Flight to Mars is Pearl Jam Guitar virtuoso, Mike McCready’s side project. Keeping classic rock alive and well has been Pearl Jam’s calling card for over two decades now. McCready is the band’s lead guitarist and is arguably one of the very best guitarists of my generation.
In addition to being a hell of a guitarist, Mike is a hell of a nice guy. As a life long Pearl Jam fan I have always found Mike to be the nicest and most approachable amongst this reclusive group of Rock and Roller’s. In 93, when the band was on top of the world I found myself playing blackjack at 3 am at the Alladin Hotel where Pearl Jam was playing the next night. Across the table with the rest of us fans was Mike, hanging out playing cards and just being a real dude. He’s the first guy to come out to meet and greet fans and his charity work on behalf of various Crohn’s Disease causes have raised tens of thousands of dollars. McCready himself suffers from Crohn’s.
Flight to Mars is a UFO cover band largely. UFO, was a hard rocking classic rock band itself from the 70’s. Flight To Mars tore into their material as they did last night for a solid 90 minute set at the venerable Troubador in West Hollywood. Unfortunately the Troub isn’t great with press passes so I bring you what I could get from my bat camera. Flight to Mars continues a brief West Coast tour in San Francisco on the 20th, followed by gigs in Portland and Pearl Jam home town Seattle. At 20 bucks a ticket, this was money well spent and another epic performance by McCready.
Only you can rock me, rock me, come on back now and do it again…
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