*ZO2 JOURNALZ*

TSO - Week 9
(By David Z)

12/22/06: Show #51 & #52 Pepsi Arena – Albany, NY

It’s so cool to play a place that I remember going to as an audience member in the past. I remember coming to the Pepsi Arena years ago with my brother Paulie and a friend to see Aerosmith. The show was amazing and I recall thinking the arena was massive. It’s weird that every place I’ve played in my career with the exception of maybe the Garden, has seemed a hell of a lot smaller from the stage. I suppose the spark that made it seem so enormous was the yearning that I felt to one-day play these stages. Life can really be amazing sometimes. I am living proof that dreams do actually come true…after years and years of struggling that is. LOL.

We had two shows today which wouldn’t be unusual except for the fact that the matinee show was later than normal because we were driving in from Manhattan where we stayed the night before. Instead of a 3 o’clock show, it was pushed back to 4pm today. You’d think it’d be a relief to get an extra hour of rest but not when you have another show to follow with only an hour in between. Crowds were coming in as the previous crowd was leaving. What a jumble fuck. We only had an hour to eat dinner, relax a bit and get right back on stage. Ah, the glamorous life of a musician.

12/23/06: Show #53 & #54 HSBC Arena – Buffalo, NY

The HSBC Arena actually reminded me of Madison Square Garden in its design and sheer capacity. We played to about 27,000 people between the two shows. That’s a hell of a lot of people to be in front of in one day. That’s also a hell of a lot of people that I got to promote ZO2 to. The signing line was very long tonight. One thing everybody kept mentioning tonight and most nights is how he or she wishes they had my hair. Let me just say, it’s a big pain in the ass when it comes to playing live shows. It constantly gets stuck in my face and mouth. I wind up missing notes while trying to pull it out of my mouth so I can breath. I can truly sympathize with any animal that has to deal with hairballs. And on that subject, I’m reminded of a dressing room story that happened today. After getting out of the shower, (no…no one dropped the soap, you pervs) I was brushing my hair when Jeff walked by… and his hair got caught in my comb along with mine. That’s what happens when you put multiple long-haired rockers in one room with grooming materials. We should just stick to clubs and rocks. It suits us better.

12/24/06: Merry XXXmas!!!

This was the first time that I ever really celebrated Christmas the “correct” way. My family and I used to go to our next-door neighbor’s house for the holidays where they had a Christmas tree up and we would give out presents to each other after dinner. It was hardly the stockings, the cookies and the morning opening of presents. Then again, we never really celebrated “Chanukah” the right way either and that was the one we’re “supposed” to celebrate.

This year I spent Christmas with some of my favorite people and I got to do Christmas dinner with them the way us Jews could only pretend to do it. I was told it was Italian tradition that on Christmas Eve, there would be seven different kinds of fish for dinner. If I would have known, I would I have brought some white fish and herring with me.

12/25/06: DAY OFF

I got to wake up and actually open gifts under the tree after having a great breakfast. There were about sixteen people opening gifts so it looked like Macy’s in the living room with merchandise lying everywhere. After opening the presents we spent the rest of the day hanging out and playing board games. One of the games we played was “Deal Or No Deal”. There were four teams competing against each other. Who ever made the best deal got to actually win real money for it. My partner and I wound up winning $300. We then played “Trivial Pursuit” where we didn’t do nearly as well.

Later that night I went and saw “Rocky Balboa” in the theaters and “Invincible” back at home. “Invincible” I could take it or leave it but if you’re a fan of the Rocky movies then “Rock Balboa” is a must see. This ranks up there with the first couple of Rocky films. The actual fight was of such minimal importance to the story that it showed me once again how good acting and a compelling story is really what draws you in to a movie and not necessarily the action. You really feel for the characters and take a real interest in watching what the characters life has evolved into since the last movie. This review has been brought to you by Siskle and Zbert.

12/26/06: Show #55 & #56 Hartford Civic Center – Hartford, CT

Two very amazing things happened in the course of today’s shows. Maybe it was the heightened emotions of the holidays or perhaps the TSO music itself, but during the matinee show, a guy proposed to his girl. She accepted and the section they were sitting in went absolutely nuts. I’m not sure about this, but perhaps there would have been a better song to do it during rather than “First Snow”. Then again, maybe he read my previous journalz and decided to skip right to the honeymoon during that song ;-) In any case, congratulations to the two of you on behalf of myself, TSO and ZO2.

The second thing to happen was amazing in the sense that it’s never happened before nor did I think it ever would happen at a TSO show. Some girl actually tried to get up on stage while we were playing. She started to pull herself up when security ran over and brought her back down. Now call me crazy, but it doesn’t seem to me that TSO would be the type of show that you would be racing to get on stage for. What would come next? Stage diving? Crowd surfing? Somehow I don’t think that the grandparents in the audience were prepared to pass anyone over their heads.

12/27/06: Show #57 & #58 Centrum Center – Worcester, MA

I’m not sure why we had the schedule we did today. Normally when we play Massachusetts, we play in Boston at the Fleet Center. But today we played to a much smaller crowd at the Centrum Arena in Worcester. We had to play two shows in order to hit the same number of people we would have had at one show at the Fleet Center. I wonder if this was just a way to keep us on our toes. Unfortunately for me, keeping on my toes was a very difficult thing to do during the first show. During the second half of the show I started experiencing an extreme case of low blood sugar. I started getting blurred vision followed by a dizzy and weak feeling. I wanted to run off stage to eat something with sugar in it but we were in the middle of doing a three-song block. When I was finally able to get some sugar in me I had to go back on stage and perform while waiting for the effects to kick in. Hey, this is why the saying goes, “the show must go on”.

12/28/06: Show #59 Atlantic City Boardwalk – Atlantic City, NJ

Hi, my name is David Z and I’m a pokerholic. The first step is admitting you have a problem. We pulled up to our hotel in Atlantic City at around 7 am this morning at which point I immediately jumped in a cab and headed over to the Taj Mahal where I literally sat at the poker tables until 5 pm. I would have stayed all the way up until show time if I didn’t have to do a sound check. It’s probably best that I left when I did, otherwise I might have lost more than the $100 that I was already in the hole. The way I look at it though, is that I was able to have over 9 hours of fun for only $100. What else can you say gives you that much enjoyment for that cheap a price? Then again, there is always Amsterdam.

The weird thing I always find when it comes to playing Atlantic City is that the crowd is usually split between those who have done well in the casinos that day and those who have not. There are pockets of people who are so enthralled with how well they did at gambling that it transfers over into their enthusiasm for the show. Then there are the people who lost their asses at the tables and are still replaying every bad beat in their head. I can’t begin to tell you how difficult it was to get certain sections up off their seat at the end of the show. We had the same problem in ZO2 when we played the Taj Mahal while on tour with Kiss and Poison. I don’t necessarily blame them though. I know all to well the process of reliving your missteps and your shoulda, coulda, woulda in the gambling world. Both types of people I suppose would have cause to drink. In one case it would be to celebrate and in the other it would be to drown their sorrows away. Either way, we had our fair share of drunks tonight.
I must make a special mention once again for the amazing job that our Z-teamer Karen did tonight. Not only did she wear her ZO2 memorabilia and hold up her ZO2 sign along with her friend, but she also handed out ZO2 flyers before the show and to every single person on the signing line after the show as well. It was sort of like a continuation of the fine job she and her Z-team did at the Continental Airlines Arena. Once again to Karen and all the Z-teamers that have helped spread the ZO2 word throughout this entire tour…THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart.

Stayed tuned for next week’s journal.

SAME Z TIME…SAME Z CHANNEL…OR LINK FOR THAT MATTER!!!