Reviews From the Bush
by Bushman
Reviews From the Bush
by
Bushman
Ratt
1998
4th
and B - San Diego CA
Thurs.
Sept. 3, 1998
A True Story
Prologue
"Sherman...set the Wayback Machine to 1983".
I think I was thirteen and still stuck listening to Top40 radio
for my musical guidance (hey, MTV was like 2 years old and I
didn’t have cable until I moved to college). That year saw
the start of my music obsession (albeit a somewhat misguided
start) with a slew of various guitar-fueled and hair-sprayed
bands. Some were way cool and still hold their cred (old Van
Halen, AC/DC), others are shamefully buried in some obscure tape
case and brought out mostly for stoney giggles (Quiet Riot,
Autograph, Loverboy) and some fell somewhere in the middle, so
that although cheesey by contemporary definition, still hold a
proud and defiant liking in my heart. Ratt is on top of this pile. Nobody can deny
the impact of Out of the Cellar in the context of the
early eighties. Ratt 
was one of those bands that so many others imitated
that they became cliché (that and the fact that they
couldn’t write a decent song after their sophomore follow-up
Invasion of Your Privacy). When Ratt pulled into town
for the second time in 6 months - I could not refuse this
opportunity for a live performance by one of the best
‘what-ever-became-of-them’ bands of the eighties. But I
feel I am alone in my admiration since I couldn’t talk anyone
into going with me...so here’s my solo account of Ratt 1998.
Standing in line waiting for my ticket, my first brush with the 80’s came with a tweaked-out dude in a Judas Priest T-shirt, hat on backwards (with frizzed, bleached hair spraying out all over) and high-tops with the tongues pushed out who questioned me through an undoubtedly crystal-meth induced spasm of conversation :
TweakerGuy "Dude - You got your Judas Priest tickets yet?"
Me "nope."
TweakerGuy "Dude - You better get’em quick...They’re gonna sell out for sure! They fuckin’ Rule!"
Me "huh."
TweakerGuy "That is if you like that kind of thing...You into ‘Priest?"
Me "Well...Rob Halford doesn’t sing for them anymore and...."
TweakerGuy "Dude! Their new singer fuckin’ rocks, man! - He’s closer to the album Halford than Rob ever was!"
Me (in my head) ‘Blasphemy!’ (out loud) "really."
(First of all - Priest was never a big
influence on me...but I owned a couple of tapes in my time, and
what I do know is when a group achieves superstardom through
years of effort and countless albums...and then takes out any
member of the band (except say maybe the drummer - *joke*) but
especially the singer - the end result is a glorified cover band.
Waitaminnit - I think that new Judas Priest singer is from
a glorified Judas Priest cover band - hmmmmm)
Upon my pondering of this, TweakerGuy got bored waiting for my response and preceded to start the Judas Priest Ticket Inquisition with the girls in line in front of me. The funniest was when we made it to the window and the TweakerGuy started to ask the two large middle-aged black females who were working the ticket booth if they had their ‘Priest tickets yet?’
Ticket in hand (make sure to save the stub - c’mon...how many of your friends have a Ratt ticket stub in their collection?) I sauntered along the line into the club. Hesher Heaven. 80’s reincarnate and stuffed into leather and spandex. Some of the women were working it well. Most were not. Some inspired tastes of that teenage lust I can fondly remember...others elicited thoughts more like ‘how the hell did you stuff that in there?!’ (They should only make spandex up to a certain size - know what I’m sayin’?). Lots of frizzy hair. 4th and B in San Diego is a pretty decent (if not pricey) venue. The type of music they play here is pretty varied..so the atmosphere is kinda generic. But they’ve added a couch lounge and opened the space up a bit with plenty of seats in the back balcony and a lot of floor space. But their security are pricks since they don’t have that many ‘heavy’ rock shows. Got my Red Hook (it was the only beer tap I could read...so I asked for that) and waited. My general amusement at being at a Ratt show slowly turned to anticipation as I started running down the list of songs I hoped they’d play. Would they be all glammed up? (I kinda hoped so).
Lights went down and with the back-drop of the "James Bond Theme" blaring over the PA. The opening riffs of ‘Lay it Down’ came cranking through and I got the biggest, cheesiest grin stuck on my face that probably didn’t go away until the end of the show. They melted the end of ‘Lay it Down’ into ‘Lack of Communication’ (sweet). No Glam for Ratt tonight. But all members sported leather pants, and that counts for something I guess. And Ratt is now a four-piece with the absence of Robin Crosby (the blond rhythm guitarist whose uncle was Milton Bale - thus his presence in the early Ratt videos). I have heard rumors of drug-abuse. Singer Stephen Percy had to fill in on song songs with rhythm guitars. Although he is a competent guitarist, it ties him down and he has to concentrate too hard to play. It takes away from the energy and crowd interaction. The half-capacity crowd was receptive and especially so to anything off the first and second albums (I told you they kinda lost it after that). They even played some new Ratt due out sometime in Spring of 1999. To be honest, it wasn’t bad for Ratt. Gone were the mandatory solo masturbation and focused more on the (thrasher?) riffs. Then they played ‘Wanted Man’ - way cool.
There was a pit. It was surprisingly spaced
out and vicious. Middle aged people don’t handle the concept
well. I think the full blown pit concept was more popularized in
the very late 80’s into the early 90’s so a lot of
these people get pretty pissed off when constantly bumped into. I
wormed my way up closer to the front for some pictures and every
time the crowd would shift, this fat 30 sumpthin’ bitch
would freak out and shove me as hard as she could in the opposite
direction. I let that happen about three times before I shouted
in her face ‘Look, I ain’t the one shoving this mess
around so knock it off! Bitch did it again. I shoved her back. So
now I’ve got biker-boyfriend shoving me. So rather than deal
with these idiots - I squirmed two people over and let them freak
out on the poor sap who then repeatedly got shoved into the
sweaty hog. I feel I have to preach this sentiment after
attending any show. There seems to be a contingent of society
that feels the need to get as close as possible to the stage
(even though they could probably see and hear 110% better 20 ft.
back), and then expect everyone to ‘stay out of their
personal space’. Stop deluding yourself. This is not your
space. This is the crowds space. No individuals. Your
individual space is in the back by the bathrooms. If you think
sweaty people bouncing into you is so annoying as to be
aggressive and rude to innocent people just trying to have some
crazy fun - move the FUCK outta the way! Self-righteous dicks!
The bouncers at 4th and B suck ass also. One bald dick went so
far as to dive through the air off the stage and wipe out about 6
people in pursuit of a skinny guy who did a quick little stage
dive. Yeah, that was worth pummeling a bunch of innocent people
by your fuckin’ Rambo maneuver. Ratt singer Stephen Pearcy
noticed the disturbance, but neglected to address the security.
Actually, Mr. Pearcy was a bit slow in tonight’s
performance. He sounded good. But lacked in the classic
Ratt posturing and posing and big toothed smile I remember from
the Ratt video heyday.
There was lots of crowd hand-slapping and shaking and Pearcy let the crowd sing (almost too much though - it’s cool when the crowd can belt out a line from the chorus once in awhile, but it was almost as if Stephen was bored with singing or something, letting the crowd fumble through 4 and five lines of lyric before picking it back up).
This was show no. 39 out of like 42 (Stephen made a point of mentioning that like 3 times - excuse for the lack of energy?). Guitarist Warren DeMartini can still wail. Ratt songs, like all metal of the eighties, have the obligatory solo about 3/4 of the way through each song. It gets old quick, but at least when done by someone of DeMartini’s caliber, it holds your respect.
Drummer Bobby Blotzer is still a goon with repeated standing on the drums and ‘rallying’ the crowd crap. I think Ratt put out more albums than I was even aware of ‘cause they played a few songs that the crowd was all into...but I never heard. I think I gave up on Ratt completely after the ‘Way Cool Junior’ song (which they played). The highlight spine tingles came when they did their encore consisting of ‘You’re in Love’ and ‘Round and Round’. I felt 15 again (and that alone was worth the $16.50).
Epilogue
Can Ratt sell albums in today’s market? They will always
have some kind of base fanship of eighties kids, but I don’t
think ‘pop metal’ has been dead long enough to erase
the scars left by the Wingers and the Warrants. I think metal in
general is on an upswing as far as acceptability goes so maybe a
band that knows the highs and lows of the business might have a
chance of holding some kind of credible middle ground. From the
show I attended...I don’t think Ratt can win a large amount
of new fans with Ratt 1998, but if there was ever a point
in your life where you could honestly say ‘Yea, I think Ratt
is pretty cool.’ or you can finish this lyric in your head
‘You take the mid-night subway train......" - You would
do yourself right to catch the live reenactment and relive the
teen spirit (and I dare you not to smile huge when they hit the
stage!)
Click Here For More Ratt Information
Email Bushman
Previous Reviews From the Bush:
RFTB #3 - Lucy's Fur Coat, Herbert