The Rock Never Stops Tour
Beloit Riverfest, Beloit WI
This show took place at Riverfest (a county-fair kind of thing) in Beloit, the sweaty armpit of Wisconsin. Talk about a white trash kind of show... there were so many guys who would have had mullets if it wasn't for the fact that they were bald on top. And I saw not one but two different biker-girlfriend types who were missing an arm. One even had the Quiet Riot guys sign her cleavage.
I'm in my mid-thirties, so this is the kind of music I grew up with in high school. I still enjoy rawking out to the hair-metal classics, although I am aware of the inherent cheesey-ness. As much as I'm ashamed to admit it, I knew the lyrics to probably two thirds of the songs I heard! But there's nothing wrong with bands who just want to get up on stage and just have a good time. Quiet Riot singer Kevin DuBrow summed it up best when he said "What I miss about the 80's music is that it used to be okay to write songs about drinking beer, smoking pot, and getting laid!"
Firehouse was up first, and although I mainly remember them from their MTV hits (which by that point I was mainly into Slayer and Megadeth) their other songs they played were actually pretty good. Quiet Riot was up next, and I think they were probably the best band of the night. Ratt did a pretty good job, too, although they had a replacement singer. He was better than their original singer anyway, who used to just stand there and sing in a really weak voice. The new guy was much more energetic. Cinderella played last, and was the only band to play after dark. Somehow I just wasn't as impressed with them.
Overall, it was a fun show and a nostalgia-fest, and didn't make any pretentions to be anything else.
