiss in the same breath as GNR or VH is sacrilegious. The talent level in Kiss, on a scale of 1 to 10 is prob 3. Put on a great visual show, but the musicianship is at best, very mediocre.

Review of the KC show: http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/back-to-rockville/article28391317.html Shameless and Voiceless Roth kind of summarizes it. Watching Eddie play, he is becoming Jeff Beck. Very business like, not a lot of running and jumping and flash, but MAN can he play!

I agree. I posted earlier that he seems to always be out of breath, from the opening song to the last. Eddie on the other hand, seems to have matured like a fine wine. I am not sure I have ever heard him sound better, play better, or more inventive. Keep going EVH!

Listening to DLR live on the Tokyo CD as well as the recent Kimmel stuff, I am wondering if he doesn't have some sort of breathing problem, like COPD, asthma, lung cancer, etc. He seems so winded so fast...I know he's an older man, but come on, it just sounds like he is always out of breath...

Man the dysfunctionality in that band is just amazing....

Totally going off topic here, but agree about Rock and Roll. the studio version really does nothing at all for me.

OK, so here's what I take away from these recent VH appearances: Eddie looks great, in amazing shape for his age and looks real healthy. Still a mind boggling player. Wolfie, sheesh, lay off the twinkies and chips man! DLR- I never got the idea of covering your body in tattoos, but if it works for you, go for it. Looks and sounds good. Alex looks like he's got the most mileage, but still keeps a solid beat going. Isn't it time to integrate the two VHs? Will Roth NEVER sing a SH song and vice versa? Seems kind of silly, some of their great tunes had SH singing, why can't Roth cover them? Still wish they had new material to showcase, but you can't have everything. Loved the stop and restart when Roth cut his nose, very big of the band to just start all over.

Happy Birthday EC!!

Plan to see him in Boston. Should be an awesome show.

Cowboy Junkies - Newport RI August 2008

The Ellen link mentions they will embark on a "Greatest Hits Tour". Any confirmation? DLR really sounds like crap on the entire Tokyo Live CD.