If I’m honest I’m still mourning the international live scene, not having seen a band on stage since March has been rather more traumatic than Imagined, and cancelling a trip to hit the Festivals in the US and UK this year was gutting. But not only is there a thriving local live scene here in Perth it really is world class. And whilst the crew at The Rockpit has been covering some stunning original music it took this highly touted double bill to get me out on the tiles and I’m so glad I did.
Tonight is a real night of firsts though never have ventured to the Stirling Arms before or seen either Eruption or Hair Metal Heaven. The good news is that the room itself is great, nice and big with a great sound – well worth checking out. The better news is that both of these bands are top class and on fine form.
Sal from Hair Metal Heaven tells me he has a sore throat after the show, not that you’d notice as they belt out late 80’s classics like it’s back in the day and the Sunset Strip was still burning brightly. Not that it starts out well though, opening as they do with my least favourite song of the era – Poison’s ‘Unskinny Bop.’ It’s a song as beautifully executed as the wigs and stage attire and even with a sore throat Sal does a rather fine rendition of Brett Michaels. And as the hits keep coming – next up is Van Halen’s ‘Jump’, followed by the ever young ‘Cherry Pie’ by Warrant, the remarkable thing for me is not only do the band nail it but Sal actually nails the character in a lot of the vocals. I must admit though he does do a better Sammy Hagar (Why Can’t This Be Love) than Dave Lee Roth, but then again Roth was more of a frontman than a singer wasn’t he!
Song selection tonight was pretty much spot on covering all the bases with tracks from Whitesnake, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, and of course The Gunners – the other cover band Sal fronts – to end with Sweet Child O’ Mine. The only misstep for me is ‘Rebel Yell’ by Billy Idol who I never really saw as part of the scene despite the size of Steve Stevens’ hair!
Honestly though these guys are seriously good and I’d recommend them to anyone. By the end of the set I’d more than had my money’s worth and the main band were still to come.
Whoever said that old guys can’t Rock has obviously never heard of Perth’s Eruption – a group of vintage musicians with some serious chops and a very tasty song selection. On the basis of tonight’s show I’d put these guys up against anyone doing this kind of thing.
If I’m really honest they actually had me just by opening up with Tesla’s ‘Coming At You Live’ – how often do you get a band covering the mighty Tesla! It was that good I was almost tempted to message Jeff!
So with their flash gum-chewing guitarist, kid keyboardist, steampunk bassist, gold lamé jacket sporting singer and solid as a rock drummer Eruption like HMH, had me from the off, hitting their stride with a wonderful cover of ‘Creatures of the Night’ by Kiss.
It’s an interesting mix of songs and the show is made all the more interesting by their poor bassist suffering from vertigo and crashing into the drums a few times (jeez mate we hope you’re OK) but still playing on like a legend. Even though they might be a little older than the Sunset Strip openers the songs are just as good and I love the fact that the covers aren’t obvious – these are the songs for real lovers of the Hard Rock genre.
The setlist runs great too: I mean ‘Wicked Sensation’ by Lynch Mob in it’s 30th Anniversary year! Wow! But that’s followed up by a classy rendition of Whitesnake’s ‘Fool For Your Loving’ and a belting cover of Van Hagar’s ‘Right Now’. It’s magic. Add to that a bit of Extreme, a dash of Skid Row and some out of left-field like Iron Maiden’s ‘Can I Play With Madness’ and you have a real party going on!
Just so that they don’t get too big headed though I must admit I love my Alice Cooper and my only disappointment tonight is that with 50 years of music behind him Eruption choose to play ‘Feed My Frankenstein’ from his dodgiest 80’s release.
Things end in real style though with a Van Halen trifecta of You Really Got Me’; ‘Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love’ and ‘Panama’ which happen to be three of my very favourite Van Halen songs (the first of course being a cover itself leaving you with the wonderful conundrum of a cover band covering a cover by the band they’re covering).And all that comes after a pretty much note perfect ‘Eruption’ – Eddie’s famous solo.
If you love your Hard Rock you won’t have a better night than this in Perth. I’ve seen hundreds of cover bands over the years and these two are right up there with the very best. More please!
