THE DEAD DAISIES, THE DIVES, THRILLKILLER @ Rams Head Live [Photo Gallery]

The Dead Daisies

Last Friday night I headed back to Ram’s Head Live after four months to cover The Dead Daisies, a super group consisting of members who had played in bands like Guns N’ Roses, Thin Lizzy, Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake and various other well known bands. I had listened to their recent album ‘Make Some Noise’ and checked out snippets of their live performances. The Washington DC-Baltimore metropolitan had been hit by a major storm system in the late afternoons and those who made it to the venue on time really had to endure the horrendous traffic of the region in very hard driving conditions. I was extremely annoyed to see the show start earlier than the scheduled time, which in my opinion is criminal, especially as it was a major “weather alert” day.

ThrillKiller

The local band Thrillkiller had a number of supporters in the crowd ready to watch them open for some legendary musicians. The lead singer has excellent stage presence, as a matter of fact I rank his stage presence as probably best I have seen in a band from Baltimore area in all my years of attending shows in this region. The songs are a tad poppish, but the crowd seemed to appreciate their style. This likely is one of the biggest shows in which the band has appeared as a support act. It’s shows like these that can help a band build their resume and also learn the ropes from  members of bands like The Dead Daisies who have been rocking stages for decades.

The Dives

The Dives is a hard rock band with Paul Stanley of Kiss’s son Evan Stanley as the singer of the band. The first thing I noticed was the palpable chemistry between Evan Stanley and guitarist Mike Lefton, right from the moment they took the stage. The band has a sound of 80’s rock, the crowd absolutely loved it and that is really what matters! Paul Stanley’s son has the stage presence of a season veteran, and led the interactions with the crowd with aplomb, skillfully engaging other band members as well. It’s easy to see he has been taking notes from his fathers decades worth of stage knowledge. With a member of Kiss as your father it would be almost impossible to fail with such an amazing mentor. The band is still young and finding their sound. Their dueling guitars will be refined in time. The Dives as of right now is still a support act, but as the band grows into their sound they could potentially become something extraordinary.

The Dead Daisies

The Dead Daisies burst in to the news as a super group consisting of band members who have played in some of the most iconic rock and heavy metal bands of the last 30 years. I won’t bother naming all the bands they have been involved in, just know these guys are multi-band veterans. Very few super groups have impressed me in the past, primary reason the whole band being less than the sum of its parts. I admit this was the first time I have been impressed by live show of a super group. While John Corabi is an excellent front man, and led an extraordinary performance in Rams Head Live with his vocals, “Long Way to Go” being the best one of the night. The crowd interactions was phenomenal. However, the icing on the cake was the extraordinary drumming of Brian Tichy. His work behind the kit was so good that it almost overshadowed everything else, the crowd begging the drummer for more violent pounding on the skins. How often do you see a drummer getting more crowd affection than guitarists? My skepticism about the band had been laid to rest with the performance, and I strongly recommend seeing this band live especially if you love classic rock.