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LIVE: Metal Sludge Tour featuring Faster Pussycat, Enuff Z?nuff, Pretty Boy Floyd and Crash Kelly
Friday July 04, 2003 @ 05:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff
The 360
Toronto, Ontario
June 28, 2003
by Keith Carman
We should have known it would have bombed. When you take bands that had a mild heyday before the now-retro Nirvana broke, it?s gonna be trouble. Especially when you consider that it?s a bunch of glory-seeking hair metal bands who don?t realize that spandex, drug abuse and the "rock n? roll attitude" aren?t cool anymore.
You also know there?s trouble when the most rousing set of the night is performed by the local talent. Rewarded with some of the most sincere applause all evening, openers Crash Kelly may have only had about 25 minutes to shine before the gathering crowd, but they made the most of it and came off smelling like two dozen roses. Full of energy, this Toronto quartet was probably the only group of musicians to show genuine care for the craft anymore, relying on silly tactics like "talent" and "enthusiasm" to win everyone over. Jerks.
Proving that their prompt dismissal from a record label after one disappointing album was no fluke, Pretty Boy Floyd stank up the 360 faster than you could say "VO5." Delivering limp songs about booze and chicks, this band was sloppy, boring and just plain goofy. One almost couldn?t wait for the guitar player from the Killer Dwarves (the night?s MC) to come back out and ask his stupid metal-questions-for-free-stuff again so that these clowns would shut up. Back to the high school Battle Of The Bands for this collection of amateurs. It?s no wonder they?re still "shopping for a record deal" after 15 years.
Surprisingly enough, Enuff Z?nuff was the tightest big band of the evening. It?s just too bad that they couldn?t shake the bar band feel they had wafting around them. One could barely imagine how this power trio once blasted out "Fly High Michelle" from a 20-foot high stage for thousands, ?cause on this night, they seemed more like they should be playing a cover of "Mustang Sally" in some shitty blues bar.
And who the hell made Taime Down of Faster Pussycat such an arrogant prick? The guy did little more than mumble his way through between-song patter, make horrible drug jokes and half-whine through FP?s hits. While they did play quite well despite having a darker, more gothic-driven sound and image as compared to their trashy rock vibe of years ago, one would be hard-pressed to prove that any of the bodies on stage were FP, they were so shrouded in smoke. The angry jokes flew fast and hard at the band?s expense ("It?s probably to cover up their pot bellies." "No, more like Down?s cocaine complexion") as people quickly became frustrated after paying through the nose to see little more than shadows and red lights. At least their curiosity at reliving the past was sated? enough that it?s tough to imagine anyone creating enough desire for these has-beens to darken the Canadian border again.
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Hmmmm?...someone seems pretty angered that US Pretty Boy Floyd was 100 times better than the Canadian PBF.
and as for Crash Kelly...I've heard their stuff and didn't hear anything new nor special.
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My opinion....lots of jealousy that bands as PBF, ENZ and FP are still around with a loyal following.
Those bands who no longer have fans just posters and CD's that you can find for 50cents at a used CD store always seem to knock the bands that have lasted and are still playing out to their asses off to their fans.
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and Hmmmm?
Let me pull out the Canadian PBF cd and look at the song titles...Hmmmm....A booze song...chicks....a sogn about Rockin'g the place...Well what have we here....
Oh yeah how goofy they were.
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Oh, Katt go buy another CD with the same songs in a different order. LOL....Last time Bullets N' Lipstik was on ebay the sealed vinyl went for $58 US and the CD went for $120.....Fact is the US PBF doesn't hold a candle to newer bands like Robin Black or Crystal Pistol.
PBF lasted????....they disappeared 10 years ago and resurfaced because Steve's probably having a hard time making rent. Go ahead and buy into PBF...I mean Steve Sommers....it's not even the original line-up. As far as I can see the reviewer is calling it as it is.
Don't get me wrong on EN and Faster Pussycat...I think those bands in there day were great and a buddy of mine saw them the last time they rolled round here a few months back and said they were cool. Nostalgia is great but if you can deliver the goods in the present why bother.
It's funny Katt....you show your immaturity by dissing my old band when all I posted was someone elses review on a band you are obviously in love with.
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1) I saw FP just last year. It was a great show. They delivered the goods.
2) I find it interesting and question the legitimacy of their comments on this show when the reviewer didn't know that EZ traditionally is not a power trio. Just an observation with that one. (credentials are again shown in a questionable light when the reviewer doesn't even know the name of the guitarist of the Killer Dwarves.....a canadian band, btw)
3) The writer mentions "talent" when discussing Crash Kelly.....this is an ambiguous assessment as one listeners gold is another listeners dogshit. Perhaps if he innumerated but, alas, he did not.
4) His attack on PBF is, too, weak. He describes them as being "sloppy" and "goofy", undoubtedly characteristics he would be praising a band like the Ramones, the Melvins, or a myriad of other bands for employing. If they're music is, as he points out and claims, silly, then shouldn't their show match? Which does he want to be entertaining him?
Just my two cents.
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I see you have the CD.....Thank you for supporting Pretty Boy Floyd.
My favorite lyric "Down on the floor, be my bad apple, let me rotten your core"
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btw, imo, price and rarity of cd means very little. I've heard Bullets and Lipstick and have to say that I place it up with the Black and Blue library and Swingin' Thing for being some of the most overpriced discs out there. Nothing personal, Sandy, just my opinion.
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No worries CCL, I know that is true about rarities and pricing although the LP isn't that rare and still fetches a high price. I want everyone to know, don't take too much offense on my PBF US comments. I take the piss out of them because they fucked me over in the past. I'm a huge glam fan but I never liked there music, not because of my own personal bias, I just didn't think the writing was that good or cool. I took the piss out of you Katt as you got ragey on my post that wasn't my words but someone elses.
As Johnny once said...Hey Chatterbox ya' you squawk alot, c'mon gimme some lip...hey Chatterbox..
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First, Marcus (aka Katt, Raggz, etc) is an alright guy. He was just giving you some shit for seemingly obsessing about PBF US. He wasn't making any personal attacks. Don't take it that way.
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Here's a more positive Glitznet friendly view:
Okay CCL point taken, I can't stop obsessing over this picture though ......Steve
Metal Sludge Tour Reviews by fans
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We did a review over at Dixie Tucker! as well (www.dixietucker.com). You know, even my husband, who isn't a big 80's rock fan had a blast, so I guess this chart reviewer is just too cool to have fun. Here's our review in full and there's a few pictures on the website:
Metal Sludge Extravaganza!
Who:
Faster Pussycat
Enuff Z'Nuff
Pretty Boy Floyd and
Crash Kelly
Where: The 360, Toronto
When: Saturday, June 28th, 2003
The only package tour this summer worth seeing, the Metal Sludge Extravaganza, rolled into the land of SARS on Saturday night for nearly five hours of 1989 all over again. Featuring a line up of near forgotten 80's bands, local talent, and a guest appearance by Darrell Dwarf to give away "Sludge Swag" (in lieu of porn star Kendra Jade who pussed out at the last minute) , the nameless faces at Metal Sludge just might be onto something. After all, despite the seeming unhipness of such a gathering, The 360 was the only place to be on the Queen west strip.
The four band bill got kicked off by Toronto up-and-comers Crash Kelly. With a new line-up in tow, Crash Kelly's set sounded meatier and rocked harder than in previous incarnations. With the stage presence of new bassist Trip Phoenix and Kelly increasingly growing into the frontman role, it's not surprising most of the crowd who came early made their way to the stage - and stayed.
Rock and Roll outlaws Pretty Boy Floyd followed with a thunderous take over and played surprisingly better than expected. Loud, showy, and ruckus, it was LA rock straight from the book. PBF and their master of ceremonies Steve "Sex" Summers led the crowd through synchronised hand clapping, sing along ballads and general partying down. Demerit points though for bitching at the sound guy mid-set. Bad boy, Steve "Sex" Summers.
Chip Z'Nuff likes pot. Which is a good thing - his band's been through a lot and he probably needs the mellow. Being the only original member of Chicago's only claim to glam rock fame, Enuff Z'Nuff, he had a hard night ahead of him to win the audience's faith.
Luckily replacement singer/guitarist Monaco is both a maestro on the six string and Donnie Vie's vocal doppelganger. Other than the visual assault of two redheads, the original singer wasn't really missed, and you can't say that about too many scab vocalists. That the Chicago trio is musically advanced (check out Z'nuff's Hamer - while most bassists can barely handle four strings, his has eight.) allowed them to catch a buzz from the music alone. If one band enjoys simply playing, this is it. And it's that kind of groove that eased them through the slower yet sexy "She Wants More" before capping off the show with "Fly High Michelle" and "High On a New Thing"
Complete camo-netting and suspended army lanterns, Faster Pussycat brought their doomsday machine to the Sludgeaholics. With a harder edge to their music than in their heyday, they still played to the largest and most enthusiastic crowd of any of the bands on the bill.
A set that included both old and new Pussycat material as well as songs form frontman Taime Downe's side project, The Newlydeads, what began as a polished theatre of presentation quickly relaxed into an informal gathering for both band and audience.
A great show by any standards, Faster Pussycat has no need to rely on nostalgia pity to entertain - even those who weren't die hard fans had a good time either from the music or the conversational stance that made rogue roadie Thomas and the price of Taime's ass everybody's concern.
Going a few songs longer than usual, Downe seemed especially choked up over the rockin' Toronto crowd who ate up everything his band dished out, even breaking out the Bics for the emotional hit "House Of Pain". As has become custom to the Pussycat revue, a cover of Betty Blowtorch's "Shut Up and Fuck" whipped the crowd into a frenzy before closing the night with the original rock-rap "Babylon."
As if we needed anymore evidence, the Metal Sludge Extravaganza proves that there is a need for rock and roll with big balls and easy times. And that there's an audience for it. Kitsch aside, all of the bands on this bill made an effort to be with the times - most had evolved their music and though there were a few in the audience, not a single poodle cut was seen on stage. It was worth going for Faster Pussycat's sublimely occult set alone, but tripping down memory lane with the rest of the audience - and not being the only one enjoying it - was truly priceless.
