By: Heather Vande Mark
Ramona Mainstage is a great venue to see your favorite bands up close. Get there early to get a prime seat just a step up from the floor with a place to set your drinks. VIP booths are available to reserve along the walls. http://www.ramonamainstage.com/
RDG is a local San Diego band that started in 1999. RDG is an all-instrumental power trio band with left-handed guitarist, Raymond DiGiorgio. RDG’s album “The Vault” won for “Instrumental Album of the Year” at the Los Angeles Music Awards, they were also nominated for “Best Rock Album” at the San Diego Music Awards. RDG opens for a lot of well-known bands at Ramona Mainstage and have quite a following of their own.
Set List:
“Hookah”
“1972”
“Insomnia”
“Trine,”
“ Jennifer’s Song”
“Beast”
“In My Corner”
“Grandpa Mark”
Check out RDG on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rdgrocks/
Seventrain is also a local San Diego band. They are a bluesy, hard rock band. They have a Badlands, Dio, Soundgarden sound. Seventrain was nominated for “Best Hard Rock Album of the Year” at the 2014 San Diego Music Awards. Due to sound restrictions, if you weren’t up close, it was difficult to hear new singer, Eric Koonze. The man has some pipes and should be heard. Seventrain really got the crowd fired up ending their set with a tribute to the late Ronnie James Dio playing “Rainbow in the Dark”.
Set List :
“Bleeding”
“Love &Hatred,”
“Drowning Me”
“ Carry the Cross”
“ Bittersweet Seduction”
”Now you Know”
“Change”
“Rays of the Sin”
”Rainbow in the Dark”
Check out Seventrain on Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/seventrainband/
Geoff Tate’s new band Operation:Mindcrime has some new faces from previous tours. Robert Sarzo and Rudy Sarzo are no longer performing with the touring band. I admit, I was quite disappointed to hear this, as I’m a big Sarzo fan, but Scott Moughton on guitar and Tim Fernley (The Voodoos) on bass deliver the goods!
Operation:Mindcrime started off the show going back to 1986 playing songs off the “Rage for Order” album with “Neue Regal” and “Screaming in Digital”.
Geoff Tate had lots to say which I always enjoy hearing the stories from veteran rockers. He gave a little background as to how or why a particular song was written or something crazy that happened on tour. You will have to check them out live to hear the stories.
Tim Fernley played double bass for a beautiful acoustic set that included
“Jet City Woman”, “I Don’t Believe in Love”, “Take Hold of the Flame,” “Silent Lucidity”, and “The Weight of the World”
OMC ended the show with an encore of “The Thin Line” and “Empire”.
This was truly an All Ages show, up in the front row against the stage was the older generation that grew up with Queensryche music still rocking hard, banging their head on the stage and singing every word to all the classics. On the side stage was a teenaged girl, that did not know the words to all the songs, but she was rocking to the music. After the show, I saw her purchasing an Operation:Mindcrime T-shirt with a big smile on her face. Great music is timeless.
For current tour information : www.operationmindcrime.com/
Set List :
“Neue Regal”
“Screaming in Digital”
“I am I”
“One More Time Around”
“The Hands”
“SpOOL”
“At 30,000 Ft”
”Jet City Woman”
“I Don’t Believe In Love”
“Take Hold of the Flame”
”Silent Lucidity”
“The Weight of the World”
“Re-Inventing the Future”
“The Stranger”
“Burn Damaged”
“Walk in the Shadows”
“Tribe”
“The Fall”
“Eyes of a Stranger”
Encore:
“The Thin Line”
“Empire”
