Skid Row: Still Humble and Hungry
Wednesday, July 3, 2013 at 12:01AM I'm a freelance music writer for the Dayton City Paper now. Yesterday, my first piece was published. I wrote about Skid Row coming to Dayton and our famous rock club called McGuffy's House of Rock. Here's some of the piece, which I think you'll like, and then you can jump over to the DCP site to finish up the article! Be sure to let me know what you think!
“Music keeps you young. I’ve always believed that. It gives you energy that doesn’t exist in other arenas in life,” Skid Row guitarist Dave “Snake” Sabo told Dayton City Paper. “The essence of me is a 16-year-old kid standing in front of mirror with a guitar, pretending to be Ace Frehley [of KISS] or Joe Perry [of Aerosmith] or Eddie Van Halen [of Van Halen]. Everything else has sprouted from that. When you get to my core, that’s who I am. That essence hasn’t been jaded.”
Skid Row is coming to Dayton next month, stopping at McGuffy’s House of Rock on Friday, July 12. It’s been a wild ride for the band over the past 27 years and for fans that have lost touch with the band since its late ‘80s and early ‘90s heyday may be surprised at the lineup: larger than life sex-god Sebastian Bach is gone. Country-boy-cum-rocker Johnny Solinger is in. Solinger, who packs an amazing range and can hit all the famous high notes, has been with the Skids for 14 years now, meaning the band has had plenty of time to gel as a new unit. There will always be those die-hards screaming for a classic Skid Row reunion with Bach, but that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon – if ever. And it isn’t as if the guys in the band are worrying about it.
Instead, Skid Row is pushing full steam ahead with writing, recording and touring. Skid Row will hit the cobblestones in Europe in the fall, touring with Ugly Kid Joe, another early ‘90s metal favorite. It will be the first time the two bands have traveled together and Sabo is looking forward to it. But for now, it is summer and that means touring America on the back of the newest Skid Row release, United World Rebellion: Chapter One. Skid Row released the mini-album back in April via Megaforce and will release two more mini-albums over the course of the next 18 months or so. For Sabo, the change in the way music is released is both straight business and amazingly creative: constant writing is good for the chops and having new albums to promote means booking a lot of gigs.
Reader Comments (17)
I'm always a fan of your writing and this article is no exception. Great job! I do wish that the Skids could reunite for at least one legitimate album and tour. Sebastian's solo material is MUCH better than any of the Skid Row garbage released without him. However, the original band as a whole is unstoppable. The first three LPs are an amazing trilogy.
As for the new version of the band being either "garba" or "garbage," well, I think they are the former . . . just like the Indian dance, they aren't everyone's cup of tea.
A reunion? Never say never . . . okay, go ahead and say never. But I would bet on Doc McGhee growing a luxurious mane of blonde hair before it happens.
And therein lies the current veneered ego of the band sans Bach. No matter what Sabo says or thinks, the band still more than likely wanna view Bach as an employee, rather than the VOICE that is essential to completing their sound.
And as evidenced even further by the comments here, he's the VOICE of Skid Row in more ways than one, from songwriting to hyping and everything in between.
Let's not forget how we all thought we'd never see Roth and Van Halen on stage together ever again. Granted, this is a little different as there aren't millions at stake, but there are hundreds of thousands or a couple mil to be made and certainly way more than Bach solo and Skids sans Bach are making combined.
Just pay Bach a quarter mil more than what he makes on tour now, do a record and tour with him, put up with his B.S. and watch the fans AND the dollars roll in now more than ever, particularly because of he new resurgence to Bring Back Glam! -- a movement that's gaining more and more traction exponentially every day!
p.s. I keep seeing (literally) bands reforming or gaining wider exposure now more than ever (TUFF, Dangerous Toys, Jailhouse, KIX with a new album, RATT keeping it going with Croucier back, Jake E. Lee, Black & Blue, Loudness, etc., etc.), so the timing couldn't be better for Skid Row. It could be a lot bigger than most of us could anticipate. Next: Britny Fox!
I just don't think the band as it stands now is "fake." Different? Worse? Gasping for Air? Maybe, depending on how you look at them.
And many a band has put aside a better meal ticket to get rid of a diva and/or welcomed back a diva once they decide they want more to eat. Like I said, never say never.
But I also don't think you can fault the members of the band who have drawn a line in the sand, for whatever reasons, and said "no, no more Bach." For all the gifts that man has/had emanating from his gullet, Bach has also displayed an urge to sabotage himself simply by opening his mouth.
As much as Bach proclaims he would do it for the fans if "a certain someone" would just let things go, I think that stance is both a simplistic and passive aggressive. He isn't going to win over the band if the underlying issues aren't resolved. And, likely, they won't . . . even if a wad of cash is waved in their faces.
And when Bas threw that out there, it got worse. WAY worse. regardless of the cash, it's not about the money; it's about integrity. I don't "do things for the money", though many people believe otherwise and many people in other camps [ABSOLUTELY] do.
Again, HIM, so much would've simply just gone away and been buried if one of 'em offered a [sincere] peace offering and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't know it went that deep and that hard core."
I don't mind being [somewhat] in comtempt with some of my contemporaries. they still believe that they are better than me. I don't feel that way at all. I feel that I am better at some things than they are, but in their fundamental view, they will probably never recognize it, or at least acknowledge it publically. those people (MB) are the real purists.
Still don't know what the friction is about between you and your contemporaries. But it seems to be long-standing.
Nuff sed.