Having known most of the band members for same time, and been privy to a few rehearsals, I knew it was going to be good but what I couldn't bank on was whether the audience was going to react to it. I know I like that music, and I figured a good number of other people did.
I was right.
Lots of people in 80's costumes and 99% of them were amazing. There were a couple of serious cross dressing mishaps, but the attitude and the dedication was brilliant. Of course there were a number of people whom didn't take the chance to drag out their tights, boots, stonewashed jeans, boofy hair, head scarfs, fingerless gloves, spandex, leather and of course 10 cans of hairspray. The group of women I was sitting with would have been lethal near a naked flame.
Iron Cobra came about when one of the guitarists (named 'Floyd Rose') wanted to play 80's stuff. He wanted to get away from these 4 chord songs with 1 note guitar solos. He wanted big f'n harmony guitars, fast speedy guitar solos with far too many notes in them, and to play the music that he loved and you just didn't hear any more. Being that he worked with his offsider guitar shredder extraordinaire Maxxx Gain (sounds like a good porn name) - they set out together to find the right match of people to pull the show off.
The venue was small, but perfect for a debut gig. The Pierside staff got behind it with an 80's themed DJ (he actually appeared to love the 80's music and was singing along with most of the tracks they played and cheering whilst pumping his first in the air) - they also gave away some prizes for the best dressed. I was sure that Mic Leeds (the singer) would simply pick the girl with the biggest boobs but I was sitting down the back so I couldn't see if he did or not. I would have. Back in the 80's, if the band gave you a tab ... one of your children would be around 21 now and probably quite like playing music ... I'm jus' saying.
So the show? Was spectacular. Given that it was the first show, they played everything exceptionally well. If there were nerves, they didnt' show it. There were some vocal issues in the first set to do with the PA setup, but they managed to rectify that for the second set and we could hear things a lot more clearly and a lot louder. Speaking of members let's go around the band.
Floyd Rose - Guitarist - very gay transvestite makeup - blond wig - tight tight tight pants (his ass felt great in them) - obviously the brains behind the band and the most enthusiastic one on stage. Brilliant guitar work, particularly in translating the well known keyboard lines from Hold The Line - Toto and Don't Stop Believing - Journey onto the guitar. That's right, the keyboard intros and parts were played, by him, on guitar. Obviously, being an 80's band there had to be an epic amount of shred. And there was.
Maxxx Gain - Guitarist - long black straight haired wig. Given that Maxxx has next to no hair in real life it was odd to see him naturally flick his hair back like some whom had done it for years. The perfect guitarist to complement the playing of Floyd. The harmony work and solos were excellent. Both guitarists had their own stand up solos like the old days ... and they had an imprompteu trade off as well.
Teabag Raxworthy - Drummer - I couldn't see him very well - but I could hear him and that's all that matters. Very competent on the drums although did use too much cowbell (one hit is one hit too many). I thought the pace of some songs was too fast to begin with, but it turned out to be fine, so I should just shutup. I would have liked more double kick and so would he, but the songs just didn't lend themselves to it that well.
Mic Leeds - Vocalist and boob tester - Had a great voice and tone for the night. I wuold think that he had the hardest job comping the vocal styles of all the bands they covered. Some of the bands they did had some of the greatest vocalists of all time. From high ball tightening notes to raspy raunchy styles - he managed to pull it all off very well. I think he enjoyed the recitfied vocal sound in the second set because his energy level kicked up 10 notchs for the second set. I think there might have been a dodgy mic lead somewhere as the vocals dropped out at times - it could be that he gave the mic to an enthusastic audience member who was shit - or he forgot the words. Either way it was very rock n roll.
Sly Nolan - Bass player - solid, skinny, with real hair (no wig for him) he looked so hot with his makeup, I'd have banged him. And he had the fattest bass sound in the world. In the first set he was all I could hear, it was loud. But that's okay, because I am a bass player. He said he made mistakes but I didn't hear them. Did I mention that he had a fat bass sound?
Did I mention loud? I don't recall Pantera being that loud but then I did have a straight line to Maxxx Gain's guitar amplifier.
The crowd went off for most of the songs but in particular I remember 'Youth Gone Wild', 'Living on a Prayer', 'Dont Stop Believing', 'Gimme All Your Love Tonight' going off better than any of them (DSB was also an encore song). Everything they played was made big in the 80's and they had to leave some songs out due to time constraints which was a shame but not really when you consider that they played from 9 til after midnight with one break. They did sneak in Alice In Chain's - Man In A Box which was early 90's but I don't think anyone cared.
All in all, one pretty sweet night. Good crowd, good sounds, epic shreddage and a particularly tight sound for the first gig.
Rock on Ciburb on June 30th.
Some of the songs as I remember them.
Bon Jovi - Living On A Prayer
Whitesnake - Gimme All Your Love Tonight
Loverboy - Working For The Weekend
Def Leppard - Animal
Def Leppard - Pour Some Sugar On Me
Toto - Hold The Line
Journey - Don't Stop Believing
Rick Springfield - Jessie's Girl
Billy Idol - Rebel Yell
Alice In Chains - Man In A Box
Michael Jackson - Beat It
Poison - Nothing But A Good Time
Skid Row - Youth Gone Wild
Scandal - The Warrior
Pat Benatar - Hit Me With Your Best Shot
...cool wouldn't think there are many of those around NZ
