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What a night in metal heaven! It's not every day that you can go see a live show with three killer metal bands such as the legendary Ronnie James Dio, Armored Saint and Lynch Mob.  First I've got to say that it was very cool of Dio to do a special meet and greet with the fans prior to the show, for which they stayed an extra 45 minutes to make sure everyone got all of their pictures, cd books and posters signed.  Pop's was packed to capacity and the crowd was greatly anticipating this magical night of metal madness.

Mike Tramp w/ Perpetual at Pop’s in Sauget, IL. on June 15th, 2001 

Mike Tramp and his former band mates in White Lion helped to redefine heavy metal in the late 80’s/early 90’s with their long hair, flashy clothes, and well-written songs.  Their hard rocking songs and a few very memorable ballads helped remind us of some of the positive things in the world such as to cherish those that we love and to always try to see life’s bright side even when everything seems to be getting you down.  After White Lion disbanded, Tramp formed Freak Of Nature whose discs were never released in the U.S.  In 1998, Tramp wanted to go another direction so that is when he recorded his first solo album titled CAPRICORN that is a reflection of his life and the world around him.
  On Friday June 15th, 2001 Mike Tramp and his band of merry men came to rock for all of his fans at Pop’s in Sauget, IL.  Upbeat and in good spirits, Tramp walked out on stage with an ear-to-ear grin while thanking everyone for coming to see his band play live.  During their 1 hour 30 minute plus set, the band played several classic White Lion hits such as “Little Fighter”, “Wait”, “Tell Me” and “When The Children Cry”.  During this show I was reminded of the time that I had seen White Lion on their Pride tour open for Kiss in Springfield, IL. up front in the first row.  This was right before their single “Wait” broke out to become a major hit on rock radio and at MTV (when it was still real music by real bands).  Tramp also played a heavy Freak Of Nature (FON) tune called “What Am I” along side his former FON band members Kenny Korade (guitar) & Jerry Best (bass) along with new member Troy Patrick Farrell (drums) and mentioned afterwards that the FON discs will soon be available to buy.  Throughout the show Mike Tramp frequently encouraged crowd participation by having everyone sing along especially on White Lion’s “Tell Me”.  When the opening guitar riffs of “Wait” kicked in the crowd cheered loudly and it seemed as if everyone in the audience knew every word to the entire song.  The band maintained a perfect balance of White Lion and Mike Tramp solo songs during their set by paying tribute to the past while looking forward to the future. They played several songs off of the new Mike Tramp album CAPRICORN such as “If I Live Tomorrow”, “Here Where I Don’t Belong”, and “Wait Not For Me”.  They also performed the rocking ballad “Have You Ever” off of CAPRICORN which made me feel a wide range of emotions as Tramp sang about telling those closest to you such as your spouse, mother, children or father how much you love them and how much they mean to you.  Mike Tramp mentioned that he has tons of songs ready for a new cd, so he played one of these unreleased tunes called "Don’t Take My Rock-N-Roll".   The place may not have been sold-out, but Mike Tramp and his band played with so much raw energy and heart as if they were in a standing room only 20,000 seat arena.  Towards the end of their set, the band their covered their own versions of "Rebel Rebel" by David Bowie, “Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones and "Maggie May" by Rod Stewart much to the delight of the fans.  Mike Tramp’s vocals were awesome and very powerful on the harmonies, the rhythm section was rock solid and the guitars sounded great on all of the songs with enormous riffs and melodic solos.  It was great to see Mike Tramp again live and the band sounded great together.  After the show, the band were nice enough to do a meet & greet by having personal conversations, signing autographs and posing for pictures with any fans who wanted to them.  In the near future, we will have an interview that we are doing with Mike Tramp up on the site.
     Local St. Louis rockers Perpetual put on an awesome opening set full of original songs with an 80’s heavy metal style that reminded me of the glory days of the Bulletboys, Cinderella, Dokken and Winger.  The original songs include “Comin' After You”, “Between The Eyes”, “I Want You”, “Jimmy”, “Trouble”, “Got Your Love”, “Set The Night On Fire”, “Do Or Die”, “Back, Bad, And Kickin' Ass”, “Tearin' Down The Wall” and “Fire Inside”.  As vocalist Al Fredwell says about Perpetual, “As far as the style of music, we're sticking to what we love. 80's style, high energy, party when ya' can and rock 'till 'ya drop hard rock. Not whats popular, not whats going to make us tons of money. In our hearts we honestly feel like people want to go to a show and feel good and have a good time again. Not sit there and hear a bunch of depressing garbage that became so popular in the 90's. If Curt Cobain were still alive, I would love to meet him in person just to KICK HIS ASS!” The other bands members include the hard rocking riff master Austin Sprague (guitar) and the air -tight rhythm section of Sean Quidgeon (bass) & Scott Garber (drums). Perpetual will have a new cd out soon with their original 80’s style party rock & roll and are back, bad & kickin’ ass.  Support them by seeing them play live and by purchasing their cd when it comes out.         

Interview with Slaughter's drummer Blas Elias 

We recently had a chance to interview Slaughter drummer Blas Elias before a concert about his role in the new rock & roll movie ROCKSTAR.  We also asked him about his hobbies, the band and his life in general.

Rockweb: How was the movie ROCKSTAR and did you play the drummer in the band or another part?

Blas Elias: Yeah I played the drummer in Blood Pollution which was a tribute band and the story was kind of loosely taken from the 'Ripper' Owens Judas Priest story which has been changed around quite a bit. It's more a story about that era of music and the relationship between Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston (their chartacters) , it's a great vehicle for 80's rock.  I think it's going to be the biggest boost that kind of music has had in quite some time. So I play the drummer in a tribute band and the movie starts off with us playing gigs basically doing what we can to pay homage to our favorite band Steel Dragon and eventually the rest of us get sick of Mark Wahlberg's character Chris Cole being obsessed with Steel Dragon so we tell him we want to play our own songs and we fired him.  And the day after we fired him he gets call from the guitar player from Steel Dragon who saw a video of one of our shows that one of our old groupie girls had given to them when they were on tour.  And so he gets in this big band and becomes a rock star. It's a great movie really, I saw the whole thing and it is actually pretty good.

RW: When is it (the movie ROCKSTAR) supposed to be released?

BE: September 7th.

RW: September 7th, I'll have to go see that. Is Slaughter or Black Label Society or any of the people from any bands going to have their original music from their bands in it like new songs?

BE: We are not, Slaughter's not in fact I heard about the movie at first because we were sent a script to write music, but we were on tour so we didn't have achance to do it.  But Black Label Society I believe is going to have a track on there and there is stuff written by guys in Marilyn Manson, Lit and quite a few other bands. But we were on the road and just couldn't get around to doing it and there is some good music on there.

RW: When they were filming the movie did they take actual real fans of some of the bands like Slaughter, Black Label Society and of people that were in the movie and put them in the movie as part of the crowd?

BE: Yeah yeah they had a big benifit concert in Los Angeles at the sports arena and I forgot how many people showed up. It was basically people called from the radio station to come down to this big party and they filmed most of the large audience scenes there. Because people were in smaller crowd scenes where they just sat as extras and stuff, but I think that they did the research pretty well. They found people that looked like they came from that era, so it was pretty fun being around all of these people in the drask of the 80's and it made me feel like I was back in 1987 you know (he laughs).

RW: Those were definitely the goods days, but it's getting better again thank god. Because this tour is phenominal.

BE: Yeah were are having a good time out here and we didn't expect it to go this long this well. We originally started with the idea of taking it easy this summer and only only playing on a few dates here and there. We've been on the road solid man for so many years that we've never even had a year off and so we did some fly dates this year and the offers just kept coming in. The money kept getting higher and so it turned into pretty much a whole tour and it's been doing real well.

RW: Good. I'm glad to see that because it makes it better for everything because we've got to compete with all of these boys bands and get that stuff out of here. 

BE: Yeah but we are not at that level yet (laughs).

RW: Getting there at the core fans are still staying thank god, it's just getting them to the shows to buy the tickets and getting the albums to be promoted. Speaking of that, do you guys still have a deal with CMC or has that ended and you're shopping or what?

BE: We have an option to go with them but our contract for the number of records we've done is fullfilled. So now we are looking at the option of doing that or maybe starting our own label which we have been talking about for quite some time. Or there is defintely a few more options right now available, but we are also looking at doing a DVD release of some of our home videos and some live concert stuff with video collections ,backstage and bootlegs.  All kinds of stuff, a lot of new possibilities with DVD's, we're looking into all that sh*t.

RW: Do you have any idea about when the DVD may come out or is that just in the thinking about it stage right now?

BE: We are planning it right now, we're trying to get the clearance as to use the videos and some of the stuff from the Chrysalis/EMI days, so as soon as we get all of that together we will start working on production.

RW: I jokingly asked Blas if Salughter had been hanging out with Vinnie Vincent lately and he said that he dosen't know him and that Mark Slaughter and Dana Strum said that they had a hard time dealing with him personally that he a phenominal writer and musician. I was listening to your first album and I was cracking up when I heard "Hey you wanna play another solos?", that was hilarious.

BE: Most of those were wriiten you know right after the break up of the Vinnie Vincent Invasion and obviously there were some pretty harsh feelings at the time, I imagine they probably hold some pretty fond memories of those time periods.

RW: Slaughter kind of had a built in audience when that happened which is good with you guys having all of those #1 videos, the albums were selling phenominal numbers and everything was going along good and hopefully that stuff continues but like always promotion is the key. When you started drumming did you just start or did you take lessons or what?

BE: Hopefully this movie (Rock Star) will help kick things into gear  you know. The fans are why we are still doing it because if they weren't supporting the music we wouldn't still be here. I started playing in a band when I was 11 years old playing guitar and we couldn't find a drummer and they were offering free drum lessons in my junior high marching band. So I took the drum lessons and became a drummer. I started to dig it and got into all kinds of other music like jazz drumming, funk , drum core and orchestra. I was really heavy into to studying drums and I got away from rock for a while, and I decided to go to college to become a doctor and I didnt play at all. After a few years of that I was like f*ck it I got to play some rock & roll. I took a year off of college, went on the road with a local band and then heard about the audition for Slaughter and then never went back. I haven't been home since. 

RW: Do you have anything else you would like to talk about that might be outside of music?

BE: No not really I've been doing adventure racing which mainly came out of being on the road and being bored so I started to run, bike and swim because most people are addicted to something out here on the road & that is what I'm addicted to. Adventure racing is made up of part bike, canoeing, swimming, land navigation and stuff like that. It's like Discovery and Ecochannel and stuff like that where you race with your team to see who completes the coarse first. He said that he can't find anyone else in rock & roll crazy enough to do it (laughs), so his is full of friends and people he has met while doing the sport.

RW: Celebrity Ecochallenge, that would be cool to see a bunch of rock stars going around doing all of this canoeing, biking, running and things and see who would come out on top at the end. Has anyone approached you about being on a Weakest Link with other drummers?

BE: (Laughs) about Celebrity Ecochallenge and then says that Weakest Link would be cool to do, but that no one has approached him about it. I look forward to playing out the rest of the summer and just getting a new record out.

              

Aerosmith w/ Fuel at the Riverport Amphitheater in St. Louis, MO. on July 19th, 2001

 Aerosmith’s album JUST PUSH PLAY has only been out a few short months now and has already gone platinum. They performed at last years Super Bowl half-time show, which was the highest rated Super Bowl half-time show ever and were recently inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Life is good for the band and you might ask what else does Aerosmith have to accomplish, why don’t they just retire? It’s rock & roll for the band as well as their fans and you can’t stop it once it’s in your blood. Aerosmith performed to a sold-out crowd of approximately 20,000 people at the Riverport Amphitheater on their Just Push Play tour.
   As always the band has an enormous stage with one large curved ramp on each side and a shiny metallic silver back drop that matches the robot on the cover of their new disc JUST PUSH PLAY. The power chords to “Beyond Beautiful” rang out at the start of the set with lead guitarist Joe Perry at the top of the ramp with the gigantic video screen behind him showing images of fire, explosions and the Aerosmith logo. Brad Whitford strummed the rhythms on his six-string and drummer Joey Kramer provided the backbeat. When the high-octane part of the song kicked in vocalist Steven Tyler with mic stand decorated with many colored bandanas stood at the edge of the stage and danced around as if he were in a nightclub. To very enthusiastic crowd applause the band ripped into their hit single “Jaded” followed by “Love In An Elevator”, “Big Ten Inch”, “Pink”, “Mama Kin” and “Fly Away From Here”.
   Behind me there was a small state fair type stage set up with amps in the middle of the lawn area. Nearly 20 huge security guards were arm in arm surrounding Aerosmith as they navigated their way through the crowd to get to the small stage. I turned around to watch them and Steven Tyler asked, “Is this close enough in your face?” and the crowd cheered. While on the mini stage the video screen on the main stage showed black & white camera shots of the band and crowd. They played “Same Old Song & Dance” after which Tyler asked the crowd, “anybody doin’ the deed?”. As the opening chords of “Dream On” began the audience were striking up their lighters, which made the lawn look like a big bon fire. “Toys In The Attic” brought a chance for a lucky girl on the lawn to come up on stage and do the bump and grind with Tyler. After being escorted through the crowd to their dressing room, Aerosmith appeared on the screen having a staged conversation about them leaving the show, going to eat and about how the crowd are a bunch of animals was very entertaining. Then after coming back on stage the band filmed a spot for MTV’s 20th anniversary show to be aired in a few weeks. Tyler said, “we can’t be there so we are here with some of our friends” and that MTV has “deep pockets for stashing the profits”. Then the black back round behind the band dropped and the camera filmed the crowd yelling happy anniversary MTV and Aerosmith played “Walk This Way”.
   They played “Draw The Line” followed by “Under My Skin” with Tyler running around with a pink feather boa sticking out of his pants. The computer graphics on the video screen added to the show along with Tyler’s go-for-broke harmonica solo at the end of “Cryin’ ” and his soulful emotional vocals on “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing”. Perry’s cool blues interlude with voice box and the psychedelic colorful images on the screen gave “Sweet Emotion” a 60’s/70’s vibe and Perry’s space age sounding guitar solo was awesome as the crowd chanted for more. The rhythmic trio of bassist Tom Hamilton, drummer Joey Kramer and rhythm guitarist Brad Whitford powered “Back In The Saddle” with their tight playing and pumped up back beat. Aerosmith played a fairly balanced set been their old classics and newer hits, but seemed to lean more towards newer songs because the average fan in the crowd was about 23 years old. They gave the fans their moneys worth by playing for approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes.
   Fuel opened the show with a 45 minute set that included a few of their hits such as  "Hemorrhage (In My Hands)" and "Bad Day" off of their new cd SOMETHING LIKE HUMAN as well as some older songs such as "Shimmer" and "Bittersweet". Fuel sounds good live but they were definitely having trouble with this crowd that was waiting to see Aerosmith.                   

Poison with Quiet Riot, Warrant & Enuff Znuff at the Riverport Amphitheater in St. Louis, MO. on July 28th, 2001

 This year the Poison package tour was called the Glam Slam Metal Jam and featured special guests Quiet Riot, Warrant and Enuff Znuff. On this hot sticky Saturday in July, the tour converged on the Riverport Amphitheater in St. Louis, MO. Unfortunately, we missed the set of Enuff Znuff (who we heard put on a great show) and just got there in time to hear Quiet Riot play their hit single “Cum On Feel The Noise” and a new song off their current cd GUILTY PLEASURES called “Rock The House”. The reason we were late is because we has checked Riverport’s web site, which said that the show started at 7:30 P.M. (it really started at 6:00 P.M.). Anyway, we will never rely on their site for information without checking out other sources.
   The little we had heard of Quiet Riot sounded good and the crowd was going wild during  “Cum On Feel The Noise” as they banged their heads and pumped their fists along with the beat. Quiet Riot was very cool to the fans because they set up a table for a meet and greet after their show and were taking pictures with fans and signing autographs. Maybe next year we can catch Quiet Riot’s full set because after seeing them several times, they have never put on a bad show.
   The age of the crowd was roughly 10 – 50 years old. It was amazing as many older parents had their kids and grand kids with them for a night of rock & roll. Warrant came out on stage facing the amps with their backs to the audience while playing the intro to their hit “Down Boys”. Singer Jani Lane rushed on to the stage for his vocals while rhythm guitarist Eric Turner and bassist Jerry Dixon ripped in to the song along with lead guitarist Billy Morris. There was a banner that said Warrant in the back round and the amps had Down Boys printed on them. The band played tunes covering their entire career from their debut through their new covers disc UNDER THE INFLUENCE. They played songs such as “Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich”, “Hole In My Wall”, “Machine Gun”, “So Damn Pretty”, “Bed Of Roses” and “Angry Young Man”. During the ballad “Heaven”, Lane started the song solo with an acoustic guitar as the crowd sang along with their lighters held high in the air and then the band kicked it into high gear. The crowd was singing along with “I Saw Red” and Lane changed the verse to “I don’t think I’m going to f*ck you any more”, which had the crowd laughing. Warrant played a new song off of UNDER THE INFLUENCE called “Sub Human”. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” really got the crowd excited with its high-octane heavy metal sound. Guitarist Billy Morris did a very cool original solo by playing riffs from Ozzy’s “Crazy Train” and Guns ‘N Roses “Welcome To The Jungle”, which had the fans going nuts. At the end of their set, Warrant closed with “Cherry Pie” that included their own version of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” sandwiched right in the middle of the song.
   When Poison’s set started there was music playing in the back round with the Poison symbol of the skeleton with a top hat and skulls & cross bones flashing across the giant video screens. The always rocking “Look What The Cat Dragged In” opened their set with Booby Dall (bass), C.C. Deville (guitar) and Rikki Rockett (drums) appearing on their enormous stage that had two ladders leading up to a huge ramp behind the drum kit. The ever-charismatic Bret Michaels (vocals) ran on to the stage wearing a thick white fur coat and mic stand wrapped in colorful bandannas. The party was just getting started as they cranked out their hits such as “I Want Action”, “Your Mama Don’t Dance”, C.C. singing his punk-inspired “I Hate Every Bone In Your Body But Mine”, Fallen Angel”, “Let It Play” and “Unskinny Bop”. There were dozens of flash pots, flames and explosions similar to what you would see at a Kiss concert. Poison debuted their new song “Rock Star” that was recorded for fans to hear on-line and will be included on an album in the future. There was a solemn moment of silence as Michaels dedicated “Something To Believe In” to a friend of the band named Leon Wilkinson from Lynyrd Skynyrd who had recently passed away. During the song a wall of fiery sparkles fell from atop the stage rigging. Michaels also said, “St. Louis I dedicate this song to you, “Nothin’ But A Good Time”, let the party begin”. Poison had once again conquered the audience as they closed their show with their hit single “Talk Dirty To Me” as the crowd went ballistic while confetti fell from the ceiling.                           

Slash’s Snakepit w/ Conquest at Pop’s in Sauget, IL. on July 6th, 2001

 Last year Slash’s Snakepit toured the world with AC/DC and had played a show on that tour in St. Louis at the Kiel Center. Unfortunately due to the high demand for tickets for this show, several fans didn’t get to see AC/DC or Slash’s Snakepit. It didn’t matter that we missed their show last year when Slash’s Snakepit played at Pop’s in Sauget, IL. (near St. Louis) on July 6th, 2001. The wall-to-wall sold-out crowd cheered loudly when Slash walked out on stage with his famous black top hat, Gibson Les Paul guitar and giant Marshall stacks towards the back of the stage. Slash reminded the crowd that the show tonight was either on exactly the same day or a few days away from the 10-year anniversary of the ssive Guns ‘N Roses riot at Riverport. That riot bottlenecked traffic and had caused several thousand dollars damage to the then new Riverport Amphitheater.
   Vocalist Rod Jackson was pumping up the crowd as he briskly ran around the stage while pointing and singing to fans and telling everyone to make some noise. Jackson’s bluesy vocals were a perfect fit to Slash’s high-powered guitar solos and monstrous riffs. When Slash played the opening riffs to Guns ‘N Roses standards such as “Mr. Brownstone” and “Sweet Child O’ Mine” the crowd went wild as they danced to the beat and sang along word for word. The Snakepit’s first hit single “Beggars & Hangers On” off of their debut cd IT’S FIVE O’ CLOCK SOMEWHERE with its heavy old school blues guitar sound with a great chorus was a welcome addition to the set list. Throughout the night the band also played several songs off of their new disc AIN’T LIFE GRAND such as “Been There Lately”, “Mean Bone”, “Speed Parade” and “Ain’t Life Grand”. The band seemed to perfectly balance out their set by playing a few G ‘N R classics as well as tunes from both the Snakepit discs. Slash’s Snakepit put on an awesome show and seeing Slash live leaves no doubt as to why he has influenced so many guitarists in the 80’s and 90’s. His blues meets heavy metal guitar sound is what really made Guns ‘N Roses popular and maybe someday Axl and Slash will get back together to make some more magic. Slash and the rest of the band were cool enough to do a meet & greet after the show to sign things for fans. They also answered questions and took photos with fans. If Slash’s Snakepit comes around again, we are definitely going to be there to rock with them.
   Local St. Louis band Conquest opened the show with their original thrash type songs. The crowd was head banging to the beat as the band tried to warm up the audience. Usually when we go to a show the opening band plays the same style of music as the headliner, but Slash and Conquest are definitely worlds apart.       

Godsmack with Puddle Of Mud and the Deftones at the Riverport Amphitheater in St. Louis, MO. on August 10th, 2001

 The Godsmack show at the Riverport Amphitheater with Puddle Of Mud and the Deftones was very successful, as approximately 9,400 tickets had been sold. This semi-cool August night was a great night to see a concert. Newcomers Puddle Of Mud hit the stage to try to warm up the crowd of nearly 3,500 with their set full of melodic rock songs. The crowd was into their music and I heard one guy say that they sound like a heavy version of the popular rock band Creed. I had to agree and I give them credit for playing as if they were in front of a sold-out crowd. The audience didn’t seem to know their songs well enough to sing along until they played their new hit single “Control”.
   The Deftones played in the middle slot a with a set full of alternative, hip-hop, rap meets metal songs that the crowd of about 5,000 were dancing and singing along. The crowd was made up of girls that wore bandanas and coveralls that looked like guys with so many body piercings, tattoos and sweat suits that made me feel as if I were in the center of the audience that Alice In Chains had left behind. The new platinum blond hair trend that is supposedly very popular in San Francisco was also very common among the men and women during the Deftones show. The band put on an energy-filled set that included various backdrops with pictures of their album covers. There was a D J scratching records that was adding various sampled sounds to the songs. The crowd went wild when they performed their big hit song “Change (In The House Of Flies)”, which was very popular on alternative rock radio stations. About a quarter of the Deftones crowd left the show before Godsmack started which was something I had never witnessed at a concert before. Some fans said that Godsmack were too commercially popular and that the Deftones were an underground band trying to make it. This is wrong because they have already made it if they had a hit single with “Change (In The House Of Flies)”.
   At the beginning of their show, Godsmack has a cartoon showing on the screen that featured the band members discussing what they were going to do before they come out on stage and telling jokes to each other. This cartoon short was very funny and entertaining. When the band walked on stage the crowd loudly cheered as the opening riffs of “Sick Of Life” rang out into the night air. The stage had an enormous Middle Age stone castle in the back round that was complete with carving of gargoyles and rustic metal torches at the top. There were also small stone bunkers in front of the mic stands of vocalist Sully Erna, guitarist Tony Rombola and bassist Robbie Merrill. The drum riser was elevated on a stone bunker that matched the castle. In the center of the castle there was one mid-size screen and two smaller screens on the sides of it. Godsmack played many of their fan favorites such as “Bad Religion”, “Spiral”, “the instrumental “Vampires” and “Black Magic”. During “Awake” the enthusiastic crowd was singing loudly and the light show was amazing. Sully used a voice box to add to a cool guitar riff as clips of riots and wars played on the screens during “Mistakes”. Flames shot out of the Godsmack symbol hanging 10 feet above the stage as Rombola made some cool sounds with a violin boa on his guitar and a crystal ball shined light into the crowd as images of a time warp appeared on the screen as the band launched into “Moon Baby”. Sully told the crowd to, ‘make some noise and let me feel all of the energy from the good people of St. Louis’. During “Get Up, Get Out”, Sully played percussion with bongos and kettledrums, which sounded, awesome mixed together with the drums of Tommy Stewart. “Keep Away” featured an extended jam by the band and “Voodoo” featured images of Medusa, scenes from the classic film the Serpent In The Rainbow and men running through the forest in their underwear. The set ended with “Whatever” which drew a thunderous round of applause from the fans as they jumped up and down. Sully tested the crowds knowledge of heavy metal by singing some of “We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister and “Cum On Feel The Noize” by Quiet Riot by letting them fill in the blanks. There were 15 foot high flames, a shower of sparks coming from the ceiling and confetti shooting up into the air through the crowd. Godsmack put on an awesome show that at times even rivaled a Kiss concert.                       

L.A. Guns w/ Faster Pussycat at Pop’s in Sauget, IL. on August 11th, 2001

 I never thought I’d see the day when L.A. Guns and Faster Pussycat would tour together on a double bill. When they played at Pop’s they brought the music back to the people up-close and in-your-face. I was glad that I finally got a chance to see L.A. Guns live, because last year at Riverport they were supposed to play along with Ratt and Warrant but cancelled their with the bands a few weeks before the show. I didn’t know until I go to Riverport that L.A. Guns had to abruptly cancel their tour for personal reasons.
   L.A. Guns played many of their great hits throughout their set such as “Sex Action”, “Electric Gypsy” and “Ballad Of Jayne”, as well as songs from their newest cd MAN IN THE MOON such as “Man In The Moon”, “Beautiful” and “Fast Talkin’ Dream Dealer”. Guitarist Traci Guns played guitar and handled lead vocals on the Jimi Hendrix song “Red House” and the band also played “Southern Man” by Neil Young which both sounded as close to the originals as you can get. The crowd was packed in like cattle at the front of the stage to get close to the band. Drummer Steve Riley and bassist Muddy (the newest band member) are a solid rhythm section that compliments each other very well. Vocalist Phil Lewis kept getting right up to the edge of the stage as he held his mic out so that the fans could sing. Guitarist Traci Guns played several of his killer guitar solos so close to the fans that they could almost touch him. L.A. Guns sounded great and almost every song they played was note for note with the songs on their albums.
   Faster Pussycat had a giant black curtain with the silhouettes of the band in the back round and guitars screaming at the beginning of the show. Then the curtain drops and the band starts to play a remixed version of their first hit “Bathroom Wall”. Many of the people in the crowd were looking at each other wondering why the song sounded so different from the original version. Vocalist Taime Downe had bright red lipstick on with make-up, a tall black top hat, T-shirt and what looked like a garter belt. Downe intended the music to sound that way because he took a few of the members from his Gothic/industrial rock band the Newlydeads and put them together with a few of the members of his old glam band Faster Pussycat. Their set was a mix of Newlydeads and Faster Pussycat songs. Their opening version of “Bathroom Wall” was done Newlydeads style, which was very different with its more up tempo rhythms and strange guitar tone. They played Faster Pussycat favorites such as “Where There’s A Whip There’s A Way”, “Slip Of The Tongue”, “Smash Alley”, “Little Dove”, “Don’t Change That Song” and “House Of Pain”. Downe changed the words of “Cathouse” to whorehouse, which was very funny and he also explained what “Slip Of The Tongue” was about. The band also played a few Newlydeads songs such as “Lipstick”, “Submission” “Supersonic” and “Killed By”. I thought that Faster Pussycat’s cover version of the Carly Simon hit “You’re So Vain” was very cool with its hard rock guitars. During one song bassist Danny did the vocals and Downe stood and watched while hanging out with the crowd at the front of the stage. I have to admit that I like the Faster Pussycat songs better, but the Newlydeads music was pretty good as well with its punk rock type sound. Downe throughout the show was making comments about liking to get a little taste of the ladies by making good friends with their kitty cats.
   This show was an 80’s heavy metal match made in heaven. L.A. Guns and Faster Pussycat both out on great shows and maybe one day they will play on a summer tour package along with the likes of Poison, Slaughter, Quiet Riot, Cinderella, Winger, etc. Both bands were really cool and hung out with the fans after their sets by answering questions, taking pictures and signing autographs. Downe took his personal laminated Faster Pussycat backstage pass with his name on it off of his money bag and attached it to my other passes which was awesome. Traci Guns (L.A. Guns) played guitar and Danny (Faster Pussycat) sang vocals/played bass along with his drummer as they played a few cover tunes after the show was over.                  

Rob Zombie with Sinisstar at the Pageant in St. Louis, MO. on April 1st, 2002

I’d always been told that going to a Rob Zombie concert was a unique experience that I would never forget.  That is true because when I got to the show I wasn’t sure if I was at a Halloween party or at a concert.  Many of the fans at the show were dressed in ghoulish make-up and various colorful styles of clothing that were a cross between the punk rock crowd and the dark mysterious gothic-inspired group of people wearing all black from head to toe.  Not one to disappoint, Rob Zombie arrived on stage by coming out of the mouth of a giant demon that had the drum kit perched above it.  Zombie said, “There are a lot of young kids out there.  They must start them young in St. Louis… on the road to hell.”  In front of the mic stands there were pictures of skeletons and the back round of the stage featured impressions of ladies nearly naked and 3 video screens to show footage during the songs.  The video screens showed scenes from horror films and computer-generated images 
    Rob Zombie played many of his solo hits such as “Demon Speeding”, “Living Dead Girl”, “Demonoid Phenomenon”, “Meet The Creeper”, and “Return Of The Phantom Stranger”, Feels So Numb”,  “Never Gonna Stop” and “Dragula”.  Zombie started talking about the horror film he made recently called “House Of A 1,000 Corpses” and was asking the crowd if they thought he should show the R-rated version while the band played the songs and the crowd said yes very loudly.  Then he asked some parents in the crowd if they would mind if their young children saw the footage and they said they didn’t care.  Then Zombie said, “You don’t care if we terrify the little children, I don’t care we’ll show the Pg-13 version”.  The scenes from the movie looked very realistic and were a combination of many new scary-looking creatures as well as some out of the classic horror movies.  The band also played some of the popular White Zombie songs such as their big hit “Thunder Kiss ‘65”,  “More Human Than Human” and “Supercharger Heaven”.  Rob Zombie’s deep dark vocals and his evil-eyed grin add to his showmanship and his desire to involve all of the fans in the crowd into part of the show as he danced around the stage.  Riggs played heavy metal guitar licks that were rich in melody and sounded just like the songs on the albums note-for-note.  The skin-tight rhythm section of drummer John Tempesta and bassist Blasko laid down the grooves, as Blasko ran across the stage wildly banging his head to the beat.  The stage show that Zombie had designed was out-of-this-world all of the computer-generated images and video footage being shown on the screens.  During “Dragula” the video footage showed Henry Munster from the popular TV show The Munsters driving a racecar and doing funny things while a hot blond girl was dressed like a cheerleader with pom poms on a small stage in front of the video screen.   At different times during some of the songs, 5 to 10- foot high flames shot up in the air with gothic- looking gargoyles and skulls surrounding the majority of the stage.  A demonic 10- foot tall robot walked on stage during “Never Gonna Stop” the hit single from the new Rob Zombie disc SINISTER URGE and gargoyles with fire extinguishers sprayed them into the air to give the stage a misty smoke-filled appearance as Zombie danced around the stage singing to the crowd.    “Thunder Kiss ‘65” whipped the fans in the mosh pit into a frenzy as they slam danced and body surfed to the super-fast guitar riffs of this old White Zombie staple. 
   Sinisstar opened the show with their unique brand of rock & roll, which was a mix of heavy metal, thrash, funk and industrial.  Their groove- laden music was very intense and the vocals of Edgy were to the point and in your face.  For about a year now, the band has been waiting for their new album FUTURE SHOCK to be released as they have continuously toured to get the music to the fans.  Sinisstar had the fans towards the front of the stage chanting loudly and slam dancing to every beat.  For not having an album out yet, many of the fans seemed to already know many of the lyrics from Sinisstar’s songs.  They will be a force to be reckoned with and in the future I could easily see them playing a prime slot during an Ozzfest tour.  Sinisstar's debut album, FUTURE SHOCK, will be released on June 11th.  Rob Zombie will be headlining the second stage during this year’s Ozzfest tour and will be playing without any of his props for a stripped-down set.  As Kiss and Alice Cooper did before him, Rob Zombie sure knows how to appeal to the senses of sight and sound with his enormous stage set-up where many of the images on the video screens really seem to bring the songs to life.                   

 St. James with Perpetual at Pop’s in Sauget, IL. on April 13th, 2002

I keep hearing people say that heavy metal music from the 80’s is dead and gone.  If you want to listen to Creed clones such as Staind and Default that’s cool, but heavy metal is alive and well.  St. James and Perpetual were living proof on this night full of killer rock & roll at Pop’s.
   St. James features the following band members: vocalist Jaime St. James (ex-Black N’ Blue), guitarist Jimmy Maguire, bassist Joe Frietchen, drummer Todd Shelly and keyboard player Danny Morris (don’t confuse him with Billy Morris, who?).  St. James played a power-packed hour and a half set comprised of songs from their new cd AMERICAN MAN such as “Testify”, “Generation Suicide”, “Die Like A Star”, Magical Taxi Cab”, “Deaf, Dumb and Blind” and “Light Of Love”.  They also performed several classic standards from 80’s heavy metal band Black N’ Blue such as “Chains Around Heaven”, “Rockin' On Heaven's Door”, “Miss Mystery”, “Without Love”, “Action”, “I'll Be There For You”, “Hold On To 18” and “Wicked Bitch”.  Jaime frequently leaned into the crowd at the front of the stage to let the fans sing into the mic and then would belt out his vocals as if they were his last.  After saying that he was a huge St. Louis Rams football fan, Jaime asked the fans if they like the Rams and received thunderous applause from the crowd.  Joe and Todd laid down the rock-solid rhythmic foundation of the songs with their up beat tempo.  Danny added to the harmonies and melodies with his spectacular keyboard playing and was a perfect compliment to the rhythm section with his varied catalog of grooving sounds.  Jimmy fired off licks and solos on his guitar that were soulful and often brought a hard rock meets blues edge to the songs. 
   St. James are a great live band that play the songs throughout their entire set as if they were in a large stadium in front of 60,000 people.  They don’t seem to care if they play in front of 1 person or a 1,000; they just want to rock & roll.  The band were very cordial and were great about talking with fans, posing for pictures and about singing autographs both before and after the show.  St. James is a class act and their down-to-earth demeanor without the usual rock star attitude was refreshing.  The new St. James disc AMERICAN MAN is full of awesome 80’s style heavy metal songs and is available to purchase on the St. James web site.
   Perpetual opened the show with a set that was about 45- minutes that was a mix of heavy metal classics and their own original hard rocking tunes.  They played great-sounding cover versions of  “Long Live Rock and Roll” by Steel Dragon from the movie ROCKSTAR and “Live Wire” by Motley Crue.  Perpetual recently were joined by their newest member guitarist Chris Snider after their former guitar player decided to quit the band.  Chris has a melodic hard rock tone that adds another dimension to the sound of the band.  Eventually in the future, the band may even add another guitar player to make their song structure more complex.  With a twin axe setup they could include dual guitar solos and switch off between lead and rhythm parts like guitarists Frank Hannon and Tommy Skeoch do in Tesla.   Al Fredwell’s vocals were smooth and bluesy as he paced the stage and frequently banged his head to the beat.  Sean Quidgeon played deep bass grooves and the hard-hitting drumbeat of Scott Garber provided a fast-paced rhythm that had people in the crowd dancing.  “Got Your Love”, “Fire Inside”, “Set the Night on Fire” and “Back, Bad, & Kickin’ Ass” were a few of their older heavy metal rockers that I also saw them perform at Pop’s last year with Mike Tramp.  These heavy metal 80’s party rock songs are fast and furious, but I really wish they had played “Jimmy” with its harmony-filled chorus.  Perpetual also played some newer original songs such as “Comin’ After You”, “Bright Lights, Big City”, “Tearin’ Down the Wall”, “‘Till the Day I Die”, “Under Your Skin”, “Between the Eyes”, “Trouble” and “I Want You”.
   I had heard someone in the audience mention that Perpetual could be named St. Fredwells after the vocalist, but that makes them sound more like a Catholic church instead of a rock band.  In June the band will go into the studio to record a full-length disc of their original songs as well as a live disc for future release.  Perpetual are a rising star that are flying down that heavy metal highway while saying, “to party while ya can and to rock till you drop”.       

Tesla with Vince Neil, Jackyl & Skid Row at UMB Bank Pavilion in Maryland Heights, MO. on May 17th, 2002

The Rock Never Stops tour featuring Tesla with Vince Neil, Jackyl & Skid Row came to show the fans of rock & roll that they are still alive and kicking.  On this cold night in the middle of May, 1,000’s of fans braved the wind and rain to watch another chapter in the rebirth of heavy metal.
   Tesla re-united a few years ago and have been touring to packed houses in clubs across the country.  During their hour and a half set they whipped through their songs like a well-oiled machine.  Not wanting to disappoint the fans, they played many of their well-known hits such as “Modern Day Cowboy”, “Gettin’ Better”, “Love Song”, “Mama’s Fool”, “Little Suzi”, “heaven’s Trail (No Way Out)”, “Edison’s Medicine” and “Song & Emotion”.  They played “Action Talks” to start out the set with a fast adrenaline-charged song to get the crowd rocking.  Tommy Skeoch’s was having problems with his guitar, so the band played Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” until he came back on stage.  When Tesla played their hit cover version of “Signs”, the crowd went wild and loudly sang along the entire time.  Bass player Brian Wheat stood next to the drum riser of Troy Luccketta most of the set as he churned out the thumping rhythms.  Vocalist Jeff Keith excited the fans by coming to the front edge of the stage while dancing to the beat as he passionately sang their song lyrics.  The guitar tandem of Frank Hannon and Tommy Skeoch traded off licks and teamed up to play some great twin solos that often sounded like their instruments were singing right along to the melodies.  Seeing Tesla was like a flash back to the late 80’s and early 90’s when they played no-frills shows without a giant stage set-up or explosions, just pure rock & roll. 
   The fans started pumping their fists in the air as the sounds of “Knock ‘Em Dead Kid” could be heard and then vocalist Vince Neil (touring solo during an extended break from Motley Crue) ran onto the stage.  During his short 40-minute set, Neil played a power-packed list of Motley Crue favorites such as “Home Sweet Home”, “Looks That Kill”, “Girls, Girls, Girls”, “Dr. Feelgood”, “Same Ol’ Situation”, “Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)” and “Kickstart My Heart”.  Guitarist Brent Woods (ex-Wildside) perfectly played all the licks and solos just like the records with soul and feeling.  Neil manned the front of the stage and leaned into the crowd to keep them involved as he shook his hips and flashed his smile to the girls.  Drummer Brent Fitz and bass player Jamie Hunting (Union) provided the fast-paced rhythms.  Vince Neil knows how to entertain and helped propel 80’s heavy metal arena rock to new heights with his commanding stage presence and bad boy attitude.   
   Jackyl played a 40-minute set of their Southern-flavored rock & roll that was a combination of old favorites and a few new songs.  They played favorites such as “I Stand Alone”, “Down On Me”, “Red Neck Punk”, “The Lumberjack”, “Dirty Little Mind” and “Down On Me”.  They also played some new songs off their yet untitled album that should be out soon such as “Kill All The Sunshine (written with AC/DC’s Brian Johnson) ”, “Give The Devil His Due” and “The Overflow of Love”.  Vocalist Jesse James Dupree said went into the crowd during “Dirty Little Mind” and said, “Can you fellas hang with these ladies in St. Louis?” He later went on to say that “Dr. Ruth said it’s ok to touch yourself, I’ve got a healthy masturbation habit”.  Dupree played guitar because Jimmy Stiff isn’t able to tour at this time and sounded good paired up with lead guitarist Jeff Worley.  Roman Glick (ex-Brother Cane) is the new bass player because Tom Bettini is not able to tour as well and rounding out this four piece is drummer Chris Worley.  Jackyl’s motto has always been to rock me, roll me and Jackyl me off and they stayed true to it during their set.  During “The Lumberjack”, Dupree brought out his chain saw so that he could saw a chair in half.
   Skid Row started out the night with a unique punk rock rendition of their hit ballad “I Remember You”.  I must admit that I was one of the people in the crowd asking myself what they were doing and why they were playing this version of the song.  It was new and different so I just went with it and it sounded pretty good.  Later in the set, they also played the regular version of “I Remember You”.  New vocalist Johnny Solinger has a much better stage presence then the first time I saw him in Skid Row at the beginning of the last Kiss tour.  He was very confident and has evolved into a great rock & roll front man by interacting more with the audience.  The band played some of their fan favorites such as “Piece Of Me”, “Mudkicker”, “18 & Life” and “Youth Gone Wild”.  Solinger said that the boy band stuff is changing and that, “rap is changing and there is a lot less of that scratching sh*t and more rock such as Kid Rock.  Rock needs to be back where it belongs, back on top”.  The crowd agreed with a thunderous applause about rap and also when he said that Britney Spears is turning 20 and that’s not a bad thing.  During “18 & Life” and  “I Remember You” the fans were singing all of the words and were also wavy lighters in the air to set the mood.  When introducing Skid Row’s new single “Thick Is The Skin” off a future release, Solinger said that, our new single is on our web site and you can download it for free because we don’t want your money, we want your support.  The song is a very up-tempo hard rock song that is like “Youth Gone Wild” on steroids.  Bass player Rachel Bolan and new drummer Charlie Mills laid down the deep upbeat grooving rhythms of the songs with their aggressive punk rock playing style.  Guitar players Scotti Hill and Dave “The Snake” Sabo burned up their fret boards with their licks and solos that have help make many of Skid Row’s songs heavy metal classics.  When the drums, bass, monster guitar riffs and howling vocals of “Youth Gone Wild” kicked into high gear, the crowd danced, head banged and very loudly belted out the words with emotion.  I never thought that I could like Skid Row without their former singer Sebastian Bach, but I am glad that I gave Solinger a chance to develop.  He is not trying to fill Bach’s shoes and does have a different style, but Solinger is a very good vocalist who will only get even better with time.  He has a high vocal range and that Skid Row attitude of we are going to go out and kick your as* and rock & roll while having a good time.  They packed a lot into 40-minutes and proved that we are still the youth gone wild.  Hopefully, this Rock Never Stops tour is just a sign of good things to come because heavy metal is back and ready to once again take over the world.