Hair metal shows in 96/97/98

[ParaDime77]

We have now covered the interesting tour pairing in 1991 of DLR/Cinderella. This offered a great context to the genre right before the maissve industry collapse later on that year. Also, the Warrant “Ultraphobic” Tour in the mid 1990’s. Warrant a band playing big venues in 90/91, relegated to playing clubs/bars and amusement parks by 1995.

96-98 had to be some very lean year’s as far as hair metal bands go trying to navigate the ever changing grunge scene. Some bands tweaking their style to accommodate grunge type tuning and presentation.

Which band’s/show’s etc did you pay a small ticket price to watch in 1996-1998? It is well documented in 1999 the first of the genre’s Rock Never Stops package tours sort of created a hard reset as far as bands getting improved visual to the masses.

[Mister Freeze]

Warrant, Dokken, Ratt, L.A. Guns, Slaughter, Quiet Riot, Tesla, Enuff Z'Nuff... off the top of my head. A lot of those were double bills. If they were playing House of Blues, that was a "good" gig. In some cases, it was like watching a former arena band play a high school dance.

The most surreal one was seeing Motley Crue play a club on the '94 tour. Just like Skid Row on the Subhuman Race tour, the club gig was billed as a "warm-up," but they never came back to play anything bigger.

[daveg]

I don't think I even had the opportunity to go to a hair metal show in those years. Tours were few and far between, but in Canada, I can't remember a single band or package coming through.

I don't think I saw anyone until about 2007 when I saw Warrant open for Disturbed and Anthrax.

[kingbrian74]

The one that stands out the most to me is when LA Guns played a pizza place in South Windsor, CT.

It was the Riley/Lewis/Scotty line-up. I think they had the Stacy on guitar at the time.

The band was so high, they barely made it though the show, and the small crowd that was there really thinned out by the end.

I felt really bad for the pizza place. They thought this was going to be a HUGE deal, and they hired security, brought in a bunch of extra bartenders/servers, and even parking attendants for the night. I'm sure they lost a good chunk of change that night.

[BDG135]

Warrant headlined a show in my hometown in about '97. They only played one song from Belly2Belly. The crowd only seemed to get into Cherry Pie...hehe. Jani went on a rant saying that they're Glam and proud of it.

[sirthx2]

Hair Metal shows in the late 90s: Hair was longer because they couldn't afford haircuts & wasn't as high because couldn't afford hairspray. (& I think Aqua Net Super Hold was no longer available)

Aqua Net; Another casualty brought down by Nirvana & grunge. Nobody talks about poor Aqua Net's demise.

[Wild Obsession]

Saw:

Warrant (Springfield MA) on the Belly 2 Belly tour, they played some type of converted warehouse/club/bar. At on point Jani Lane went out into the crowd and either dropped, or someone stole his wallet. After the song, they stopped the show and someone (club owner, band manager?) came out and made an announcement "Jani lost his wallet, please look for it, and turn it in to any staff"......

LA Guns (Springfield MA) American Hardcore line-up/tour, they were opening for Accept and it was at an established rock club, but they had the show in what I would describe as side banquet/conference hall type room. The "stage" was those modular dance floor panels, so the bands were floor level. Vocalist at the time (Chris Van Dahl) was total "amateur hour" (vocally and stage presence). He kept trying to climb on top of the PA speakers which were only 6' tall.......totally lame. This is when Tracii was going through his Pantera phase, new songs sucked and the attempt to make the "hits" sound heavy was also cringey.

LA Guns (Springfield MA) (Jizzy Pearl era), IMO Jizzy was a good fit and I saw a couple solid shows with him fronting the band.

Gilby Clarke a couple times.

Cinderella (Webster Theater, Hartford CT), reunion tour, jam packed and they put on a great show.

Vince Neil, Warrant, Slaughter (Providence RI), cool club and a great show/line-up, but there was nobody there.

[DonJuanDeMarco]

Saw:

Warrant (Springfield MA) on the Belly 2 Belly tour, they played some type of converted warehouse/club/bar. At on point Jani Lane went out into the crowd and either dropped, or someone stole his wallet. After the song, they stopped the show and someone (club owner, band manager?) came out and made an announcement "Jani lost his wallet, please look for it, and turn it in to any staff"......

LA Guns (Springfield MA) (Jizzy Pearl era), IMO Jizzy was a good fit and I saw a couple solid shows with him fronting the band.

Wow! I saw both bands in Springfield too!!!! Warrant on the Ultraphobic tour and LA Guns in '98 or '99. Couldn't believe that THAT version of the band with Jizzy singing got the Poison tour in '99. They were very underwhelming.

Saw Sebastian Bach and his Village People solo band in Springfield too. That was particularly odd because he didn't have any solo material out yet.

In general that time period was bad for these bands. It had not become nostalgic yet. They were struggling to keep it together.

[kingbrian74]

Cinderella (Webster Theater, Hartford CT), reunion tour, jam packed and they put on a great show.

Was this the show with Society's Children opening? I was at this one too.

Cinderalla was fantastic.

[DonJuanDeMarco]

The one that stands out the most to me is when LA Guns played a pizza place in South Windsor, CT.

It was the Riley/Lewis/Scotty line-up. I think they had the Stacy on guitar at the time.

The band was so high, they barely made it though the show, and the small crowd that was there really thinned out by the end.

I felt really bad for the pizza place. They thought this was going to be a HUGE deal, and they hired security, brought in a bunch of extra bartenders/servers, and even parking attendants for the night. I'm sure they lost a good chunk of change that night.

I remember Faster Pussycat played a laundromat! Never heard of LA Guns playing at a pizza place though! That sounds like fun actually!

That couldn't have been the 90's though. Stacey Blades was in the band 2004-12.

[Wild Obsession]

Cinderella (Webster Theater, Hartford CT), reunion tour, jam packed and they put on a great show.

Was this the show with Society's Children opening? I was at this one too.

Cinderalla was fantastic.

I think Hair of the Dog was the opener?

[Fletch]

I saw QR relegated to a bar band but I think it was even earlier than 96.

[SexxAtraxxion]

Jon Bon Jovi promoting his second solo album in 1997:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9IARocbQAA

[DangerZone]

The one that stands out the most to me is when LA Guns played a pizza place in South Windsor, CT.

It was the Riley/Lewis/Scotty line-up. I think they had the Stacy on guitar at the time.

The band was so high, they barely made it though the show, and the small crowd that was there really thinned out by the end.

I felt really bad for the pizza place. They thought this was going to be a HUGE deal, and they hired security, brought in a bunch of extra bartenders/servers, and even parking attendants for the night. I'm sure they lost a good chunk of change that night.

I remember Faster Pussycat played a laundromat! Never heard of LA Guns playing at a pizza place though! That sounds like fun actually!

That couldn't have been the 90's though. Stacey Blades was in the band 2004-12.

I saw LA Guns at a pizza place in 2019

[kingbrian74]

The one that stands out the most to me is when LA Guns played a pizza place in South Windsor, CT.

It was the Riley/Lewis/Scotty line-up. I think they had the Stacy on guitar at the time.

The band was so high, they barely made it though the show, and the small crowd that was there really thinned out by the end.

I felt really bad for the pizza place. They thought this was going to be a HUGE deal, and they hired security, brought in a bunch of extra bartenders/servers, and even parking attendants for the night. I'm sure they lost a good chunk of change that night.

I remember Faster Pussycat played a laundromat! Never heard of LA Guns playing at a pizza place though! That sounds like fun actually!

That couldn't have been the 90's though. Stacey Blades was in the band 2004-12.

Ohhhhh. I am pretty sure it was Stacey.....so maybe slightly off topic....but still funny.

[daveg]

The one that stands out the most to me is when LA Guns played a pizza place in South Windsor, CT.

It was the Riley/Lewis/Scotty line-up. I think they had the Stacy on guitar at the time.

The band was so high, they barely made it though the show, and the small crowd that was there really thinned out by the end.

I felt really bad for the pizza place. They thought this was going to be a HUGE deal, and they hired security, brought in a bunch of extra bartenders/servers, and even parking attendants for the night. I'm sure they lost a good chunk of change that night.

I remember Faster Pussycat played a laundromat! Never heard of LA Guns playing at a pizza place though! That sounds like fun actually!

That couldn't have been the 90's though. Stacey Blades was in the band 2004-12.

I saw LA Guns at a pizza place in 2019

I saw them a few years earlier at a really small pool hall. Was never the biggest LA Guns fan, but tickets were 20 bucks and it was a 15 minute walk from my house. I'd guess there were about 40 people there, but I gotta give Snug and the gang props. They played for 2 hours , and played like they were headlining an arena. Gained a shit ton of respect for them that night. I'd see a ton of bands mail it in at that place.

[Vince Neil Eats]

The best show I saw during that era was Sebastian Bach in ‘98 at Coney Island High, a punk/hardcore club in NYC. The energy from the crowd and the band was intense. He was do good back then. I caught him again in ‘99 at a place called Life in NYC. Joey Ramone was there. He was managing the opening act. Bas went on around midnight. Towards the end of his set all of these “girls “ start flooding the dance floor. Apparently the place turned into a trans club at 2am. Just another Tuesday in New York City.

[LitaStrauss]

Hair metal show I saw in 1996:
Warrant
Vince Neil
Vince Neil/Slaughter
Vince Neil/Warrant/Slaughter
Jackyl
Enuff Z'Nuff
Warrant/LA Guns/Bang Tango
Zakk Wylde acoustic

1997:
Motley Crue
Ratt/Hair Of The Dog
Alice Cooper/Dokken/Warrant/Slaughter
Motley Crue/Cheap Trick
Slaughter/LA. Guns
Sebastian Bach
Warrant

1998:
BulletBoys
Jani Lane/Kip Winger
Sebastian Bach
Warrant/Quiet Riot/Slaughter/Firehouse/LA Guns
Ratt
Jackyl
Motley Crue/Laidlaw
Cinderella

[Bono Nettencourt]

I saw QR relegated to a bar band but I think it was even earlier than 96.

They were pretty much DOA in the 90s til Marilyn Manson hired them as a joke to play an aftershow party.

[DangerZone]

I remember Faster Pussycat played a laundromat! Never heard of LA Guns playing at a pizza place though! That sounds like fun actually!

That couldn't have been the 90's though. Stacey Blades was in the band 2004-12.

I saw LA Guns at a pizza place in 2019

I saw them a few years earlier at a really small pool hall. Was never the biggest LA Guns fan, but tickets were 20 bucks and it was a 15 minute walk from my house. I'd guess there were about 40 people there, but I gotta give Snug and the gang props. They played for 2 hours , and played like they were headlining an arena. Gained a shit ton of respect for them that night. I'd see a ton of bands mail it in at that place.

The place was packed (granted, it was an Arkansas venue) and they rocked it.
I saw them twice at the Whiskey a few years earlier and the pizza show was better. Maybe because they didn’t have the dude playing purple rain.

Bullet Boys came a few months later to the same place - not near as many in the audience but decent for a Torien on guitar BB show.
It looked like they might start bringing more 80s bands but covid killed all that

[knuck]

In Seattle we had a club that had long since been the "in" spot and was referred to as the club where rock stars go to die - like a second run movie theater for music.

During the late 90s at this club I saw

BulletBoys - They played hard and genuinely seemed to be enjoying playing together again. Marq's stage prancing felt really dated after Seattle had been washed over by grunge and underground punk but they sounded great. At one point right at the beginning of Smooth Up In Ya part of the hi-hat flew off so I jumped up and put it back together and Jimmy mouthed "Thank you!" After the show they hung around and talked to fans and Jimmy invited me to join them for dinner but my buddy was sick and wanted me to get him home. Place was prob 50 pct capacity

Faster Pussycat: This was when Taime was just starting to fuck with the songs and make em industrial. A few years later they'd done it to every song but at this point it was a bit of a blend. Taime is from Seattle and still sees family here so it wasn't lost on him what level he was playing at, likely having been to this very club before. They had a drop cloth that dropped at the start of the show so they still had a bit of the rockstar thing going. Taime looked REALLY disenchanted with the whole thing. He Sat down on the drum riser to sing house of pain then left the stage without finishing the show and never came back. They had prob 75 pct cap.

Dee Snider: Dee was touring with the S. M. F. 's playing all Twisted Sister music for the first time in a decade. This wasn't too long after the failure of Desperado so it had to sting playing a little club doing TS songs like he was back in 1980.. Dee put on a motherfucker of a show. Played a long set incredibly energetic. My girlfriend at the time had huge cans and wrapped her bra around his neck when he leaned over and sang at her "You're a sick motherfucker!" He realized it was a bra so he peered in her button down shirt to see if it was hers and got a show. His shock and her laughter are strong visuals in my brain. Oh yeah, then he groped her tits. I wasn't mad I mean, she set em free and she wasn't mad. (Afterwards I told her she can never wash them now ).The guitarist was a bitch. He kept griping about cigarette smoke - dude you're in a bar in the 99s, everyone smokes. He yelled at me a few times and it took me a bit to figure out what he was crying about. Then he stole my cigarette out of my mouth and threw it. So we blew smoke at him the rest of the show. Pussy. 65 pct cap.

Quiet Riot - This was wig-era Dubrow. They had Cavazo on guitar, DudeBro on vocals, Banali on drums, and Chuck Wright on bass. They came out and my buddy and I started shouting for Metal Health immediately just to mess with em knowing full well it'd be the encore. Honestly they were great. Played a nice long set with solos n shit. Kevin was high energy, like he was playing an arena. It was a pretty full house. 90 pct cap maybe?

I caught David Lee Roth right around 99 or 2000 with Bart Walsh on guitar. They played our big local festival on an outdoor stadium stage. Roth's hair was insane. He had this brutal comb-over that was secured in place with Bobby pins. It was that bad 'hairdo festured on the cover of the Diamond Dave album. He wore a fluorescent lime green get-up and played to the cheap sets. High kicks, karate, leaps, all the goods. He was cocky as shit as he strutted the front of the stage mouthing "I'm gonna fuck ya." It was weird to see him with a guitarist who was simply going for note-for-note accuracy (and nailing it) vs a Vai or Becker, Holmes or Hunter. It felt like Roth doing Van Halen tribute vs. Roth solo. It was in fact a tribute as he didn't play a single DLR solo song. The joint was packed, likely due to the fact that the competing headliner at the festival was Rev Horton Heat which is a more select audience.

[MetalSludgeCEO]

96-97 & 98... I did NO shows with TUFF...

Tuff actually went in hiatus, after our "Religious Fix" tour, in Nov. 1995, Jorge & I decided to call it quits.

It was time... too much of a black cloud over our heads...

3 bassists and 3 drummers, in about 3-4 years time.

Also, 3 labels, agents, and the rest, just non-stop up-hill battle... so I said... "It's time"

I released "Decade of Disrespect" in early 1996... but then TUFF was asleep, other than some mail order.

I launched C.W.A. in Sept. of 1996, late Sept. and the debut CD was released the week before Thanksgiving.

By Christmas... I was loaded and selling 5,000+ CDs per week... SOLD! Out the door, paid for... and by the Super Bowl... I had put 6 figures into my pockets! #nuts

For the next 3 years. that you noted in this thread title, C.W.A. released 3 CDs, 1 VHS home video, sold about 50,000 units, and I made a Half Million dollars! #wtf

I also recorded my debut solo CD (1998) "Who The Hell Am I?" and started doing all the Tribute CDs. What a time...

While TUFF asleep... other stuff happened... including... this site... my idea, in August of 1998... to start a website, to compete with Netal Edge!

Here is how it all started > https://metalsludge.tv/happy-birthday-m ... ame-to-be/

If you haven't read that... every, or most questions about the early years of the site, are all answered right there! Enjoy!

$tEvil

[gtrjay]

Jon Bon Jovi promoting his second solo album in 1997:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9IARocbQAA

Yeah. But that was VH1 contest winner type thing.
Not the same thing as La Guns playing a pizza place.

[Tommy2Tone84]

1996

Didn’t see many shows that year. KISS Reunion in arenas. It was fun. Magical at times but I missed the 80s. It was a cruel irony since I spent most of the 80s wishing the original band or atleast Ace would come back. Be careful what you wish for.

1997

Alice Cooper, Dokken, Warrant and Slaughter. Place had a decent turn out. Fan reaction was mixed. I thought Slaughter were awesome. Warrant sucked, Dokken sucked worse. Alice was good. Crowd got electric and seem to finally fill in once he took the stage. Reb was playing guitar for him.

I saw Great White in a theater. I had seen them several times in ‘93-‘95 and they were awesome. I started losing interest at this specific show

I didn’t see many shows that year either

1998

I saw Dokken in a dive bar. They sucked

I saw Cinderella in a dive bar. They ruled

I saw Slaughter in a dive bar. Meh they were decent enough

I saw Motley Crue in a theater. They blew

[cowpins]

Night Ranger as a 3-piece w/ Gary Moon (twice, I believe).

[EzyRider]

In Seattle we had a club that had long since been the "in" spot and was referred to as the club where rock stars go to die - like a second run movie theater for music.

Great freakin' stories dood!! Was that the Offramp?? I left Seattle in 1989 so I lost track of the places. On one of my visits back home I saw the bass player from L7 jump off stage there and chase some random dude out the front door, then get back on stage and keep playing, it was pretty awesome.

[Black Stuff]

Cinderella (Webster Theater, Hartford CT), reunion tour, jam packed and they put on a great show.

Was this the show with Society's Children opening? I was at this one too.

Cinderalla was fantastic.

I think Hair of the Dog was the opener?

HOTD was a great band. Used to get a lot of chatter here on the boards back then

[knuck]

In Seattle we had a club that had long since been the "in" spot and was referred to as the club where rock stars go to die - like a second run movie theater for music.

Great freakin' stories dood!! Was that the Offramp?? I left Seattle in 1989 so I lost track of the places. On one of my visits back home I saw the bass player from L7 jump off stage there and chase some random dude out the front door, then get back on stage and keep playing, it was pretty awesome.

It's was the Ballard Firehouse

[knuck]

In Seattle we had a club that had long since been the "in" spot and was referred to as the club where rock stars go to die - like a second run movie theater for music.

During the late 90s at this club I saw

BulletBoys - They played hard and genuinely seemed to be enjoying playing together again. Marq's stage prancing felt really dated after Seattle had been washed over by grunge and underground punk but they sounded great. At one point right at the beginning of Smooth Up In Ya part of the hi-hat flew off so I jumped up and put it back together and Jimmy mouthed "Thank you!" After the show they hung around and talked to fans and Jimmy invited me to join them for dinner but my buddy was sick and wanted me to get him home. Place was prob 50 pct capacity

Faster Pussycat: This was when Taime was just starting to fuck with the songs and make em industrial. A few years later they'd done it to every song but at this point it was a bit of a blend. Taime is from Seattle and still sees family here so it wasn't lost on him what level he was playing at, likely having been to this very club before. They had a drop cloth that dropped at the start of the show so they still had a bit of the rockstar thing going. Taime looked REALLY disenchanted with the whole thing. He Sat down on the drum riser to sing house of pain then left the stage without finishing the show and never came back. They had prob 75 pct cap.

Dee Snider: Dee was touring with the S. M. F. 's playing all Twisted Sister music for the first time in a decade. This wasn't too long after the failure of Desperado so it had to sting playing a little club doing TS songs like he was back in 1980.. Dee put on a motherfucker of a show. Played a long set incredibly energetic. My girlfriend at the time had huge cans and wrapped her bra around his neck when he leaned over and sang at her "You're a sick motherfucker!" He realized it was a bra so he peered in her button down shirt to see if it was hers and got a show. His shock and her laughter are strong visuals in my brain. Oh yeah, then he groped her tits. I wasn't mad I mean, she set em free and she wasn't mad. (Afterwards I told her she can never wash them now ).The guitarist was a bitch. He kept griping about cigarette smoke - dude you're in a bar in the 99s, everyone smokes. He yelled at me a few times and it took me a bit to figure out what he was crying about. Then he stole my cigarette out of my mouth and threw it. So we blew smoke at him the rest of the show. Pussy. 65 pct cap.

Quiet Riot - This was wig-era Dubrow. They had Cavazo on guitar, DudeBro on vocals, Banali on drums, and Chuck Wright on bass. They came out and my buddy and I started shouting for Metal Health immediately just to mess with em knowing full well it'd be the encore. Honestly they were great. Played a nice long set with solos n shit. Kevin was high energy, like he was playing an arena. It was a pretty full house. 90 pct cap maybe?

I caught David Lee Roth right around 99 or 2000 with Bart Walsh on guitar. They played our big local festival on an outdoor stadium stage. Roth's hair was insane. He had this brutal comb-over that was secured in place with Bobby pins. It was that bad 'hairdo festured on the cover of the Diamond Dave album. He wore a fluorescent lime green get-up and played to the cheap sets. High kicks, karate, leaps, all the goods. He was cocky as shit as he strutted the front of the stage mouthing "I'm gonna fuck ya." It was weird to see him with a guitarist who was simply going for note-for-note accuracy (and nailing it) vs a Vai or Becker, Holmes or Hunter. It felt like Roth doing Van Halen tribute vs. Roth solo. It was in fact a tribute as he didn't play a single DLR solo song. The joint was packed, likely due to the fact that the competing headliner at the festival was Rev Horton Heat which is a more select audience.

I also saw Cinderella with Hair of The Dog opening at a club show but I can't recall the year. Had to be around then. It was packed. It was a mid size club called The Fenix with balcony standing room all around the stage. They were fucking amazing. It was a high energy, sweaty show on a tiny stage and the audience was really receptive. Of all the has-been 90s shows I saw, this one was the best.

[Playboyliquor59]

Vince at double d’s in Morristown NJ. My dad was doing sound, I think Eddie trunk was the announcer. 95.9 the rat and wdha promoted it. I just remember going to Bradlees because they had a food court and arcade and we had to buy towels or something. I was 11. Maybe 150 people? It was sorta full but small. 98 or 99. It was a strip joint but I think girls in bikinis were serving drinks, didn’t see tits.