Jani Lane Steps in for Jack Russell...

I'm usually upbeat here. I love Glam bands. The music is part of my childhood and also helped me find many like-minded friends as an adult. Still, some things have to be criticized. Some ideas are just so bad, you have to shake your head and go..."What?"

It's been confirmed that Jani Lane will step in for Jack Russell at more than 10 upcoming Great White shows. (Jack is recovering from major surgery after suffering a perforated bowel). At one of the shows Warrant is opening. I'll get to that point in a minute. First, you may recall my post from last week about band's and retirement. Great White was the main topic of discussion there. My good pal Kenny Ozz said he had heard that Jani was stepping in to front Great White but I couldn't find any confirmation of this...until now. So here we are.

Great White + Jani Lane.

In normal days, a one-off of Great White and Jani might be cool. But here's the deal: I am having trouble separating my love for Jani's songwriting with his clear disdain for all other human life. No one with a conscience would continually get behind the wheel of a car and drive drunk. So Jani gets arrested for DUI (again) a couple months ago and was sentenced to jail. Is he out of trouble now? Did he serve due his time? Learn a lesson? Is he sober? Why can't we let him take care of his demons and get well before throwing him back into bars, surrounded by temptation?

I'm a 'live and let live' kind of girl. I say, do whatever you want on your own time and to your own body - but leave me out of it. When you get plastered and get in a car and drive down my street, I have a big problem with that. You're supposed to be in alcohol counseling but you get to go on tour instead? How is that fair?

Now, to the other issue of Jani fronting Great White. Again, a one off would be cool. But 12 dates? Won't people be annoyed if they are advertised a Great White show but don't get Jack on vocals? What about the show that has Warrant opening? How does that work? The guys in Warrant and Jani don't exactly get along anymore. Will one band be ushered  onstage while another waits, hidden in the wings -- separated like kids?

At what point does all this become high comedy? We all know "hair metal" is unfairly mocked. But when you start talking about a replacement singer fronting an opening act that was originally fronted by the replacement front man for the headline act it's all a bit much. Just writing that gave me a little bit of a headache so I hope I got it right. In short, I don't see how Jani will last 12 shows. It's a train wreck waiting to happen.

Here's the tour dates:

Sept 3, 2010 El Paso, TX Speaking Rock
Sept 4, 2010 Galveston, TX Moody Gardens Conv Cntr (with Night Ranger)
Sept 24, 2010 Bolingbrook, IL Tailgater's
Sept 25, 2010 Farmington, MN Rocktoberfest
Sept 26, 2010 Council Bluffs, IA Horseshoe Council Bluffs
Oct 1, 2010 Yuciapa, CA Angel's Roadhouse
Oct 2, 2010 Ramona, CA Ramona Mainstage
Oct 29, 2010 Redding, CA Harvest Festival 2010
Oct 30, 2010 Lewiston, ID Clearwater River Casino
Nov 6, 2010 Lisbon, Portugal "Live in Lisbon"
Nov 12, 2010 Medina, MN Medina Entertainment Center (with Warrant)
Dec 31, 2010 Tower, MN Fortune Bay Casino

I'm sure everyone disagrees with my opinion on this one. Oh well.

Here's a little clip of Jani singing with Warrant while drunk. This was at Rock the Bayou. I've got no problem posting this as I was there and witnessed this spectacle.

What if Fergie and Slash Formed a Band?

I'm not really into the Black Eyed Peas but I always dug Fergie when she was in Wild Orchid. That's neither here nor there. Slash played the Sunset Strip Music Festival over the weekend and Fergie helped him out. She has a great rock voice that's basically wasted in the Black Eyed Peas. I have to admit being impressed with Fergie and Slash's rendition of Heart's "Barracuda." Check it out:

I know it's trendy these days for rock bands to have a female singer. Too bad most of those bands are screamo and you can't really enjoy the vocals. Why can't we have a massive arena band featuring an icon like Slash and someone with a great set of pipes like Fergie? Of course, the obvious solution is to have Fergie front Velvet Revolver.

What do you think?

Kix - House of Blues Los Angeles Videos

My beloved Kix played the Los Angeles House of Blues Friday night. I was pretty salty I couldn't go...I've got bills like everyone else and traveling all the time just ain't happening. Lucky for me (and you!) clips of the show are now popping up online. Watch and love.

"Blow My Fuse"

"Cold Blood" featuring Jani Lane

"Midnite Dynamite"

Bon Jovi - 'What Do You Got?'

Have you heard the new Bon Jovi song "What Do You Got?" The song will be included on Bon Jovi Greatest Hits - The Ultimate Collection.The album will hit stores November 9. In total, Bon Jovi will include four new tracks among their most famous tunes.

Now, I'll be honest. I don't really like "What Do You Got?" It is too country for my taste and the guitar solo is basically non-existent, but hey, maybe you disagree. Push play, give it a go and provide your thoughts in the comments section. I wish Bon Jovi would record some new, harder edge songs. I feel like it's all too "Top 40 radio" these days.

Anso DF of MetalSucks.Net TalksT-Ride

Editor’s note: Holy Glam! Anso DF of MetalSucks.net fame is a visiting columnist today. He’s giving it to us good and presenting the awesome band T-Ride. Read on, comment and be nice. He likes us here.

Back in July, I was able to rope Allyson into a thankless and work-intensive project for MetalSucks.net, the home of my column Hipsters Out Of Metal! The reason was simple: I needed an outside voice, an expert, to bolster my claim that most if not all glam metal is perfectly legitimate, often transcendent, and way more fun than all the bummer shit that took its place on our radios and TVs. After a few calls and emails, we decided to co-author a guide to the essential glam metal library. Its readers would be equipped to get a start in the genre; old hands could reminisce with two party-metal loonies.

Our little project was big neon fun to write, and ended up running over four freaking days. It was super-gratifying to have Allyson’s totally sane-sounding points of view and non-creepy band devotion to balance my own paranoid, stalker-ish shrieking. We’re like fire and ice, Ritchie and Ronnie, chocolate and peanut butter. And we listen to all the same records!

But with one exception! One album under discussion was Crashdiet’s debut, Rest In Sleaze, aka the album that my neighbors are hating of after four weeks of semi-daily blastings. I love that record and I heard about it from Allyson, so it represents a glistening cherry atop the sundae of our collaboration for MetalSucks. That’s what friends do!

It’s to return that favor that I write about T-Ride’s self-titled debut album here today. It’s a weird little record released by a young label at the end of glam’s heyday. The trio featured oddball guitar virtuoso Geoff Tyson (a proto-Buckethead shredder and chord wiz) and drummer/producer Eric Valentine, who’d go on to shepherd acts like Good Charlotte and Lostprophets to their biggest successes. These guys were pros looking to make a distinctive entry to the hair rock canon; as such, their only album is packed with ambitious backing vocals (a la Boston, Def Leppard) throughout brief, bursting songs that play like roller coaster rides. Just as exhilarating, too!

All three T-Riders could sing and play, but lead vocals were handled by bassist and songwriter Dan Arlie, an unusually mealy enunciator and deft lyricist. His best couplets are the stuff of bumper stickers for the badassed, like “Don’t give me that righteous rap/And all that ‘live and let live’ crap” (from “Ride”) or “I don't ever have a problem getting my army going/All I have to do is play that marching beat” (from “Hit Squad”).

Though T-Ride poked its nose into the mainstream via soundtrack spots (lost amid heavy hitters on The Last Action Hero, damned to universal indifference on Encino Man) and an opening slot for Tyson’s teacher, Joe Satriani. But in 1992, hot-wired hair metal rivaled Whoopi Goldberg nudes for commercial non-acceptance; sadly, T-Ride’s classic disappeared. But it’s a singular masterpiece that scratches your itch for big hooks and musicianship -- and, at 35 minutes, it might shock you with its Reader’s Digest-style brevity. One description calls T-Ride a jam war among Eddie Van Halen, Queen and Prince. Yeah, that’s worth a half-hour to check out! Happy glamming!

Rockstar Uproar Festival Review

Tuesday night I was lucky enough to attend the Rockstar Uproar Festival in Columbus, Ohio. Nothing is ever easy and I attended this festival with a raging ear ache. Yeah. But now I’ve got antibiotics and I’m on the mend. I digress. At any rate, the band I really went to see was Avenged Sevenfold. I caught a little of Stone Sour and Disturbed and they sounded great…but the night belonged to A7X.

The crowd at Nationwide Arena was pretty excitable. I’m used to people jumping and screaming around me – that’s a rock show – but I wasn’t prepared for what happened just one song into Avenged Sevenfold’s set.

A7X is touring behind Nightmare and the stage is sort of modeled after a gothic castle, complete with fire, smoke and the occasional firework pot. There are skulls, a gate and I think the apron of the stage is supposed to be a moat (or maybe not. I just think that sounds cool). Right at the beginning of the show, a man hangs himself from what looks like a steel bed. “Nightmare,” get it? I thought it was a dummy hanging over the crowd – until I looked a little harder and realized that it was, in fact, a real person strapped in by a harness. Obviously the noose was fake, just like a page from the Alice Cooper play book.

Here’s the setlist:

Nightmare
Critical Acclaim
Welcome to the Family
Beast and the Harlot
Buried Alive
So Far Away
Afterlife
God Hates Us
Unholy Confessions
Almost Easy

So after the initial shock of watching a guy fake hang himself, the guys in A7X sort of sauntered on stage and began ripping into their songs. I had a pretty close view and was watching drummer Mike Portnoy closely. It was cool to see him with Avenged Sevenfold. Singer M. Shadows was wearing a classic Guns n’ Roses shirt, and I felt a little pride. So as “Nightmare” continued on, the floor crowd started getting more and more rowdy. I was elevated enough to see it all – and I was watching my husband take pictures of the band down in the pit. Actually, by the middle of "Nightmare," the crowd is so distracting, I’m watching the idiots more than I am the band. It wasn’t long before the barrier buckled, I saw the security manager start grabbing media and pulling the photogs away. So, as I watch my husband nearly die, I see a couple thousand kids surge forward and get very near the stage. About 15 security guards are literally holding the barrier back. When “Nightmare” ended, the house lights came up and Shadows said the show had to stop and everyone had to take a couple steps backward. Of course, no one complied so there was a good five minutes of wasted time while the guards battled the floor crowd back. Eventually, the barrier was fixed, photogs were allowed back down front and the show resumed. I’ve never been to a concert that was interrupted thanks to morons. Like, what do you think you’re going to do if everyone rushes forward and the barrier does break all the way? Get on stage? Kiss the band? Um, no.

Again, I digress.

So A7X is just wailing through their show. Around the end of “Welcome to the Family” a nutcase crowd-surfed to the front, got pulled to safety by security, wriggled free of the big guard and jumped half on stage. Guitarist Zacky Vengeance sort of just stepped backward, security grabbed the guy and he fought the entire way out of the venue. I have no idea what happens if you rush a stage at a show. Do you go to jail? Get a fine? Would it be worth it?

The only time A7X sort of hit a little snag was at the beginning of “Buried Alive.” The harmonics sounded off but maybe it was my ear. After all, it’s pretty screwed up right now. As the song progressed, things smoothed out and sounded awesome again. Oh, and "God Hates Us" was a highlight.

There was a nice tribute to The Rev during “So Far Away” and “Afterlife.”  The backing banner changed to the same photo of The Rev that is included inside the CD tray of Nightmare.

It’s not an A7X show without “Unholy Confessions.” The song is my favorite from the Avenged Sevenfold catalog – I love it live!

After the show, I got an awesome Avenged Sevenfold shirt. It’s probably my favorite concert tee of my whole collection – it’s purple, even. For those that panic when reading about bands like Avenged Sevenfold on this website, take note: this band is the real deal. Give them a chance. Seriously.

Here’s a video of “Nightmare” from the show I attended.

To Buy - Eric Clapton to Release 'Clapton'

I think Eric Clapton is a genius and I am totally getting this new album. Here's a press release:

"Guitar icon and three time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Eric Clapton announced today that he will release his 19th solo studio album on September 28, 2010 simply titled CLAPTON.

Co-produced by guitarist and long-time collaborator Doyle Bramhall II, the album features an all star cast of musical collaborations starting with the legendary JJ Cale, drummer Jim Keltner, bassist Willie Weeks, and keyboardist Walt Richmond—and the sessions later added guests including Steve Winwood, Wynton Marsalis, Sheryl Crow, Allen Toussaint, and Derek Trucks.

Clapton created a collection that touches on everything from century-old traditional brass bands to little-known country blues to brand-new originals. The result is both relaxed and revelatory, and unlike anything the guitarist has done in his legendary career.

'This album wasn’t what it was intended to be at all,' says Eric Clapton. 'It’s actually better than it was meant to be because, in a way, I just let it happen. It’s an eclectic collection of songs that weren’t really on the map—and I like it so much because if it’s a surprise to the fans, that’s only because it’s a surprise to me, as well.'

For more on Eric Clapton and the release of Clapton please visit www.ericclapton.com.