Scott Randall

Walking into The Grand Theatre for the 10-year anniversary of Ronnie Montrose Remembered felt like stepping into a living scrapbook. Not the dusty kind, but the kind that still smells like a road case and sounds like an amp warming up. It was tribute night, sure, but it was also a reunion. With NAMM happening the same week, the room carried that extra hum you only get when builders, players, and lifers are all in town and looking for something real.

The Queen Mary’s Waterfront Park, sowed hospitality while hosting zombies! The proposed site of a new permanent addition to Southern California’s venue line up, the Long Beach Waterfront Park is nothing short of luminary. Stages light the sky while the Long Beach skyline serves as a majestic backdrop to the park and moorage. For the festival, there were different distinct stages, beverage bars, food vendors, merchandise tents, and various other festival staples.

Saint Patrick’s Day stretched into a full weekend in Riverside in 2023. Not just one green night and home early. In California, that date still hits different because March 2020 was when the lockdown orders began. You could feel that in the turnout. The actual St. Patrick’s Day show in Los Angeles had people coming over the barrier. This one was not that kind of chaos, but it was still packed and loud. Flogging Molly has a way of turning these nights into more than a concert. It turns into a gathering.