January 4, 2007

I had the genuine pleasure this past holiday weekend of attending Umphrey’s McGee’s three-night run at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom. One of the cooler aspects of these shows was that UM handpicked three great bands to open each night of the run. The North Mississippi Allstars opened the show on the 29th, followed by Los Lobos on the 30th and Taj Mahal on New Year’s Eve. It was incredible to get a taste of all of those bands before Umphrey’s owned my face.

Of the three opening acts, the band I most enjoyed was East L.A.’s Los Lobos, a Mexican-American rock band that has been going strong for more 30 years.

I was mostly familiar with Los Lobos’ music, but I had never gotten a chance to experience them live. You can surely color me impressed now…

As we mentioned in this space a few weeks ago, newly inducted Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is the new Bill Graham. Aunt Bobo, if you will. Pelosi’s put

Here’s why I think some of us obsess so much over both live music and sports: In themselves, there’s a natural beauty in watching something incredible and unscripted unfold in real time. But in addition to the ability to reflect upon a trove of both memorable and forgettable experiences, we also get to quantify those experiences through sheer statistics. After all, how often did you find yourself updating your Phish Stats after a nice run and smiling at the latest Notable Gap?

I’m always been a fan of keeping track of show stats, and I think ZZYZX probably created the best derivative form of entertainment in the music industry. Well, the accounting firm for Ace Cowboy & Associates has now officially crunched the numbers for this year’s annual report to the shareholders, and the results for 2006 are in: In all, I caught 86 live performances by 59 different bands at 60 ticketed shows in 37 separate venues. Not bad for my soul, not good for my wallet.

Most sites are done with all the Let’s Look Back at Last Year exercises, but I wanted to wait until every show was given a puncher’s chance to make the list. I’m not gonna break out into a rousing rendition of Mr. Kellerman’s “Let’s join in with one last chorus, visitors, staff and guests…” routine, but join me in taking one last peak at the best performances of the year, as I saw it.

I grew up in the days of Hair Metal, even staying up ever Saturday night to watch Headbanger’s Ball on MTV. At first Motley Crue, Def Leppard and Quiet Riot were my thing. Then as the ’80s turned into the ’90s I was more of a Poison, Guns N’ Roses, and Metallica guy. And while I loved the heavy shit, I also enjoyed when bands showed a completely different side and busted out the power ballad.

An ingenious formula was established in the late ’80s for a band releasing a heavy yet catchy single and following it up with a slow song to show the emerging artists’ more sensitive side. Examples of this major phenomenon include Firehouse (Don’t Treat Me Bad > Love of a Lifetime), Warrant (Down Boys > Heaven) and Europe (The Final Countdown > Carrie).

At first I was going to list the most popular and successful power ballads, but screw that. Even though Don’t Treat Me Bad and More Than Words sold the most records, songs such as Love Song and November Rain still hold up 13 years after Headbanger’s Ball went off the air. So this edition of The B List features my 10 favorite power ballads from the Hair Metal band era (1984 – 1993) — make sure to click on the song title to see the classic video for each of these songs:

10. Love Song – Tesla: Many Hair Metal bands sucked musically and were basically productions of record companies. Tesla broke that mold by combining honest songwriting with five truly talented musicians. Love Song provides an excellent example of the power-ballad formula of instrumental opening > sappy lyrics > powerful guitar solo that was a hallmark of many songs on this list.

9. Here I Go Again – Whitesnake: Tawny Kitaen introduced herself as the “girl from the Whitesnake video” to her castmates on VH1’s Surreal Life 6. That speaks volumes about the power of the music video, as well as the power of a hot chick rolling around on a Jaguar in a white negligee. Whitesnake’s singer David Coverdale was a lucky man, as he dated Tawny Kitaen during her best years, well before she started beating up baseball players and doing tons of coke. Oh, there was a song that we were talking about, right? That happens.

Read on for the rest of this week’s edition of The B List: Hair-Metal Power Ballads…