Dec
07
2009

2009 Alice Cooper's Christmas Pudding Opening Band Competition Finals

At Alice Cooperstown...Errr...The Hard Rock Cafe

(Add / View Comments) (0)Monday, December 7, 2009 - 11:00:46 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
That's one hell of a blog title right there. Tonight were the finals in the competition to open up at this years Christmas Pudding. With Strange Young Things in the finals, there was no question that we'd be were there to support the boys!

Given the time we didn't stop home after shopping, and headed straight to downtown Phoenix, to Alice Cooperstown. Which, for me, I was looking forward to checking the joint out. It was questionable whether we were going to get there, given that we didn't stop home and get the address, and somewhat ended up aimlessly driving the streets around Jefferson (err, thanks for nothing Bueller [wink] ), until I decided to check whether I had the event and address in my iPod. Thank god for having added my 'Rock' calendar to my iPod and syncing recently!

Only being a street away we got to Alice Cooperstown easily enough. Or should I say "Alice Coopers Ghost Town". There wasn't a person to be seen, not even bar staff inside, at it was almost 6, and my iPod was saying that the event started at 5:30pm. It was kinda eerie, expecting somewhere to be rocking, and the place being completely dead. And the eerieness was definitely weird given that it was Alice Cooperstown - is this eerie vibe and confusion on purpose?!? [wink]

We waited around for about 10 minutes, perplexed, because we were hardly early. A few more people started to show up, however it was clear that nothing was happening. Thankfully before feeding the meter we overheard someone say that the venue had moved to 2nd and Jefferson. We walked around and tried to find some confirmation, unsuccessfully. And hence pilled back into the car". I loved as were turned onto Jefferson and Katie said "I wonder if it's at that place with the guitar?" "That place with the guitar? You mean that place we otherwise call the Hard Rock Cafe?". It was pretty adorable. [smile] In anycase, driving past it was obvious that this was the new venue, with a whole bunch of musicians holding gear loitering out the front. If we hadn't been out all day we would have heard about the venue change, but having not checked the internet in hours, we were just lucky we overheard the whole "2nd and Jefferson" thing at Cooperstown.

Immediately walking in we ran into Glodie who seemed very happy to see some Strange Young Things supports...and the fact that I was sporting their t-shirt. Definitely very early on I thought about how it's great to be out here and able to support local music in such a tangable way. Funnily enough, those guys weren't the only familiar faces - before long it was brought to my attention that one of the judges was Lance Wilson - pretty cool, and pretty sweet that he landed such a gig. And was kinda funny, since the first thing we did this morning was buy toys for Rock For Tots, and in the store I was thinking how great Lance is and does so much fvr local music and also the charity organizations he's involved in (like Toys For Tots). Rock on Lance Wilson! It was cool that he was able to get up on stage at one point and promote Rock For Tots. which is this Saturday.

Strange Young Things played fairly early in the night, and of course, rocked. The deal was two songs per band, one original and one Christmas song. Certainly early on it was pretty clear to me that the boys didn't have that much competition. However, when it got to 8pm and the MC announced that we were about halfway through the night (I had expected things to wind up around 8pm), it was clear that pretty much anything could happen. Around 9pm we were pretty worn from being out all day, standing the whole time and not having anything to eat or drink. Even though we showed up at 6, there was no hope of getting a table, which was ironic, since we were up for eating. It would have been nice if there'd been more seating, but the Hard Rock did do a stand up job given the very late notice venue change. In any case, while deliberating on whether to stay or go, we bagged two stools at the bar. And Javier, our bartender confirmed that we could still order food. I can't fully describe how much those three things changed our current situation for the better! With those it was easy and comfortable to hang out for the rest of the night.

Certainly by the time 9:30pm rolled around, the sheer volume of bands that played meant that absolutely anything could happen. So it was pretty nice when Strange Young Things were announced as the runners up! Obviously it'd be great if they'd taken out the first place spot, and it's unlikely that the winners "won't be able to play on the 18th", but still it's great that they took out the second place spot.

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