[ATTENDED: August 9, 2014] Dead Daisies
Two years ago, I went to see Kiss in Scranton. I had seen them a few times by then, and since Paul’s voice sounded pretty bad, I didn’t think I’d go again. But I love hanging out with my friend Matt and don’t get to see him enough, so when he invited me up for this year’s extravaganza, I decided what the hell. And it turned out to be a very good show indeed.
The first opening act was a band called Dead Daisies. Last time, they had an opening act that I didn’t investigate at all. But this year, I had my phone out and figured that Dead Daisies was a local Scranton band, and I’d see if I could find anything about them.
Well, it turns out that Dead Daisies is from Australia and that the lead singer, Jon Stevens, was the guy who sang for INXS after Michael Hutchence killed himself (but before they did the reality show to find a new singer). I never heard INXS in that version, but the way he was singing for this band, I can’t even begin to imagine him as a good fit. Because he has a big old powerful voice and sings in a very un-Hutchence way.
When they first came out I was kind of unimpressed. The first song sounded a ton like AC/DC. And the second song sounded like Bad Company. As it turns out the band is a kind of retro rock band, with connections to Guns N Roses (guitarist Richard Fortus has played with GnR and Dizzy Reed plays keyboards for GnR). And it turns out that Slash co-wrote their song “Lock ‘n’ Load.” The other guys in the band are Marco Mendoza on bass (he’s played with Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake and many others) and David Lowy on guitar.
The drummer is Brian Tichy (he’s played with Whitesnake and others). I’m singling him out because he was the most visible guy in the band. He must have thrown his sticks high in the air once or twice a song (and missed a few times). He also spins his sticks all the time–frankly it seemed like he should have made his songs harder to play because he seemed bored. That said, he was very good and played quite fast.
So, given the pedigrees of these guys, you can kind of get a sense of what they play–a sort of sleazy heavy metal/classic rock hybrid. And while they were very good (and a few songs were quite catchy (the chorus of “Mexico” is a nice soaring one), it’s a sound that I’m just not interested in. I’ve listened to a few songs since and again, I liked them as background music, but would never go out and buy a record. But hey if they get huge I can say I saw them when. Oh, and their version of “Helter Skelter” really rocked and was quite fun.
They also had the really unfortunate sound issue of not being hooked up to the main sound system (or at least, being hooked up in a different way–they were incredibly tinny and really hurt my ears. I have to say that the Montage shows are way too loud (although apparently it sounds good in the lawn, I’ll keep that in mind). But some ear plugs made the set okay.
As it turns out, Kiss played a rather short set because of a curfew, and I would have happily given up Dead Daisies for more Kiss.
Here’s their setlist.
- Mexico
- Your Karma
- Lock ‘n’ Load
- Make the Best of It
- Angel in Your Eyes
- Face I Love
- HelterSkelter
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