By Lisa Burke
September 17th 2016, Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, Irvine CA: In case you haven’t noticed yet, one of the latest trends in the rock n’ roll scene is to make a solid attempt at re-creating the past by bringing broken up or separated bands back to some semblance of their original form. Most of these bands never even took much of a hiatus, rather they simply evolved into something quite mutated from their origin. Basically all the popular ’80s and ’90s rock bands are back with a vengeance to cash in before they cash out, and honestly why the hell shouldn’t they? If you want to gripe about how they are all old and can’t perform anymore, you clearly haven’t actually watched any of these bands perform today and you forgot that despite thirty to forty years of possible liver abuse, these rock stars also have the years of experience under their belt, and in the wise words of Axl Rose, experience makes you wise. That said, on Saturday September 17th, 2016 I attended The Hair Nation festival at the soon-to-be closed down Irvine Meadows Amphitheater. Hair Nation featured a couple of old school ’80s hair/glam metal rivalry bands’ lead singers Vince Neil and Brett Michaels in solo projects. In other words, one would hope, much like in the vain of Stephen Pearcy and Sebastian Bach, that in this case there would be an abundance of Poison and Motley Crue covers done well by whatever team the lead singers felt comfortable working with these days. What we ended up with on this particular evening was actually somewhat interesting, and fortunately with my expectations of these two acts at an all-time record low, I was at moments pleasantly surprised with what went down.
Even though this lineup had some really great and capable bands on the bill which I’ll discuss later in reverse order, the crowd did not really pack in until Brett Michaels hit the stage. First off I noticed his perfectly shaped arm muscles were looking extra shiny and his face was blasting some youthful features as well. Natural or not, his voice was doing what it was intended to do and his entourage of blonde bandmates were pulling their own weight as well. The set started off on a good note with favorites such as ‘Look What The Cat Dragged In’ and then it got a bit weird with the cover of ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ by Lynyrd Skynyrd which basically just served as a buzz kill to the rest of the anticipated Poison covers which did happen later with ‘Mama Don’t Dance’, ‘Something To Believe In’, and ‘Nothin But A Good Time’ high on the ranks. The other weirdness that occurred was when Brett turned ‘Unskinny Bop’ into a Kid Rock inspired side show act by rendering it with a flavor of hip hop, rap, and a pinch of ego. Then it was time for Vince Neil and the probability that the car stereo on the ride home might sound better. The catch 22 here is that although Vince’s vocals are super out-of-shape as is the rest of him, his band, which contains a member or two from Slaughter is actually pretty enjoyable and a welcome change of pace from all-star ego champion Tommy Lee. They started off right with ‘Dr. Feelgood’ and ‘Looks That Kill’ among others which served up a bit of the old-school nostalgia from the time they were in the limelight. There was a time when I voted Poison over Motley Crue and it still remains a toss-up when discussing ‘Not Poison’ and ‘Not Motley Crue’ because if we are discussing intelligent song structure and thought-provoking lyrics, Poison remains on top, yet if we are discussing catchy, witty, and care free simplicity with an attitude, Motley takes the lead. Anyway, while the fans of ’80s hair metal who never bothered to look beyond the tips of their noses had an awkward time watching their heroes, the people who were smart enough to get there early got to discover new bands as well as bands that never quit and are still trudging on with their modernized glam acts. A winner of the battle of the bands for Hair Nation, The Aviators were a notable act to see if you were able to, and Arizona’s Tuff put on a fun show, as did San Francisco’s Vain. Vain is a die-hard band that keeps creeping forward through the shadows, only stepping into the light when deemed necessary, but always putting on a worthy and timeless show.
Some special highlights of the day included Britny Fox from Philadelphia who really came out as one of the top five or six bands and did so unexpectedly. They are quite underrated in the scene today and were a little back in the heyday. On this day they happened to have one of the most technically sound performances and it was fun to see their image now versus 1986 where today the hair is still there but it just isn’t teased to the max. The guitar player had some great rock n’ roll pants and a snazzy red guitar which was definitely the new hair metal guitar color trend of the day. The bass player on the other hand rocked his comfort instead of his image with a heather grey tank, jeans, and white sneakers. The dichotomy was fun and did the music no harm because it’s 2016 now and they don’t have to match image as much as before to gain the audience’s trust in their talents.
Junkyard formed in Texas and came to fruition in Los Angeles and are another completely underrated band even though witnessing one live performance will leave you begging for more. They are broad in range and stray far from the typical hair metal theme as they have dirty bluesy rock in their sound that ranges in style from Motorhead to Cinderella and back again. These dudes could be on the list to open for Black Sabbath etcetera any day of the week in my opinion and we need more rock bands of this nature to keep the scene alive. Their performance was badass to the core and at the end there was nothing to do but ask for more.
I must now dive into the next band that warrants a similar response which is Circus Of Power. These dudes crawled out of the gutters of New York and climbed the ladder up to one of the most fun and witty live hard rock performances out there. Their badass biker rock style mixed with sleazy, trashy, well themed lyrics gives them a great down-to-earth edge that was well worth a trip to the smaller stage. Life becomes fun and simple again upon watching this band because the flow from one witty theme to the next keeps the focus on the immediate task at hand and creates an inner peace from the outer chaos. From songs like ‘White Trash Queen’ to ‘Mama Tequila’ to the ‘Freebird’ stomach tattoo on the singer, a damn good time was had by all. Definitely a strong contender for the best of the day, and despite a schedule switch on the main stage causing a conflict in set time with Enuff Z Nuff, I was still able to witness a little of their energetic set before choking a bit from the slight lingering scent of ego wafting off The Bullet Boys’ set.
Top two girl-fronted acts of the day were Lita Ford and Vixen in no particular order as they both had strong elements going for them. Vixen has one of the best female hard hitting drummers I’ve ever seen and she blew my mind the whole set. The only guy in the group was the keyboardist and he was humbly rocking out appropriately. They all were queens of stage presence and the talented finger-picking bassist did some wild butt diving stage moves that she recovered from instantly. Butt diving, in case it was unclear, is my new found terminology for when someone dives backwards holding their instrument and lands on their butt in an awkward yet intimidating position. The Lita Ford band’s weakest moment may have been in the not too out of the box drumming, but Lita’s voice was absolutely on key perfection and if I didn’t know better I’d think I was watching her at twenty-three years old. She rocked the hell out of her white guitar in her red jumpsuit and high heels as well. She out played Joan Jett for better or worse ten fold and I am so happy I was able to witness another one of her legendary performances. Of course she played most of her famous hits, even including a nicely done cover from The Runaways which was of course ‘Cherry Bomb’.
The best part of the entire show for me however has yet to be mentioned as three more bands who have a really strong fan base from the ’80s through today made their way to Hair Nation and all three surpassed the headliners. Kix, a name any true glam rocker fan is familiar with, stayed perhaps the most faithful to the original look in their attire and their antics from back in the day. The hits are no joke yet they are good for a laugh, and the singer really gave his all in presence which may or may not have weakened his vocals ever so slightly. The one piece of the puzzle I was unable to connect with was the “sing a verse after me” puppeting of the audience interlude that I have always known as a signature move which originated with Rob Halford of Judas Priest a few years before Kix came into existence. It was almost word for word in similarity and since I’ve never been much of a follower I was left in a darker place afterward. It was quickly forgotten, however, when literal kicks were happening on the stage in fun, and the usual glam was in flourish again.
Yngwie Malmsteen clearly comes to us from outer space and his style is just as unique. The last time I saw him was at Generation Axe which was a guitar collaboration and it was by far the best I’ve ever seen him perform perhaps due to his slightly humbled state and adaptability to work with other styles of guitar playing. This performance at Hair Nation was almost on par, and I was particularly fond of the otherworldly keyboard sounds that are quite the appropriate match for Yngwie’s playing style. It was nice to see him in this setting as he is often forgotten as ’80s hair metal and gets lumped in a different category for his technical abilities.
Finally, the best band of the night on nostalgia alone was Slaughter, as Mark Slaughter still has what it takes and the rest of the troops follow suit. He sang from the audience at one point with his amazing range which was equally comparable to David Coverdale and Sebastian Bach’s range. They definitely did not shy away from the good stuff such as ‘Wild Life’, ‘Fly To The Angels’, and of course ‘Up All Night’. This is a band where the music and lyrics mean just as much today as it did back in the day and that timeless quality is the only chance bands of the hair persuasion have at continuing on in an otherwise vintage genre of metal. I probably never stopped smiling throughout this set and for good reason. They also seemed to be top of the line with their professionalism and Mark commanded that stage and his rack of guitars like a champ. Because of the nature of the wild and catchy lyrics the complexities of the guitar are often overlooked, yet thirty years experience later it all becomes a masterpiece.
Long story made longer, this was not a thrown together show and the line up was for the most part a success as there was a diverse range of talent all stemming from around 1986 in origin, which puts majority of the players in the mid 50s category in age, and I can only hope to be as lively and fun at that age as they continually prove to be despite the fact that majority of those rockers happened to live the wildest party life they could during their heyday. I think the moral here for maintaining the rock star life is to live free, fast, and forever.