Rose Hill Drive Official Forum

Back to back RHD shows, haven’t done it since the 2006 Who tour, when RHD was supporting the Who. The show on the 30th, as I’ve mentioned, was nothing less than perfection. To use an old horse racing term , from “wire to wire” it was totally fucking brilliant. The New Years Eve show had its moments of greatness, but the kavorka (Seinfeld term) was not in great supply. It seemed that the band was struggling to find it’s groove from the start. To be fair, I decided to bring the camera, and that always changes my perspective on a show. It takes me out of the pure rock and roll trance of a great show, but it’s a trade off that I make because I love to photograph great rock and roll! But even with the camera distraction, I knew immediately that there was something missing.
Arrived at the venue about 20 minutes later than the night before, and found it to be all but deserted out front. Acquired a ticket at the box office for my Bro Eric, and took our place as first in line. Not 3 minutes later, a most wonderful and beautiful friend passed by to check if I needed a ticket. That brought a smile to my face. I thanked her but said we were set. I had a great time out front talking to the other people that showed up early enough to join the line before the doors opened. The first sign that something was different was actually the absence of a sign, “Tonight’s Show is SOLD OUT.” On Tuesday, when I arrived and saw that little sign taped to the box office door, it immediately pumped up the adrenaline. It wasn’t there when we arrived on Wednesday.
What also wasn’t there was the line that went back from the doors to the corner, another adrenalin pumping piece from Tuesday that was just not there. By the time that the doors opened Wednesday night, there was just a handful of people on the line. I casually strolled in and took up residency front row center (the place I love to be to experience greatness close up.) Directly to my left I soon realized was Carole, her gorgeous daughter (I fucking suck with names, sorry darling,) and Carole’s “not husband” travelling partner (-: I had received a MySpace message from Carole Wednesday morning about my review and photos of the Tuesday show. It turns out Carole, her daughter, and not husband, came from England for the RHD shows! Shortly after meeting up with Carole, I turned around and ran into a great young couple from Tuesday’s show, who I learned came from Spain for the RHD shows! This was fucking mind blowing. I’m part of worldwide collection of IAD (Intelligent, Alienated, and Dysfunctional,) Who fans that travel the globe to see the greatest band on the planet, but until Wednesday night, I didn’t realize that a similar group was forming for RHD. It’s absolute been my opinion that RHD has IT! However you want to describe “IT” as, they possess it. For me, the IT is the feeling I’m experiencing one of the future great rock and roll bands developing before my eyes. I grew up in the 1970’s music scene, and there was quite an abundance of rock and roll greatness around. But in the 2000s there’s much less. RHD is a band that embodies the pure soul of that greatness without ripping any of it off. It’s totally fresh and unique.
Okay, now back to the regularly scheduled review; so it was wonderful running into these traveling RHD fans. Another very noticeable missing element was the hundred or so massive rocking White as Night fans from New Vista High. Their energy was sorely missed by the warm up act Paper Bird, but mor on that in a moment. White as Night was not on the bill for Wednesday, and to my surprise, “Little Brother” was added at the last minute to fill the spot. “Little Brother” as he announced to us at one point, was how he was listed on the lineup sheet. It was truly a welcome surprise when Ben came walking onstage with a well worn acoustic guitar, and a chair in tow. I’ve seen at many a RHD show, and knew he had a band, and even joined RHD on a couple of occasions. But I never got to catch him on his own. Ben played a short set of songs, some original, and a couple of covers. I loved his set, which to be honest was a little rough in places, but it didn’t matter, he was totally present and having a great time, and it was a perfect way to start the night. Ben has a great stage presence, and has the gift of being very relaxed with an audience. Very reminiscent of Jeff Tweedy, who can be incredibly engaging with the audience without being full of shit. Jeff and Wilco fall squarely on the list of R&R greats. Ben needs some refinement, but that will come with experience, his audience engaging persona seems to be something one is born with.
Paper Bird hit the stage, and never got anywhere near the high they road on Tuesday night. The bare footed boys were there and played their part, but it was the three woman vocalists that were stuck, and couldn’t get past the fact that they didn’t have high energy teen agers treating them as if they were the AC/DC of their strange folk-jaz genre. One of the vocalists mentioned, not once but twice, that we, Wednesday’s audience had a sizeable job to live up to Tuesday’s teenage slam dancing, heavy metal head bobbing audience. But what I tried to yell to them was it takes two to tango, and they never were able to take the lead as they did on Tuesday. The girls lacked the energy, and it might have been due to them switching their wigs around, or it may it was that they rode an amazing high on Tuesday night, fueled by teen spirit, but that smell* was not there on Wednesday. It seems that Paper Bird came to the stage on Wednesday night expecting the teen energy, and never got past that fact it was not there as freely as on Tuesday. The New Vista High kids were an amazing part of Tuesday’s complete and amazing experience, but you can’t always rely on the amazing, sometimes you just have to go out there and work for it. (* Just in case the Nirvana reference passes you by, I’m not saying that there was anything “smelly” about the New Vista rocking teens! Quite the opposite, as a parent, I want my kids to be as open minded and welcoming as those kids were. They fucking rocked!!!)
Now to the meat! RHD hit the stage, and while it was quite evident that the pit wasn’t nearly as full as Tuesday, the Boulder Theater was well packed. They opened with Trans Am, something that my 10 year old son Adrian identified on Tuesday within the first three notes, as I was still trying to figure out how this could possibly be Led Zep II. I smiled and knew he was a true RHD fan, and his mind wasn’t damaged from all that 70’s partying. Anyway, they played through their first set with what most any other band, or first time RHD audience member would have regarded as a tight rocking set. But to me they were slightly to moderately off their pace. Daniel seemed to be either struggling, of experimenting with a more fragmented lead style than his normal blistering fluent barrage. I concentrated more on Jake while he had the bass in his hand, because I knew he was to discard it shortly. It seemed that even Jake was laying off the frontal lead bass attack style that he usually plays. Nate, was Nate, fucking awesome as ever. The opening notes of the Zep II set rang out, and once again Jake made the transformation to his own version of the Golden god front man of rock! Robert Plant, and Roger Daltrey were the forerunners, and Jake is polishing his version. Even as I write what seems like a slightly negative review, I’m still blown away by what RHD brought to the Boulder Theater these past couple of days. The Zep set went well, just didn’t reach the magic pinnacle of Tuesday’s show, but that is what it’s all about. You have your good nights, and you have your not so good nights, and then you have those nights that go down in history! Wednesday was a good night, but Tuesday was one for the history books. I won’t get it complete right, but “Little Brother” Ben said it all, he said of Tuesday night, that is was an amazing RHD show, and he’s been to a lot of RHD shows. And that was the story, they grabbed the ring and rang the bell (ask your parents about old carousel rides) on Tuesday, and on Wednesday it was what it was, a good night of rock and roll. I knew it was all very special, because just as I’ve recently saw nine Who shows on the most recent tour, and always came out ready and craving the next one, I was wishing there was another RHD show to go back to tonight. To me, that’s the mark of greatness in a rock and roll band! Leave your audience hungry for more.
“Long Live Rock…”
Love ozzie
PS I have to mention the main tech that brought out the two green crystal tom toms on Tuesday night for Daniel’s supporting drum part on Moby Dick. This guy is fucking spot on with what he does. In the middle of the song, I noticed that one of the floor toms started to creep away from the other, and before the thought entered and left my mind, that I wish someone would intervene, this guy was right on top of it, and without a distraction, he was out there and pulled the toms back together. Fucking brilliant mate! It takes a village to raise great rock and roll.
Pss I must of shot 500 photos, I’ll get them up soon.

Thanks Ozzie for your incredibly detailed review! I was also at both shows, and it's a fact that the all ages shows are more rowdy and lively. That energy can't be beat, but I'm grateful for the non-mosh-pit show too: I can take my customary spot at the front, over to the right. The over-21 show did have lots more drunk people, though.

I also enjoyed the 1st show more, even though I was further back. But that could have just been me. There was a moment in 8th Wonder that I totally melted into. But my 12-year old started to fade around 12:30 and he was distracting me, so both shows had their ups and downs. Mostly ups.

I only saw the last song or so of White as Night, but I thought they were pretty darn good. Paper Bird were great for a couple of songs, and then I started to get bored. It was an odd pairing with RHD, and although I like bluegrass and folk pretty well, it's terribly hard to differentiate yourself in that genre, and I guess I wanted something a little bit edgier. I later saw one of the singers totally grooving during the RHD set, so she wasn't lying when she said she'd seen RHD a hundred times.

I came quite late to the NYE show, and missed all the opening acts. I would have liked to see Ben, as he's played with his band and with RHD and many previous shows. (Strangely, they never introduced him when he joined them as a 4th in the past...)

I was a little surprised that they started with original material, and then did Led Zep after, but they tried to time it so midnight came, and then they would start Led Zep II. As it happens, they were a couple of minutes late finishing up their song on NYE, and it was a slightly improvised "countdown" we participated in, seeing as it was unrelated to any actual time event. I found myself missing some of the 1st album material in the abbreviated original material set (they only played Reptilian Blues). And some of my fave new songs were passed over (A Better Way, anyone?).

Led Zeppelin II is a good album. My favorite Led Zeppelin song has to be Ramble On. But you know, I think Led Zeppelin I is a better album overall. The first RHD concert I saw was their Led Zeppelin I show, and even though I was in the balcony, it was incredibly exciting. I think Moby Dick was a real highlight of this show. I have a lot of respect for Nate.

Funny story: a couple of weeks ago, I was in a shop on Pearl street, and RHD was playing in the store. I started to chat with the sales girl, and she said she was a fan, and had seen their album release show. I told her she has to go to the NYE show, after all, "Led Zeppelin II!" She said, "Oh, are they playing?"

So, will they do Led Zeppelin III, or skip and do Led Zeppelin IV? I think we'll have to wait a few years for it, but I know they'll be back for it. I personally hope they cover a Who album, because I'm a huge Who fan, but I somehow doubt they'll do it.

Ramona

The NYE show was awesome. I've only seen RHD once before, about 2 years ago, and they have really gotten better since then. We were the crazies dancing in the last rows of the balcony. The sound up there was absolutely awesome. I could hear everything and didn't have to put cotton in my ears, can you believe it? I'd recommend that spot to anyone.

And the light show blew us away. Where did they get those lights? The strobes were amazing. My friend on the floor said he didn't even see the strobes from down there, so I think we got special treats being up in the balcony.

Their originals are great and the LZII was inspiring. I think they did it as good or better than LZ ever did, honestly. (Don't know that LZ ever played that album all the way through live anyway.)

Paper Bird was weak. I didn't appreciate them chiding us that we weren't "rocking" as hard as the "8 year olds" the night before. After listening to a few of their folky songs, I couldn't beleive the word "rock" actually passed her lips. Hadn't taken enough alcohol to rock to that, I suppose.

At one point, a drunk that had spare-changed us outside somehow got back stage and wandered across the front of the stage slowly as Paper Bird played. Don't know where the BT security was, but they were super slow to get this guy off stage. He was dancing and happy. Found out later that one of my friends had inadvertently given the guy over $60 when he spanged him outside during a cigarette break, just minutes before he appeared dancing onstage. Now I know why he was so happy!

Anyway, pass on to RHD that they rocked the house and it was thoroughly enjoyed by the back row of the balcony, most of us who grew up on LZ.

Long live rock!

As a parent of one of those "New Vista Kids," thanks for noticing their positive spirit. Your review made me wish I had been at the Tuesday show instead of NYE (which was great, too). The NVK rocked on at my house til 5 AM Wednesday and didn't seem to have lost any of their enthusiasm!