Everyone is looking for their fountain of youth; a way to stay young if not physically then mentally. And I am here to tell you that it lives inside the heart of rock & roll. ALL rock & roll, no matter which way your tastes lean. As long as you’re rocking, you’re still like the kid you once were in a room full of posters and records. If you actually play rock & roll, it never stops beating.
Witness two so-called hair metal bands whose heyday was back in the early 90’s – Kix and Slaughter. They were extremely popular with as many fans as the next band: hit records on the charts, sold out concerts. But this is another era, whole new music genres have taken over while others have faded away. Yet metal of the 90’s has stuck around like a feisty wart that just won’t go away. You couldn’t kill it if you tried and they have tried. Fans of apocalypse guitars and high wattage vocal chords refuse to let it go. They fill not only venues like Hard Rock but they even have their own festivals.
So on a recent night before Christmas, I headed out to see Kix and Slaughter, wondering what I would get: still pumping rock & roll or out of shape glory days wannabes? Surprisingly I got more of the former with just a little bit of the latter. And the crowd ate it up with a fist pumping appetite.
With the high energy of Kix starting off this double-header with “No Ring Around Rosie”, “Girl Money” and “Midnite Dynamite”, vocalist Steve Whiteman was a ring leader with more oomph than your average young Paramore-ite. He had the crowd with him every step of the way. He made his connection early on by telling a story about condoms and then acknowledging his band’s approximate ten year hiatus in such a jovial self-mocking manner, there was no way this crowd was going to NOT like them.
Formed in Maryland in the late 1970’s, Kix was an actual influence on many of the metal bands that exploded in the 90’s. Two of their biggest hits, the power ballad “Don’t Close Your Eyes” and “Blow My Fuse”, were both played live with vim and vigor, with an exceptionally appealing bluesy intro to the latter song by guitarist Brian Forsythe. Original member guitarist Ronnie Younkins had a bit of fire in his soloing, especially on “Cold Blood”. Mark Schenker on bass and Jimmy Chalfant on drums were the glue that kept this band, out on what they call their “Kixmas” tour, from flying way off the Richter scale of lite-metal overload, especially with Whiteman pulling out the fun man lead man antics. For “Midnite Dynamite” he brought out the Kix umbrella and when he was leading the crowd in a sing-a-long competition, he laughingly told them, “That was real bad … dig deep down inside”. “Thank you rock & roll Biloxi drunk people”, he shouted happily.
Slaughter definitely had the better musicians: Dana Strum is one of the best bass players in music today and Zoltan Chaney is a psychotically un-tethered drummer that has to be seen to be believed. He was amazing, like Animal of the Muppets out on a day pass. Jeff Blando played wild guitar solos on “Mad About You” and “Take Me Away”. These guys also back Vince Neil when he is out solo on tour and well worth catching again and again.
Mark Slaughter, although at times not reaching the highest of high notes, can still push those vocal chords to an extreme. How he hasn’t stripped them completely is one of metal’s mysteries. Calling this “a family show”, he introduced his two sons Brandon and Eli, who came out on stage just long enough for their Dad to pat them on the back and brag, and he introduced the ballad “Fly To The Angels” by dedicating it to his father who had recently passed. During “Eye To Eye”, he made his way slowly through the crowd, singing, hugging, shaking hands, even posing for pictures.
Opening their set with a toast to the fans, Slaughter hit the stage pumping: “The Wild Life”, “Take Me Away”, “Burnin’ Bridges” and “Spend My Life”. “Fly To The Angels” captured a tender moment in a rock storm, as Mark asked everyone to “get your cell phones up in the air”. This would have been considered a slow blues grinder in any other genre of music other than metal. Mark ended the song by playing a bit of guitar behind his head.
Melding right into their biggest hit “Up All Night”, the crowd actually sang the opening lyrics for the band without their help; which goes to show, fans of bands like Slaughter and Kix are faithful. This is why hair metal of yore will probably never die out. New generations are discovering this brand of fun sexy lyrics via fun sexy guys with just a little age on them and keep spending dollars on seeing them live. And as long as someone like Dana Strum can keep hauling his chops up on that stage, fans are going to keep hauling their cookies to see them. Tis the fountain of youth.
