I mentioned a while back that there was a new bar in my town and that they had booked some 80s style acts. I've been keeping an eye on them but they hadn't had anyone yet that I wanted to see. I checked again late last week and noticed they had Frank Hannon on the bill for Saturday night. I went. It was cool. I had fun.
The opener was some three piece band from Denver that played a bunch of covers. They sucked. They opened with the Scorpions' Zoo. They played it just fine but the vox were about two octaves lower than what Kitty's friend Klaus would have delivered them. Gah! They did fairly decent SRV style rendtions of Cold Shot and Voodoo Chile. That's prolly where they should have stayed for the entire set. But nooooo. They had to take on Def Leppard's Pour Some Sugar on Me. Yeah, imagine *that* one with lead *and* backing vox two octaves lower. I went outside to smoke. Unfortunately the walls weren't thick enough and I was freezing my ass off so I went back inside to suffer my ears but relieve my ass.
After a while Frank and his men took the stage. They opened with Modern Day Cowboy but after that the exact order of things gets a little hazy. They played lots of other Tesla stuff including, but prolly not limited to, Love Song, Little Suzy, Changes, and Signs. He also played Chain Reaction, Guitarz From Marz, and Eye of the Mind from his latest solo effort. I was a little disappointed at the number of Tesla songs that he did but I guess maybe they went for crowd pleasing.
Frank's vocals are quite good and he does the Tesla songs justice. Ain't the same as Keith, obviously, but at least he ain't ocatvates off. His backing band is quite good. I think his guitarist is the same that toured with Tesla when they came around here last October. He's played with his drummer for well over a decade now and they are good friends. How do I know that? He said so Saturday night. He was quite comfortable with the crowd and told quite a few short stories between songs.
The most interesting story he told was how he came into possession of his Gibson Twin. Steve "Steamin'" Clark had hooked him up with Gibson before Tesla was all that big. As a result Frank got the Twin, the only one like it in the world and the only guitar he's got left from the 80s. He also talked about touring with Def Lep and how they had filmed the video for Pour Some Sugar on Me in Denver on back to back sold out nights. Pretty interesting but at that point I really didn't need to be reminded of that song again.
Unfortunately I had to leave a little early because I was flat out gassed. I had my wisdoms pulled a little over a week ago and the painkillers have totally screwed up my sleep schedule. Yeah I got some good shit and no you can't have any.
That and I was feeling the effects of overdoing it a little bit Saturday during the day. Eh, so it goes. I did manage to buy his disc before I left though. Pretty damn good stuff and a fairly wide range of styles on it.
In two weeks they've got Slaughter on the bill. I plan on checking that one out as well. I just wish I would have caught the name of the warmup band so if they were in the same role for Slaughter I'd know to show up later in the evening.
The opener was some three piece band from Denver that played a bunch of covers. They sucked. They opened with the Scorpions' Zoo. They played it just fine but the vox were about two octaves lower than what Kitty's friend Klaus would have delivered them. Gah! They did fairly decent SRV style rendtions of Cold Shot and Voodoo Chile. That's prolly where they should have stayed for the entire set. But nooooo. They had to take on Def Leppard's Pour Some Sugar on Me. Yeah, imagine *that* one with lead *and* backing vox two octaves lower. I went outside to smoke. Unfortunately the walls weren't thick enough and I was freezing my ass off so I went back inside to suffer my ears but relieve my ass.
After a while Frank and his men took the stage. They opened with Modern Day Cowboy but after that the exact order of things gets a little hazy. They played lots of other Tesla stuff including, but prolly not limited to, Love Song, Little Suzy, Changes, and Signs. He also played Chain Reaction, Guitarz From Marz, and Eye of the Mind from his latest solo effort. I was a little disappointed at the number of Tesla songs that he did but I guess maybe they went for crowd pleasing.
Frank's vocals are quite good and he does the Tesla songs justice. Ain't the same as Keith, obviously, but at least he ain't ocatvates off. His backing band is quite good. I think his guitarist is the same that toured with Tesla when they came around here last October. He's played with his drummer for well over a decade now and they are good friends. How do I know that? He said so Saturday night. He was quite comfortable with the crowd and told quite a few short stories between songs.
The most interesting story he told was how he came into possession of his Gibson Twin. Steve "Steamin'" Clark had hooked him up with Gibson before Tesla was all that big. As a result Frank got the Twin, the only one like it in the world and the only guitar he's got left from the 80s. He also talked about touring with Def Lep and how they had filmed the video for Pour Some Sugar on Me in Denver on back to back sold out nights. Pretty interesting but at that point I really didn't need to be reminded of that song again.
Unfortunately I had to leave a little early because I was flat out gassed. I had my wisdoms pulled a little over a week ago and the painkillers have totally screwed up my sleep schedule. Yeah I got some good shit and no you can't have any.
That and I was feeling the effects of overdoing it a little bit Saturday during the day. Eh, so it goes. I did manage to buy his disc before I left though. Pretty damn good stuff and a fairly wide range of styles on it. In two weeks they've got Slaughter on the bill. I plan on checking that one out as well. I just wish I would have caught the name of the warmup band so if they were in the same role for Slaughter I'd know to show up later in the evening.
