Sebastian Bach and Ratt Bring Hair Metal Night to Fremont Street Summer Series

On Saturday, September 27th, The Fremont Street Experience hosted a double-headlining free concert, bringing Sebastian Bach (Skid Row) and Ratt to Downtown Las Vegas. The first band to take the stage was Sebastian Bach, on the First Street stage next to Binion's and across from The Golden Nugget, and the band starts off with the intro for "Slave To The Grind", when Sebastian comes charging out to join the fray, grabbing his mic stand and whipping his hair around with a fury. Immediately, he takes the mic off and throws the stand to the side of the stage, and it's obvious that he is full of energy and ready to put on a show. He walks out on the vanity walk of the stage belting out the beginning of the song, and after bounding back and forth all over the stage, he heads back out on the vanity walk and slings his corded microphone toward the audience. He begins to furiously spin the mic over his head, and after about eight to ten rotations the microphone breaks free from the cord and skips off of the head of guitarist, "Bruiser" Brody De Rozie. Bruiser (a local Las Vegas guitarist was recomended to Sebastian by Five Finger Death Punch bassist Chris Kael) will appear at select shows on this tour and this was his debut - talk about a rough start! Luckily, he appeared to see it coming and was able to duck down enough to keep it from being a direct hit, and he shook his head and walk back toward his amp, where he continued to play a few more chords before finally exiting the stage. Meanwhile, Sebastian had stopped spinning the cord and held up the end (sans microphone) with a confused look on his face, and obviously had no idea where it had gone since he had his head down while he was spinning it.

Bach was given a new mic by stage crew but that one didn't kick on until the second chorus was done. The band finished up "Slave" and played most of "Dance On Your Grave" with just Brent Woods handling guitar duties, and Bruiser came back out at the end of the song, but seemed to be having sound issues and never really got going. On top of that, Woods seemed to be having issues of his own with his pedal board, and Bach was getting some really bad feedback from his new mic. Bach took a second to introduce Bruiser, who seemed to be just fine, and then called out the title of the next song, "Here I Am". For those in the audience needing "more cowbell" this was their song, as drummer Bobby Jarzombek continued to pound on the bell while Woods and a crew member worked to solve the pedal issue. They finally just started the song anyway and it wasn't until about half way through that they got it all worked out and things started to flow. By the time "18 And Life" started they were cruising and Bach was working the crowd telling them, "this is your song, Las Vegas!" This was about the time when I saw blood begin to trickle down Bruiser's forehead. By the time they were half way through "Piece Of Me" Bruiser had a good amount of blood covering his forehead and running into his eyes. This guy was a Trooper! Between songs he got cleaned up again and it looked like the blood flow stopped, or at least slowed to a manageable amount.

Things settled down and the band rolled through their mostly Skid Row set without too much more drama. Bach took a second between songs to talk about all of the incredible musicians we've lost recently, and then dedicated "I Remember You" to the late Vinnie Paul. A couple of songs later Jarzombek gave up his throne to allow Sebastian's son Paris Bierk, who plays drums in a rock band called Fall oF Silence, to play drums. The talent obviously runs deep in that family as he tore up the skins for "Sweet Little Sister". The Sebastian Bach portion of the evening closed out on "Youth Gone Wild", and aside from the various technical difficulties and the freak microphone accident it was a great performance, and thoroughly enjoyable! I sure hope Bruiser is OK!

Sebastian Bach Set List:

Slave To The Grind

Dance On Your Grave

Here I Am

18 And Life

Piece Of Me

The Threat

I Remember You

Big Guns

Sweet Little Sister

American Metalhead

Monkey Biz

Youth Gone Wild

Sebastian Bach photos from Randy Udell / R U Rockin' Photos

Ratt was up next, but they were on a completely different stage two blocks down, at Third Street (between 4 Queens and The D). It was packed in on all sides, and even after all these years Stephen Pearcy can draw a crowd, a testament to the staying power of the "hair metal" era. The opportunity to see one of these bands perform 'one last time' is a call that few can resist. They put on a great show, musically speaking, and Stephen showed a lot of energy even though rumor had it that he hadn't slept a wink due to travel. My only complaint was that his vocals were barely audible over the exceptional instrumentals. Other than that they put on a solid show and the crowd was definitely enjoying it. Ratt's current lineup is Stephen Pearcy on vocals, Juan Croucier on bass, Jordan Ziff and Chris Sanders on guitars, and Pete Holmes on drums.