Web Edition Tuesday, Jun. 26, 2001  
 
News - June 20, 2001

Steamy metal jam rocks
to ‘Manchester maniacs’

By GARY R. DENNIS
Union Leader Staff

If you thought a show that featured bands like Poison, Warrant, Quiet Riot, and Enuff Znuff would attract only the teeny-boppiest of teenyboppers, you were dead wrong.

Singer Family Park in Manchester rocked last night and there was no age prerequisite. Glam-metal fans from ages in the single digits to forty-somethings turned out on a steamy night to see if the ’80s-rock bands still had it.

The Poison Glam Slam Metal Jam shaped up to be what all its promoters and its title said it would: Glitzy costumes that rivaled the attire at a beauty pageant; thundering downbeats that registered on the Richter scale, and some of the more popular hard rock bands of the 1980s and ’90s.

You may remember them. You may have listened to them in the glam-rock period of the mid- to late 1980s. And, if so, you probably still have a hard time hearing a dinner-mate speak in crowded restaurants.

The metal bands — note “heavy metal” is not used to describe this more mainstream type of hard rock — are notorious for being obnoxious and sexually explicit. Many lead singers also have a condition known as “potty mouth” and they drop F-bombs left and right between songs.

But whatever the rolling-eyed parents say, the groups have made a living for 20 years with catchy tunes that most won’t admit get their feet tapping.

Poison’s ballad “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” is still a prom and wedding standby, while “Talk Dirty To Me” catches the attention of air guitarists at any function. Warrant’s “Heaven” still makes some want to hold their lit cigarette lighters high above their heads. And who can forget Quiet Riot’s “Feel the Noize,” arguably the first real “metal” song of the 1980s?

If fans were looking for a quiet night of relaxing music along the riverbanks, they failed miserably in their attempt. These bands were loud in the 80’s, still are now and always will be. They pride themselves in the size of their amplifiers and volume at which they can get fans’ ears ringing the next morning.

In fact, Quiet Riot lead man Kevin DuBrow called those attending a bunch of “Manchester maniacs,” and “animals.” That only seemed to please the crowd packed on the riverside lawn.

“We’re All Crazy Now,” was the first ’Riot tune to remind headbangers why “Cum On Feel the Noize” brought the house down in the 1980s.

DuBrow, who is well known as the masked strait-jacket wearer on the jacket of the “Metal Health” album is some kind of tall. His voice, after twenty-odd years, can still screech and hit the notes.

Of still performing after more than 20 years, DuBrow said, “he takes good care of himself these days.”

“The Eighties . . . it was abuse and self-destructive behavior,” DuBrow told The Union Leader. “I was a lot younger then.”

Jani Lane, the lead singer of Warrant, who traded in his long blonde locks for a shorter hairstyle, gladly gave his attention to the Union Leader as he pumped his arms and readied himself for the show backstage.

Still doing it after 20 years is a rip, he said.

“Still (expletive) fun,” Lane said. “I still don’t have to work a day job.”

And when Warrant hit the stage, they whipped it up with a song that skyrocketed them to stardom years ago, “Where the Down Boys Go.”

Sound troubles plagued the first few songs for Warrant, but you seriously wouldn’t know. Warrant, once quite popular on the hard rock scene, mixed up the show with old favorites from their albums, “Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich” and “Cherry Pie.”

Poison picked up where a hot, steamy and rocking crowd left off when Warrant finished. The headliners screeched and whammy-barred their way through their fans’ favorite tunes, and wowed Manchester’s metal-heads with a stunning light and pyrotechnic show.

The information on this site is copyrighted and cannot be reused
without the permission of The Union Leader.
 
 
LIST OF ADVERTISERS