RED DRAGON CARTEL Cancels Fridley Concert

Sad new indeed, for those of us looking forward to seeing guitarist Jake E. Lee playing live once more. Yes, Red Dragon Cartel has canceled their appearance at G.B. Leighton's Pickle Park in Fridley on Saturday, March 22, but the show goes on with Hessler, The Regenerators, and Impaler still playing.

I'm not certain exactly when this was announced, but the Vital Culture page for advance tickets sales now simply states: "Jake E. Lee's Red Dragon Cartel has canceled." Various online postings as recently as March 15 still indicated Red Dragon Cartel was playing, and the band's Facebook page still has the Fridley date listed, but it is not to be.

Assuming ticket sales were okay, I'll go out on a limb and guess that the band canceled the Fridley show once the reality of their crappy tour routing hit them. Red Dragon Cartel plays Friday in Janesville, Wisconsin, then would need to backtrack to the Twin Cities on Saturday before a 10+ hour haul to East-Central Indiana for a show in Richmond on Sunday.

Tonight - VOLBEAT in Minneapolis, CRASHDIET in Fridley

Tonight's a big night European metal as Denmark's Volbeat play a sold-out show at Mill City Nights in Minneapolis with support from Danko Jones and Spoken. Doors open at 7:30 and the show starts at 8:00.

Watch the video for "Cape Of Our Hero" from the new Volbeat album, Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies, that will be released in North America on April 9.

Sweden's sleeze rockers Crashdiet perform tonight with Crucified Barbara and Snakeskyn Whiskey at G.B. Leighton's Pickle Park in Fridley. Doors open at 7:00 and it's only $10 at the door. Read the review of the new Crashdiet album The Savage Playground (7/10) here.

Watch the video for "Cocaine Cowboys" from the new Crashdiet album The Savage Playground.

Lastly, Minneapolis-based sludge band Witchden starts tonight their Wednesday night residency for the month of April at Cause Spirits & Soundbar in Minneapolis. Also on the bill are Vulgaari and Buzzard. This is a free 21+ show that gets underway at 9:00.

Tonight - CANDY MACHINE GUNS in Fridley

Click on the pictures to see more photos of Candy Machine Guns performing March 24, 2013 in St. Paul (17).

On the heels of Sunday's show in Mankato with Screaming Mechanical Brain, Candy Machine Guns from Milwaukee is taking over Open Mic Night at G.B. Leighton's Pickle Park in Fridley tonight. Get out and see these guys if you can. I reviewed their March 24 show at Station 4 in St. Paul when they opened for Red Lamb, and they are a great, heavy band. They self-released their debut album Here We Come last year. Best of all, tonight's show is free.

Album Review - CRASHDIET

Crashdiet – The Savage Playground

Frontiers, 2013

7/10

Sweden’s Crashdiet are most commonly described as a glam rock band but they’re nothing of the sort. These guys are just straight-ahead, no-frills rock that doesn’t try to impress with technical flourishes or sheer heaviness. Because of their glam/sleeze image Crashdiet will always draw comparisons to 80s bands, however, musically they have more to do with Sleeze Beez and Sea Hags than Poison and Warrant. The Savage Playground is the band’s fourth album and first for Frontiers. This had the potential to be a great album, but I found myself losing interest about midway through. One surprising strong point is the use of layered background vocals on songs like “Change The World” and “Anarchy”, which are reminiscent of the techniques employed by the sadly forgotten T-Ride. The boogie rock single “Cocaine Cowboys” is a great song that would sit well on rock radio and is one of the highlights. “California”, the second single from the album, has a nifty groove that leads into a melodic chorus that slows down a bit before picking up again. “Circus” and “Sin City” round out the first half in a pleasant way, but then things begin to turn a little stale. “Got A Reason” and “Drinkin’ Without You” chug along uneventfully and regretfully suck some of the life from the album. Things never fully recover, and I found myself wishing the album had eight songs instead of 14. The Savage Playground is a convincing album with flashes of brilliance, but not all of the songs stand up to the standard set during the first half. With a little more focus Crashdiet stands poised to make major headway here in the U.S.

Crashdiet performs Wednesday, April 3 at G.B. Leighton’s Pickle Park in Fridley with support from Crucified Barbara and Snakeskyn Whiskey.