LA Guns Live at Dante's in Por

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REVIEW BY: Sirkus17

L.A. Guns came to Portland to play Dante's in celebration of the 5th anniversary of the club. This is a pretty cool place -- they have a lot of metal shows there, and is worth checking out. The line-up for this night was:

L.A. GUNS
Storm and the Balls
Kleveland
Starantula

I arrived about 11 or so, missing the openers Starantula and Kleveland. I grabbed a beer and chatted with a friend before Storm and the Balls came on. This band features vocalist Storm, a very sexy and talented female singer who sings lounge style over rock music. The fun part is she sings different lyrics than the song being played, such as "Enter Sandman" music sung with "Freedom" (Aretha Franklin) lyrics, or the lyrics to ABBA's "Take a Chance on Me" sang to the tune of "Inna Gadda Da Vida." Her band also features bassist Davey Nipples, from Portland legends Sweaty Nipples. Unusual but fun.

Then, as Storm put it, L.A. Guns "brought the rock" to Portland. Opening with a double shot off the first album of "No Mercy" and "Sex Action," they played a really good set of classics Guns material and a few covers off their new CD Rip the Covers Off. They also threw in a new song called "Vampires" that Phil said had never been played live before, "never, ever, ever..." Stacy Blades did a great job of the guitar work, even got to sing a song himself.

The setlist went something like this:

No Mercy
Sex Action
Never Enough
I Wanna Be Your Man
Hellraiser's Ball
Revolution
Marseilles
Rock N' Roll Outlaw
Don't Look At Me That Way(? - Stacy Blades Vocal)
Vampires (New Song)
One More Reason
Electric Gypsy
Ballad of Jayne

I probably forgot a couple of songs. Phil was very "happy," in his words he was "feeling no pain" (as was I), and they were happy to be there. He mentioned the show on Monday in L.A. with Night Ranger, Kip Winger, etc. They did a meet and greet after the show, I got to talk to all but Adam. They signed everything put in front of them and were very cool to chat with. A very fun show, I was glad I went.