Stephen Pearcy Rocks Seattle With Ratt Classics

By Andrew Bansal

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January 29th 2016, Studio Seven, Seattle WA: Following his most recent split with Ratt, singer Stephen Pearcy resumed his solo career and has been performing live under his own name, playing a set almost exclusively comprising Ratt songs. He has done several hometown gigs in the LA/Hollywood area during this time, but in all honesty, I invariably found something better to do on each of those nights and hence never took the chance to check out his show. The only times I’d seen the Stephen Pearcy fronted Ratt was in the summer of 2009 at the Wiltern and at House Of Blues Anaheim, a tour on which Extreme was the support act. It took an idle week in Seattle with not much going on show-wise to finally venture to a Stephen Pearcy show, last Friday January 29th 2016 at Studio Seven in the perhaps fittingly sketchy and perilous SoDo neighborhood of Seattle.

I walked into Studio Seven, a venue I’d been to once previously on the Raven/Night Demon tour in November 2014, and would revisit next Sunday when I rejoin my dudes in Warbringer and Exmortus. To my surprise, the place was completely packed. To me, the room seemed a lot smaller than when I was here in November, and I came to the sad realization that this was because the Raven show was very sparsely populated in comparison. I had no idea that this rainy city of doom and gloom had any glam rock fans, but it clearly does and they were out here in full force to rock with Ratt. Overall, the crowd was better looking than any I’ve ever seen for a glam show back home in the land of glam, and this Seattle gathering did not merely consist of chicks that were once hot in the ’80s. Shifting my attention from people-watching to the live music, one thing was blatantly clear. The powers that be deliberately book the worst possible local opening bands for 21-plus shows of this nature so that attendees and their wallets migrate to the bar to ease the pain. It totally worked here as the upstairs bar was overcrowded and the downstairs live music room was not. Genius move, fellas.

I went into this show with all kinds of negative pre-conceived notions about the Stephen Pearcy experience from all kinds of people, who may or may not have actually invested the time and effort to check out a show before commenting about its quality or lack of. At 10:35 PM, Stephen Pearcy and his band hit the stage, and for the next 70 minutes, I was in for a pleasant surprise. Starting with ‘Drive Me Crazy’, the band played a 14-song set of Ratt songs, which may seem like a short set to some but quality always beats quantity and this band was all about that. As the set progressed, the crowd got more and more involved, the show hitting its peak perfectly mid-way with songs like ‘You’re In Love’ and ‘Lay It Down’ and maintaining it through its second half. And no, ‘Round And Round’ was not the encore because the band never left the stage.

Pearcy gave his fans much to shout about and silenced the detractors, putting forth a commendable performance on the vocals. He sounded so good, I seriously hope that it was him singing on stage and not lip-syncing. His band mates were excellent in their roles, as guitarist Chris Hager and bassist Matt Thorne both of Ratt and Rough Cutt fame held their own, as did former White Lion and Anthrax drummer Greg D’Angelo, and second guitarist Erik Ferentinos. A man of Pearcy’s age and partying history could not be seriously expected to be at his peak any and every given night, but luckily for this Seattle audience, the fossil-resembling Pearcy turned back the clock and delivered a show very much worth the $22 (plus convenience ripoff) ticket price. In comparison to the glam fossil musicians and bands I’ve witnessed live in recent times, Pearcy wins hands down, eating the likes of Don Dokken, Vince Neil, Joe Elliott and David Lee Roth for breakfast. I couldn’t imagine seeing any version of Ratt without this guy on vocals. No Pearcy, No Ratt.

The genre of glam is ridiculed for a number of reasons and is in every sense a bastard child of the metal family, but it also makes for unmatchable levels of enjoyment when the band on stage delivers the goods. If you like glam, or even if you don’t, go see a Stephen Pearcy show.

Set List:
01. Drive Me Crazy
02. Dangerous But Worth The Risk
03. I’m Insane
04. You Think You’re Tough
05. You’re In Love
06. Lay It Down
07. Lack Of Communication
08. Wanted Man
09. Givin’ Yourself Away
10. Slip Of The Lip
11. Way Cool Jr
12. Back For More
13. U Got It
14. Round And Round

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