Last night at the House of Rock here in White Marsh, Maryland, VH1 swept into town w/their Metal Mania Stripped tour. The show was a great package of artists @ a great low ticket cost. Price of tickets were only $25 & as an added bonus, there was a deal if you paid an extra $7.95 you recieved the "Stripped Vol. 2" CD & a pass to meet the bands after the show. The doors opened @ 7pm & the show was scheduled to begin at 9pm. 9pm came & went & the show had yet to start. Around 9:30pm, the MC for the night came up & introduced Kip & Reb. Both came in through the stage door, which at the House of Rock, leads to the front parking lot! The bands had their tour busses blocking off the entire front of the building. Kip & Reb were welcomed very warmly by screaming fans & women making their way forward to the stage. The show kicks off & right away you hear just how amazing Kip's voice is. Kip was able to nail every single note in each of his songs. Reb's playing was awesome. The crowd really went wild as Kip & Reb broke into very energetic, yet moving versions of such classics as "Blind Revolution Mad", "Rainbow In The Rose", "Headed For A Heartbreak" & "Seventeen". At one point in "Seventeen", Kip changes the words & says "She's only 35" & then gives this hysterical grin. That was pretty much the end of the Winger set, but he & Reb left the stage after stealing the show. Awesome, nothing else needs to be said about those two. Next up was Stephen Pearcy. Stephen hit the stage w/two guitarists along side of him. Playing great songs such as "Lay It Down", "Wanted Man", "Walking The Dog", "Back For More" & a really bluesed up version of "Round & Round". Stephen's voice for the most part sounded right on, recreating the 80s just perfectly. He sounds pretty much the same today as he did 20 years ago. Musically, most of the songs worked in the acoustic structure, but not all. "Round & Round" is just one of those songs that didn't sound right. Other than that song, everything else was cool, including a short version of "Over the Hills & Far Away". Stephen played the crowd & had them going well. Next up was Firehouse. I have the "Good Acoustics" CD & knew that Firehouse's music lends itself well to the acoustic setting, so it was no shock that they came on & were one of the highlights of the show. Firehouse were probably the most prepared for the show. It seemed as though this was a set that they had performed this way a thousand times. Vocalist C.J. Snare was dead on w/every note. Some of the higher notes didn't have quite the power that they did back in the day, but that may have been intentional considering the acoustic nature of the arrangements. Guitarist Bill Leverty turned in a top notch performance as did the band as a whole. Firehouse had their act together & one of the highlights was their harmony vocals. Great! They performed "Reach For The Sky", "Love Of A Lifetime", "All She Wrote", "When I Look Into Your Eyes", "Seven Bridges Road", & "Don't Treat Me Bad". Again, these guys were great & really impressed me w/their performance. Next up was Jani Lane. I was really looking forward to hearing Jani do some of the old Warrant songs. I was never the biggest fan of Warrant's, but they did write alot of songs that I really liked. I had heard about Jani appearing on some tv show & not doing so hot & looking horrible. Well, he & this guitarist hit the stage & the first thing he did was go to the mic & say "how do I look?" while lifting his shirt up & rubbing his stomach. People cheered, I guess, but I thought that was a little strange. He then started playing "Uncle Tom's Cabin". Not even into the second verse, Jani stops the song & starts asking the guitarist "what was that" or something to that effect. They then played around for a minute & Jani said, "Let's play Heaven". The guitarist then pulled out an I-pod that had the drum tracks for "Heaven" programmed. Jani got up & turned the I-pod off. He & the guitarist then joked again & tried "Heaven" again. And again. They tried playing that song three seperate times & couldn't get through it. Then Jani started playing Prince's "Purple Rain". This could've been cool. However, Jani spent the entire time singing this song to the guitarist. That was a little creepy! Actually, he spent the entire set singing to the guitarist. After his initial entrance, he never once looked at or acknowledged the crowd. His eyes never left the guitarist! Jani then tried to go into my favorite Warrant song, "I Saw Red". I really wanted to hear this, but based on how the set was going & his performance I just wanted this set to end. They stumbled their way through most of the song, then got up & walked off stage. First of all, ok this guy may've had some personal demons that have damaged him, but his voice was horrible. He could hardly hit the mid range notes let alone the high notes. His voice cracked on just about every line he sang. He forgot the words several times. His guitarist didn't seem to know the songs either. It seemed to me like Jani was either on something, drunk or just plain lost it. I'm not sure. His guitarist came off as being totally lost on stage. Jani may have those personal demons & I hope he can beat them, but I can't help but feel that he had a total lack of respect for himself, the music & most of all, us, the fans. I had already planned earlier in the night on buying his new CD & after that performance, I saved my $12. Instead of buying his CD, that bought my Taco Bell dinner! Last up was Don Dokken. Don came to the stage along w/Reb Beach. Don came into probably the biggest response of the night. Don came in & greeted the crowd saying that he just woke up & had just flown in from LA. The two started their set off w/"It's Not Love" & then played "Into The Fire", "Breaking The Chains", "Alone Again", "Dream Warriors", & "In My Dreams". Again, another very short set list. Don's voice sounded great. He always has such a natural sound to his voice. This for me was the high point of the show. Don played some guitar here & actually proved himself a very good guitarist. Reb obviously knew the stuff well from his stint in Dokken a few years ago. Although the set from Don was way too short, it was an awesome feeling to be in the front row of a show in this kind of setting seeing Don & Reb do the acoustic thing. Don joked w/the crowd a bit & seemed alot more intimate w/the crowd than any show I've seen from him in the past. Don left by thanking the fans & saying the band Dokken will be back soon. Overall this was a great night. Stephen Pearcy was good. Kip Winger & Don Dokken, both along w/Reb Beach were the highlights of the night. Firehouse turned in what was probably the most organized performance of the night. Jani Lane, well, he was a mess. A complete mess. Disrespecting the fans is a "Bitter Pill" to swallow. As for merchandise, I was both happy & disappointed w/it. I've been to several shows over the last year or so & have been blown away w/how expensive the merchandise is. To VH1's credit, the prices here were very reasonable, if not down right cheap. They had two Kip Winger solo CDs, the new Firehouse CD & both Metal Mania CDs for $10. Most of the shirts were $15 w/the exception of the Stephen Pearcy longsleeve shirt, which was $20. Pearcy's shirt by the way was easily the coolest looking shirt available. The Firehouse shirt was pretty cool too. Don Dokken had absolutely no merchandise available. Jani Lane had a shirt & his new solo CD. He lost a sale from me on the CD with his horrific performance. The only item I bought was the Kip Winger solo disc "Made By Hand", which looks to be the same exact CD as "Down Incognito", minus two tracks. Wish I had known that when I grabbed it! That's alright though, I don't mind slapping my $10 down to support Kip, a truly professional musician. My only other complaint was the length of sets played here. Most were about a half hour to 45 minutes in length. I really wish Kip & Reb would come around on an acoustic tour of their own. The show ended before 1am. They could've gone on longer. Great show though, well worth seeing.
