The Metal Files

Night #2 of the eyeliner and hairspray weekend took me to Houston, TX to see Stephen Pearcy, LA Guns, Faster Pussycat, and The BulletBoys at the sold out Warehouse Live.  I had booked a room at the famed Sam Houston Hotel in downtown.  What a nice hotel.  The rooms have been fully modernized and while small, they are very comfortable.  I’ll likely stay there again when the opportunity presents itself.

This show was a free show and all you had to do was RSVP tickets.  I was supposed to be on the VIP list as well (thanks to Faster Pussycat) but it didn’t happen.  No big deal.  One of the reasons I was going to this show was to get The Book signed by Phil Lewis and Steve Riley of LA Guns and hopefully Stephen Pearcy.  More on these developments later.

My friend from Houston picked me up and we went to grab a quick dinner near the hotel and ended up at Frank’s Pizza in downtown which was delicious.  From there we went to the venue and got in about halfway through BulletBoys’ set.  This place is open and spacious and the sound was probably as good as you could get in a giant concrete room with very high ceilings.  Bulletboys sounded good again and the crowd was very into it.  I ran into some other Austin friends there and we all hung together for most of the night.

Next up was Faster Pussycat.  They are one of the few bands of this genre that I’ve always liked.  I think their scenes in The Metal Years softened it up for me.  I had played with them back in Virginia about 12 years ago and always love seeing them live.  Taime is a character and does his job as front man very well.  They opened up with Cathouse and blew right into Slip of the Tongue.  They played 9 songs including 2 covers (Supersuckers and Betty Blowtorch).  They were very tight, which is no surprise as this unit has been together for the better part of 18 years.  It’s always a good time seeing them.

After a quick set change LA Guns took the stage opening with Show No Mercy, Sex Action and Never Enough.  Their set consisted of everything you’d want and expect to hear from Phil and the guys.  Their lead player is a total badass, too.  That guy shreds.  Phil’s voice sounded great.  I was super glad to see them since I missed them in Austin a few months ago as I was going out of town very early the next morning.  Twelve songs total and it was a lot of fun.

Then Stephen Pearcy comes on.  Look, I’m a pretty big Ratt fan and it was never really about his voice.  I love the riffs and solos those guys used to lay down (minus the silliness of songs like Way Cool Jr).  Pearcy never had a great voice although it was unique.  I saw Ratt with the Scorpions in 2010 and his voice sounded pretty good.  Saturday night not so much.  I want to be careful to not dog him out as I don’t know if he was just having a bad night, can’t sing anymore or just didn’t care to try.  He seemed to be phoning it in.  His backup band sounded good but the voice was killing me and many others.  We decided to leave about mid-set during I’m Insane.  We weren’t the only ones.  People were rolling out steadily and you could hear lots of people saying how poorly Pearcy sounded.

During Pearcy’s set, I went to the merch booth to see Shawn and the Bulletboys guys as Marq hadn’t signed the book yet.  He thought it was great and cheerfully signed it.  Hanging out with him 2 nights in a row did change my perspective a little bit.  Aaron Samson (Odin) was also at the booth and while both he and Shawn had signed the book a few years back at an Odin show in LA, he hadn’t signed my rare Odin Caution! EP.  Shawn and Jeff signed it for me a few months ago before sending it to me.  Aaron was glad to see it.  I still needed Phil and Riley from LA Guns though.  I went over the VIP area to chat with Sean a bit while Pearcy was still playing and Phil came out.  Chad Stewart, Pussycat’s drummer, grabbed Phil to come over and meet me to sign the book.  He signed the band photo and flipped though it a little bit and asked where he could get a copy.  I told him I’d send the link.  Pussycat’s guitarist, Xristian Simon, was looking backstage for Riley and couldn’t catch him before he bailed out to the hotel.  No biggie.  Guns come to Austin every couple of years and I’ll be sure to get them next time.

All in all it was a great night with my friend, Myra, and my Austin friends.  I was tired, so tired, and just needed to get back to the hotel to crash out and that’s exactly what I did.

Here are some great photos taken by Jamie Miller! Please visit his page!

BulletBoys

Faster Pussycat

LA Guns

Stephen Pearcy