Author: John Moore

Flashback: November 28, 1986 – Metallica and Metal Church at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center

Metallica and Metal Church played the night after Thanksgiving in 1986, and the Mid-Hudson Civic Center was sold out. In years following the Mid-Hudson was usually open floor but this show was seated, which killed the vibe a bit, but did not prevent a massive crush and mayhem in front of the stage.

Late 1986 was a strange and sad time for Metallica. At the beginning of the year, they’d released their monumental third album ‘Master of Puppets’, and capitalized on 3 years of touring and huge underground acclaim by becoming THE band of 1986. They opened a nationwide tour for Ozzy Osbourne (which included several New York State gigs in Rochester, Syracuse, Binghamton, Glens Falls and Nassau Coliseum in Long Island) earlier that year, and the ex-Black Sabbath singer was routinely faced with the prospect of following their fireball performances, daunting even for a titan such as he.

Summer 1986 headline gigs – including a scheduled August ‘86 gig at this same venue – were postponed when frontman James Hetfield busted his arm skateboarding, but were rescheduled for October 1986, when the band were scheduled to return from a European tour and headline across the States. Sadly, these too were postponed, for much worse reasons, when iconic bass player Cliff Burton was killed in a bus accident in Sweden in late September 1986.

Astoundingly, the band bounced back almost immediately, recruiting Flotsam & Jetsam bass player Jason Newsted, played their first gig in early November, and the band did a Japanese tour just over a month following Cliff’s death. This Poughkeepsie gig, rescheduled for the third time for November 28, happened just 2 months to the day after Burton’s death.

The opening band for Metallica: mighty Seattle metallers Metal Church, who had just released ‘The Dark,’ their second album, a great record. They opened with “Ton Of Bricks,” and played a solid set with songs from both records, to a decent reception, although the crowd was there for one band.

Metallica were crushing, of course. This was Newsted’s 3rd ever U.S. gig with Metallica, and to this writer, it was weird not seeing Cliff up there. In retrospect, Jason did a fine job as Cliff’s replacement – he could never really replace the man, but he was a good bass player, great background vocalist, and did as solid a job as one could do replacing such a major figure. That night he looked uncomfortable and out of place, and for some reason the band stuck to the same routine they’d had previous to Burton’s death – a bass solo before “Whiplash” – and made Newsted do a bass solo, which was utterly unnecessary and really made you miss Cliff. The biggest cheer came at the end of the solo when he did a quick riff from Cliff’s trademark bass solo “Anesthesia”. Beyond that, no mention was made of Cliff Burton.

Anyway, even with a major absence, a great show – pretty much the same headline set they’d been doing all year, all those immortally mighty songs from the first three albums: opening with “Battery” and “Master of Puppets”, a few more newer ‘MOP’ songs like “Sanitarium” and “The Thing That Should Not Be”, and more vintage classics like “For Whom The Bell Tolls”, a thrashing “Whiplash”, singalong bruiser “Seek & Destroy” and a set-ending, world-destroying “Creeping Death”.

The encores were bulletproof pure metal: first-album standard “Four Horsemen,” a quick Kirk Hammet solo, and then their much-loved cover of Diamond Head’s “Am I Evil?,” coupled with a neck-snapping “Damage, Inc.,” and a raging, apocalyptic “Fight Fire With Fire.” A final, extra encore was another cover, this time of Blitzkrieg’s face-removing “Blitzkrieg.” Again, there was an air of strange sadness about the entire thing, without the man in bell-bottoms usually on the left side of the stage, hair flailing, roaring on his bass, something was missing. But it did not stop the raw power of this band – at this point, they were still the greatest band on Earth. All hail Metallica.

Metallica Setlist: The Ecstasy of Gold – intro, Battery, Master of Puppets, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Welcome Home (Sanitarium), Ride the Lightning, Bass Solo, Whiplash, The Thing That Should Not Be, Fade to Black, Seek & Destroy, Creeping Death, The Four Horsemen, Am I Evil?, Damage, Inc., Fight Fire With Fire, Blitzkrieg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZDlcuoGGkw

November 28, 2020
Flashback: November 26, 1989 – Clifton Park Arena hosts Billy Squier, Blue Murder and King’s X

Billy Squier had pretty much jumped the shark by ’89 – he was constantly on rock radio in the early 80s, but his melodic hard rock throne had been usurped by hair metal bands by this time. His unintentionally hilarious, career-destroying 1986 ”Rock me Tonight” MTV video did not help, in which he sashayed around like… well, go watch it on YouTube, and read the comments, which are fantastic and hilarious, much like the video itself. If this place held 2500 max, there were maybe 200-300 there. The world had moved on from Billy.

Clifton Park Arena, which was not far from where Upstate Concert Hall is currently, wasn’t around for long – it was an ice-skating rink that hosted smaller arena-level gigs in 1989 and 1990. Alice Cooper, and also The Cult played some pretty well-attended shows there not long after this gig. This was not really a well-attended show.

King’s X opened, promoting their brilliant Gretchen Goes To Nebraska second record. They’d just played the area just two months before at Saratoga Winners, a pretty packed show, and played to many less people – dozens, maybe – during their early slot at this show. They did maybe six songs, that were excellent, but few were there to see it. One of the great, underhailed-yet-brilliant bands of loud rock. All hail King’s X.

A few more people joined for Blue Murder, kind of an all-star outfit with leader/Btitish guitar hero John Sykes (previously with Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy and Tygers of Pan Tang), plus celebrity drummer Carmine Appice and ex-Firm bassist Tony Franklin. Sykes had made his fortune with Whitesnake’s massive ‘1987’ LP, which he had co-written and played on, and he was looking for a repeat with Blue Murder. It was not to be. BM were a pretty good band – that self-titled first record had some solid tunes on there, but nothing great. It was all very over-produced and Whitesnake-like sounds proved a bit dated these days. As fantastic as Sykes’ playing is, by 1989 the public was moving on from that kind of thing.

Blue Murder’s very produced, ‘big rock’ sound, with an image that looked like pseudo-glamorous, made-up pirates, was a couple years past the sell-by date. People wanted Metallica, Jane’s Addiction and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Big hair-big rock was on its way out, it just didn’t know it yet. They played a bunch of songs from that first BM record and “Still Of The Night,” which confused most of the sparse crowd, who didn’t know that Sykes had played on it, because he hadn’t been in the video.

A full report on Billy Squier those 31 years ago, is not possible. After the BM gig, I went and interviewed Blue Murder for my WCDB college radio show, and asked Sykes a ton of Thin Lizzy and Tygers of Pan Tang questions. He was very cool and friendly, telling lots of stories about Phil Lynott and early Tygers.

These days, Sykes is largely an international man of mystery – after Blue Murder dissolved, he toured through the later 90s and early 2000s with a reformed, tribute Thin Lizzy, made a few solo albums. For well over a decade he has been out of the public eye, occasionally teasing a return to action, but largely his mighty guitar has been absent from the world.

I didn’t really see Billy Squier – never really being a fan, and only saw the first couple songs before we went to interview Sykes. He came out and opened with a couple of those hits they always played relentlessly on PYX-106 and MTV (“Lonely Is The Night,” I think was one). While watching, Blue Murder’s road manager found me and said “pretty good so far, eh?” I had to admit it was. “It’s all downhill from here,” he replied, before leaving to interview Sykes + co. I didn’t bother going back afterwards. That said, a solid triple-bill before a less-than-packed house.

November 26, 2020
Flashback to November 2, 1988: Slayer, Motörhead and Overkill at Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie

These were days when metal giants still walked the Earth, and on this day on 1988 a bulletproof triple-bill played at a packed Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie: California thrashers Slayer, legendary British underground gods Motörhead, and NJ heavies Overkill, who opened.

photo by Mark Kurtzner

At the time, Overkill were supporting their then-new third album, ‘Under The Influence’, and played a short set featuring new bruisers such as “Shred” and “Welcome to the Gutter,” along with a few classics like “Rotten to the Core.” Said frontman Bobby Blitz a few years later about opening for Motörhead – Overkill, were, after all, named after a Motörhead song – “touring with Lemmy was like touring with GOD! I’d be sitting next to him, taking pictures, asking ‘Can you sign another album, Lem? It was great.”

photo by Mark Kurtzner

Motörhead played second – odd to see them open for Slayer, a band who’d been wearing Motörhead shirts on the inside sleeve of their first album five years earlier, and a band about 10 years behind of Motörhead in terms of when their first albums came out – but Slayer had hit big with their third record ‘Reign In Blood’ a couple years earlier, while Motörhead were still – and always would be, In America – beloved underground veterans. This did not stop Lemmy and his bands of rogues from stealing the show. They were then promoting their second live record, ‘No Sleep At All’, and Lemmy strode out on stage and barked “We are Motörhead, and we play rock’n’roll”, before the band blasted into “Dr. Rock”, the ’Orgasmatron’-era pounder which also started the new live record.

photo by Mark Kurtzner

The band were still playing many songs from the most recent studio record, ‘Rock’n’Roll’ (4 songs, plus ‘Rock’n’Roll’-era b-side “Just Cos You Got The Power”), and “Eat The Rich” from that record got a big reaction, even from the younger Slayer-heads who knew it from MTV. Unlike their later years, where the majority of the set was from the ‘classic’ pre-1983 Fast Eddie years, this night most of the songs played were from the then-recent records by the newer 4-piece Motörhead with guitarists Wurzel and Phil Campbell, including “Dr Rock”, “Built for Speed”, a grinding “Orgasmatron”, the minor hit “Killed by Death”, and the aforementioned slew of ‘Rock’n’Roll’-era songs. The band did play a few vintage songs though, including “Stay Clean”, “Metropolis”, eternal favorite “Ace of Spades” and the world-flattening and opening-band-inspiring “Overkill”. A ear-destroyingly killer show, and with 3 of these 4 men now in Valhalla – Lemmy, guitarist Wurzel and drummer ‘Philthy’ Phil Taylor – a lineup that will never be seen again.

photo by Mark Kurtzner

Slayer, of course, were also mighty and unstoppable. The pit was huge, sweeping away any who wanted to merely stand and watch, and the west coast thrashers opened with “South of Heaven”, title track from the then-new record, before mayhem erupted with song #2, “Raining Blood”. This was the ‘classic lineup’ – Tom Araya, Kerry King, drummer Dave Lombardo, and the late, great Jeff Hanneman. There was no rest thereafter, and the band leaned on the new record heavily – 8 of 15 songs played were from ‘South of Heaven’, with more vintage neck-snapppers like “Black Magic”, “Chemical Warfare”, “Necrophiliac”, “Postmortem” and “Kill Again” also played, before the show wrapped up – as would usually be the case, until Slayer’s 2019 conclusion as a touring band – with ‘Reign In Blood’-era skull-smasher “Angel of Death.”

photo by Mark Kurtzner

Motörhead setlist: Doctor Rock, Stay Clean, Traitor, Metropolis, Dogs, Eat the Rich, Built for Speed, Just ‘Cos You Got the Power, Orgasmatron, Stone Deaf in the U.S.A., Killed by Death, Ace of Spades, Overkill

Slayer setlist: South of Heaven, Raining Blood, Silent Scream, Read Between the Lies, Black Magic, Postmortem, Necrophiliac, Behind the Crooked Cross, Kill Again, Mandatory Suicide, Chemical Warfare, Ghosts of War, Spill the Blood, Live Undead, Angel of Death

photo by Mark Kurtzner

November 2, 2020
Halloween Flashback: Raven, Liege Lord and Never More perform at L’Amour in Brooklyn in 1986

New Wave of British Heavy Metal band Raven were no strangers to playing Halloween shows in the New York City area – their first American gig ever had been just over 4 years to the day, October 30, 1982, when they opened for Riot and Anvil in Staten Island at the ‘Halloween Headbangers’ Ball.’

Raven hail from Newcastle, in England, and their first three albums – Rock Until You Drop (1981), Wiped Out (1982) and All For One (1983) – still stand as ahead-of-their-timel classics, raw, fast real metal records, all hailed being massively influential to the thrash metal scene in the later 80s.

The band – made up of brothers John and Mark Gallagher on bass/vocals and guitar, and hockey-helmeted Rob ‘Wacko’ Hunter on drums – had also made significant headway in the USA in the early/mid-80s, first with a New York/New Jersey-area late 1982 tour with Anvil, and then the legendary ‘Kill Em All For One’ US tour in 1983, where the band had crossed the States with opening band Metallica, bringing underground metal to all corners of America.

By the time of their 1984 ‘Live at the Inferno’ US tour (with New York’s own Anthrax as support band), the band were signed to legendary NY/NJ metal indie label Megaforce Records, and big enough to sell out Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan, where they headlined in August 1984 with Metallica and Anthrax opening – a show which resulted in Raven (by this time New York State residents, living in Cortland, NY) being signed to major label Atlantic Records.

John & Mark Gallagher – photo by George Putt

Opinions differ on whether the band’s Atlantic Records output advanced their career, or damaged it. The 1985 album, ‘Stay Hard’, certainly raised the band’s profile outside the metal underground, especially via the MTV video for the single “On & On”, but their hardcore metal demographic scoffed at the less-thrashing sound of Stay Hard, and the rear-cover photo of the band looking more airbrushed and cleaned-up, as opposed to their more street-level, rough-hewn image of yore.

Their underground credibility was further damaged by the early 1986 LP The Pack Is Back, on which producer Eddie Kramer gave them a more slick, polished sound, and the band dabbled with guitar synths and a more commercial sound. The band’s slicker sound on TBIB, combined with a frankly ill-advised album cover, featuring the costumed band bursting out of sports lockers, damaged their standing with the growing thrash metal audience, yet was still too heavy to appeal to the Ratt and Motley Crue demographic.

Raven bassist/vocalist John Gallagher – photo by Sean McFerran

In Summer 1986 the band righted the ship with the ‘Raven Mad’ EP, a welcome, raw return to form after the woefully overproduced and unusually weak The Pack is Back LP. This Halloween 1986 gig was the final date of the ‘Mad’ tour, after which they went upstate to make follow-up album Life’s A Bitch.

First band Never More did not impress: strange, horror-themed costumes and warbling vocals, terrible stuff. Second band Liege Lord were much better, Iron Maiden-stye metal, fast and powerful.

Raven guitarist Mark Gallagher – photo by Sean McFerran

Raven, however, were on total form this night and erased any concerns that the TPIB record had changed their high-intensity metal assault. L’Amour was pretty packed, and the set-list was fantastic – the band hit the stage with the All For One-era classic “Hung, Drawn & Quartered”, high-speed and raging, straight into the then-recent “Stay Hard,” heaver live than he recorded version. The set featured more stuff (5 songs) from the great ‘All For One’ than any other album, three tunes each from ‘Mad’ and ‘Rock Until You Drop’ (including the classic 1980 debut 7” single “I Don’t Need Your Money”), a couple from “Stay Hard” (the title track and the “hit”, “On & On”) and only one from The Pack Is Back: “Young Blood” which sounded much heavier live than on the record.

The only album they skipped was ‘Wiped Out,’ which is the only remotely negative thing I can say about this amazing show. Early in the gig John Gallagher’s wireless mike packed it in, and he played most of the show singing at a mike stand, which gave it a cool ‘early Raven’ vibe. The encore included a cover of the Status Quo song “Big Fat Mama” which, because we are in America, almost no one recognized, and they finished with the classic “Hell Patrol” from the first LP, with the band virtually destroying the stage at the end, Wacko tearing his drum set to pieces, and John Gallagher hanging over the crowd from ceiling pipes. Truly, the band erased any fears that The Pack Is Back had turned them into lightweights. A tremendous show.

Mark Gallagher on the floor – photo by George Putt

Three and a half decades later, the band is still going strong, with a new drummer and a killer 2020 album, Metal City. All hail Raven!

Raven at L’Amour, Brooklyn, NY, October 31, 1986

Setlist: Hung, Drawn & Quartered/Stay Hard/Gimme Just A Little/All For One/Young Blood/Mark Gallagher Solo/Speed Of The Reflex/I Don’t Need Your Money/Rock Until You Drop/John Gallagher solo/On & On/Seek & Destroy/Break The Chain/Mind Over Metal. Encores: Do or Die [w/ drum solo]/Big Fat Mama/Hell Patrol.

October 31, 2020
Flashback: Grim Reaper, Armored Saint and Helloween perform at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center, October 1, 1987

The Mid-Hudson Civic Center is not a particularly huge arena by normal standards, but the fact that it was less than half-full on this night made it seem that much bigger. This was a solid triple-bill of 1987 real metal – dubbed the ‘Hell on Wheels’ tour – featuring Helloween and Armored Saint, but headliners from the U.K., heavies Grim Reaper, had one hit single to their credit (“See You In Hell”), and that single success had not translated to arena-filling status for the Brits.

So the hall was not packed (a fact not helped by the fact that the much bigger British hard rockers Def Leppard was playing a gig a few hours north at the Glens Falls Civic Center that night), and frankly the audience that was there seemed to be present more for German newcomers/openers Helloween, there on their first US tour, and L.A. metal gods Armored Saint, who played the middle slot. This was a show that could have – and perhaps should have – been booked into The Chance around the corner.

photo by Marc Kurtzner

Helloween had a big buzz at the time with their ‘Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. I’ album, were already pulling big crowds in the UK and Europe, and years later are considered to be trailblazers for the epic, Power Metal sound which still packs halls in Europe. This night they were a new young metal band with something to prove, and hit the stage fast and heavy, and got the less-than-capacity crowd going immediately, despite the fact that the house lights didn’t go down until halfway through the second song.

photo by Marc Kurtzner

The band played a set full of songs from the then-current Keeper album, including “Future World” and the 13-minute epic “Helloween”, and were given a third-on-the-bill encore by the enthusiastic crowd, and played older song “How Many Tears” to wrap things up. The band seemed primed for much bigger things in 1987, and returned a year or two later to play packed halls with Anthrax in ’89, but mass success did not ensue, in the U.S. anyway.

photo by Marc Kurtzner

As tight and entertaining as Helloween were, this writer was there for band #2, west coast heavies Armored Saint. “March of the Saint” kicked their set off, and from there the Saint (singer John Bush, bassist Joey Vera, drummer Gonzo Sandoval and the late, great guitarist Dave Prichard) attacked the stage with enough energy to melt icebergs.

photo by Marc Kurtzner

At the time AS were promoting their third Chrysalis Records LP, ‘Raising Fear’, and played several tracks from that release, like “Human Vulture”, “Book of Blood”, and the killer “Chemical Euphoria”, but didn’t ignore older songs like “Long Before I Die” and “Can U Deliver”, all served up with sweaty, infectious energy.

photo by Marc Kurtzner

The set finished with the then-new record’s high-velocity, headbanging title track, “Raising Fear”, before the band were summoned for an encore, the even faster, heavier “Madhouse” from their debut record.

photo by Marc Kurtzner

Headliners Grim Reaper finished the night, and seemed to get less front-of-the-stage energy from the crowd than the first two bands had. GR were solid metal, singer Steve Grimmett had (and has) a mighty howl, and guitarist Nick Bowcott is no slouch, but the band seemed superlative after the more exciting first two bands, and they played an hour of shrieking metal, culminating in the inevitable “See You In Hell” before a dwindling crowd. That said, a fine night of pure metal, perhaps in a hall bigger than was warranted by the headline act.

photo by Marc Kurtzner

October 1, 2020
Flashback: Watch AC/DC and Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force rock Glens Falls Civic Center on September 5, 1985

A mighty gig this was. 35 years ago tonight, on Sept. 5, 1985, AC/DC and Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force performed at Glens Falls Civic Center.

Remember Ticketron?

This was actually AC/DC’s first headline gig in New York’s Capital Region – they had played Albany’s Palace Theater in the Bon Scott era in 1977, 1978 and 1979 opening for Rush, Rainbow and UFO, but the band skipped the area on the ‘Back In Black,’ ‘For Those About To Rock’ and ‘Flick of the Switch’ tours. Thus, the Civic Center was packed this night.

photo by Jim Polkowski

The opening band was Swedish guitar phenom Yngwie Malmsteen with his solo band, Rising Force, playing their first area gig. Yngwie had played Albany’s Palace Theater the year before with his old band Alcatrazz, opening for Ted Nugent, but in the year since he had released two solo albums, and the songs this night were tracks from his mostly-instrumental solo debut, and then-new record ‘Marching Out,’ featuring vocalist Jeff Scott Soto who was the singer for this gig. The sound for Malmsteen was fairly horrible and full of echoes in the hockey arena this night, opening with then-single “I’ll See The Light Tonight” and including some instrumental workouts like “Far Beyond The Sun” and “Black Star” which, despite the dazzling guitar playing, received a muted response due to the wretched sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooJCjKGYF28

No such troubles for the headliners though. AC/DC were promoting the Fly On The Wall album (which history has not shown to be one of their most beloved albums) and they opened with the title track, before settling into a set of rapturously-received classics and hits: “Back In Black,” “Shook Me All Night Long,” the rarely-played “Have a Drink on Me” and a rousing “Shoot To Thrill” were mixed with a couple of the better new songs (“Shake Your Foundations,” “Sink The Pink”) and a whole host of older Bon Scott-era favorites: “Dirty Deeds,” “The Jack,” “Jailbreak,” “Highway To Hell,” “Whole Lotta Rosie” and an extended, Angus-doing-a-walkabout “Let There Be Rock” which finished the main set and brought the house down.

photo by Jim Polkowski

The encore was similarly no-filler: “Hell’s Bells” and the giant bell, a raucous “TNT” had the entire arena roaring, and the show finished with an explosive “For Those About To Rock,” Angus duckwalking and headbanging across the stage, Brian Johnson howling like he was going to burst a blood vessel, Malcolm and the rhythm section locked in with deadly groove, and of course the cannons exploding during the fast part at the end. Has there ever been a better live heavy rock band? Few can compare. All hail the mighty AC/DC.

photo by Jim Polkowski

Rising Force Setlist: I’ll See The Light Tonight, On The Run Again, Far Beyond The Sun, Anguish & Fear, Guitar Solo, Black Star, Caught In The Middle.

AC/DC Setlist: Fly On The Wall, Back In Black, Shake Your Foundations, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Shook Me All Night Long, Have A Drink On Me, Jailbreak, The Jack, Shoot To Thrill, Highway To Hell, Sink The Pink, Whole Lotta Rosie, Let There Be Rock, Hell’s Bells, TNT, For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMJPPq1amzo

September 5, 2020
Dio Flashback: On this day in 1985, the late, great Ronnie James Dio performs at the RPI Fieldhouse

Ronnie James Dio, the Cortland native and heavy metal legend, brought his band DIO to the RPI Fieldhouse in Troy 35 years ago today, September 4, 1985.

This was the second Albany-area appearance by Dio with his solo band – he’d played the Glens Falls Civic Center less than a year before, in November 1984 on the ‘Last In Line’ tour. In 1985, the band was promoting the third Dio album, Sacred Heart, a patchier effort than the first two Dio albums.

This was the last tour to feature the original DIO band backing Ronnie: NYC (ex-Black Sabbath) drummer Vinnie Appice, Scottish (ex-Rainbow) bass player (the late) Jimmy Bain, and Irish guitarist Vivian Campbell (ex-Sweet Savage), who would be fired midway through the tour, breaking up the original foursome which had made the classic first two Dio records.

The opening group was Rough Cutt, one of those spandex-ey LA bands, there by virtue of being managed by Dio’s wife, and they sucked. The RPI crowd was unmoved.

The house was packed for Dio’s set – despite the dip in quality offered by Sacred Heart, Ronnie James was in 1985 viewed as a deity in the heavy rock world, and the Fieldhouse was accordingly full of metalheads. This was the era of over-the-top stage shows, and this one was particularly Spinal Tap-ish, with lasers, a giant crystal ball and a giant dragon (which Dio himself “battled” with a sword), pre-taped wizardly creepy voice intro to the song “Sacred Heart”, and each member getting a big long solo.

Frankly, the whole thing would have been better if they dropped all that and just played a whole bunch of songs. That said, it was the 80s, you had to expect that kind of thing. The bands opened with a couple of the better new songs (“King of Rock’n’Roll”, “Like The Beat of a Heart”), played a slew of already-classics from the first two records, and a couple of the less-essential new ‘Sacred Heart’ songs, such a the somewhat corny title track, and the depressingly commercial “Hungry For Heaven.”

This tour featured less of the classic Ronnie James-era Rainbow and Black Sabbath songs that had featured in earlier Dio tours, all delivered during extensive medleys, and a truncated version of Sabbath’s “Heaven & Hell” got the biggest roar of the night. Rainbow classics “Man on the Silver Mountain” and “Long Live Rock’n’Roll” were played – again, in shortened form – in a medley with new yawner “Rock’n’Roll Children.” In fact, medleys were a big part of the show – the band played an extended, almost 40-minute medley of the song “Last In Line,” which incorporated “Holy Diver”, solos by all band members, more “Last In Line,” “Heaven & Hell,” “Sacred Heart,” and concluded with more “Last In Line.” The main set finished up with speedy early Dio classic “Stand Up and Shout” – a roaring highlight – and encores were Dio evergreens “Rainbow In The Dark” and a storming “We Rock.”

All hail Ronnie James Dio!

Setlist: King Of Rock’n’Roll, Like The Beat Of A Heart, Don’t Talk To Strangers, Hungry For Heaven, Medley: Last In Line/Holy Diver/Last In Line, Drum & Bass Solos, Heaven & Hell, Guitar & Keyboard solos, Sacred Heart, Last In Line, Medley: Rock’n’Roll Children/Long Live Rock’n’Roll/Man On The Silver Mountain/R’n’R Children, Stand Up & Shout, Rainbow In The Dark, We Rock.

September 4, 2020
Flashback: August 23, 1983 – Iron Maiden, Fastway and Coney Hatch perform at Glens Falls Civic Center

For headliners Iron Maiden, this was the ‘World Piece’ tour, supporting fourth album Piece of Mind. Posters for this gig at Glens Falls Civic Center on August 23, 1983, labeled the show as “The British Metal Onslaught,” which made more sense in weeks preceding the show, when the bill had been Brits Iron Maiden and Saxon, with Fastway opening. By the time of this show, Saxon had left the tour, and while Iron Maiden are the quintessential British metal band, Fastway were half-British, half-Irish, and Coney Hatch were from Canada.

Opening band Coney Hatch were cool – they got a good reaction from the crowd, but outside of their native Canada they were not well-known, and this may have been their only visit to New York State.

Fastway were great – the song “Say What You Will” was all over the radio at this time. Their then-current first album rocked and of course the band featured guitarist Fast Eddie Clarke from Motorhead, drummer Jerry Shirley from Humble Pie, bassist Charlie McKracken from Rory Gallagher’s Irish trio TASTE, and then-teenaged Irish singer Dave King, who would go on years later (and still currently does) front Irish punk powerhouse Flogging Molly.

Fastway were excellent but Maiden were the kings that night. How can you argue with “Where Eagles Dare,” “Sanctuary” and “Wrathchild” as the first 3 songs? They were at their peak, playing like heroes and were greeted as such by the sold-out Glens Falls crowd.

Highlights included when a giant lobotomized version of Maiden mascot Eddie invaded the stage during “Iron Maiden,” and when Bruce Dickinson made a long speech dissing author Frank Herbert before “To Tame A Land.” The band had asked permission to title the song “Dune,” after Herbert’s sci-fi novel, but the author had said no, and Bruce, as reward, got the entire crowd to chant “Fuck Frank Herbert.” The band played a many Piece of Mind songs – an album which has aged pretty well, lo these almost 40 years since. The encore was then-hit “Run To The Hills,” and this was the last tour they played ‘Killers’-era classic “Drifter” (and the “eyo, eyo, eyo” sing-along), which ended the show.

Setlist: Intro/Where Eagles Dare, Sanctuary, Wrathchild, The Trooper, Revelations, Flight of Icarus, Die With Your Boots On, 22 Acacia Avenue, The Number of the Beast, To Tame a Land/solos, Phantom of the Opera, Hallowed Be Thy Name, Iron Maiden

Encore: Run to the Hills, Drifter

August 23, 2020
Flashback: Megaforce Records Fifth Anniversary Show at The Ritz – August 10, 1988

The Ritz in New York City played host to Megaforce Records fifth anniversary show on this day 32 years ago, August 10, 1988. The show featured S.O.D., Anthrax, Overkill, Testament, M.O.D., and King’s X.

Megaforce Records, of course, was the great east-coast underground metal label from the gods. Technically, Megaforce was a New Jersey label, not a New York label, but its founders, Johnny and Marsha Zazula, were New Yorkers, and later in the 80s when the label became associated with Atlantic Records, they became more New York-based. Like the UK’s Neat Records which defined the northern British metal scene in 1980-83 or Minneapolis’ TWIN/TONE or Seattle’s SUB POP later in the 80s, Megaforce was the label that defined the East Coast, North American (and beyond) underground/thrash scene.

In the early years, almost every release was flawless, you could buy the record based on the label alone: Metallica’s ‘Kill ‘Em All’ and ‘Ride The Lightning’, Raven’s ‘All For One’ and ‘Live At the Inferno’, Anthrax’s ‘Fistful of Metal’, Exciter’s ‘Violence & Force’, Overkill’s ‘Feel The Fire’, the great ‘From The Megavault’ compilation, and S.O.D.’s all-powerful ‘Speak English or Die’, just to name a few. Classic after classic after classic.

By 1988, when this gig happened, Megaforce had expanded well beyond the literal mom-and-pop operation that had organized gigs by bands like Anvil and Brooklyn’s Riot, brought Venom and Raven over from the UK for the first time, brought west-coasters Metallica out east and released the first Metallica records and first Raven records in the States. By now they were bigger-time, associated with major label Atlantic for most of their acts (except New Yorkers Anthrax, were on Megaforce-Island Records). I was doing a college radio show at WCDB up in Albany and we played piles of new and old Megaforce stuff and the Megaforce folks who serviced college radio were very cool gals. So this show – a Megaforce 5th Anniversary party with a bunch of bands – I had to go.

I remember I drove down to NYC in whatever crappy old car I was driving in ’88, and met my buddy Steve K, a Brooklyn-ite who did the radio show in Albany with me but had a summer job in Manhattan. I think we got food and drinks at some place Steve knew that would serve underage kids like us, and then found a parking spot and went to the Ritz – and saw Scott Ian from Anthrax walk by with his guitar case. A good start.

There were numerous bands – see the flyers attached. I think New York legend and KISS guitarist Ace Frehley, who’d just become a solo Megaforce act, was going to play but didn’t, which was fine with me. I love Ace, but it didn’t really fit in my mind what “Megaforce” was. The band all played short sets – either 3 or 5 songs, I think. I was hoping there’d be a surprise Metallica set or something, or maybe Raven or something, but it was not to be – the bands were as advertised, and S.O.D. was playing, which was unusual enough.

I don’t remember first band Prophet, but they were a bit more lightweight, commercial metal than the usual Mega-bands from what I recall about them, so we either missed or ignored them while getting beer. We managed to figure out how to get served, despite being underage – I’d just turned 20, Steve was younger – and blagged our way up to the balcony “V.I.P.” section. Beer was free up there, and you’d look around and see Danny Lilker from Nuclear Assault over here, Billy Milano from M.O.D./S.O.D. over there, Doug Pinnick from KING’s X walking by (I stopped him and told him how great their debut record was, he could not have been cooler), Rob “Wacko” Hunter who’d just left Raven at a table over there, and most memorably, Joey Ramone, hammered as the day is long, staggering by with a couple of punk rock chicks on each arm. I had to go over to Wacko and let him know I’d always considered Raven one of the great bands ever and he testily said “yeah … USED TO BE,” but was cool and shook my hand.

Anyway, the bands. Recollections are dim and general, as the ale was flowing, but I remember being blown away by King’s X. This was my first time seeing them, heavy rock with melodic vocal harmonies everywhere, I loved that debut ‘Out of the Silent Planet’ record, and they didn’t even slightly fit on this bill. I recall them opening with “King” and closing with “Visions” and playing one other song. Fantastic band, and one I’ve loved since.

West Coast thrashers Testament are a great live band, and I’d seen them play with Anthrax the summer before, but they sucked this night. I think they made it through not even two songs before having sound problems, having hissy fits onstage, knocking over their amps mid-song and stomping off. Lame.

M.O.D. played either before or after Testament (or maybe even after Overkill), were a big Megaforce push in the ’87-88 years, and were good, but I always thought they were a poor-man’s S.O.D. And the real thing was playing later.

New Jersey thrash kings Overkill ruled, maybe the band of the night. I think they played a couple songs from the then-current ‘Under The Influence’ album, but they definitely played “Rotten To The Core” from the first record, and the place went off – I was down in the pit by then.

Queens band Anthrax were a very big deal by 1988, so seeing them in a club already seemed unusual and special, even though they’d just graduated to the bigger halls less than a year before. They stuck mostly to the hits (“Indians”, “I’m The Man” I think), but I recall they played “Metal Thrashing Mad” from their debut Megaforce record, if I’m not mistaken, which brought down the house.

And then: S.O.D. By now everyone in the house (including me), and the band probably too, were well into their cups. I remember Billy, Danny, Scott and Charlie walking on stage, starting with “March of the SOD” and the place exploded into a giant pit, bodies flying everywhere – S.O.D. had only ever played a handful of late ’85 shows when that record came out, and this was the first-ever show after the ‘Speak English or Die’ album had graduated to legendary status. It was like the crossover Beatles had reformed. “United Forces” had the whole place roaring. It went too quick and the gig was over.

We made it back up to Albany alive somehow. I think I asked Steve to get us out of the city and I’d drive the rest of the way, passed out, and I dimly remember waking up and seeing him driving manically up I-87 with a giant cup of coffee, a Budgie mix-tape that was in my car cranked, and all the windows open. So I left him in charge and passed back out until we reached Albany – I think I had to work in the a.m. anyway. A mighty night. All hail Megaforce Records.

August 10, 2020
Hearing Aide: The Erotics “Let’s Kill Rock ‘n’ Roll”

Albany-area heavy rockers The Erotics are no longer a new band or young pups, having been at it for over two decades now. They first released “Get Drunk Again” on Cacophone Records Ultra Swank compilation in 1999, so we can reasonably call these lads veteran heavy rockers by now.

Let’s Kill Rock ‘n’ Roll is a live record of all-new songs – I remember Central New York heavies The Rods doing this in 1984, but this is not common in the heavy rock world. However, it’s no crappy live-in-a-club recording – the band recorded this in front of a small audience of hardcore fans in an actual studio, so the sound is fantastic, the guitars are up-front and face-removing, a great balance of clarity and rawness. The small live audience gives it a vibe not unlike the legendary promo-only live 1977 AC/DC record Live from the Atlantic Studios, which was recorded in similar fashion.

Before getting to the tunes, one thing that has always set The Erotics apart from your typical Albany-area “plays the local clubs and occasionally some other Northeast city” band, is that these guys have built a following well outside the local area. No doubt, there have been Albany bands who have done the same – Troy heavies Stigmata and Brick by Brick developed national followings and have performed in Europe; Albany ska-crunch heroes Can’t Say have toured nationally and released records in Japan; and legendary area greats Blotto were on MTV on Day 1 and toured the States opening for Blue Oyster Cult.

When I’ve seen The Erotics in local clubs, there always seems to be someone there down from Canada or over from Europe to see the band. Having toured the UK several times, last year they played a British festival opening for one of my favorite bands ever, The Wildhearts; the reach of this band extends far beyond the 518.

Anyways, the music: this record rocks. A killer old-school heavy rock record, with no pretensions to alternative rock or punk hipster-ism. I know other reviews and articles brand these guys as punk, but I don’t hear that – this band is firmly in the tradition of 70s (Alice Cooper, Bon-era AC/DC) and 80s hard rock. They invoke Appetite-era Guns n Roses, maybe first-two-records-era Motley Crue (but without the shitty singer) ‘Electric’-era The Cult and, again, AC/DC. Great riffs, great songwriting, and lyrics about things real rock bands sing about (fighting, drinking, rocking, women & hell). The record starts off with a short instrumental, “Nothing to Sing About”, with chugging riffs and Thin Lizzy-style harmony guitars, into title track “Let’s Kill Rock N Roll,” killer riff, memorable chorus, a truly great heavy rock tune.

There’s mighty, hefty riffs everywhere and some excellent choruses, as with “Monday Morning Meltdown” and “Head of the Low Class.” Mike Trash’s vocals, always good, are top-shelf here, in the region of a more whiskey-soaked Axl. “Lie My Way Into Hell” is excellent, maybe the best track, great, swaggering stuff. Not much to criticize here – “Wrong Kind of Love Song” maybe reminds me a bit of those 80s power ballads I fucking hated back in the day, albeit without the candy-corn production, and as you get into the latter half of the 14 tracks, there’s a blending-in-together feel. But the record ends on a high note with “Fighting Like Cats and Dogs,” full of high-speed, fast, heavy, crushing metal. Great stuff indeed.

All hail Let’s Kill Rock’n’Roll, a top-notch hard rock record, released on July 20, so go get yourself a tall glass of this now. Check it out on Bandcamp.

Key Tracks: Let’s Kill Rock N Roll, Lie My Way Into Hell, Fighting Like Cats and Dogs

July 27, 2020