|
Ratt Concert Review
Back when an ounce of pot was a whole lot cheaper than a gram of coke and Ronald Reagan was President, many of us enjoyed an era of rock and roll that is referred to now as the “Glam Metal” or “Hair Band Days”. I pity the fool who missed seeing the high-budget, over-produced, spandexed videos on MTV in those decadent years, because damn it, they were fun to watch.
There are countless videos from that period that are noteworthy. One of my favorites from 1984 was RATT’s “Wanted Man”, which had a Wild West theme. By horseback, "The Ratt Gang" (Stephen Pearcy, Warren DeMartini, Robbin Crosby, Juan Croucier, and Bobby Blotzer) rode through town as notorious, gun fighting outlaws. The scene seemed metaphorically appropriate to the rock star’s lifestyle.
RATT rode high for just a short time. 1985’s Invasion of Your Privacy was the last great album the band released. In 1990, after the lackluster Detonator album came out, guitarist Robbin Crosby left the band. Within a couple years singer Stephen Pearcy would form the band Arcade and RATT lived on, but with changes in the lineup. Robbin Crosby, who had announced publicly in 2001 that he had full-blown AIDS, died of a heroin overdose in June of 2002, two months before his 43rd birthday.
And then RATT became VH-1 Classics fodder.
Fast forward to Friday, October 27th, 2006. I got an email from a publicist friend of mine saying that there was going to be a RATT reunion that same night in Hollywood at a new club called the Vine Street Lounge. A few weeks prior I had heard nearly the same thing: Pearcy, De Martini, Croucier, and Blotzer would get onstage at the Key Club at one point during Metal Skool’s Monday night performance. It didn’t happen, but that evening wasn’t a total disappointment, mainly because pretty women were displaying their shapely cones for public viewing as usual. One of the rodents, Bobby Blotzer, did get onstage and pounded out some insane drumming while jamming “Round and Round” with the guys in Metal Skool.
I made the drive up to Hollywood and Vine wanting to see the new club, ThundHerStruck (the all female AC/DC tribute band), Juan Croucier’s band, Stephen Pearcy’s band, and this supposed RATT reunion.
When I saw Bobby Blotzer at the bar (where else?), it seemed the likelihood of the reunion was imminent. “The Ratt Gang” was nearly all there in the building, except for Warren DeMartini.
Stephen Pearcy and his band hit the stage, opening up loud and large with “Wanted Man.” Pearcy showed a lot of excitement, fiercely working the stage, shaking and slapping hands with the audience up front, but his voice was a mere mouse compared to the strength he once displayed. Moving through several RATT classics and a song or two from Arcade, Pearcy and his band did a great cover of Aerosmith’s “Draw the Line” instrumentally, but when it got to the screaming Checkmate, don’t be late, take another pull…part of the song (that Steven Tyler can still pull off live) Mr. Pearcy kind of choked.
About an hour into the set Pearcy summoned Juan Croucier to come up onstage and do some songs with the band. I thought I heard Pearcy say that it had been 15 years since he and Croucier had played on the same stage together. Playing “Lay it Down” was a good way to get reacquainted, mend fences, or whatever once estranged bandmates do when they decide to jam together again. Bobby “The Blotz” Blotzer took the stage and then it seemed like there were three old friends, exuberantly kicking out “You’re in Love” and “Round and Round”--just like the old days. Warren DeMartini didn’t show (that ratt bastard), yet it was a reunion nonetheless.
Inwardly there’s a part of me that wishes I could’ve lived like these fuckers did back in their heyday. I would have had absolutely no problem wearing the tights, mascara if it would’ve meant being accosted by ravenous, nubile groupies all around the world. But instead I got to wear the tights and mascara, roughing up my suspect while thinking about those groupies.
SETLIST
Wanted Man
I’m Insane
You Think You’re Tough
Back for More
Slip of the Lip
Nothin’ to Lose
Dirty Job
Sweet Cheater
Lack of Communication
Body Talk
Draw the Line
Lay it Down
You’re in Love
Round and Round
You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’
By: Gnarly Charlie
|
|
|
