Ultimate Jam Night took over the Anaheim Convention Center Arena at NAMM 2025, with a 30-piece orchestra and 80-person choir to accompany over 80 featured musicians, primarily from the Rock and Metal worlds. Presented by RCF, the setlist featured a variety of classics, ranging from Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Rush, Pat Benatar, Santana, and Jimi Hendrix, to Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Ozzy Osbourne, Van Halen, Whitesnake, and so much more. Ultimate Jam Night recently celebrated their 10th Anniversary as an event, residing at Hollywood’s world-famous Whisky A Go Go. 

Paulie Z not only hosted this Ultimate Jam Night NAMM edition, but gave several performances of his own. This NAMM Jam Night also helped support the David Z Foundation, and the Guitar Center Music Foundation donated guitars to be signed by the musicians and auctioned off to support LA Wildfire victims. 

Paulie Z opened the show with “Hello There/Dream Police” and “Still of the Night” – a tribute to the late John Sykes – with Ultimate Jam Night creator Chuck Wright kicking off the show and Whitesnake’s own Marco Mendoza and Doug Aldrich joining in the latter, plus Mitch Perry, Joe Travers, and Sven Martin. Later, Paulie Z also performed a solo vocal cover of “We Are The World”, with an impressive range of impressions of every individual artist who sang on the original. He continued to show his vocal diversity in an operatic performance of “Nessun Dorma” along with the orchestra and choir, before switching back to the metal later for “The Trooper” with Jessica Falchi, Gabriel Connor, Luis Kalil, and Aquiles Priester.

“Heartbreaker” featured a lineup reminiscent of Metal Allegiance the night before, with Alissa White-Gluz, Frank Bello, and Alex Skolnick, plus the addition of Kenny Aronoff and Doug Aldrich. Randy Jackson of Zebra took to the stage for a “Ramble On” rendition, along with Chuck Wright and Marco Minneman. As an East Coast artist, it isn’t too often that Randy is seen in SoCal, so this was an unusual treat. 

We were also treated to Donnie Vie, original Enuff Z’Nuff vocalist, making a somewhat rare appearance to sing “I Am The Walrus”, with full orchestra and the lineup of Dave Moreno, Stu Hamm, Alex Kane, Steve Dawson, and Griffin Tucker. 

Derek Day showed a favoring of the classic rock scene with his covers including Cream, Pink Floyd, and The Who’s Tommy, for “Sunshine Of Your Love” (featuring Pan Rocks, an LA-based steel pan orchestra), “Time”, duetting with Roberta Freeman while featuring Scott Page on sax, and “The Acid Queen” with Debby Holiday on vocals. Vernon Reid, Doug Wimbish – 2 out of 4 members of Living Colour – Norwood Fisher, Stephen Perkins, Sean McNabb, and Forrest Everett were all amongst the varied lineups for these three songs.

Singer/Songwriter Rachel Lorin showcased her strong pop-rock vocals well-suited to Evanescence’s “Bring Me To Life”, teaming up with Hal Sparks for the dual vocal dynamic of the song, with their band of Ira Black, Marten Andersson, August Zadra, Aquiles Priester, and Sven Martin. Hal Sparks also shared hosting duties with Paulie Z, and performed earlier in the night on “Them Bones”, with Doug Wimbish, Sam Bam Koltun, Luis Kalil, and Marco Minnemann. 

Debby Holiday, an Ultimate Jam Night regular, made several appearances throughout the night, including in a duet with Jason Charles Miller for “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” (also featuring Wyzard, Quist, Tal Bergman, Mike Mangan, and Mitch Perry) and a strong performance of “The Acid Queen”, also featuring Derek Day, with Sean McNabb on bass for his first gig of the night before heading down to road to perform in Ronnie Montrose Remembered a little later on. 

Next up was Michael Starr giving such an authentic channeling of Diamond Dave himself on “Hot For Teacher”, the vocal resemblance was uncanny. He kept the 80’s vibe going with Bon Jovi’s “Runaway”, made even more authentic by the presence of Phil X, and rounded out with the band lineup of drummer Joe Travers, bassist Bryan Beller, and Olivia Malbran on keys. 

Dewey Bragg was here for his second show of the NAMM week, having performed with Kill Devil Hill at the Metal Hall of Fame Gala. He also brought some other Metallers back on the stage with Jack Gibson, Ira Black, and Jeremy Colson for “Bark At The Moon”. Tomasina Abate then gave a powerhouse rendition of “Painkiller”, with the same band lineup plus the addition of Doc Coyle, who also appeared at the Metal Allegiance show the evening prior. dUg Pinnick made a highly-anticipated appearance to follow, bringing Matt Starr and Rafael Moreira to the stage with him for “Voodoo Child”. 

Zoe Infante and Adi Argelazi completed the lineup of vocalists for the night, covering Blondie with band members Matt Starr, Jace Jensen, Quist, Alex Kane, and Rush with Mike Hetzel, Tim Starace, and Billy Alexander, respectively. In a surprise appearance, Mark Tornillo arrived with Gary Holt, Lloyd Grant, Chris Kael, and Chris Kontos, all joined by Ira Black for the always classic and heavy “Ace of Spades”.  Paulie Z returned to the stage with “Baba O’Riley”, as Pan Rocks joined in once again, with featured violinist Eliza James, along with the return of Chuck Wright, Mitch Perry, Sven Martin, and Joe Travers to close out the show. 

Ultimate Jam Night was a special gathering of musicians, industry, and fans under the NAMM Arena roof for an excellent night of music. For those in the LA area, or if you happen to visit, Ultimate Jam Night takes place regularly at the Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood. For more info and updates on upcoming shows, visit: https://www.ultimatejamnight.com.