Good God, what a wretched morning on Saturday. Again, Budweiser is now a strict no-no (or at least Budweiser and Jack Daniels). Some breakfast buffet at the Holiday Inn, and off we went. We arrived as Let There Be Rock was playing. Apparently this is some sort of “School of Rock” in Columbia, MD. We only caught the tail end of their set and I recall hearing Live Wire and Slide It In. It was really very strange seeing a teenage girl standing on stage in front of a bunch of aging metalheads, singing Slide It In. Still pretty damn cool to see teenagers playing some good music and playing it pretty damned good.
Next was DrumWars, which had the potential to be cool but was one of the lamest parts of the day. Carmine and Vinny Appice next to each other, on stage, behind their drumsets. They did a lot of drumming. No other people out there playing with them, just drums, as the name implies. Some back and forth stuff, throwing drumsticks to each other, etc. Yawn.
Great White came out next. By this point (as usual) they bands were starting to run behind. Great White did a REALLY short set. Terry Ilous of XYZ is fronting this version of the band and though he’s really not too bad, I agree with ShadowWalker, he’s not quite right for this band. Their set:
Big Goodbye
Lady Red Light
Save Your Love
Rock Me
Once Bitten Twice Shy
Because the main stage had started getting behind, there was a band on stage 2 while Great White was on, Streetlight Circus. I only checked out a little of their set, but from what I could tell they were a pretty decent band. According to the singer, they were the only independent band on the bill, having driven from New York, they weren’t getting paid. I wasn’t losing my shit over them, but they were all right. Maybe worth my looking into.
Next up was Stryper, who turned out to be one of the other BIG highlights of the show. Michael Sweet sounded fantastic. Of note, something I found cool, was that in certain places, Oz Fox would sing parts of songs to give MS a break (the chorus of Calling On You, for example – MS would sing a line, Oz Fox the next line, then MS would finish the chorus). It’s a good way to keep the singer from tiring out, especially on songs with a demanding vocal like Calling On You. This is an idea I should run by my band members.
Michael Sweet is a pretty damn good guitarist, also. Their set:
Sing-Along Song
Reach Out
Calling On You
Free
To Hell With The Devil
Soldiers Under Command
Sing-Along Song was a fantastic opener. They’d intended to do one more song, but were told they had to get off, as the 1st stage was running late already. I’ll assume it would’ve either been Honestly (which, despite being a good song, would’ve been a very bad closer) or Always There For You (which would’ve been awesome). Either way, I was very pleasantly surprised with how great they sounded.
So by now, they’d pushed XYZ’s start time back on stage 2, so they could start after Stryper finished. I’m not really at all familiar with XYZ, really. That said, they sounded great. Terry Ilous is obviously a better fit for this band. Set:
C'mon And Love Me
Face Down in the Gutter
What Keeps Me Lovin' You
Souvenirs
Inside Out
Next on the main stage was L.A. Guns. As SW said, a great set. I really like L.A. Guns and it would be excellent to see Phil and Tracii get back together again, but I doubt that’ll happen. For the record, this was the Phil Lewis version. Dude has such an excellent British accent (fun fact: He used to play in a band called “Girl”, with Def Leppard’s Phil Collen) and still has a great singing voice. Their set:
Sex Action
Never Enough
You Better Not Love Me
Sweet Mystery
Revolution
Sleazy Come Easy Go
Electric Gypsy
Ballad of Jayne
Rip and Tear
Never Enough is an excellent tune, Ballad of Jayne always goes over, and I realized that the beginning of Rip and Tear sounds a lot like the beginning of Wango Tango. Whatever, great set.
Was Warren's guitar signal cutting in and out only in the broadcast? There were bars and bars of his riffs and solos muting then coming back audible throughout their set. Pearcy seemed to be gassing out as their set proceeded too.
We left a little ways into Ratt's set, as we had an hour and a half drive home. From what I've been reading, they were indeed having sound issues.