Artist: ZO2
Venue: J&R Music World (New Yotk, NY)
Opener: n/a
Date: 4/17/2010
Label: In Tune Music
Now that your taxes were paid you could sit back and relax and see what money you had left to use for that wonderful musical holiday that they call “Record Store Day”. At this stage of the game in music purchasing I am guessing that it should be called either “CD Day” or “MP3 Day” when you think about it. Of course there are vinyl releases coming out every now and again these days but they are no longer the ruler of the musical roost when compared to the dominant mediums. The fun today would take place at J&R Music World where we have covered a number of in-store appearances and intimate performances in the past and among the many that were taking part in the day would be Folk legend Judy Collins and Brooklyn’s own ZO2.
We’ve supported the adventures of the boys in ZO2 for a couple of years now and if you are just jumping board when it comes to what they do, please understand that they are very simply a Hard Rock band with a lot of soul and three recordings under their belt. Oh yeah, and they have a television show as well that airs on IFC and is called “Z-Rock”. As a band the guys have had a long standing relationship with J&R and the store has been carrying their releases for years. By the time that they hit the stage there were about 100 people present and ready to rock. The band would perform a brief set and then do a signing of any of their CD’s and the first season boxed set of the television show. As the band began, lead singer Paulie mentioned how much money he has spent on CD’s and in this place along. He mused aloud at how he was confident that his actions have put at least three kids through college with these purchases. Their opening staple seems to be “Isolate” but since they have a new CD in “Casino Logic” they would make sure to deliver a couple of numbers from that one for good measure. “Painted Lady” would be the first from the new CD and after the rousing “If You See Kay” the guys would get their Prog on and deliver their version of Rush’s “Tom Sawyer”. They manage to do this one rather close to the original so I always enjoy hearing them do it. Bassist Dave Z. sings for this one and does show how he has a decent voice himself. All of the guys sing actually, but for the most part they provide backups to Paulie’s lead.
They dedicated “Ain’t It Beautiful” to the crowd and told them how the band was always about groove. Paulie gave us a demonstration of his screaming powers and held a soaring note for quite a long time. The song “Show Me” was the last of the new numbers to be done and this one has a great chorus and is one of my favorites from the album. They were planning on finishing it there but they decided to stick around for one more and dedicate it to the store’s manager Charlie Bagarozza. They’ve known him for awhile and since they share a mutual interest in KISS they would dish out a quickly rehearsed “Detroit Rock City”. That’s one of the true Hard Rock classics and since two of these guys were once members of KISS Nation I am pretty sure that it didn’t put them out all that much in terms of their brushing up on it.
After the eight songs the guys stuck around for about an hour and did the autograph signing thing and posing for photos. Their television show finished its second season a couple of months ago by my recollection and its DVD set is coming out soon. I don’t know if it has been renewed for a third and since a lot of their fans love it, I hope for their sake that it returns. It’s definitely a strange program at times but it has some charming moments and its fun to see bands you have caught on the circuit reaching some larger success. Thanks again to ZO2 for doing such a great job and thanks to J&R Music World for holding events like this in the first place. The next gig that we learned ZO2 would be a part of would be the Fozzy gig over at B.B. King’s. The singer of Fozzy is wrestler Chris Jericho.
Set List:
1. Isolate
2. Painted Lady
3. If You See Kay
4. Tom Sawyer
5. Stronger
6. Ain’t It Beautiful
7. Show Me
8. Detroit Rock City
We also recommend that you scroll further down this blog post to enjoy some additional candid moments and images that are only presented here from this fun afternoon.
Since this was Record Store Day down at J&R Music World, we wanted to present some other images from the event that we hope you enjoy.

There were a number of artists appearing at the long standing music shop today but we did not get there early enough to enjoy them all. We did arrive when the legendary Folk singer Judy Collins was doing some performance and story telling for her fans that had assembled in the store.

Though I grew into Rock at a very early age, my Mother used to listen to Judy’s music and probably still does for that matter. I have fond memories of her playing her albums on the stereo when I was little.

Judy told some tales about her early years and the way the music scene was back during this time and brought up folks like James Taylor and Joan Baez. She even sang a few bars of the singers “Diamonds and Rust”, which most of the Metal faithful know as a song once covered by Judas Priest. I didn’t photograph her performance segment based on the vantage point that I had and left the images to be from when she met with the fans and signed their records and CD’s. One guy was so happy with all of his records being signed and a few of them were the same records that I remembered my Mom playing. If you are open to the more Folkish side of things then you should really give a listen to what Judy is all about. She has been doing her thing for more decades than most and still has a nice voice at the age of 71. Judy would end her part of the afternoon by singing “Amazing Grace” and all who were in the store for her joined in.

Here’s a couple of shots of the guys doing their signing. We didn’t add any of the fan faces since we did not recognize any of them this time around but there were a good hundred or so that were anxious to meet these Brooklyn rockers.

A lot of people had brought the DVD up to the table to be signed as well as the CD’s. I tried to locate a link on the IFC Channel so you could watch a couple of episodes of it to get a better idea but was not able to find one. I guess with the DVD available that you will have to go that route.

Here’s the set list that you missed if you somehow were unable to come down for the fun. Those out of town fans are forgiven, but this was a nice afternoon in the Big Apple so if you lived here you are on our list.

Joey was slamming down the beat on a cool and apparently new set of red Ludwig drums. I snapped a shot of them since I felt that they looked rather nice.

The dude was pounding so hard that he actually broke the front skin on his bass drum. Look closely to your lower left and you can see the small space that his percussive might left on the poor defenseless drum head. He even knocked the ring out. Sigh, you just cannot give drummers anything without risking damage. LOL

Before we go, we mentioned how we reviewed the band’s “Ain’t It Beautiful” for the now defunct Metal Edge magazine. Since the chance to enjoy a copy of that is very hard to do with that being the case, we included that particular review in our own synopsis of Metal Edge release narratives. Just click THIS LINK and scroll down to find the ZO2 one. We hope you enjoy what you see.
Official Website: http://www.zo2.com
I think it’s fantastic that Z02 remembers and appreciates their city and friends from growing up to grown up. Pauly always tells a story with a smile about a song they wrote, an area they grew up in or the security guard at J&R they remember as teenagers. I’ve seen them many times and have always felt their positivity, even in the back of the room. Not only are they mad talented but seem to have a healthy unity between the three. Great rocking with youse guys once again.
Fan for life