Bands who were big regionally and never broke big

[DemonFilth2001]

Oh gawd no. I saw a few Ded Engine shows in '83-'84 and it was always some Elks' lodge that they rented in a weird little town. I think the biggest I saw was at a gymnasium/field house.

At most they would draw a couple hundred.

I guess anyone, regardless of size, can buy ads in major magazines. As a young teen, I just assumed they were huge in their local area and on the cusp of exploding.

[VinnieVincentsVag]

A hair band from Rock Hill, SC. Suburb of Charlotte. Named New York

Huge light show. Props. The works. Released an ep. Signed with a label then vanished.

We did a few gigs with them

[VinnieVincentsVag]

Still Rain

The guitarist went on to hit it big in Sevendust.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clint_Lowery

As an aside, I know a 19-year-old groupie who once put on a dildo show for the Still Rain band and crew. Years later she found out that story had spread all over the Southeast. Lucky for her this was way before cell phone video.

They all went on to bigger things
Seether
Jerry Cantrell
7Dust
Dark New Day
Stuck Mojo
DoubleDrive

Some talented guys

[WhiteHouseSubsAC]

Benny Mardones (Syracuse). Even though he had the one big hit that guy was the darling of the Salt City for most of the 80s.
Dracula Jones (Syracuse)
The Godz (Cleveland)
805 (Long Island)

[FreddyFender]

This thread got me to thinking about this band my Dad used to talk about: The Blitz Brothers. According to him, they were the biggest band in southern California after he got out of the service in the 70s, and they should have been huge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6lhHnUc9RQ

Typed on into Google and here they are, I'm assuming at their peak. The internet is pretty awesome sometimes.

[FreddyFender]

This thread got me to thinking about this band my Dad used to talk about: The Blitz Brothers. According to him, they were the biggest band in southern California after he got out of the service in the 70s, and they should have been huge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6lhHnUc9RQ

Typed into Google and here they are. The internet is pretty awesome sometimes.

[Doyle Hargraves]

Celibrity Skin out of Los Angeles late 80's early 90's was a sort of wilder Jane's Addiction and were also on XXX records for a bit. They had a bunch of LA punk alumni in and out of the band. I saw a show in Chicago and it was awesome. They did one full length record and and EP. Their LP is great almost power pop and their cover of SOS by Abba is excellent.

[Hellsinkey]

Celibrity Skin out of Los Angeles late 80's early 90's was a sort of wilder Jane's Addiction and were also on XXX records for a bit. They had a bunch of LA punk alumni in and out of the band. I saw a show in Chicago and it was awesome. They did one full length record and and EP. Their LP is great almost power pop and their cover of SOS by Abba is excellent.

I liked Celebrity Skin's lp and ep. I think the guitarist plays now with Redd Kross.

[Sleek]

Yah. Jason. He is perfect for Redd Kross. Don Bolles from the Germs was the Celebrity Skin drummer.

I fucking loved Celebrity Skin. The best thing L.A. Guns ever did was taking them out on tour opening in '90/'91 or whenever.

The crowds DID NOT GET THEM AT ALL, which sort of made me like them more. I actually ended up mixing sound for them because the local guys had no idea what they were supposed to be lol.

Still great memories of that tour...will never forget their bass guy, Tim Ferris, going on stage at an outdoor gig in some peckerwood place (Smiley's Acres. A farmer decided to put a venue in one of his fields. Cannot find info because google is trash now) wearing nothing but a red-white-and-blue-with-stars cheerleader skirt, and just fucking rocking.

[Bono Nettencourt]

Benny Mardones (Syracuse). Even though he had the one big hit that guy was the darling of the Salt City for most of the 80s.
Dracula Jones (Syracuse)
The Godz (Cleveland)
805 (Long Island)

The Godz put out 3 records... I knew of them from the old Rolling Stone Records Guide.

[Hellsinkey]

Benny Mardones (Syracuse). Even though he had the one big hit that guy was the darling of the Salt City for most of the 80s.
Dracula Jones (Syracuse)
The Godz (Cleveland)
805 (Long Island)

The Godz put out 3 records... I knew of them from the old Rolling Stone Records Guide.

Good band, I have their s/t on cd and couple of others on mp3.

[Hatchets Molly]

Benny Mardones (Syracuse). Even though he had the one big hit that guy was the darling of the Salt City for most of the 80s.
Dracula Jones (Syracuse)
The Godz (Cleveland)
805 (Long Island)

The Godz put out 3 records... I knew of them from the old Rolling Stone Records Guide.

Saw them once in high school in a small theater in Marion, Ohio (a horrible typical midwest town). I never got into them. Only song I seem to semi-recall was RocknRoll Machine (or something close to that).

[Bono Nettencourt]

They seem like an American Anvil.

[Sleek]

Saw them once in high school in a small theater in Marion, Ohio (a horrible typical midwest town). I never got into them. Only song I seem to semi-recall was RocknRoll Machine (or something close to that).

I went and saw them with a few of the Poison guys on a night off in '86 or so...somewhere back in the woods at a club in the uncool part of the east-ish US, like rural Maryland or Pennsylvania or some such shit. They were very excited about it, but I had never heard of the band.

All I remember was that the guitar player had really long hair. I think they billed him as having the longest hair of any man.

...and their peckerwood singer went into a long spiel back stage about how you got to coat your dick in Neosporin and wrap it in gauze to get it to heal right when you do too much fuckin'. He did this as if he was passing down the wisdom of the ages, specifically TO Bret, who looked appalled.

Good. Times.

[gtrjay]

From Michigan

19 Wheels (E. Lansing / Grand Rapids) - these guys were in the cusp of hitting it big.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5 ... iFGFF87DWf



Domestic Problems (Grand Rapids area but all over State)

https://youtu.be/owaGhEdW_yg?si=m4zrstGopYjK5dKO



The Fags - Detroit. Best band that never made it. Yeah I know the name issue. But their songs were great!

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5 ... lxdaY1ciOV

My favorite regional band from Michigan (Mount Pleasant via Detroit?) were the Dirty Americans. The started with a slightly altered line up as more Nu Metal as The Workhorse Movement that had a great record for the time. Anyway, Dirty Americans were around for 5 years or so and they had several records out on Roadrunner but no hits to speak of. Lot of great songs, great classic rock vibe.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=O ... eGrRI_OcXM

My old band played with these guys at the state theatre for tigers opening day. We had some laughs during load in. Good dudes.

Went to see them love a couple times at the magic bag and we stayed in touch about doing another show together.

[HoldenSSV]

Here's a song from Beau Coup. Straight-ahead, catchy AOR:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP9jEmNIpmc

[DemonFilth2001]

Celibrity Skin out of Los Angeles late 80's early 90's was a sort of wilder Jane's Addiction and were also on XXX records for a bit. They had a bunch of LA punk alumni in and out of the band. I saw a show in Chicago and it was awesome. They did one full length record and and EP. Their LP is great almost power pop and their cover of SOS by Abba is excellent.

I liked Celebrity Skin's lp and ep. I think the guitarist plays now with Redd Kross.

Those two kids are still rapping?

[Thrasherfan17]

A hair band from Rock Hill, SC. Suburb of Charlotte. Named New York

Huge light show. Props. The works. Released an ep. Signed with a label then vanished.

I remember them in the late 80s/early 90s. I was a too young to get into the bars but my older friends really liked them.

[CanadianMetal]

Would THC - Texas Hippie Coalition , fall into the regional category?

I saw them at Rocklahoma and they seemed to have a good local following for a band I had never heard of , till then .

[cowpins]

Perhaps. Local following = check. You've never heard of them, neither has the majority = check.

[dmbrocker]

Just thought of another one: would Drivin' N' Cryin' count? They were fairly popular here in the southeast, I think.

[DemonFilth2001]

Just thought of another one: would Drivin' N' Cryin' count? They were fairly popular here in the southeast, I think.

No. They had a gold album!

[AnthonyFocxsFogMachine]

The Samples

Sean Kelly is the patron saint of career self sabotage.

How did he f-ck it up?

[AnthonyFocxsFogMachine]

Btw, as to the Tragically Hip, Rush tried to help. They offered them the opening slot on a 90# tour and management convinced them not to do it. Peart wrote about it in his blog. He was clearly frustrated with the bad advice the band got

I dunno. RUSH fans were notoriously hard on the openers.

[Charles Bukaki]

Yah. Jason. He is perfect for Redd Kross. Don Bolles from the Germs was the Celebrity Skin drummer.

I fucking loved Celebrity Skin. The best thing L.A. Guns ever did was taking them out on tour opening in '90/'91 or whenever.

The crowds DID NOT GET THEM AT ALL, which sort of made me like them more. I actually ended up mixing sound for them because the local guys had no idea what they were supposed to be lol.

Still great memories of that tour...will never forget their bass guy, Tim Ferris, going on stage at an outdoor gig in some peckerwood place (Smiley's Acres. A farmer decided to put a venue in one of his fields. Cannot find info because google is trash now) wearing nothing but a red-white-and-blue-with-stars cheerleader skirt, and just fucking rocking.

I believe you may be talking about Shiley Acres. I've never been there but Clutch put on a few annual one day festival shows there up until covid. Old Man Shiley died a few years ago and it looks like they haven't booked anything since 2022

https://shileyacres.rocks/

[Sleek]

Nice. That's the place.

Always wondered why Smiley's Acres didn't turn anything up.

Love to know the full story of that venue. Just checked setlist.fm and there are gigs going back to '77! So many Kix and Wrathchild US shows!

Looks like the one I was remembering is Oct 13, 1991.

[dmbrocker]

Just thought of another one: would Drivin' N' Cryin' count? They were fairly popular here in the southeast, I think.

No. They had a gold album!

Yeah, but what was their touring draw outside of the southeast? I dig 'em, but it seems like they wouldn't exactly be an act that drew in the California/Pacific coast or northeast markets as well, would they? Correct me if I'm wrong about this.

[cinman1802000]

The Why Store out of Indianapolis circa '93-95
https://youtu.be/h_XYNYmievg?si=LZV9VHh0ef1DP0g1
https://youtu.be/GxEYiwSBD0w?si=tL7RTRqSQ5fPRny6