L.A. Guns Concert Review
L.A. GUNS GO ‘HI FI’ IN CLEVELAND
Show Date: May 7, 2009
Location: Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.
Venue: Hi Fi Concert Club
Reviewer: Motley Mike
Band Websites: www.laguns.net – www.myspace.com/lagunsofficial
Last week I was lucky and got to see the band that turned me into the Hair Metal fan that I am today, the legendary L.A. Guns. This was the first L.A. Guns concert I have been to, and I’ll tell you, I don’t think it’s gonna be the last!
My Dad, sister and I all went together that night, Mom didn’t come because she hates concerts lol. We got to the club around 6:30pm and the first band didn’t come onstage until 8. Then we had to sit through three other bands before L.A. Guns emerged. The first two bands were cool, but the third one that played totally sucked.
At about 11:30 L.A. Guns came onstage and the band was full of energy! They opened the show with “Slap In The Face” which totally kicked ass as the crowd was going wild! The third song played that night was “Never Enough”, which is another one of my favorites. It was during “Malaria” that some drunk chick in the audience was really enjoying the show! She kept moving from side to side as she was rubbing up against me and her boyfriend. I was waiting for her to say ‘sorry’ or something, but she was too smashed to even notice that I wasn’t her man. Then vocalist Phil Lewis said, “This next song we never even planned on playing live during any of our shows, but we’ve been playing it for this whole tour” as they stormed into “Sleazy Come Easy Go”.
The crowd got kinda shallow after a while though, as I remember guitarist Stacey Blades raising up a bottle of bear and saying, “OK, who’s gonna drink with me,” and not a lot of people did. Regardless, the band carried on and pretty much played the entire ‘Cocked & Loaded’ album. The crowd finally came back to life and got pretty wild during “Sex Action” and “Electric Gypsy”, both of which can be found on the debut CD.
One thing I don’t understand is that a lot of people say you can’t have L.A. Guns without Tracii, because what a load of shit that is! Stacey Blades can play just as good, if not better, and sounded exactly the same as all of the other albums Tracii was a part of.
Anyway, after L.A. Guns finished their set my sister and I immediately made our way to the front of the club where the bar was because the band was going to sign everyone’s merchandise. We actually ended up being one of the first in line to meet them. One thing I will never forget is when I went up to Stacey to get my ‘Snake Eyes’ book signed. I was wearing my Roxx Gang t-shirt and Stacey took notice of it right away as he was the guitar player with them at one time. It was cool because we had a short conversation about where I got it and everything. Then I got my ‘Hollywood Vampires’ CD signed by Phil and drummer Steve Riley, followed by the entire group’s signatures on a piece of paper that I had with me.
Surprisingly there weren’t that many people up to get their stuff signed, they were all busy hanging out at the bar. The same thing happened while L.A. Guns were playing. There were plenty of people by the stage, but there were at least 10 more over by the bar and I’m thinking to myself, “WTF! Get your asses in here!” But at the same time I could understand because it was fairly crowded down by the stage.
After we got all of our stuff signed, we made our exit and headed home. Dad went into the club only liking “The Ballad Of Jayne”, but he came out an L.A. Guns fan! So that was another upside of the day, turning my father into a sleaze rocker!
The band sounded great and over 20 years later Phil still sounds the same as he did on the debut album. If L.A. Guns ever come to your town, GO SEE THEM! Especially if they are at a bar or nightclub because tickets will be probably be cheap, but don’t forget to haul your asses to the stage!
