Music Mob comes to Count’s Vamp’d in Las Vegas for a good cause to donate money to a friend with the progressive neurodegenerative disease ALS.
What is Music Mob? It is the brain child of Singer/songwriter, guitarist and producer Jeff Blando formed back in 2010. This trio of long time friends are Blando, the lead guitarist of Slaughter/Vince Neil of Motley Crue‘s solo project, Paul Drennan bass player in 38 Special/Lynch Mob and drummer Will Hunt, with Evanescence/Hero’s & Monsters/Slaughter. The genius of this project is the core band invites four or five special guests to join them on stage for a five song set. In the past, the famous and talented guest list included Dee Snyder of Twisted Sister, Vince Neil of Motley Crue, Sebastian Bach of Skid Row, Mark Slaughter of Slaughter, Stephen Pearcy of Ratt, , Robert Mason of Warrant, and Sammy Hagar of Van Halen. And guitar players George Lynch of Dokken, and Joel Hoekstra of Whitesnake and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top.
With line ups like these, any rock and roll enthusiast would get in line to purchase tickets. But to my knowledge, this Las Vegas show was the first Music Mob show open to the public as the project has only done corporate and private events to date.
I was honored to tag along and to photograph the show from sound check until the final song. The entire experience was extremely interesting from the start. Music Mob was first to sound check. I was totally at ease with hanging out as Jeff Colen, the road manager of Slaughter/Vince Neil and Rick Marino, the sound engineer of Slaughter/Vince Neil were also on hand and I have known them for four years. During sound check, Will blasted out the bottom head to his snare drum sending Jeff Colen to the local Sam Ash store to purchase another. A show of this magnitude without the help of promoters needed to be all hands on deck. Everyone on site was a consummate professional pulling off this epic show.
The other guests were on a staggered schedule for their individual sound checks. Jesse James Dupree the lead singer of Jackyl was next. Jesse came in all business, sang two or three songs and he was out. The next to arrive straight from the airport was George Lynch the lead guitarist of Lynch Mob/Dokken. George is one of the top 50 guitarists of all time in many lists. He brought along his long time guitar tech John Thayer. It was a good thing he did as one of the tubes in his vintage amplifier was damaged from their flight and another trip to Sam Ash was in order to get this show going. George chilled out seated on the drum riser and went through his sound check once the new tube was installed. It was just amazing to hear him play. Next entered Danny “The Count” Koker, the owner of Count’s Vamp’d and the creator of the hit TV show Counting Cars. He sat behind the microphone and belted out three songs. For a movie star, he has a really great voice. The last slot was for Stephen Pearcy the lead singer of Ratt. He never made it to sound check, but he was ready to go for the show when his turn came. Having a singing career over 50 years earns you the right to miss a sound check or two.
The images below illiterate the what goes on during sound check. Old friends embrace and everyone works together to make the show a success. These are true professionals and they have been doing this for years. T-Shirts were also delivered in time for the merch table!
A show of this magnitude also needs a familiar Rock and Roll face, who better than Eddie Trunk to MC this event!
Music Mob started the show with three songs to get the packed house ready for the night of great rock and roll with some bite.
SetList:
1.) Still Of The Night
2.) Heavy Metal
3.) Judgement Day
Next up to build even more excitement, Danny “The Count” Koker rocking out his five song set with the crowd starting with a fist bump.
Setlist:
1.) Snortin Whiskey
2.) Traveling Man
3.) Good Times Bad Times
4.) War Pigs
5.) American Band
George Lynch brought his guitar mastery to the stage next as Blando sang and played rhythm guitar.
Setlist:
1.) Unchain The Night
2.) Into The Fire
3.) It’s Not Love
4.) River of Love
5.) Wicked Sensation
Stephen Percy arrived complete with his own MC, the famous Chris Angel “MindFreak” plus own guitar player that I never got his name. The stage transformed into a Ratt show which was very cool.
Setlist:
1.) Lack of Communication
2.) You’re In Love
3.) Lay it Down
4.) Back For More
5.) Round & Round
Wrapping up this all star lineup, the Whiskey Rocker, Jessie James Dupree. Eddie Trunk said something about Jessie not being able to get his chainsaw through airport security, so the Jackyl hit “The Lumberjack Song” wasn’t going to be part of his set. None the less, Jessie never disappoints and rocked out the crowd to finish the show on a high note.
As I said, I was honored to photograph this concert and I am still in awe as to the enormity of putting this show together by Jeff Blando, truly a musical and production genius in the music industry. Thanks to all the musicians that made this a special show, and Jeff, I am all in for the next Music Mob gig!
Photographer and Editor/Founder of AllMusicMagazine.com. My love of live music has taken me to incredible experiences with the top bands of all time in stadium shows to the smallest venues with equally inspiring musicians. Using the medium of photography and my publication, these memories will last forever.
