An artist who stayed true to himself

I remember being a teenager in Hawaii and standing in a long line at a local business where our famous local boy, Glenn Medeiros, was making a personal appearance and signing autographs. Here's that record single that I asked him to sign for me that day.

 

I was reminded of this because of a recent article I read about him talking about the "negative side" of the entertainment industry. Here's that article link - https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-56029660

Glenn Medeiros was a very talented young artist and rising star. While it's somewhat sad that his star didn't get to shine long enough in the mainstream music industry, it's a great that he's become successful in private life.  He stayed true to himself and his values - and that's what really matters.

Open Fire

 

What a rockin' start to the new year!  If you have been a long-time follower of LiggyzDreamz™ perhaps you might recall me mentioning a hard rock band from Hawaii known as Open Fire. I loved that band! I only wish I had more time and money to go to more of their shows at the time...otherwise, I would!

Well today I stumbled upon a social media post comment from someone else who listened to them in Hawaii (during those good ole metal mayhem days).  And after a quick search, I found a YouTube channel for J Azevedo - could that be the Jack Azevedo that played bass for this unforgettable band?

Yeah, of course, how can I forget this band when I've still got this scrapbook page with the napkin Jack signed and the picture my best friend took of us between their sets?  I wonder who else was with us that night and took that other picture of me and my friend when we were getting Jack's autograph.  Oh well!!  What a memory...and now I've got YouTube videos to relive some of those music memories with!!!  Awesome!!! 

Broken Silence

Back in 2008, I wrote a "I wonder what happened to..." post about this Christian heavy metal band from Hawaii that I believed could've made it big time if grunge hadn't permeated the music scene and killed off all the opportunities for many other talented rising heavy metal bands of the early 1990s.

Anyway, I never heard from anyone as a result of my blog post but I recently happened to stumble upon a Facebook page for Broken Silence.  There are also some links there to the former band members' personal profiles.  No, I didn't send them any friend requests (even though I was tempted to).  I think at this point in time, I would've felt like a stalker more than a fan if I were to do that.

If you like heavy metal music as much as I do, you need to check out Broken Silence's music.  They recorded a full-length CD (Discerning the Times) which was remastered and released by Retroactive Records in 2011.  It's one of those must-have albums for any heavy metal music collector.  If you've every listened to and liked Stryper, Holy Soldier, Sacred Warrior, or Guardian, you will definitely love Broken Silence.  In fact, No Life Til Metal webzine writer Scott Waters (Ultimatum) wrote, "Broken Silence is one of the greatest melodic metal bands that you have never heard. Every song has a killer hook, jaw dropping guitar solo, and phenomenal vocals."  

And as luck would have it, you can order the CD or download digital copies thru Amazon (best price), CD Universe (which is a bit pricier than Amazon), or eBay (priciest). 

SLUG-heavy metal from Hawaii

I posted a blog awhile back about a band called Open Fire that I used to follow around in Hawaii. The band's still not together (and probably will not get back together at this time) but I did find out where the lead singer went some years after their break up.

 Erich Wida, Open Fire's lead singer, joined two other fairly known local bands before finally settling with a band called Slug. The band SLUG was formed by some members of Black Dawg who brought in Erich Wida to do their vocals.

Here's a video I found on YouTube of one of their performances:


Slug performs mostly heavy metal song covers. You can listen to and download some of their song clips and videos on the band's website: www.slugrocks.com. (Update Jan 2016 - Sorry the site is not up anymore).

A little history about my rock and rollin' days...

When I lived in Hawaii in the early 1990s, there was a heavy metal band called Open Fire that I used to love to see. I followed them to their local shows as often as I could.  They're no longer playing together but they were really fun to see. Since then I have moved to other states, gotten married, started a family, and just never had the time to see other bands play live.

Before I left Hawaii, I did get the exciting opportunity to have a picture taken with their bass player, Jack Azevedo. Here's that picture:

I even had that picture put on a shirt and had him sign it.  I wonder where that shirt went.  Anyway, about two years ago, I started going out to see live local bands play again and found a really awesome metal band out of Williamsburg, Virginia. They call themselves Vanquish.  I didn't think I'd ever find another talented local metal band after Open Fire.

I've seen a lot of other really talented local bands here in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia but I'll have to share pictures about them later. This blog post is getting to be longer than I wanted it to be. I will probably end up boring my readers.