Sunday
Dec152013
Totally Awesome: Jake E. Lee Live Again
Sunday, December 15, 2013 at 12:01AM Jake E. Lee is (finally) back and performing live again with his new band the Red Dragon Cartel. The band will be releasing an album via Frontiers soon... but in the meantime they are playing some live gigs. The other night, the band did an assortment of tunes from Jake's other bands and, awesomely, the Badlands track "High Wire" made the cut!
Reader Comments (24)
When listening to the show in order of the set list, it did seem as if Smith went from (no pun intended) bad to worse. Perhaps this is a warning to those who are going to recruit band members from Facebook.
Lee, of course, sounded great . . . like a rail-snort of nostalgia (the extended solo for "Ultimate Sin" points to what has been missing without him around). Now he needs someone to fill some big shoes from his past so he can keep the goodwill of the crowd on his side going towards the future.
I'll say it (and second it) again: wouldn't Corabi be perfect?
METALBOY has spoken.
p.s. Do your research if you must and if proven otherwise, I'll buy you a drink on the upcoming Monsters of Rock Cruise while watching Jake and his Cartel live from the VIP section. Hell, I'll buy any of you characters a drink on the thing while watching them, regardless. If you Rock & Roll Children will recall, the question was put to Ace at the time as to whether Corabi and Lee know each other and why the hell they can't join forces. Now THAT would really be a cartel. Either way, shite singer or not, Lee will kick major a*s on that boat! Heck, Lee could go on stage with a potted petunia stolen from the ship's main lobby with a mic in front of it as the lead singer and Lee will still blow everyone else on the ship away!
!
I've seen Corabi and Logan multiple times on The Monsters of Rock Cruise and, in the case of Logan, also at M3 (both occassions with Logan were with George Lynch).
Though he sang more strongly at M3 than on MORC, Logan's voice doesn't hold a candle to Corabi's. He wailed during the incredible, adhoc and impromptu set put on by Cinderella & Friends.
I am no big fan of Logan. But I see The Insider's point. I just don't think that Logan is consistent enough, and strong enough, to do justice to the new band. As a fit for (in a perfect world where Logan doesn't go off into the wild again) the older songs, the back-catalog, yes, he is a good choice (as I can't speak to Cathey's abilities at all). As those releases with Lynch a few months back suggest, when he is on, Logan is on. When he isn't . . . it isn't fun or good or interesting.
After the initial jolt of seeing the old stuff played so well, I want to see RDC do the new stuff justice (while still keeping the old stuff in the set). If things are as thin as Ace suggests (and he would know) in Smog Central, then why not branch out further and farther (the Facebook search was pretty wide) but with more focus?
I get that Corabi is a dream. But so is getting anyone who is even close to Hughes and Gillen (and Auto-tune-Ozzy). And why repeat when you can push forward? When you do that you, to humbly interject a point regarding a Jet City band, end up sounding better than the original but paradoxically worse too.
Still, I wish this project nothing but the best. And if the singer's jitters (and syrup and shots and technical difficulties and three servings at the Apple Pan) turn out to be a lapse, as Lee (and/or his site) has said, then I will full well welcome the new guy and hope they push forward.
One request: the drummer needs to start sporting shorts like Bill Ward during live events. If you can't beat 'em, at least emulate them until you can.
Jake could really have something with a killer singer. Let's see if the guy improves. If not, Lee better find a killer! And fast!