Quiet Riot Live in Philly
By
Tokemaster General,
Contributor
Sunday, August 31, 2003 @ 3:36 PM
| Quiet Riot Live at the Whiskey
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REVIEW BY: Bay Breez
“Still Banging their Head and Feeling the Noize…”
The band that actually started in the seventies, then skyrocketed to top of the charts in the early eighties, and then disappeared by the late eighties is back.
The classic Metal Health lineup with Kevin DuBrow, Rudy Sarzo, Carlos Cavazo, and Frankie Banali that taught the whole eighties Heavy Metal generation how to bang their heads, has been back together for a few years now and made a return to Philly on this night.
This was my actual first time seeing Quiet Riot, as always something has popped up over the last 20 years, where I never had the chance. So finally I was given the chance, and neither was the crowd or I disappointed. The band, which actually has released a few new albums the past few years, played some newer songs and some of the classics starting off the set with “Vicious Circle” and then the only song that goes back to the Randy Rhoads-era, “Slick Black Cadillac.”
Kevin DuBrow, who must be close to fifty, looks to be in the excellent shape, and still has the pipes he had 20 years ago. Kevin then introduced the next song, “Cold Day in Hell” and then the classic, “Mama We’re All Crazee Now.” Which the one thing that surprised me was that there was a nice-sized crowd for a Wednesday night, and this crowd, was on their feet and going crazy, which surprised me even more.
They played another newer song, “Feel the Pain,” and back to a classic “Sign of the Times.” I haven’t heard any of their newer CDs. But they all seemed to have that classic eighties Quiet Riot feel to them, which the crowd, seemed into them so it helped.
“Born to Rock” was up next, and then the main song I came to hear, “Thunderbird,” which is off the Metal Health album, and was written for Randy Rhoads. Really a beautiful song, which surprises me as to why it was never a single, but that was 20 years ago before the power ballads really hit big in the later eighties.
As Kevin was introducing this song, he pointed me out to the crowd as I was wearing a Randy Rhoads shirt, and he told a story about the photo shoot of when the picture on my shirt was taken… how Randy kept telling Kevin how stupid he felt posing in the middle of the afternoon, pretending to be playing in front of a crowd.
“Alive and Well” was the next song, and I just have to say this before I go any further, after seeing QR for the first time, but seeing both Sarzo and Banali, with different bands…. Those two guys together have to be the most talented and best rhythm section in hard rock. These guys don’t get ¼ of the credit they deserve and were a true pleasure to watch.
They then played, another song off Metal Health, which I kind of wish they just played that whole album, because from start to finish, that is truly one of the best hard rock albums.
The band actually did something you don’t see much anymore -- they broke into a jam session, and then let Carlos, take over the spotlight and do a guitar solo, again, would have been cool if he did “Battle Axe,” but he still ripped it up regardless.
“Psycho City” was next and then the moment of truth -- “Cum on Feel the Noize,” and then into The Who’s hit, “My Generation,” which Rudy Sarzo was just plucking away on that bass, which would have made John Entwistle proud.
Then lastly, “Metal Health,” which they then broke into one verse of “Party All Night” and back into “Metal Health.” The band sounded great, played great, looked great and were class acts and came out and did a meet ‘n greet afterwards.
It was weird, watching a band, that 20 years prior was on top of the world, with that #1 album, and here they were playing a small crowd, and then loading up their own equipment.
Overall a real good show, it was a pleasure to finally see Kevin and the original lineup in tact. They are promoting the release of a new live DVD, and the 20 years of Metal Health, so go check them out and keep banging that head.
For more info on Quiet Riot, go to their website at http://www.quietriotforce.com/.
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