Heaven Isn't Too Far Away...Well, Maybe We Passed It
8 Comments Published by Carrie M on Thursday, September 04, 2008 at 4:50 PM.
I spent most of Labor Day weekend in Virginia Beach with friends who intended to run the Rock n Roll half marathon. I went down with Elle and A to watch their son, who we have newly dubbed Baby Maki in place of "buddy" for a nickname, for a few hours while they ran. Because I don't run unless it's away from something dangerous like zombies, towards food or beer. Although my friends didn't end up running, there were still lots of Rock n Roll marathon activities throughout the weekend. We knew Billy Idol and the B-52s were headlining and sadly missed Morris Day and the Time on Friday night, but when we got there and looked at the full schedule, there was a band I was so excited to see on Saturday night:
*As I've said before on this blog, when I was 13 I thought Bret Michaels was the hottest thing ever. Now, Bret is 44 and has a tv show where 10s of women think the same thing and take off articles of clothing as often as possible to show their "love" for him. Add like 100 to that number, and that was a Tuesday for Bret in 1989.
Warrant.
Yes, that's right. Warrant. See the picture to the left, circa the good old days in the late 80s from M
etal Edge - oh yes, I can still tell a Metal Edge photo. It's damn possible I had this on my wall. I was a headbanger chick in my early teenage years, but I didn't waste my time with real metal like Metallica. I went straight to the good, sticky sweet stuff: glam metal. Hair metal, glam rock, whatever. My very favorite was Poison, hands down. Bret Michaels was the hottest thing ever.* Over the 3 years or so I was into that music, I loved several other bands along the way: Bon Jovi, my first real love in that music scene; Motley Crue; Skid Row; Trixter; Warrant. I flirted a bit with Slaughter, Winger, L.A. Guns, Cinderella but Poison, Bon Jovi, and Warrant occupied the medal positions in that order.
etal Edge - oh yes, I can still tell a Metal Edge photo. It's damn possible I had this on my wall. I was a headbanger chick in my early teenage years, but I didn't waste my time with real metal like Metallica. I went straight to the good, sticky sweet stuff: glam metal. Hair metal, glam rock, whatever. My very favorite was Poison, hands down. Bret Michaels was the hottest thing ever.* Over the 3 years or so I was into that music, I loved several other bands along the way: Bon Jovi, my first real love in that music scene; Motley Crue; Skid Row; Trixter; Warrant. I flirted a bit with Slaughter, Winger, L.A. Guns, Cinderella but Poison, Bon Jovi, and Warrant occupied the medal positions in that order. My mother was very kind to me and let me go see most of these bands (except the ones I flirted with, never got out to them). The rule was I had to go with an adult, and of course I had to ask permission first. My mom went with me to my first show, Bon Jovi/Skid Row. My dad took me to one Poison show. Friends of the family who were music guys went with me to another Poison show and Crue, a neighbor took me to see Trixter/Warrant**. So when I saw that Warrant was going to be playing that night in VA Beach, I was so effing there.
You guys remember Warrant, right? Remember that ridiculous song "Cherry Pie"? Yeah, that was Warrant and that was their biggest hit. Personally, I'm more a fan of their first album, and song-wise my favorite is what has been dubbed their rock anthem "Down Boys" and of course, "Heaven". I always thought Heaven was their biggest hit, but after an impromptu survey and the show, I know now that it's Cherry Pie. A and I walked down the Neptune Stage on 31st Street at around 9, go carded to get beer tickets, cracked a couple of Bud Lights and waited for their set to start at 9:30. There were definitely people there, but it was no problem to find a place to stand and get a decent view.
I was so excited to get into the Way Back Machine to 1991 to see them. I told A that I'd probably be pretty confused because I didn't know who was singing for Warrant now, b/c I didn't think it'd be the original singer, Jani Lane since he'd left the band ages ago. The last time I saw him, he was drinking his way through his body weight in vodka on Celebrity Fit Club.
They came out and started playing Down Boys, and holy shit, that's Jani Lane! I smacked A's arm and told him so. I was SO EXCITED. I felt like a teenager again***. True to my teenage self, after noticing it was in fact Jani Lane, I looked for the resident hot guys in the band: Erik Turner and Jerry Dixon. Still hot. What can I say, old habits die hard for me? I'll still turn and look at a guy with long hair. Erik has his ha
ir cut short and Jerry still has long hair, but it's not the pouffy, curlier thing happening from back in the day. And truthfully, Erik looks better now than he did before without the long hair and suspenders clipped to leather pants with no shirt. I couldn't tell if it was the original lead guitar player, Joey Allen, because I mostly knew him by his long blond hair and this dude was seriously short haired with cool eyeglasses, but the drummer was definitely the same guy (Stephen Sweet, and really, I honestly remembered all their names) - same crazy curly hair just shorter, but with the addition of Chris Cornell-like facial hair. The guys looked pretty good I had to say. See photo of Warrant now - muy improved, no? Jani had seen better days, but at first glance, he seemed better than his former Celebrity Fit Club self and I never thought he was much of a looker to begin with although he was saddled with the weight of trying to be the hot one since he was the singer.
ir cut short and Jerry still has long hair, but it's not the pouffy, curlier thing happening from back in the day. And truthfully, Erik looks better now than he did before without the long hair and suspenders clipped to leather pants with no shirt. I couldn't tell if it was the original lead guitar player, Joey Allen, because I mostly knew him by his long blond hair and this dude was seriously short haired with cool eyeglasses, but the drummer was definitely the same guy (Stephen Sweet, and really, I honestly remembered all their names) - same crazy curly hair just shorter, but with the addition of Chris Cornell-like facial hair. The guys looked pretty good I had to say. See photo of Warrant now - muy improved, no? Jani had seen better days, but at first glance, he seemed better than his former Celebrity Fit Club self and I never thought he was much of a looker to begin with although he was saddled with the weight of trying to be the hot one since he was the singer.Back to "Down Boys". Again like my teenage self, I still had absolutely no idea what they were singing about. What the hell is that song even about anyway? "One million miles an hour headed out/ to where the down boys go". What does that mean? I still don't know the answer, but I still knew all the damn words. Between me and Jani Lane, I think I knew more of the words than he did. The first verse was a little choppy, got through the chorus because that's the easy part, right? The second verse, yeah that was pretty much butchered or just wasn't sung as he interacted with he first row of people shoved up to the stage. Second chorus was way rushed, careening into a the guitar solo, and more stumbling through the last semi bridge and two choruses. Jani was all over the place, I can only assume wasted. He definitely wasn't pulling his notes like he should have been, because he used to have some decent pipes. Well, I liked his voice anyway and he was better than a lot of singers in bands out there who enjoyed more success than Warrant. I'm totally looking in Vince Neil's direction.
Maybe I should have been tipped off that this wasn't going to be the glory days of Warrant considering their merch table featured Cherry Pie tour t-shirts...from 1991. The show continued to get worse with Jani. The band was great though, but when the singer is out of it...The next hit to be played was "Heaven" which of course I recognized because Jani had his white acoustic guitar that I totally remember from the video that I have seen probably at least a thousand times. Jani told us that he wanted our help singing, and it turned into freaking Warrant karaoke. I think he let the audience sing at least half that song. Again, the notes weren't there like they should have been. I don't even know what the hell he was singing in some of the song, and I seriously know that song backwards and forwards. Later, Jani seemed to attempt to play in the guitar intro to "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and couldn't do it (not the acoustic intro, mind you. I think his head might have exploded on the spot), so he told Joey to do it. He did, because what else can you do? And because Joey can actually play the guitar. Well. Another nearly unrecognizable version of the song. You get the point.
Their encore consisted of one song. Cherry Pie. You've probably already guessed that the song wasn't that great a few nights ago. The guys were very gracious. Jani was very grateful and humble to the crowd, who were actually quite forgiving with him and his vocal "stylings" for the night. I think most of the band was pysched to get off the stage, although Erik stayed to throw out his guitar picks to the crowd. I had moved my way up to the first few rows since A had gone back to the hotel, but did not come back with any picks. Much like my teenage self.
Once I got home, I looked up some Warrant info to catch up. Apparently, the band just went back to its original line up after 14 years or something. Mind you, I stopped listening to Warrant regularly only 16 years ago. They did one of their first reunion shows in Vegas over the summer, where the crowd was not so forgiving. Jani made a pigs ear of that performance and people asked for their money back.
It was awesome. It was terrible. It was awesomely bad. But I still loved it. Looking back, we had to know that kind of music had a limited shelf life. I still listen to it from time to time, though. And more Warrant songs have found their way onto my mixes than Poison songs, so I'm really glad I got to see them again and relive some of my youth. Even if it was a bit sad but I'm very glad I was too young to get sucked into the hair metal culture fully. I'm totally okay with never being on a tour bus or covered with tattoos of defunct or dysfunctional glam bands. I guess Cinderella had it right all this time, as Warrant has learned the hard way, playing their free show in VA Beach with a wasted lead singer. You don't know what you got till it's gone.
*As I've said before on this blog, when I was 13 I thought Bret Michaels was the hottest thing ever. Now, Bret is 44 and has a tv show where 10s of women think the same thing and take off articles of clothing as often as possible to show their "love" for him. Add like 100 to that number, and that was a Tuesday for Bret in 1989.
**I think it was Trixter and Warrant. I know I've seen both of them, but I couldn't tell you who they supported, but I'm pretty sure the show I went to was after Warrant and Poison broke up on tour in 1991, then Warrant went on to headline later in the year.
hehe. i've been waiting for a post like this!
dad look me to poison in 91, too. good ol' days!
Sweeet.
I've been a big fan of the hair metal nostalgia tours (mostly Poison, Cinderella, Dokken, Slaughter and such), but sadly there has been no Warrant out my way. I need to keep my eye out for these things.
I do remember Poison / Warrant from back in 91. Awesome show. Fun times. I was probably at half the shows you were back then.
Incidentally, it's John from London. Hope you've been well for the past decade-plus!
My mom never let me go see the hair bands. I hated her for that.
In fact, I still do...
mr emily - i love the fact that we geeked out over the hair bands in 7th grade earth science. and the bond remains!
jon a - picture if you will a lot of sputtering over here...holy shit! you are john from london! how did you find me? how the hell are you? i knew i liked you - you have impeccable taste in music! :-)
velvet - if you ever want to see a hair band these days, you can count on me for a date.
I miss the good old days...
nostalgic post..
lovely blog
Yeah, um, you don't have to ask me twice. I need to make up for lost time.
Okay, so totally off topic, but I love that you kicknamed the baby "Baby Maki"!!!! Sorry, couldn't get past that part...
That totally kicks ass. I am not above admitting that even now, I listen to the metal/hair band station on satellite radio (a lot) and I still love all those songs. But I never really liked one kind or the other....I jumped into Metallica/Priest/Ozzy....etc, but also loved Warrant, Ratt, Motley Crue, Dokken, Skid Row, Kix...
LE sigh...memories!!!!