April 6th, 1995 (Quite *not* Right)

 Quiet Riot are making the rounds on social media these days thanks to the story of John Torra, the 23-year-old, TENTH vocalist of the band. Widely embraced by fans for his authentic sound, it's got a real "young man gets his big break" kind of vibe, even if it's only to play casinos and the state fair. Plus, he's only 52 years younger than bassist Rudy Sarzo and the closest member to him his age in only a mere 26 years older, so I guess it works? It's all weird to me, but I do think the kid sounds good. But I'm not here to dwell on that, I'm here today to write about the one and only time I saw Quiet Riot when I was 21, and three years younger than John Torra. I'm here today to write about a show that was so bleak I'm shocked that anyone made it through its entirety. I'm here today to write about April 6th, 1995. 

None of these men were onstage in this story

In the late winter/ early spring of 1995, I came across a flyer for a Quiet Riot show at Blind Mellon's in Cheektowaga, just outside of Buffalo. It may have been at a Sick of it All show there in March (I saw SOIA there at least three times, it all kind of blurs) But either way, none of my friends were interested, except for my future roommate Phil. Metal Health was a HUGE record for most people in our age range; bringing us into the realm of heavy metal (that had truly set us on the journey to where we were 12 years after its release). But 1995 were DARK times for the world of metal and ESPECIALLY for anything closely resembling what is now known as "Hair Metal," dark times indeed. Phil and I ventured out on that rainy Thursday night hoping to see a show of massive proportions, what we got were sad has-beens struggling to keep it together. 

Phill on tour in 1995

When we got to the show, there was a quick scare, as it was 21+. I had just turned 21 two weeks beforehand, but Phil was on the low end of 19.  Turns out, the guy at the door didn't seem to care and we soon found out why, there were MAYBE 30 people inside, about 470 shy of Blind Mellon's 500-person cap. I should also mention everyone there was AT LEAST 5 years older than us. In those days, when you had just turned 21, people on the cusp of 30 seemed fucking elderly, now people on the cusp of turning 30 seem like they just turned 21, but I digress... Phil got a drink and we settled into a game at the pool table (the first of MANY).  Around 7:30 the opener, who where local and I think were called "Funhouse" started, clearly guys who were glam metallers a few year previous playing something slightly that and slightly grunge. Radio metal guys just DID not know what to do with themselves between Nirvana and Nu Metal and Funhouse, or whatever, were no exception. The bassist wore one of those stupid "Cat in the Hat" hats; I remember seeing those all over in the early 90's, but I can happily report I NEVER saw one again after this gig. They wrapped up their amateur hour set and we waited for QR to take the stage. I remember a woman there had Randy Rhodes painted on the back of her jacket. I remember this because Phil and I stood in that club with 28 other people waiting and waiting and waiting for literal hours. At some point I went up to one of the club's staff members and asked if Quiet Riot was actually going to play and he said "Yes, once they get the singer off the bus."

Not my shirt

Around 1 am, the Metal Health line up of Quiet Riot took the stage. Carlos Cavazo, Chuck Wright and Frankie Banali seemed in ok form, but Kevin Dubrow was absolutely obliterated. Wearing a ridiculously huge wig (he was balding in videos ten years prior!) and barely able to form complete sentences, he slogged through the opening song off their current record and nearly fell over. Approximately 5 hours after their only opener had completed their set, they went into the classic Slick Black Cadillac to the crowd's delight. But everyone in the room knew this was not a good showing for the band. The setlist was meandering and Dubrow was clearly off put by the increasingly smaller crowd as 2 am approached. They finally went into their closer of Metal Health but instead of being the triumphant endcap of the night; it felt slow, sad and mechanical. The slog continued as they broke into a medley of rock and roll classic in the middle of the song. We left, probably feeling as defeated by Quiet Riot as they were defeated by the small crowd and Dubrow's antics. I heard they came back 6 or 7 years later to a charged crowd of a couple hundred young people who had ironically or otherwise gotten into party metal. Good for them, it was over for me.

The List: Twisted Sister

 In 1984 I was 10 years old, and during the winter of that year, I saw the video for a song called "I Wanna Rock" and it appealed to me for reasons MANY things did at that age- it was funny and tough and was the perfect introduction to what is now a long time favorite- Twisted Sister. 

The video opens in a classroom with the teacher chastising an overweight kid with a mullet, I identified with this heavily, as I, too, was an overweight kid with a mullet who just wanted to rock. I started talking about how funny I thought that video was (and the We're Not Gonna Take It video from around the same time) and somehow my parents picked up on it, because that Christmas, the cassette of Stay Hungry by Twisted Siter was in my stocking. I entered 1985 feeling like I was part of a cabal of misfits and I listened to that tape nonstop for practically an entire year.  My love for Dee and the crew was further emboldened by their appearance in the 1985 comedy Pee Wee's Big Adventure Every song on the record is a banger and the recording is perfect, speaking of which, THE ALBUM is perfect, and slowly in the year following I went back and got the albums prior, which I love to this day. Their late 1985 follow up Come Out and Play had a couple of songs I liked, but it didn't have the power of Stay Hungry or the stuff before it and by then I was exploring other avenues in the world of metal anyway. That being said, I never stopped listening to Stay Hungry, even buying a Twisted Sister shirt and sweatshirt in 1995 from a dying mall. 

In 2004 I was 30 years old, and during the summer that year, Twisted Sister was announced to be playing for free in Niagara Square for the "Buffalo Bike Rally" on August 21st of that year. I remember a bunch of us went (and my ex-wife trying to fight my old Hot Topic manager, a girl she did NOT like) and the band DELIVERED on all levels to the crowd of about 20,000 packed into the square. They played flawlessly and with more energy than a band 1/2 their age (They are my fucking parents age for Christ's sake). This was during their initial reunion era, invigorated and set to kill. 

This was the only time I was Twisted Sister a band I've loved for 42 years and the setlist was flawless. 

Here's every song I've seen them play: 

Under the Blade:

What you Don’t Know (Sure Can Hurt You)

Under The Blade

Shoot ‘Em Down

You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll:

The Kids Are Back

Ride to Live, live to Ride

You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll

Stay Hungry :

Stay Hungry

The Beast

We're Not Gonna Take It 

The Price

Burn in Hell

I Wanna Rock

S.M.F.

Come Out and Play:

The Fire Still Burns 

Yes, I know I only saw them once (it was really my only opportunity) but I cannot express just HOW great they were. For reference, here is a video of the show exactly a week before

The List: Metallica

 

I've written about Metallica many, many times in this blog; I'm not really going to do that now but listed below is the incredible cache of songs I've seen them perform over the past 37 years. Not too shabby. I've seen Metallica 12 times, in three states (NY, FL, CA) seen them play arenas, stadiums, festival grounds and (twice) an actual club! After all these years somehow, even with them releasing records I FIRMLY do not like, retain the coveted spot as my favorite band of all time. 

Right upfront 10/15/25 photo by the author

Right upfront 10/15/25 photo by the author

The list of every song I've seen Metallica play at least once:

Kill Em All:

Whiplash 

Seek and Destroy 

The Four Horsemen 

Phantom Lord

Metal Militia

Motorbreath

Hit the Lights

No Remorse

(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth (partial) 

*Blitzkrieg

*Am I Evil?

Ride the Lightning:

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Creeping Death

Fade To Black 

Ride The Lightning

Fight Fire With Fire

The Call of Ktulu

Trapped Under Ice 

Master of Puppets:

Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

Master of Puppets

Battery

Orion 

Garage Days Re-Revisited

Last Caress

Helpless (partial)

And Justice for All:

Blackened

Harvester of Sorrow

Eye of the Beholder

Shortest Straw

One 

…And Justice For All

To Live Is To Die (partial)

Frayed End of Sanity (riff jam only)

*Breadfan

Black Album:

Enter Sandman 

Sad But True 

Wherever I May Roam

Nothing Else Matters

The Struggle Within

My Friend of Misery

The God that Failed

Of Wolf and Man

Don’t Tread on Me

The Unforgiven

Load:

Wasting my Hate

King Nothing

Bleeding Me 

Reload:

The Memory Remains

Fuel

Fixxer

*I Disappear 

S&m:

No Leaf Clover

Garage Inc:

Whiskey In the Jar

St. Anger:

Frantic

Dirty Window 

Death Magnetic:

Cyanide

The Day That Never Comes 

End of the Line 

Hardwired:

Hardwired 

Atlas Rise

Moth Into Flame

Now That We’re Dead

Confusion

Spit out the Bone 

72 Seasons:

Lux Aeterna

Screaming Suicide 

The List: Iron Maiden

On Saturday, July 3rd, 1982, I was halfway through spending the weekend at my grandparents, while my parents were attending a concert at Rich Stadium, just outside of Buffalo, NY.  I was only 8, so I didn't really have awareness of exactly what they went to, but while watching the 6 o'clock news with my grandfather, they showed a clip of the concert, a few guys running around stage and a giant Frankenstein monster guy with them! I was already a fan of giant monster movies thanks to UHF television- Godzilla, War of the Gargantuan, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and the like and I was TOTALLY onboard with what I saw on the news. "That's the concert your parents are at!" My grandfather exclaimed, kind of shocked. That was my first introduction to Iron Maiden and my parents were never that cool again.

By the time I was 12, I was a full-on heavy metal maniac. Iron Maiden were my favorite band with Metallica quickly closing in by the time I was 13. A month after my 13th birthday, Maiden played Buffalo and a few of my friends and some classmates went; my envy was off the charts, even if I didn't really think Somewhere in Time was as good as Powerslave. In 1988, my uncle to pledged to take me to see them on the "Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour" and boy was I was excited! The tour was for an album I actually love- I rode my bike (during easter break if I recall) to the store in the spring to buy it on cassette and it essentially didn't leave my Walkman until ...And Justice for All came out in the fall. Now, I SWEAR he told me the show was at the Niagara Falls Convention Center and that he had bought tickets and it got cancelled. I remember my friends talking about the show being cancelled but looking at online information about the tour and cancelled dates, the only NY shows I see that are listed as cancelled are Utica and Binghampton. Perhaps it was booked and canned so fast that there's no online record of it? I may also be confusing this with a David Lee Roth concert that was there in '88 that I desperately wanted to attend, but that show happened for sure. Regardless, I wasn't interested in going to the Rochester shows in '91 or '92 (this is an ongoing theme with Rochester) and didn't finally see Iron Maiden until February 1996- a very bleak time for them and metal in general. The venue only has a capacity of 2,500 and it was nowhere near full. Plus, Blaze Bailey was singing. A very strange and non-epic gig. 

Great tour, TERRIBLE video game.

In 1999, Bruce and Adrian returned to Maiden and a bunch of us crammed into a car and drove to Cleveland to witness the "Ed Hunter" tour and that was EVERYTHING we had hoped for. The set opened with the goddamned Churchill speech into Aces High and I've seen them 8 more times since. 

Not that it's been all gravy since 1999, I left pretty disappointed in 2012 on the "Maiden England" tour because Bruce was constantly being a total buzzkill BITCHING about the height of the venue stage and I didn't think they played especially well. Also, and a further bummer, though I've seen them a total of 10 times I had tickets to two shows (2017 "Book of Souls" and the first leg of the "Legacy of the Beast" in 2019) that I couldn't attend because of events at the college I used to work at. When I caught the post covid leg of "Legacy" they opened with three fucking boat anchors from Senjutsu- not exactly the legacy I signed up for. Regardless, Maiden are an exceptional live band on a level that is only rivaled by Metallica.

 This is the LIST of every song I've seen them perform at least once:

 

 S/T

Iron Maiden

Phantom of the Opera

Sanctuary

Prowler

Remember Tomorrow

Running Free

Killers

Wrathchild

Killers

Murders in the Rue Morgue

Another Life

Drifter

Number of the Beast

The Number of the Beast

Hallowed be Thy Name

Run to the Hills

The Prisoner

Piece of Mind

The Trooper

Die with your Boots On

Revelations

Where Eagles Dare

Flight of Icarus

Power Slave

Aces High

2 Minutes to Midnight

Powerslave

Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Somewhere in Time

Heaven Can Wait

Wasted Years

Seventh Son

Moon Child

The Evil That Men Do

The Clairvoyant

Infinite Dreams 

Can I Play with Madness

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

Fear of the Dark

Afraid to Shoot Strangers

Fear of the Dark

X Factor

Man on the Edge

Lord of the Flies

The Edge of Darkness

Fortunes of War

The Aftermath

Blood on the World’s Hands

Sign of the Cross

Virtual Xi

The Clansman

Futureal

Brave New World

The Wickerman

Ghost of the Navigator

Brave New World

The Mercenary

Dream of Mirrors

Blood Brothers

Dance of Death

Wildest Dreams

Senjutsu

Senjutsu

Stratego

The Writing on the Wall

I can't stop listening to Gastunk.

 It's been a long time since I've jumped into blogland. in the past 3 1/2 years since my last post, I did try my hand at doing a very similar podcast, utilizing some of the content I've touched on in my writing, but after three episodes deleted the whole thing. Let's consider it a pandemic dream that is best left to the black void of the ether.

How cool

Something has happened to me over the past 5 or 6 years and it's probably been a long time coming: I got into Japanese metal and hardcore, mostly from the mid 80's to late 90's. I think this comes from the fact that many current American and European bands aren't speaking to me creatively (or musically!) and that I have gotten full-bore back into record collecting. Thumbing through the crates and rarity walls on the left coast has had me fumble into many an insanely rare Japanese record, temporarily satiating my desire to have the coolest record collection in my wine country suburb. 

Gastunk 1986

Jurassic Jade, Doom, X (Japan), Ghoul, Aion, Gauze, Death Side, Poison (Arts), Judgement, Shell Shock, Paintbox, Crow, Gudon, The Execute, Gism... The list goes on and on, but my current fascination is with GASTUNK. I know I am WAY behind the curve on this one particularly, but I think this journey makes sense. 

I first became aware of Gastunk as many in the US "of a certain age" did: through Pushead and the masters of making bands relevant through t shirt wearing; Metallica. Kirk and Lars wore their shirts in photo shoots and Pushead not only painted an incredible portrait of  frontman Baki, but also used it on the Gastunk LP he himself released on Pusmort Records "Under the Sun" in 1987. 

Those of us who read Thrasher magazine in the late 80's couldn't help but trip over something Pushead related- either writing, art or  Zorlac Skateboard ads with his signature skulls puking or bleeding all over it. Pushead's style appealed to aggro adolescents everywhere. Let's face it, across the board, his shit rocked. He even interviewed Glenn Danzig for christ's sake. He did the art not just for Metallica's shirts, but also their SKATEBOARD. Pushead was achieving the things a landlocked 14 year old could only dream of. Top all that off, he had an AWESOME band (Septic Death) and an incredible record label (Pusmort).

Metallica liked Gastunk, Pushead liked Gastunk, looking at pictures in metal magazines and skatezines- it seemed like everyone liked Gastunk, but I didn't. I heard about 45 seconds of "Under the Sun" and wrote them off forever. Later Skater. 

Metallica, T Shirt Champions

Two years ago (nearly exactly), however, that all changed. I had come across a test press of the INCREDIBLE 1986 "A Farewell to Arms" LP compilation featuring Lip Cream, Outto, Ghoul, The Execute, Gauze and you guessed it... Gastunk. When the record arrived, I put it on and went about my business in my living room. At the end of side A, something magical happened: I heard an absolutely perfect song. A seamless blend of metal and punk that at the same time was neither, yet BOTH. That song was The Eye's by none other than Gastunk... Perhaps further research WAS actually needed.

Thanks to all things digital I was able to find many of their releases on Archive.org to  explore and got right into re-evaluating all things Gastunk.  Holy shit were they a great band. Their first self-titled EP and "Dead Song," their first LP (both from 1985) are incredible! "Vanishing Signs" and the "To Fans" EP (1986) are right in that pocket as well, but the other singles and EPs from that year start to slide a bit. Then I got to my former nemesis, "Under the Sun," and it was like wrecking a "new-to-you" car. It sounded less confident and cheesy. The material after was practically indigestible. But MAN, that stuff from 85-86 kept me engaged, I listened to it over and over and over. I read every scrap about the band I could online and procured physical copies of "Dead Song," "Vanishing Signs" and "To Fans." I then found that there were two versions of "Under the Sun" released- the original Japanese version on Vice records released in June of 1987 and the US version on Pusmort in November 1987- this version had the vocals redone in English and a different mix. I sought out the original and boy oh boy, it is 100, if not 1000, times better and I now consider myself a fan. Gastunk is all I want to listen to, all the time. Maybe I'll give that last LP another shot too but let me revel in this small victory first. 

Unfortunately, Gastunk barely made it out of Japan before breaking up in December 1988. Though, in early 1988, they DID play two US shows: one In Long Beach at Fender's Ballroom in February with Nuclear Assault and another, 36 years ago today, at The Whiskey A Go Go in Hollywood. Video shows it's a far cry from what was going on in '85, but they were a band that continued to play their classic with the new/ current stuff their entire career... Oh to be a fly on the wall on 3/14/88.

My Friend Malachai

I used to go out in public wearing these as pants.

The summer before 9th grade (1988), a new kid named Derek moved into my neighborhood and changed my life forever. I was firmly rooted into metal: Metallica, Ozzy, Anthrax, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and also  Devo, Sex Pistols and the Ramones. I even had a Celtic Frost album I had swiped from my uncle. But I wasn't a cool looking metal head, I emulated Anthrax' corny style, which made my 14 year old pudgy male body look like a 30-something lesbian (no offense to 30-something 80's lesbians) and is why I generally do not post pictures of myself before 1991. But that didn't matter to Derek, he just wanted to listen to and talk about underground music.

The guitar player of this band was my neighborhood's paperboy- "87 demo"

Derek had a slightly older cousin that lived on the other side of town, and hung out with the guys in Malevolent Creation (hometown heroes before they relocated to FL). His cousin REALLY had his finger on the pulse of what was going on in the thrash/ death metal/ crossover scene. Through him, cool bands to check out trickled to Derek and then to me, where I got to choose what I did and didn't like. Derek introduced me to Slayer, Kreator, Destruction, Death, Dark and Death Angel, Possessed, Exodus, Pestilence, Sodom, DRI, COC, Excel... The list could go on. I'm not going to lie and say that I loved all of these bands right away, some I outright did not "get" and I called most death metal bands "super thrash" upon my first listen. I remember actually laughing the first time he played me Scum by Napalm Death, only to have them become one of my favorite bands within a year or so. The bands I liked right out of the gate though were Slayer, DRI and COC- then closely followed by Exodus and Kreator. By the middle of 9th grade (1989) I was a bonafide thrash metal maniac and went to see my beloved Metallica for the first time. Club shows followed and many times I went to shows, I went with Derek. By this time, due to his red-headed mullet and insane attitude, older dudes at school started calling him "basket weaver" presumably because people in insane asylums would weave baskets, he played into that a little bit, jocks didn't fuck with him the way they did with the rest of us and he was mostly popular, much to his chagrin. His popularity at school hit an all time high the end of that year when someone called him "Malachai" due to his resemblance to the kid in Children of the Corn. The new nickname stuck and he still answers to this, although his resemblance to the aforementioned antagonist (which was questionable in 1989) is mostly nonexistent.

Not our Malachai.

There is a list of hilarious Malachai stories. I could fill an entire book, but those are his stories to tell, not mine. Though, I should probably give some high lights. He was once headbanging to Kreator so hard that he got ran over by a car because he wasn't paying attention. Another time, he and another dude in our neighborhood named Evan (Who I was later in a band with) got into a fist fight in the middle of his street after school. A few minutes into it, Malachai's dad (Dennis), who looked EXACTLY like Mr. Brady from the Brady Bunch pulled up,as he was coming home from work, and broke it up. Evan took exception to this, calling Dennis something that alleged that he had a small dick. Imagine our surprise when Dennis, called Evan's bluff and started undoing his pants, "you wanna measure dicks, you little asshole? Whip it out!" everyone laughed and Evan and Malachai were friends from that day forward too.  But back to the original point of writing this, Malachai introduced me to A LOT of music.

Our Malachai in Seattle in 2009, photo by the author

The last band Malachai got me into was Asphyx, the classic Dutch death metal band. he introduced me to The Rack, their debut, shortly before they played Maryland Death Metal Fest in 2009. I was obviously familiar with Pestilence, the singer's former classic band, but not Asphyx; who I ended up liking right away. I was so fucking pissed when the sub-par Mayhem overstayed their welcome onstage at the fest resulting on a truncated Asphyx set, which was still great, but I, and the crowd, were pissed and wanted more.

so good.

Last December, when I got to see Metallica absolutely kill it in a club , the first person I thought about was Malachai and how he didn't get to see Metallica in 89 AND had to wait many, many years before he finally did. I feel badly that I haven't spoken to him since I've moved to California, nearly two years now. I should call him and see what's up, I know it will be exactly the same as if we talked last week, as if no time has passed; especially because a week ago, I went and saw Asphyx headline a show at the Oakland Metro and they were fucking awesome.

Skeletal Remains, a recent highlight

I got to the show late, missing what I assume were the first two openers, save for about 12 seconds of a last song. Skeletal Remains, from LA then blazed through an awesome set of classic styled death metal and really impressed me. Pumped on the Skeletal Remains set, I bought their debut and a shirt, then purchased their sophomore effort on iTunes over the weekend. I even convinced the guys working the door to let me run out to my car (no ins-and-outs) to throw it in my trunk, much like they had let me in October 2015 when I saw Infest and Excel there.

Asphyx, so cool.

Asphyx were on the last California date of their "Death Across The West" tour and there was a pretty good crowd of around 300 die-hards. They raged through 15 songs, but, although I have their most recent efforts, I am not as familiar with stuff that isn't on The Rack. I tend to post set lists, but I can tell you they played Wasteland of Terror really fucking fast and that was cool, but the rest was a blur. Some of vocalist Martin van Drunen's stage banter was a little more corny than I expected; relating their song about the WWII battleship Bismark to "motor-boating tits" and complaining that the ride to Portland for the next gig wouldn't even "give them enough time to get laid." But I guess metal is as metal does. Still, I was again grateful to see another incredible set (two in one night!) and picked up a shirt and their new record, that the opening track, "Candiru," regardless of how ridiculous, is awesome. Maybe I'll call Malachai, or rather, Derek, and thank him for introducing me to a world that has continued to pay dividends to my quality of life for nearly 30 years, I really should.