Based Guitarist knows the band in and out and fills in a lot of the gaps in my knowledge. He’s also a rippin’ guitarist in his own right, as you can see on his YouTube channel. And if you stop by there to see him shredding, you’ll also see that Based Guitarist flies his own plane and is working on getting his commercial pilot license.

Check it out here:

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Kris records and plays live, with his catalog up on Bandcamp and lots of videos of performances and other things on his YouTube page. We start off by catching up with Kris’ current projects and then go down the Judas Priest road. Here’s the first of what I hope will be many lively discussions on the RocknMetalLife YouTube channel:

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LA Guns is a band that I have seen a great many times in numerous incarnations and Riley was behind the kit for a lot of them. In recent years he was recording and touring with Riley’s LA Guns, and I wasn’t able to see that lineup live. The band famously split into two entities over the years since its glory days with Riley ending up in the current version under the name Riley’s LA Guns.

Steve Riley played live with his version of LA Guns at the M3 festival in 2019 and released the album Renegades in 2020. A new record, The Dark Horse, is schedule for a 2024 release.

The split between members of LA guns is a long and ugly story, with Riley being sued and forced to put his name on his version and change the logo from the classic shield. The bitter history of acrimony between the members of LA Guns was funny for a while but the longer it went, the worse it looked and felt.

If you follow along with Steve Riley in various interviews, you get a look at a guy who kept it positive and rocked until the day he died. Riley did a wonderful thing for the fans, he never asked them to choose sides, even in the face of viscous attacks from the other side. On his band’s official website, the media section has several interviews over the years with Riley always showing enthusiasm for the music he was making and saying he wasn’t going to sling mud at the other guys.

This was a guy who was a true rocker and he did it through all of the ups and downs, right to the end. Renegades is a solid hard rock record that has numerous catchy songs in the true LA Guns tradition. The videos on the website of the making of “Crawl” and other songs show the band enjoying the experience of recording, playing and meeting the fans. That’s the lasting memory of Steve Riley. Rest In Peace, Steve.

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They started out with “S.O.S. (Too Bad)” from Aerosmith and then blasted “Modern Day Cowboy.” Nothing could go wrong after that grand entrance. “Rock Me To The Top” was the rarity that was added this time around, and they finished like all of the prior shows with “Signs.”

I believe I have seen Tesla more times than any other band. I got a late start, not seeing them live for the first time until the Psychotic Supper tour, but I’ve made up for it in the 2000s. This is one band that hasn’t lost anything as far as putting on a live show. The catalog of songs they have to draw from is amazing enough, but they back it up every time with an entertaining show that whips the audience into a frenzy.

Here’s my video recap:

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For most of the 1980s, 38 Special was one of the heavyweights in rock music and it seemed like everybody I knew liked them. Their three-album run of Wild-Eyed Southern Boys, Special Forces and Tour De Force were all platinum sellers and they had enough for a greatest-hits album just off of that stretch.

The Marshall Tucker Band was an unknown for me other than their big hits. I knew it was a talented group but I was still surprised with how good their set was.

Molly Hatchet stole the show for me. When I was playing their greatest hits compilation as the show drew near, I remembered what a strong group they were. Clearly Southern rock, but a little stronger and heavier. The originals are all long-gone but the guys in the current lineup carried the torch brilliantly.

Here’s a vlog I did a few days after the show. My guess was correct that it was very enjoyable and a great trip back through a bunch of songs I used to hear all the time. All three bands were great live acts and the crowd was very engaged.

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Here’s a look back at a string of records in a band’s career that came out back-to-back where the band was on a roll in one way or another. I’m starting this regular feature off with the Scorpions and their 1979 – 1984 run from Lovedrive to Love At First Sting. Oddly enough, I use the 1985 live record World Wide Live to make my point here as this masterpiece of a live album came from the Love At First Sting tour and consisted of songs from the four albums in that stretch.

Lovedrive was a step up from 1977’s Taken By Force and the sound of the band began to evolve. 1980’s Animal Magnetism continued the move toward a more polished sound while not losing much of the hard-rock sting the Scorpions were known for.

The seas parted in 1982 when the German superpower came out with Blackout. One of the great records in the history of hard rock and heavy metal, the Scorpions showed the speed and heaviness they were capable of while also being melodic. Heavy riffs, lightning-fast solos, Klaus’ pristine voice, versatile songwriting…it’s all on Blackout, one of the records that sits firmly in my close-to-perfect category.

1984’s Love At First Sting capped off this incredible run with seemingly everything falling into place. The record was more of this band operating at an elite level while also being a little more radio-friendly and the Scorpions reaped the rewards with a triple-platinum certification.

This is my look at this stretch of one of my favorite bands. I’ve got no problems with the five records that came before Lovedrive. The band grew along the way and the pieces of this era’s lineup came together. But these four records are the Scorpions in all their glory and they would never do any better, despite making more great music in the years after.

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When Van Halen toured, they played the crap out of the album they were touring for and on this night, they played all of Diver Down except for “Dancin’ In The Streets” and “Big Bad Bill Is Sweet William Now.” And they nearly played Side One of the record in order.

After opening with “Romeo Delight,” always a crowd favorite, they hit the audience between the eyes with “Unchained.” Then came a drum solo, followed by the first Diver Down song, “The Full Bug.” My memories of this show mostly involve the energy and the crowd response, which was to absolutely lose its mind. I locked in on Edward Van Halen for long stretches and he delivered his usual dazzling performance.

Looking at the setlist, I remember the two opening songs pretty well and “Little Guitars,” which was the seventh song. Song number eight was the beginning of the extended Diver Down run with “Where Have All The Good Times Gone” followed by a bass solo that went into “Hang ‘Em High.” They continued with “Cathedral” and “Secrets” before “Everybody Wants Some!!,” saving “Intruder” and “Pretty Woman” for a little bit later.

It was a tour de force, with a ton of hits and crowd favorites still left, despite the band only being five albums into its career. “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love,” “Dance The Night Away,” and “You Really Got Me” all got played and they did four songs total off of Van Halen II.

The mighty Van Halen at that point in time was a force of nature. No matter what was going on behind the scenes, they played live like they invented it and there wasn’t any other band out there that could put on the kind of show they did. Blue Oyster Cult and Triumph had incredible laser light shows, Ted Nugent was a crowd-pleasing maniac and KISS was KISS. But Van Halen had its own vibe and a unique energy and with all that going on, they were hit-makers that delivered killer song after killer song that whipped audiences into a frenzy.

This was the second of my five Van Halen shows and my next go-round with them would be on the 1984 tour. These first three, all in the first Roth era, were my idea of a great time. I wasn’t disappointed by any of the other bands that I saw live during this time period because Van Halen was my favorite band and nobody else was supposed to be putting on that kind of show. It was theirs, alone.

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With this latest song, there’s a video and the band is performing it live on their current monster-size stadium tour. For me, “Perhaps” is a miss, but it does nothing to tarnish the great history of the band. More importantly, the live versions I watched showed Axl Rose struggling mightily. Yep, a common subject of discussion these days.

A lot of our beloved singers are struggling in the live setting these days, and how could they not? The kind of music I love calls for fire-breathing, glass-shattering vocals and you can’t expect that to hold up over the long haul.

Well, here we are. Axl’s on the list now, so I’m looking back nostalgically over the storied history of Guns N’ Roses. Great success, lots of controversy and never a dull moment, even when they have years and years of downtime.

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I, myself, have no good excuse for why it didn’t hit me at the time. When it came out, I bought it immediately, and I played the first half of the record quite a bit. After a couple of months, I bailed on this record and only had a couple of spots strong in my memory.

That was a huge mistake.

Here’s a video where I explain what I thought then, what I think now, and what a doofus I am for not catching on in 2012. The lead single, “Tattoo”, was something I didn’t care for at all from the first time I heard it, but that isn’t any excuse. There is enough good songwriting and brilliant guitar from the master himself to enjoy this record.

There’s plenty of clever, silly David Lee Roth commentary throughout and it was still a big deal that he was back again, even after all of the back-and-forth that went on between the band and its lead singers.

But this is a great, great, great guitar record. Riffs, hooks, leads, the great Edward Van Halen gave us a treasure trove on this album. It doesn’t sound that much like the first six records with Roth and it is quite a bit longer than any of those at 50:12. It is different, indeed. But it’s a great look at what Edward Van Halen was up to at that point, with Roth on vocals and his son in the band on bass.

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Visually, we got Zakk and early-2000s Ozzy (granny glasses/straight black hair) wearing the Vol4 tassled sleeves. Musically, we got Randy/Jake/Zakk-era solo Ozzy along with a heavy dose of Black Sabbath songs.

The first of two sets started off with “Over The Mountain” from Diary Of A Madman and for myself personally, that’s the perfect place to begin. Two Jake E. Lee songs followed, “Bark At The Moon” and “Shot In The Dark.” So far, so good.

A couple of surprises, to me at least, were “I Don’t Wanna Stop” from Black Rain and “Into The Void” from Sabbath’s Master of Reality. “I Don’t Wanna Stop” is a song I never cared for on the radio but it went over great live.

Another surprise, like they were cherry-picking my favorite songs from the solo records, was “Perry Mason” from Ozzmosis.

Singer David Diaz was a great facsimile of the unique voice of Ozzy Osbourne and had a lot of his gestures and movements down. Gutiarist Mark Knapp nailed the intricate licks of every song and I spent the second hour-long set directly in front of him watching his masterful playing of all these classic songs. With the Zakk Wylde battle vest, braided beard and his long, straight hair flowing up from the fan pointed upwards at him in front of his mic, Mark gave us all of the guitar magic that comes with Ozzy.

The second set was filled with Sabbath classics like “Children Of The Grave,” “Iron Man,” “War Pigs,” and, believe it or not, “Changes.”

Great night of celebrating Ozzy’s mind-boggling, elite career. A small mosh pit popped up every so often with some bizarro techniques that added even more energy to the show. A younger guy lost control and took out a table and a couple of chairs. An older guy passed out after staggering roughly 15 feet. The young guy dialed it down a little the rest of the show and the old dog got to his feet and wobbled away with Fulton 55 staff. All good.

At this point in history, I say go see stuff like this any time you can. $20 or so to hear those songs live, loud and with everybody screaming along. I live in fear of a life on Earth (you know, Earth!) where a night like this isn’t available. My age group’s going down a road that worries me at this point, with what looks to me like fewer and fewer true believers showing up every time out.

Good to see the energy from the younger generation but they tend to think of Green Day and Fall Out Boy as “classic” while also understanding that our legends are who they are. I wonder if that’s the best it will ever be going forward.

Along those lines, another thought that may be minor or it may be huge. See if you can follow me on this. The opening band was a cover band that started with “Hells Bells” and then ran through a string of songs from a bunch of 90s/2000s bands that I mostly didn’t care for. White Zombie was ok, Tool not so much. Alice In Chains is always welcome, but they played “Would” and I would have much rather had “Sea Of Sorrow.”

But the music selection wasn’t a real big deal. They played “Panama.” Mixed feelings on how that went, but no matter. The band was up there in jeans and T-shirts and while the music is absolutely, unequivocally king and always will be, I have a tough time with bands (and scenes) that have no image. AC/DC has an image everybody recognizes. So does Van Halen. The two main characters in Mr. Crowley copied Ozzy and Zakk’s familiar looks.

When I say “a tough time,” I mean that I wonder if that’s what my glorious, theatrical, operatic, epic, life-defining experience with hard rock and heavy metal is being reduced to. Obviously, Van Halen had two guys in flashy outfits and two pedestrian-looking guys. Cheap Trick had three distinct dressers and then a regular guy. You don’t have to come up with a flashy image to be a great musician, by any stretch, but there was a whole lot of style and energy behind Steven Tyler, David Lee Roth, Alice Cooper and, yes, John Michael Osbourne and his mates.

The opening band was incredibly tight and played great for their whole set. The presentation was that of cool guys you’d love to hang out with and that’s pretty much what the crowd did here. This is CLEARLY me being “the old guy.” I’ll take young guys blasting my era’s songs any time I can get it.

But I always think of that scene in Rockstar where Mark Wahlberg is at his day job working on a printer and one of the suits is hassling him and he gets close up to Wahlberg and says “is that eye-liner?!?!!?” And Wahlberg tells him “yeah, man, I’m in a band.”

In my mind, getting up on stage is still connected with a performer getting into his/her alter-ego. You’re not just a regular guy up there, you’re Deliverin’ The Goods. Not everybody has to feel that way and the world doesn’t owe me anything. I’m just stuck on the days when every band had the over-the-top guy, maybe two or three of them, and there was that extra dimension to the art. It was in stark contrast last night at the Fulton 55 show and it makes me appreciate the madness I’ve gotten to enjoy even more.

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