On Sunday, August 9, 1998, I attended the Hair Band Spectacle of 1998 - formally known as the Rock Never Stops Tour. Being a solid fan of all four bands on the tour, I was really psyched up to see the likes of Quiet Riot, Warrant, Slaughter and Firehouse all on the same bill. I will tell you one thing, this show was great from beginning to end.

Firehouse took the stage first. It was really cool to see the four original guys rockin' in top form. CJ Snare, the lead vocalist has quite a different look these days, he lost the long curly poofball and doesnt quite fit into the metal look at all, BUT all image aside - the guy can SING. He and the rest of the band ripped through a bunch of solid rockers from start to finish, including Firehouse classics like Reach for the Sky, All She Wrote and Dont Treat Me Bad. CJ's vocals were so on, high notes galore and he definitely can work a crowd. I never caught Firehouse live before that night, and they put on one of the best shows I've seen in recent days.

Next was Slaughter. On a sad note, it's tough to see these guys without Tim Kelly on the axe, but they still can kick it. As usual, Slaughter put on a solid show. Playing their usual mix, Mark and the boys ripped through songs like Eye to Eye, Mad About You, Spend My Life, Burning Bridges and Up all Night, among others. The emotional highpoint came when Mark Slaughter asked the crowd for a moment of silence in memory of Tim Kelly, who died in a car accident recently, as we all know. Needless to say, the song right after the moment of silence was Fly to the Angels. I don't know who the new guy on the guitar is (rumor has it, he was Tim's guitar tech), but he struck me as a little too flashy - i.e. playing his guitar with a violin bow - though he did some cool tricks.

Then came Quiet Riot, and it looked like an original lineup. QR was pretty much on as well. I myself am not one of the biggest QR fans in the world, but I grabbed myself a few brewskies, kicked back and did some head bangin'. QR, as expected hit their high point with songs from the Metal Health Era. Feel good tunes like Cum on Feel the Noize, Mama We're all Crazy Now and Bang Your Head (Metal Health) had the crowd going pretty crazy and made my beer taste that much better. I thought I must have had one too many when I saw Kevin DuBrow having a full head of hair for the first time since 1984. But I guess, as they say, I'm not only the hairclub President, but I'm also a client. Interesting stuff.

Finally the hormone driven party machine known as WARRANT, hit the stage. As always these guys can get a place jumpin'. Jani Lane is a great frontman in my opinion and really knows how to work a crowd. Warrant dished out the usual party anthems, songs like Cherry Pie, Down Boys, Hole in My Wall, Machine Gun, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Indian Giver and D.R.F.S.R. just kept coming one after the other. They did get a little cheezy, to Jani Lane's admission, when they did the acoustic thing with a quadruple cheeze threat jamming through abridged versions of Heaven, Blind Faith, Sometimes She Cries and I Saw Red. A cool high point was when Warrant decided to break out an oldie but goodie - WAR PIGS!!!! Very cool. Jani also worked the crowd when he jumped off stage during Cherry Pie and walked around for like half the song with people screaming into the microphone, cool stuff, then he took that song into We Will Rock You.