Music – melissa crismon

Great White - Brett Carlisle - lead vocals, Mark Kendall - lead guitar, backing vocals, Michael Lardie - guitar, keyboards, vocals, Scott Snyder - bass, backing vocals, Audie Desbrow - drums, percussion. Pic by M.C. — Great White – Brett Carlisle – lead vocals, Mark Kendall – lead guitar, backing vocals, Michael Lardie – guitar, keyboards, vocals, Scott Snyder – bass, backing vocals, Audie Desbrow – drums, percussion. Pic by M.C.

I really wanted to go to a show of any kind. Heavy metal was the answer. I went to see Slaughter and Great White at a tribal casino even though I wasn’t their number one fan back in the day. I do love their ballads, but I grew up listening to KISS, Ozzy, Dio, Dokken, Triumph, Stryper, and so many more. And there were women like Lita Ford and Vixen and I’ll throw in Joan Jett even though she wasn’t heavy metal. Slaughter and Great White were hair bands so I didn’t buy their albums which were then on cassette.

Slaughter – Mark Slaughter – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, Dana Strum – bass guitar, backing vocals, Jeff “Blando” Bland – lead guitar, backing vocals, Blas Elias – drums, percussion. Pics by M.C.

Slaughter’s debut album Stick It to Ya didn’t come out until 1990 with hits like “Up All Night” and “Fly to the Angels”. They formed in Las Vegas in 1988.

Great White formed in Los Angeles in 1977, but I don’t recall hits until much later. They are known for “Save Your Love” and “Rock Me” from the 1987 Once Bitten album. In 1989, they did a cover song by Ian Hunter “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” and another hit they are known for has a bluesy feel is “House of Broken Love” on the … Twice Shy album. I forgot about all the blues music that they incorporated.

On the way to the concert, I saw a cloud I like to call the spaceship cloud. I never thought I’d see one!

Remember I wasn’t a big fan of either group, but I wasn’t not a fan. I just love heavy metal in general. So, for some reason I got it in my head we were going to see Slaughter and Whitesnake. Renaissance Man looked up the concert just before we were to take off and said it’s Great White not Whitesnake. For three weeks I had been listening to Whitesnake, getting ready for the concert. Ugh. So, on the drive there I had to quickly look up Great White to remember what songs they played.

Walking into the concert was like walking back into high school—well not my high school. The kids who followed hair bands were “wannabes.” So, it wasn’t my crowd, but I really wanted to hear some music. It was funny because women were checking out other women to see if they aged well. Ha!

The music was better than I remembered. Both bands were awesome. Slaughter performed first. Mark Slaughter can sing and he is still doing those rocker screams. The guitarist was posing with the neck of the guitar in the air. The drummer was on fire! He reminded me of Animal from the Muppets. He would bang the drums with each stick alternately and move his head in figure eights to get his hair flying. This guy is not slowing down. He even stood, I think on his drums, and motioned for all us old folks to get off our asses and rock out. They performed, “Fly to the Angels” which I loved, but they dragged it out instead of doing it like the original. All the other songs came out perfect. I can’t say enough about how awesome they were.

Then Great White comes out and they have a new singer, Brett Carlisle. He is fantastic! I didn’t know who he was. I thought wow he’s so skinny and has aged well. Okay I was in back and my eyesight gets a little sloppy after being on Twitter. Brett is so sweet. He does air high fives, waves, and I love Rock n’ Roll signs to peeps in the crowd all while making eye contact. And he sings so beautifully. He loves the music and the band. You can tell how important the music is too him. He has no ego and seems appreciative of the gig. He just turned 25 this April and I hope he can keep this band going for 25 more years. I think the band sounds better than before. Well musicians do get better with age if they take care of themselves. I am now a fan of Great White because of this guy. I want to hear all the old songs with his voice. I hope they record him with the old songs.

Renaissance Man leans over and asks in his snarky voice, “Is it all you expected it to be?” He was into punk music growing up. He came to the concert for me and even he liked it. The venue wasn’t great. The casino didn’t have a theatre. They stuck the bands in the bingo room. It wasn’t even as good as my high school gym. The sound guy had the bass up too loud for Slaughter. Even with the issues I still thought the bands were awesome. They are killing it out there.

Now that there is a young guy in Great White, I hope he attracts new fans to heavy metal. I saw maybe a few young people there. Young peeps got to go to heavy metal concerts and rock out with those cane waving ladies. Really someone was wavy their American flag inspired cane. This music will keep you alive and kicking! It’s about being rebellious and living life on your terms!

Happy Vegan!

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Stranger Things season 4 gets long. The episodes are sometimes the length of a movie. We see the growth between Hopper (David Harbour) and Joyce (Winona Ryder). You know you love them. Besides lovable and detestable characters it’s the nostalgia that brings back memories.

Who says 80s music was bad? It’s been said by many. But Kate Bush who came out of the 70s brought us some of the best music in the 80s. Journey too, who we also hear in season 4. Madmax listens to “Running Up That Hill” a zillion times to keep herself grounded in the real world. I played all of Kate Bush’s songs just as many times. So, of course, I love hearing “Running Up That Hill” over and over again. Renaissance Man started talking through the song. You would think that after being married all these years ones spouse would not talk through their spouses favorite songs. Don’t worry, I got him back when at the end of season 4 they played Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Classical music really had an effect on me from when I was little. My best friend and I would play Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony in C minor on a 45 record when we were maybe six years old. Ludwig van Beethoven said, “Music can change the world.” I remember reading a few years ago that in research they found music changed a person’s behavior. The article talked about having trouble with teenagers at a mall. So they piped in Classical music and found that it lessened or stopped the foul language.

That’s one thing about the 80s. I saw our moral compass degrade. Movies began to add more course language and sexual situations in family content. I remember when my parents took us to see the movie Benji. The dog rested his snout on the woman’s breasts as she drove. My dad marched us out of the theater. It’s kinda funny now, but as I mentioned before, society became materialistic and our morals in America sunk to a new low. By 1988, we watched the TV series Roseanne. I was like, people are like this? And now we have sunk so low that Roseanne Barr doesn’t seem that bad anymore.

I have to mention food of course. I remember eating cantaloupe. Like I said we didn’t eat exotic food in the early 80s. And my mom used to eat cantaloupe with cottage cheese. Does anyone remember that dish? And I had a few Mormon friends. When we had potlucks a Mormon mom would bring Ambrosia Salad with marshmallows. At home, my mom would make the same fruit salad without the marshmallows. I recall the green grapes, pineapple, and walnuts. And I think she used mayo not whipped cream. It wasn’t my favorite. Do you remember this dish?

The moment they show Karen Wheeler in her headband I said, “I had a headband like that.” I probably wore it a few times. And her hair is permed. I had a few perms.

I can’t believe the show is already in 1986. The main boy characters are Will, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin who are in their freshman year of high school. I think the timeline is a bit messed up. Or is it me? They are the Gen X generation like me. Notice how smart and talented Dustin’s girlfriend is? By twelve we knew what we wanted to do with our lives. We had skills. I played the harp. In grammar school, I remember other classmates or friends who were talented in music, dance, sports, and/or academics. Sixth grade for me was like my high school. I was very mature and I feel like my friends in sixth grade were too. We were immature too but less so than children are now. But by high school that all changed. I was in public school with a different group of students. Many were planning to go to USC or UC Santa Barbara. But a handful were Stoners too. I hung out with a mix. I was headed to junior college. I feel like I should have just gotten my GED and skipped to a junior college. I already knew I wanted to go into music and high school wasted so much time. I still enjoyed those years because we were back in California and I took orchestra and Spanish class. My point is back then we had time to focus on one thing.

We didn’t multitask. I remember my best friend in sixth grade had an Apple computer she played games on. We were told the computer was going to allow us to do more and free up our time. Now it seems like we are more busy with busy work. But it is bitchin’ that I can self-publish my books online.

Stranger Things has reminded me of the way things used to be and the things I used to do. I will definitely listen to more music like Classical and 80s music. And stop staring at my harp missing a string and play it. Right now I am listening to Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony in C minor and there is a part in it that sounds like it inspired the music in the movie E.T.

If you haven’t watched Stranger Things I would highly recommend the show. There are four seasons and there will be one last season. The Duffer brothers, the creators of the show, said they plan to be in the writers’ room the first week of August. So we will have to wait for season 5. That is not bitchin’.

My life feels like it’s in the Upside Down. Maybe that’s why the show is a hit. I can relate to the crazy happenings. Everything feels like it’s plausible.

Happy Vegan!

Stranger Things 1
Stranger Things 2
Stranger Things 3

From blog of melissacrismon.com

Tag: Music

Slaughter and Great White

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