Club Vodka at The Knitting Factory, Hollywood, CA, USA30th March 2008
BLACK ‘N BLUE
Seeing and photographing this show was very special to me. BLACK ‘N BLUE is in my top five of favourite “homeboy” bands - we all originate from Portland, Oregon - and I have been waiting for nearly 20 years to see these guys together again playing all their rockin’ hits from the old days. The boys brought it home for me and the rest of the head banging, high-fiving crowd with “The Saint” (Jaime St. James) leading the way looking and sounding better than ever! Before I cover this show, let me go back into a time warp some just to bring those aren’t real familiar with BLACK ‘N BLUE up to speed.
Now, let me fast forward a few years from that initial Jaime meet and greet on the side of the street, to about 1983 or 84. By this time I’m completely immersed in music photography and there’s a “new band in town” that’s on the brink of stardom with a major record label backing them. Doing photos for a couple of entertainment magazines in Portland, I got the assignment to shoot pics of this band, BLACK ‘N BLUE - a band I knew nothing about. Lo and behold, the lead singer was none other than Jaime St. James, the “kid” I’d met on the street several years before that said he was a drummer in a band. Only now he wasn’t playing drums, he was singing lead and co-writing hit songs for this incredible band that I immediately became enthralled with. Of course, Jaime didn’t remember that first meet and greet in front of the Paramount Theatre. Why should he? He was on his way to the big time, complete with all the energy and tunnel vision a young man can muster. BLACK ‘N BLUE consisted of Jaime, Tommy Thayer on lead guitar, Jef “Woop” Warner on guitar, Patrick Young on bass and Pete Holmes playing drums, each one as talented as the next - an awesome band with awesome songs to say the least. But, as with most bands who “made it” in the ‘80’s, no amount of talent could keep them on top forever – the music changed, frustrations grew, other opportunities waited on the horizon, and BLACK ‘N BLUE became a piece or history. Or so it seemed.
Now fast forward a couple of decades. Over the years I had often wondered what became of all my top five homeboy bands. I learned that Jaime had gone off in a couple of directions but most recently had taken over lead singing duty for the ‘80’s band, Warrant. Tommy had a solid career working behind the scenes for KISS and had also taken over one of the guitar slots with them. Pete, Pat and Jef too had played with different bands in the Portland area. They had all spread their wings and flown the coop so to speak, just as I had, seeing different kinds of successes, life changes and career ups and downs as the years slipped away. Last spring, I caught up with Jaime singing with Warrant, and did photos of them at a show in Texas. It brought tears to my eyes to see Jaime perform again; after all, it had been over 20 years since I’d seen him. Then, in the fall of 2007, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the guys in BLACK ‘N BLUE were finally coordinating their schedules together to do some recording work and possibly go back out and play. I thought if they could find time in their schedules, so could I, but after a couple of attempts to work a trip to Portland in on my agenda to shoot one of their “practice” shows and not being able to do so, I decided to wait and see what happens with them after the first of the year.
Not too long after the holidays, I was informed that BLACK ‘N BLUE were going to Birmingham, England in the late spring of 2008 to headline a weekend long festival there, and were mostly likely going to be one of the main stage bands at the second Rocklahoma fest in Pryor, Oklahoma in July. I also learned that they were going to headline a 24-band in one night club date in Hollywood, California at the end of March. Realizing that my schedule would allow me a short, quick trip to LA then, I immediately started cleaning my camera lenses and made contact. The “new” BLACK ‘N BLUE is not new at all as far as band members go. Tommy Thayer’s work with KISS prevents him from going back to BLACK ‘N BLUE permanently, so his place is being covered by Shawn Sonnenschien, who has actually played with the band all along except in the very early days. However, much to the good fortune for all at Club Vodka on March 29, 2008, Tommy made a rare guest appearance to play on a song or two, which was beyond awesome for most everyone there (more on that later….). Needless to say, BLACK ‘N BLUE is still all original – Jaime St. James (vocals), Jef “Woop” Warner (guitar), Shawn Sonnenschien (guitar), Patrick Young (bass), and Pete Holmes (drums), all of them looking and sounding as great as they did two decades ago. I swear these guys don’t look like they’ve aged a day!
Music & Performance
On to the show… With so many bands playing at Club Vodka in the same night, things ran a little behind schedule. BLACK ‘N BLUE was originally slated to take the stage at 12:00 midnight; unfortunately it was about 12:50 before they got to work for the primed and ready crowd. The “Saint” (Jaime) appeared on stage, his usual happy go lucky, energetic self, dressed in black leather pants, fringe vest, and trademark head scarf accenting his always perfectly coiffed blonde hair. Jaime’s voice sounded better than ever, still able to hit the high notes on target while conducting business as the faultless showman he was born to be. High fiving the crowd that lined the front of the stage, Jaime clearly enjoyed himself spotting lots of personal friends mixed in with the full to capacity roomful of fans. There was a who’s who of people in the crowd that even I recognized (I’m usually quite un-noticing and very oblivious!) - Jerry Dixon of Warrant, Juan Croucier of Ratt amongst others that I connected with the famous faces, but I’m sooooo bad with names - sorry!
The three guitar players, Shawn, Patrick and Jef, maintaining their younger days without any effort at all the entire set had what looked to be the greatest time, posing for the crowd and cameras without missing a beat. These guys were clearly having a blast and enjoying the historic moment along with everyone in the crowd. The place was rockin’ both on and off the stage. In retrospect, I have to thank them all again for pushing their flexibility to the limits at least for my (broken) camera. I know they had to be quite sore the next day! Last, but not least, drummer, Pete Holmes was proving justice to every song in the set by maintaining a consistent groove and never breaking a sweat. The guy rocks! After a full, energizing set, Jamie introduced special guest, Tommy Thayer to the stage for the final two songs. The crowd definitely approved as Tommy graced the stage. Amid all the screaming, cheering and applause, Tommy bowed to the crowd a couple times and gave each band member a giant hug before he donned his guitar for a good, old fashioned “Tommy Thayer” jam to the songs, Hold On To 18 and I’m The King. Even with black instead of blonde hair, it was still an incredible de’ja vue watching him play. Such a good time had by all and a night that will forever be etched in my memory as a lifetime highlight.
In a nutshell, ‘Miss Mystery’ and ‘Wicked Bitch’ got ‘Nasty Nasty’ - they ‘Live It Up’ and ‘Stop The Lightning’ ‘Without Love’ or ‘Chains Around Heaven’ with an ‘Autoblast’ because they are ‘Violent Kid(s)’ and ‘Want It All’, especially wanting to ‘Hold On To 18’. There... Can you say all that in one sentence without taking a breath? That’s how fast it seemed that this show started and ended even though the boys played for well over an hour. Excellent show and I relished every second of it - camera problems and all.
Setlist
01. Chains Around Heaven
02. Stop The Lightning
03. Autoblast
04. I Want It All
05. Without Love
06. Action
07. Miss Mystery
08. Nasty Nasty
09. Wicked Bitch
10. Violent Kid
11. Live It Up
12. Kiss of Death
13. Hold On To 18
14. I’m The King
I did not want this show to have to come to an end. Time just flies when it’s a great show! As I reminisced about it, the history of this band, and how I was going to approach writing this review, a couple of things came to mind. Over the years I’ve worked with so many bands and musicians I couldn’t begin to count them all. Time and again I’ve heard the whine, “We’d have the best band out there if only we could find the impossible dream - a drummer that can sing”. I always think of Jaime St. James and how truly extraordinary he is, both as a person and as a musician. When I hear the impossible dream whine from other bands, I smile to myself and think “I rest my case - too bad this band won’t ever be as blessed as BLACK ‘N BLUE is”. My next dream mission? To see “The Saint” behind those drums again!
All pictures by Susan Thorsen
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