Sebastian Bach (w/ Hessler), Live at Cubby Bear, Chicago (2-8-12)

Post #189
On Wednesday evening of February 8th, I got to see one of the greatest vocalists from the late 80's metal scene at the Cubby Bear in Chicago: Sebastian Bach, former lead singer of Skid Row. I have seen him in concert a couple times before (both shows reviewed previously on this blog), but this was the first time I got to see him as a headliner at a smaller venue. Touring in support of his newest album, Kicking and Screaming, I was pumped for a great evening of rackin' heavy metal!

Upon arrival I made my way to merch booth, checking to see if they were selling his new CD on-site. Indeed they were, and I asked the vendor if by chance Sebastian would be doing a meet-n-greet and signing after the show. Though they made no guarantees, they said it was a possibility. I kept this in mind, and browsed more of the merchandise. They also had music and shirts available from the opening band, a Chicago-area local band: Hessler. Always wanting to be on the cutting edge of the newest up-and-coming bands on the local scene, I signed up for their mailing list. I made my way back to the stage-area, making a mental note to come back for a CD between the opener and Bach.

I mingled with the crowd during the sound check and conversed a bit with a couple people I had met while waiting in line. Around 8:20 the lights went down, and we were about to get a dose of Hessler's style of rock n' roll...

When they hit the stage, I instantly saw why they would make a perfect opener for the likes of Sebastian Bach. These guys (and gal) were glam-metal enthusiasts to the core. Leather-clad, long-haired (slightly teased in some cases), and eye-liner make-up were a few of the visual elements they employed. More confirmation of their musical influence was aparent in their musical style: screaming guitar solos, melodic-heavy riffs infused with catchy hooks, and their singer, Lariyah Daniels, delivered the high-pitched, melodic scream that was the trademark vocal style from bands like Guns N' Roses, Dangerous Toys, or even Skid Row! Guitarist Igz Kincaid provided harmony backing vocals on several tracks, and intermittent lead vocals here and there as well.

Hessler were getting the crowd worked up for Sebastian Bach in stellar fashion. A few tracks before they closed their set, they even unleashed a cover of Kiss' 'I Was Made for Lovin You' (Igz sang lead vocals on this one). During another song at the end of their set, they employed some synchronized headbanging as part of their stage choreography... awesome!

Once they finished their set, I took a few minutes to stretch my legs a bit. I also made my way to the merch booth and snagged my copy of Kicking and Screaming (Crossing my fingers I have a chance to get it signed after the show.)

In due time Bach's band took the stage and let loose with the heavy riff from 'Slave To The Grind'! ...And then, a few seconds later, Sebastian stopped the show. What?!? Apparently there was some type of technical difficulty that needed to be corrected. So we waited for about 5 minutes longer... then, the band took the stage and let loose with the heavy riff from 'Slave To The Grind'! (again!) This time however, the show actually got rolling. After such a heavy first number, the band treated us to a couple tracks form the new album. The show was sounding great!

Sebastian and his band hit us with many Skid Row classics in between selections from both the new Kicking and Screaming album, and some from his Angel Down release a few years ago. One of my favorite new songs he performed is 'TunnelVision'; it had a melodic intro, solid groove, and catchy chorus. It was co-written by John 5 from Rob Zombie's band. From the 'oldies but goodies', I think my favorite moment was when they played 'Big Guns', the first track off the first Skid Row album. That was the first time I'd heard that song performed live.

Never mind that Sebastian had to stop the show 2 more times to have security kick out people from the audience who has started fighting, this was still an awesome show! But the best part was yet to come... Right before the last song, he announced that he'd stay after the show for a meet-n-greet with anyone who wanted to stick around, and sign souvenirs as well!

I took advantage of this opportunity, and hung around until the wee hours of the morning to get his autograph, and say a brief word or two to him. It was really cool of him, and his band were patient and friendly too. His new guitarist, Nick Sterling, was pointed out by Bach as having recorded his first album when he was 10 years old. Joking with the audience, he said that it was recorded 2 weeks ago (he did almost look like a kid on stage next to Sebastian Bach), but he was a great guitarist, and presented the classic Skid Row stuff as flawlessly as the new material. For what it's worth, I think Kicking and Screaming is the best album Bach has done since Skid Row's Slave to the Grind!

Setlist HESSLER:
-Kamikazi
-Windy City Wild Child
-C'mon
-Who Will You Run To
-Rising Sign
-Last Alive
-Gone Away
-Shark Attack
-I Was Made for Loving You (KISS cover)
-I Live On
-Hellion (W.A.S.P. cover)
-Crash 'n Burn

Setlist SEBASTIAN BACH:
-Slave To The Grind
-Kicking and Screaming
-Dirty Power
-Here I Am
-Big Guns
-(Love is) A Bitchslap
-Stuck Inside
-Piece of Me
-18 and Life
-American Metalhead
-Monkey Business
-As Long as I Got the Music
-I'm Alive
-I Remember You
-Tunnelvision
-Youth Gone Wild

Pantera: In Concert (w/ Special Guest Anthrax) From 1-14-98

Post #96 Poll Winner: 'Which concert should I review next?'
In January 1998, I planned to attend my 2nd heavy metal concert: Pantera!!! I had been a fan of Pantera since '94, when Far Beyond Driven became the first metal album to debut at #1 on the Billboard charts. A couple years later, while in college, I began attending rock concerts. Generally I would wait until one of my favorite bands would come around on tour, then see if some of my friends were interested in joining me (if they didn't invite me first).

Pantera had just released their first live album: Official Live: 101 Proof (100% Against the Grain American Metal). When they announced the tour in support of this live album, Anthrax was billed as the opening act. I was instantly hyped! I had also been a fan of Anthrax for several years. So here was the opportunity to see two huge thrash metal bands at once. I had to go!

Finding a few friends to go with was no problem. This was when Pantera's popularity was at it's peak, so I knew plenty of other fans. By the time the show date was approaching I had confirmed a few friends on campus were attending as well as a friend from another college who would meet us at the venue. Our plans were set for a promising night of Heavy Metal Mayhem! Little did we know the mayhem we were in for.

The day of the show came and our group hit the road for Peoria, IL to see Pantera. The weather forecast: freezing rain! Leaving a little ahead of schedule, we quickly encountered dangerously icy road conditions and were forced to drive at what seemed a snail's pace for most of our journey. Though we had departed with plenty of time to spare, I now wondered if we would even make the show on time...

Meanwhile, my friend from a different part of the state was facing the same problem. At one point he spun-out at high speed on the interstate, but luckily came to rest in a ditch unharmed. Determined to make the show as well, he eventually maneuvered his vehicle back onto the highway by driving it up & down the slopes of the ditch like it was a snowboard in a half-pipe until he had enough momentum to escape the ditch.

Once we arrived at the venue (remarkably, on time!) we exchanged our stories of the treacherous drive, then made our way inside, determined to make our troubles worth it. We found our section, took our seats, and waited for the show to begin. We had lower level tickets, and had a good view of the standing-room/floor area, as well as the stage to our left. The floor was about 1/4 filled and I began to wonder if the weather had kept some from attending this show. However, at one point a couple sneaky 1st level ticket holders made a mad-dash for the floor and jumped the barricade. This transformed into a mini-avalanche of people, as it became apparent there was not sufficient security to prevent the inundation. One of our party followed suit, but would return at some point later in the show, since we were also his ride home.

In a few minutes the house lights had gone down and the first opening act was announced. To our surprise there was a 3rd act on the bill, as the show was being kicked off by Sebastian Bach, former singer of Skid Row! He had released a new solo album recently at that point and played a couple tunes from it, but primarily used Skid Row songs to fill his set. At one point he mentioned the terrible weather, and how it wasn't enough to stop the rock n' roll show. I remember hearing a few songs from the Slave to the Grind album, including Riot Act & Mudkicker. He also covered the Kiss song, Parasite, but closed his set with the Skid Row anthem, Youth Gone Wild.

At this point the venue had pretty much filled up and the crowd was primed for Anthrax! Before long the stage was changed over and the backdrop revealed Anthrax's mascot, Not Man, driving a toy car. A few seconds later a blaring heavy chord rang out, making your head feel like it was vibrating from the inside. Then it repeated, and repeated again.... (chug-chug.... BLAAAARE, chug-chug.... ) and before you knew what had happened we were ALL CAUGHT IN A MOSH!

Anthrax gave us a great set of thrashers. Going back and forth between their material with Jon Bush from the albums Sound of White Noise and Stomp 442 (their newest at that point), and their classics from the Joey Belladonna era. I had been curious to hear how those older Anthrax tunes would sound with Jon Bush on vocals, and they were awesome! During a break between songs they made mention of the weather outside that evening and again gave the crowd credit for making the show happen. They closed their set with the anti-censorship anthem 'Startin' Up a Posse' followed by the rap-thrash crossover hit 'Bring the Noise'.

Before the headliners took the stage there was an interesting event that transpired as an introduction to the show. Suddenly ZZ Top's 'Tush' began to blare from the PA sound system. This was followed by a gigantic inflated penis that was tossed into the crowd. It was bopped about like the oddest concert body-surf episode I had ever witnessed. The crowd had a lot of fun with it, manipulating it in a variety of creative gestures as 'Tush' played through, then gave way to Pantera's own 'Good Friends & a Bottle of Pills' (still over the PA system; the band had yet to take the stage). Once the song finished, there was a silence of peaked anticipation that began to build...

Then it was was the best-saved-for-last. The most powerful metal band of the 90's! The original Cowboys From Hell: PANTERA! The crowd may have seemed moshed-out after the Anthrax set, but as soon as the heavy-as-hell riffs began to pump out of the amps, they got intensified once again. 'Mouth For War' was their opening number, and to hear that classic Pantera song kick off a live show was one of the best heavy metal concert experiences of my life.

PANTERA's set seemed to go on forever. It was heavy-metal bliss! This was Pantera in their prime. They played memorable songs from each of their four albums since Cowboys From Hell. It seemed they played every song I may have considered a favorite over the years. There were also a few that I may not have expected, but enjoyed all the same. Then, just when it seemed the show was over, they came back for an encore.

They teased us a bit by playing the opening riff of Black Sabbath's 'Symptom of the Universe', but instead went on to play 'Planet Caravan'. Lastly we were treated to 'Fucking Hostile' as the last song of the evening. I had an ecstatic feeling that fell over me as we began to head to the exits. A part of me knew I had just beheld a masterful performance by one of this generation's Guitar Gods in the person of Dimebag Darrell.

It is one thing to be a fan of a certain musician through their recorded music, but there's nothing to compare to the first time you see them perform live. There's an unspoken understanding that they're putting on a show for you as a fan while expressing a part of their own soul at the same time. Knowing they play the way they do because they were once the fan of another musician, the way you are now a fan of theirs. I had no way of knowing that this was to be the only show I would ever see Dimebag Darrell play.

This concert serves to remind myself that life should always be lived to the fullest. Every time I think back to it, or listen to songs that I heard played on that night, I step back to appreciate whatever it is I may be doing. Any of you reading this should do the same. If you're lucky enough to have tickets for a live show, remember it could always be a once in a lifetime experience. Enjoy it to the fullest extent possible! No matter if it's a local band in your hometown bar, or the Rolling Stones, it's always rock & roll. It's there for you and because of you.


Here's the set lists as best as I can recall:

Sebastian Bach
-Piece of Me
-Riot Act
-Slave to the Grind
-18 & Life
-Parasite
-Monkey Business
-Mudkicker
-Youth Gone Wild

Anthrax
-Caught in a Mosh
-Fueled
-Room for One More
-Among the Living/Indians (Played as a medley: they jumped straight into 'Indians' at one of the chorus breaks of 'Among the Living')
-Got the Time
-I Am the Law
-Only
-Startin' Up a Posse
-Bring the Noise

(played as intro)
ZZ Top-Tush
Pantera-Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills


PANTERA
-Mouth for War
-Becoming
-5 Minutes Alone
-Sandblasted Skin
-A New Level
-Walk
-Suicide Note (pt 2)
-Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks
-This Love
-I'm Broken
-Cowboys From Hell (played with a riff from 'Cat Scratch Fever' thrown in!)

---encores---
-Planet Caravan
-Fucking Hostile

Rest In Peace Dimebag!

Poison: Live, Raw & Uncut- with Sebastian Bach!

Post #32

The following is my concert review for Poison on tour with Sebastian Bach, Summer 2008.

It was a perfect summer afternoon in July when my brother & I hit the road for Peoria, IL to catch Poison live in concert with Sebastian Bach, from Skid Row, as the opening act. With a 3+ hour drive ahead of us, we stocked up our relevant CDs for music for the road, and set out on our journey...

Between the 2 of us, I was more of a Skid Row fan back in the early 90's, while my bro was the big Poison fan. That being said we spent much of the drive down there listening to albums from both artists, and mixing in a few others for good measure (we're also seeing the Metal Masters tour later this summer, so we threw some Judas Priest & Black Sabbath into the mix).

I knew that Bach had a new CD released recently, and I had one song from it on a recent sampler CD from a heavy metal magazine. My brother & I both enjoyed that one, and we were both familiar with Skid Row's oldie-but-goodie hits from their hey-day: Youth Gone Wild, 18 & Life, etc... Alternately, when we switched to Poison's material, we focused mostly on their later and more obscure material. Turns out that Poison have had a few CDs come out more recently that I never got around to ever hearing (Crack a Smile, Power to the People, Hollyweird). We also listened to a couple alternate, acoustic versions of Stand and Something To Believe In (with alternate lyrics) from the "Best of Ballads & Blues" compilation.

We arrived in plenty of time to find our seats and browse the memorabilia before the show kicked off. It was nice to take in the wide variety of fans that showed up for this show: teenagers, college kids, parents and their kids. Generally speaking I'd say the majority of the crowd were middle-age women; in other words, the same majority of fans Poison had in the 80's. There were still enough guys at the show that we didn't feel out of place. It was a little funny seeing hip-looking, teenage tough-guys sporting tee-shirts with the logo of one of the biggest hair-metal bands there ever was, but it goes to show a little of the staying power of simple rock-n-roll music.

We were sitting in our seats conversing about some random topic, and then the lights went down...

A guitar riff rings out loudly from the amplifiers, accompanied by a steady snare & bass drum beat. The rhythm builds, the volume steadily increases... My brother looks my way with a quizzical look on his face, and says, "Is this 'Back In The Saddle'?" And sure enough, it was "Back in the Saddle", a cover of the classic Aerosmith song we had just heard in the Guitar Hero: Aerosmith game. We would later find out that Sebastian has a recording of this song included on his new CD, "Angel Down".

Sebastian continued his opening set with a healthy mix of his new material and Skid Row classics. I was really enjoying this part of the concert. I had actually seen Sebastian in concert at this same venue 10 years earlier, when he opened for Anthrax & Pantera; and I've also seen Skid Row without Sebastian when they opened for Kiss on their "farewell" tour in 2000. Sebastian's current band played all the old songs as well, or better, than both of those previous acts. Most importantly, his unmistakable voice sounded as good as ever! And his band sounded very heavy, like "Slave to the Grind"-era Skid Row.

As his band closed their set with the unforgettable hair-metal anthem, "Youth Gone Wild", he reminded us to get ready for Poison. And so we did, our anticipation began to build again...
15-20 minutes later, the video screen lit-up with a Poison logo, and shortly later a disclaimer was projected on the big screen: "Caution: The show you are about to witness contains material of an adult nature. ...Would you expect anything less?"

A few minutes later Poison took the stage, opening their set with a brief instru-medley intro that quickly morphed into "Look What The Cat Dragged In". And just like that the whole stadium was rocking-out to Poison like it was 1988 and nothing had changed as they played almost every one of their big hits from the 80's & early 90's!

My brother commented that he was surprised when they played "Ride The Wind". This was one of his favorite songs, but it was never as big as many of their other hits. I, on the other hand, was impressed when they played "Cry Tough", their first song from their first album, and also their first-ever single. Accompanying this song, they also played the music video for it on the huge video screen behind the stage. It was an interesting, contrasting view to see the present-day band playing a perfect rendition of this song, while the 22-year-old music video displayed what was probably the peak of the Glam/Hair Metal scene as they played. At one point Bret Michaels walked up to the cat-walk and sang a verse essentially super-imposed over the biggest fashion statement his band ever made in the 80's. As the song's message filled the arena; "You gotta cry tough out in the streets to make your dreams happen. You gotta cry out, out to the world to make them all come true." We really got the impression that this band has truly come full-circle. They bought into (if not invented) one of the biggest fads from the 80's, lost a lot of ground when the music scene drastically changed course in the 90's, had break-ups, solo efforts that fell short, a revolving door of members for a few years, and finally a reunion, and have persevered by coming back to the sound they were first know for (but also leaving the dated Hair-metal image rightfully in the past!)

It wasn't until the last portion of the show when they finally brought out some hits from their second album, "Open Up and Say... Ah!" When they began to play "Every Rose Has Its Thorn", the crowd reacted enthusiastically. And when they closed the number, Bret told a little story about the only guitar lesson he ever took in his life, in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania for $12.00: the first 4 notes he ever learned to play on the guitar... are the same 4 notes as the grand finale of "Every Rose Has Its Thorn"-possibly their biggest hit... and then he strummed the final chord.
I was slightly disappointed when they were playing "Fallen Angel", my personal favorite, and CC's guitar pick-up gave out during the guitar solo. He quickly swapped guitars with a stage-hand, and finished the song in good fashion, except my favorite guitar solo, from my favorite Poison song was skipped in the process! I didn't let it bother me though, as the next song was the finale: "Talk Dirty To Me". For the whole 3 or 4 minute duration of this classic Poison anthem, the stage was bombarded with every variety of bra imaginable, and a few panties too. Well, you can't blame them, they did warn of "content of an adult nature". And besides, it's Rock N' Roll!

Last but not least, after 5-10 minutes of a roaring crowd, they came back on stage and played "Nothin' But a Good Time" as their final encore. I was a little surprised to see that they never played any of their own newer material. The newest song they played was a cover of "What I Like About You" originally by The Romantics, from their '07 cover album, "Poison'd". That being said, the show was still a great Rock N' Roll concert. Even if it was mostly to feel nostalgia for the music of the 80's, it was great fun!

The setlist for both artists was as follows:

Sebastian Bach

Back In The Saddle

Slave to the Grind

Stuck Inside

18 & Life

American Metalhead

(Life is a) Bitchslap

By Your Side

Monkey Business

You Don't Understand

I Remember You

Youth Gone Wild

POISON

Look What The Cat Dragged In

I Want Action

Ride The Wind

I Won't Forget You

What I Like About You

Cry Tough

Something To Believe In

Your Mama Don't Dance

Unskinny Bop

Every Rose Has Its Thorn

Fallen Angel

Talk Dirty To Me

~~~~~~~~~

Nothin' But A Good Time