Joe Lynn Turner in San Antonio!

[Andy Laudano]

Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to interview melodic hard rock legend, Joe Lynn Turner. JLT was promoting his latest album, the excellent The Usual Suspects and an upcoming show in San Antonio. I made plans back then to see and photograph JLT (a dream come true for this Rainbow fan) at this show and unfortunately it fell on the same weekend as the Chicago PowerFest so I had to miss Nocturnal Rites. (Glenn PLEASE get them to play Prog Power!!)

A friend and I drove down from Dallas. We got an early start so we could catch the opening act - the incredible Queensryche tribute band Mindcrime! Mindcrime features our own pre-party organizer Shane DuBoise on bass, guitarist Eric Halpern (Destiny's End/Distant Thunder/Hellstar/Z-Lot-Z) and vocalist Chris Salinas (Power of Omens/Zero Hour). They were amazing! If you closed your eyes you'd swear you went back in time and were listening to Empire era Queensryche, playing a dream setlist.

JLT looked and sounded fantasic!! I never got to hear him play with Rainbow or Deep Purple (though I did see him once with Yngwie) so it was just awesome to hear some of those old songs. His voice was perfect and his band was tight! I expected to hear the big hits like "Stone Cold," "I Surrender" and "Street of Dreams" but I never in a million years thought I'd also get to hear "Death Alley Driver," "Can't Happen Here" and "Jealous Lover!" My only complaint is I wish he could have had a longer set (not JLT's fault, the promoter cut his set time to make room for some other crappy bands I'd rather not talk about) and played more material from The Usual Suspects, one of my favorite albums from last year. Still, it was a killer performance from a rock-n-roll legend and more than worth the 4 1/2 hour drive!

I hope everyone had a good time at PowerFest! If anyone has a complete setlist from Nocturnal Rites, please post it for me.

 

[Burke]

oh DOOD - I would have KILLED to see that set!!!

Joe Lynn is one of the bext rock and roll vocalists - period. His Rainbow material was seminal stuff for me.

MAN that must have been awesome to see live - AND some tracks from Usual Suspect which I think is pretty darn good too.

Was it his Usual SUspects band backing him up??

 

[edgeofthorns]

I'd like to see JLT sometime. I've been hoping he'd make an appearance as a guest or something at ProgPower, but no luck....yet anyway!

Yeah, I'd like to know if Al Pitrelli played lead guitar for him at the show?

 

[Andy Laudano]

No, unfortunately there was no Al Pitrelli, John O'Reilly, Dave Z., etc. from the album. Most of those guys are all busy with other projects. Would have been awesome to see though.

To make things easier when doing shows, Joe actually has more than one backing band. He has one he uses on the East coast (which includes the other guitarist from his album), one on the West coast and another from Japan for overseas. This was the West coast band, who all play together locally in California. They were tight as Hell, played the music perfectly and really had fun onstage.

As for Prog Power, maybe Glenn will get Nickolo Kotsev's Brazen Abbott to play one year and Joe can sing.

 

[Beholder]

Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to interview melodic hard rock legend, Joe Lynn Turner. JLT was promoting his latest album, the excellent The Usual Suspects and an upcoming show in San Antonio. I made plans back then to see and photograph JLT (a dream come true for this Rainbow fan) at this show and unfortunately it fell on the same weekend as the Chicago PowerFest so I had to miss Nocturnal Rites. (Glenn PLEASE get them to play Prog Power!!)

A friend and I drove down from Dallas. We got an early start so we could catch the opening act - the incredible Queensryche tribute band Mindcrime! Mindcrime features our own pre-party organizer Shane DuBoise on bass, guitarist Eric Halpern (Destiny's End/Distant Thunder/Hellstar/Z-Lot-Z) and vocalist Chris Salinas (Power of Omens/Zero Hour). They were amazing! If you closed your eyes you'd swear you went back in time and were listening to Empire era Queensryche, playing a dream setlist.

JLT looked and sounded fantasic!! I never got to hear him play with Rainbow or Deep Purple (though I did see him once with Yngwie) so it was just awesome to hear some of those old songs. His voice was perfect and his band was tight! I expected to hear the big hits like "Stone Cold," "I Surrender" and "Street of Dreams" but I never in a million years thought I'd also get to hear "Death Alley Driver," "Can't Happen Here" and "Jealous Lover!" My only complaint is I wish he could have had a longer set (not JLT's fault, the promoter cut his set time to make room for some other crappy bands I'd rather not talk about) and played more material from The Usual Suspects, one of my favorite albums from last year. Still, it was a killer performance from a rock-n-roll legend and more than worth the 4 1/2 hour drive!

I hope everyone had a good time at PowerFest! If anyone has a complete setlist from Nocturnal Rites, please post it for me.

ANDY!!!!!!!!! it was great to see you my friend!!!!! The Saturday show was Killer for us, and it was incredible to see Joe Lynn Turner!! He really tore it up, and the support band was VERY good!!!!!

Friday was a little slow, and the ARSEHOLE soundman didn;t help matters, but it was a great experience!!!! post some of the pics here when you get them back brother!!!!!!!!!!!

LATER!!!!!!!!!!

Shane

 

[ashaman7122]

Damn...can't believe I missed that...what venue in SA was this show?

Rock on!

 

[edgeofthorns]

No, unfortunately there was no Al Pitrelli, John O'Reilly, Dave Z., etc. from the album. Most of those guys are all busy with other projects. Would have been awesome to see though.

To make things easier when doing shows, Joe actually has more than one backing band. He has one he uses on the East coast (which includes the other guitarist from his album), one on the West coast and another from Japan for overseas. This was the West coast band, who all play together locally in California. They were tight as Hell, played the music perfectly and really had fun onstage.

As for Prog Power, maybe Glenn will get Nickolo Kotsev's Brazen Abbott to play one year and Joe can sing.

It would be cool to see JLT regardless of who he's got backing him!

 

[Andy Laudano]

Damn...can't believe I missed that...what venue in SA was this show?

Rock on!

It was held during a biker festival (River City Bike Fest), outdoors on the grounds of the Alamo Dome. It was a perfect night, the sound was great (that night), the stage was just the right height, good lighting ... as a photographer and a fan I couldn't have asked for anything more (besides a longer set).