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Rock Never Stops - Los Angles 6/18/05 By Tokemaster General, Contributor Sunday, August 14, 2005 @ 8:47 AM
Rock Never Stops, June 18, 2005 in Los Angeles
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By Brad D
OK, so if you're a stickler for really
accurate set lists, read no further. This was a four band show,
only one of which had I ever seen before. I do my best to tell
you what they played, but the set list is far below my usual
standards.
Anyway, since my wife is a huge
Cinderella fan and I had never seen them, but heard they put on
an excellent live show we picked up tickets for the Rock Never
Stops Tour on Saturday June 18. It also happened to be at the
Greek Theater, a good outdoor venue, great sound, lots of beer
choices, clean restrooms and a damn fine setting to see a show.
It's well designed, so most of the seats in the house are good
ones. The only drawback being the stacked parking. If you want
to leave early, either you'll have to shell out $40 for valet
parking or wait in your car until the people in front of you get
around to moving their car out of your way. Luckily, we planned
to stay for the whole show.
For the first time in a while, getting
in to the concert was a piece of cake. Relatively light security
and for once I didn't feel like I'd been molested by the guys in
yellow jackets. I guess that's the advantage of these "VH1
Classic" shows!
The opening band was Firehouse. They
were the only band of the four that Id seen before.
Interestingly enough, the previous time Id seen them was opening
for Poison/Damn Yankees back in about 1994. Just as at that
show, Firehouse came on in full daylight to a less than packed
house. They had a clever intro to the Kiss tune "Firehouse".
Their first song was the beginning of "Rock on the Radio", then
kicking into "All She Wrote". During their set, the audience
filtered in. The place was actually about 2/3 full by the time
they wrapped it up. I got the impression that a good number of
the people who came to the show were interested to see
Firehouse. They sounded great, played their songs well and by
the end of the show got the whole audience to stand up for the
last couple songs, "Reach for the Sky" and "Don't Treat Me Bad".
All in all, they did a good job with their 40 minute set
considering they were the first band on a 4 band bill.
Next up was Quiet Riot. This was a
surprise, as I expected Ratt to come out after Firehouse. Now,
I've never been much of a fan of Quiet Riot, even though my first
tape in 6th grade was "Metal Health". I just haven't ever felt
the band was that good, and frankly, this concert did little to
change that opinion. Ill give them this, they sounded good.
Dubrows voice was just fine and for what its worth, their songs
sounded better live than I would have expected. They opened with
"Mama, Were all Crazee Now". Late in their 40 minute set, they
played "Cum on Feel the Noize" and they closed it out with "Bang
Your Head". In between, I have no idea what the rest of the
songs were. I must point out that they played, quite possibly,
one of the worst ballads I've ever heard. Knowing everyone's love
for Randy Rhodes, they got a big applause by introducing a song
specifically written about Randy, "remembering where Quiet Riot
came from". Now, QR proceeded to sing a tune with a chorus going
something like "fly on Thunderbird, fly, spread your wings and
fly". It was incredibly cheesy, but certainly a way to get the
audience clapping. Afterwards they got the crowd to cheer again
for Randy.
Another quick 20 minute break,
allowing time for beer refills and out came Ratt, at least,
what's left of Ratt. Its a bit of a shame that they cant get
Steven Pearcy back into the band, but they do the best they can
with DiMartini, Blotzer and the newer members. Jizzy Pearl has a
similar raspy voice and does a decent job on the Ratt songs.
They kicked right in with one of their biggest hits, "Round and
Round". Overall, they sounded really just ok. Not particularly
tight or especially good, but not bad either. It did feel just
the slightest bit like we were watching a Ratt cover band, but
at least there were a couple original members still left.
However, I was able to appreciate that Ratt has a pretty strong
legacy of material, as each song they played was recognizable.
Unfortunately, they played the shortest set of the night, only
about 35 minutes. I still haven't figured out why the second to
last band played the shortest set of the night. This is a tough
one to remember the order the songs were played, but here's
pretty much the songs that they did squeeze into the short set.
Set list: Round and Round, Way Cool
Jr., Back for More, Lay it Down, Wanted Man, You Think You're
Tough, Lack of Communication.
Another relatively short break and out
came the headliner Cinderella. Id heard that they were excellent
live, and they did not disappoint one bit. Id also heard through
the years that Tom Keifer is one of the most talented musicians
to come out of the 80's hair band era. Again, this was proved to
be true with their live show. Keifer not only sings and plays
guitar for most of the songs, he plays many of the guitar solos
and at various points throughout the show played a harmonica and
even a saxophone.
Contrasting Ratt, Cinderella's live
sound was fantastic. The band does a good job blending different
styles into their songs, from straight rock, to blues, metal and
even a bit of country. Keifer has an interesting voice, going
from a scratchy falsetto to a clean style. He didn't miss a note
all night. They played about 11 songs and a mediocre drum solo
by Fred Coury (a bit too much of the Tommy Lee style hip hop
percussion in my opinion). Some of the highlights were "Coming
Home", "Fallin Apart at the Seams" and "Nobody's Fool".
Cinderella's set was about an hour and 15 minutes, ending at 11
pm on the button. Their encore was "Don't Know What You've Got til
its Gone" and then "Shake Me". Was a great show overall, well
organized, nice venue and a decent crowd. Not sure of the exact
order of the songs, but this is close:
Set List: Night Songs, Push Push,
Somebody Save Me, Shelter Me, Coming Home, The Last Mile, Gypsy
Road, Drum Solo, Nobody's Fool, Fallin Apart at the Seams,
Encore: Don't Know What You've Got til its Gone and Shake Me.
Had to wait about 15 minutes in our
car after the concert was over before enough people in front of
us left so that our car could get out. Was a pain, but worth it
for a good concert.
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