Starz now appear to be one of many bands clogging up the highway from the past, making for that destination they call 'comeback'.
In
Starz case, things are different. Here's a band who never really made it like they should have. Great albums? Yes, no question. Great singles? Yes, check out Billboard in the late seventies. Respect? No question, many bigtime rock bands cite
Starz as a real influence. Great sales? Well, no...something clearly went wrong, and the ins and outs of that are a whole other story.
But that was then and this is now, and for a band like
Starz, reuniting means a lot more than chasing the dime. It represents a chance to drag all that unfinished business out into the light, and close it out for good.
How do you do that? Easy, you turn in the best live performances of your life.
And that takes us neatly to the Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland, Ohio on the night of 23 September 2004.
Michael Lee Smith, Richie Ranno, Joe X Dube and new boy George Diana (Brendan Harkin missed the flight from New York) all assembled on stage at this quaintly named venue and as the well used cliché goes, rocked the house.
This 2 disc set '
Come Out At Night' is a record of that event.
Kudos to Ranno and co producer and mixer, Bruno (Danger Danger) Ravel. The sound is extraordinary. Clear as a bell, but solid, 3 dimensional, with enough textural detail to satisfy stereo buffs as well as fans.
The band's entertaining pop metal songs were slick and commercial, but hearing them now you have to admit, good as they are, they maybe just lacked that killer touch, that truly memorable hook, that surefire winning chorus. That extra mile that makes all the difference.
Live though, they sound world class. Smith's voice has coarsened with time, and sounds the better for it, giving teen fodder like
'Fallen Angel', '
Rock Six Times' and especially the morbidly humorous (and singalong favourite) '
Pull The Plug' a grown up resonance.
Ranno sounds pumped up and truly in the zone on the band's big hit, '
Cherry Baby'. Funny how it's always the simplest of riffs that really leave their mark.
All the tracks you would expect are here. Looking through the tracklist - 20 tracks over 2 discs, and that's just the better known stuff - it's a fine body of work. Great to see and hear personal favourites, the poptastic metal of
'So Young, So Bad' and the bluesy '
It's A Riot'.
Disc 2 is just as strong, with a fabulous, pumped up '
Nitecrawler', an absolutely storming
'Monkey Business' and the balladic, rarely performed live
'Third Time's The Charm' (now you know where
Poison got their ideas from), being the highlights. In fairness though, the band perform with zest and verve throughout the complete live set. They sound like they still love their songs, each and every one.
Talk now is of a new studio album sometime later this year. Roll on.
Written by
Brian Wednesday, June 27, 2007
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