Dio Disciples -- Springfield, VA -- Spetember 24th, 2011

[tenchimyo]

Went to see DIO DISCIPLES at JAXX last night. Openers were BLOODLINES (local band, we only caught a couple songs), A SOUND OF THUNDER (local band, female vocalist with a POWERFUL voice), and DISCIPLES OF SABBATH (Ozzy-era BLACK SABBATH tribute band). Quite frankly I don't know why they didn't get The Maiden Project (who I thought were...less than impressive) or some other cover band and just make it a huge cover band night...

Bloondlines sounded alright, no real thoughts about them as we didn't hear much. I thought A Sound of Thunder was going to open. Glad they didn't, cause we wanted to see them

A Sound of Thunder came on shortly after, and were way louder than the previous band. Probably about 10 or so people on the floor for them. I liked their set, tho I should have brushed up on the material a bit more. Favourite part was when the vocalist (Nina) demanded a whip (cat o' nine tails like) from a roadie and used it to threaten (mockingly) the guitar player into producing a solo.

Disciples of Sabbath (I don't know which band had the name first or if it was just a coincidence, but it seemed kind of lame to have 2 'Disciples of...' bands on the same bill. Where are the 'Disciples of UDO'?) came on next as we were at the bar devouring mozzarella sticks and a long island ice tea with too much sour mix. I heard Sweet Leaf come on so I demanded we egress to see how they were. They sounded good, sound wise (nice sentence..) and the guy sounded Ozzy esque, and the guitars were pretty spot on, but there was something a bit off. The vocalist flubbed a few lyrics and after every song he had some complaint to the sound board dude. By Children of the Grave they had the mix he wanted.... then was told they could only do one more song. Problem? I think one intoxicated gentleman there summed it up best: he could sing those songs while drunk and it'd been 20 years since he'd familiarized himself completely with them. Iffy, but overall decent.

Dio Disciples came on after a little longer. Crowd seemed damn excited which was great. They started out strong and really didn't let up (or give me a break) until Catch the Rainbow. Toby Jepson- who I am not familiar with and assumed he sang in some European band based on his sound and chops- came in before/for Kill the King and I thought sounded better than Ripper Owens. They alternated leads and sang together at some times. I really don't recall the specifics of who sang what part, but it all sounded good to me. I loved how they pulled out some deep cuts (read: The Shed (subtle)!!!, Magica, Lord of the Last Day, All the Fools Sailed Away). Hell and all the Rainbow stuff. Loved it. I knew they were going to play Heaven and Hell, and could have done without it, but how could they NOT play it?

If you enjoy Dio, Dio-era Sabbath , or RAINBOW, then I'd def recommend you see these dudes. I thought it was a GREAT show

I thought the Merch was kind of lame: Big Foam DIO hands, Dio baseball caps(would have gotten if I didn't have a Maiden one already), some shirt. Crowd at the end of the night was less than 100 people but more than like 60... I was kind of entranced with the show to give a more accurate count.

Bloodlines

• Proud Mary
• Rise up?

A Sound of Thunder

• Exorcist/Tubular Bells intro
• Walls
• The Murderous Horde
• Blood Vomit
• The Day I Die
• The Devil in Disguise
• Whip induced solo (w/ Balls to the Wall, Mob Rules snippets)
• Into the Darkness
• A Sound of Thunder

Disciples of Sabbath

• Sweet Leaf
• Supernaut (w/ a drum solo?)
• Blak Sabbath
• After Forever
• Children of the Grave
• Paranoid

Dio Disciples

• Holy Diver Live Intro
• Stand up and Shout
• HOLY DIVER
• Don't Talk to Strangers (drum solo at end)
• THE SHED (SUBTLE)
• Kill the King (Toby Jensen came out here)
• Egypt (The Chains are on)
• Guitar solo into
• Catch the Rainbow into
• Stargazer
• Mob Rules
• Magica Intro
• Lord of the Last Day (partial) into
• All the Fools Sailed Away
• Last in Line
• Long Live Rock and Roll
• Man on the Silver Mountain
• Heaven and Hell
• -----------
• Rainbow in the Dark
• We Rock

[dcmetal108]

Good to hear about this. I got free tickets to the Chicago show Thursday so might check it out. They were just giving the tickets away too.

[Blitzkrieg Witchcraft]

Thanks for the set list. I'm looking forward to seeing this in Dallas in a few weeks.

[ravenheart]

Toby Jepson sang for Little Angels, and currently sings for Fastway with Eddie Clarke from Motorhead.

He never sounded as good with them as he does with Dio Disciples though.

[tenchimyo]

Originally Posted by dcmetal108

Good to hear about this. I got free tickets to the Chicago show Thursday so might check it out. They were just giving the tickets away too.

FREE??? Totes worth it if you dig DIO! Must be nice! I think they were perhaps overcharging a bit (25@ day of show), when the next night a different venue in Baltimore tickets were $15 (but different support acts)... I think I got my money's worth, no doubt- but that's a pretty big price difference, no?

[tenchimyo]

Originally Posted by ravenheart

Toby Jepson sang for Little Angels, and currently sings for Fastway with Eddie Clarke from Motorhead.

He never sounded as good with them as he does with Dio Disciples though.

Yeah I def had to google Toby, cause I had only inklings of who he could be-!

[ravenheart]

Originally Posted by tenchimyo

FREE??? Totes worth it if you dig DIO! Must be nice! I think they were perhaps overcharging a bit (25@ day of show), when the next night a different venue in Baltimore tickets were $15 (but different support acts)... I think I got my money's worth, no doubt- but that's a pretty big price difference, no?

Tickets were £25 here. That's about $40. So, you know, fuck you all

[tenchimyo]

Originally Posted by ravenheart

Tickets were £25 here. That's about $40. So, you know, fuck you all

LOL well I can't complain about that now, can I :3

[ravenheart]

Still totally worth it. Such an awesome show.

I bought the shirt too. Our shirts were pretty cool.

[Blitzkrieg Witchcraft]

I think the tickets for the Dallas show are $16. Definitely worth it.

Also, count me as another person who had never heard of Toby Jepson before this.