This past week, RCPM made a couple of trips back to Iowa. The first one was to the House of Shit (errm, Bricks), the second one (two days later) was to 1st Avenue Live in Cedar Rapids.

While we could have gone to both shows (they're both about an hour or so away), we chose to skip the House of Shit, and go to the 1st Ave Live. Why?

Is it because 1st Ave Live was easier to find? No, not so much. In fact, we actually got lost, 3 times trying to find 1st Ave Live, but...

Maybe I should have started with this entry, but either way, wow. I've never seen an opening act that stank as bad as dead rock west did, and I've got to say that I have seen some pretty crappy openers in my day.

For starters, the chick just couldn't sing, from what I could tell. Of course, that could be because the venue was just pathetic as hell, a true "dive" as it were. That's another story though for later on.

Then we get to the band itself. Can these...

I have to admit, when going into the House of Bricks last night, I had my reservations. I made no attempt to hide how I felt about Larson being fired, and just instantly "replaced" . It's hard to envision Steve being replaced, and I don't see Dalton doing that at all.

That said, Jim Dalton brings a sense of energy to the band that I haven't seen in the past few years. While Steve had his expressions that were amusing as hell to watch, he didn't do much to just reach out...