Winger Live August 2024 - Review

Eric and I saw Winger last night, August 30, at a venue called J.D. Legends. It was crazy hot all day - like we're talking 100 degree heat index. It felt pretty good outside by the time the sun went down and we were ready for music! I do think the extreme heat and humidity hurt the crowd size a little. I was surprised that the crowd wasn't bigger, but high school football was also happening so there's that.

The opening band was local and had sound issues. Unfortunately some of those sound and technical issues rolled over into a Winger's set. There was a mic issue and eventually singer Kip Winger went back to his standard face-mic, ditching the stand version. The keyboard went belly-up at one point, so Paul Taylor played guitar more than normal until things go fixed up on the keys. The keyboard issue swirled up the set a little, which was fine with me. I was glad to hear "Junkyard Dog" earlier in the set than normal and relieved it wasn't dropped. Of course, "Down Incognito" was great. During some of the songs Kip and guitarist Reb Beach just openly laughed at each other. I think they were snickering over the sound issues and having to keep moving songs around. Kip also reminded fans that the band was all original members, celebrating 35 years together! (That said, guitarist John Roth was at a different engagement and Howie Simon filled in).

Keyboards fixed, "Miles Away" was awesome and so was "Headed for a Heartbreak." "Seventeen" was up really early in the set during sound issues, but that didn't stop folks from dancing. There were lots of smiling faces in the crowd. The band ended with "Madeline" and we were out, happy to head home and shower off the "concert sticky" as I call it. An extra point for me was "Rainbow in the Rose" and then Reb Beach making dumb facial expressions and trying to think of stuff to talk about while filling time for Kip to get his mic sorted out. Reb let us know that today, August 31, is his birthday - so a happy one to him!

Here's some photos from the show. These are not from me - I saw these on Reddit while at the show, which was kind of a mind bender considering how large and international Reddit is -- and how small of a city I was watching Winger perform in, but hey. Life is wild. 

Winger
byu/contains_almonds inhairmetal

A Long Weekend & Winger Tonight!

I'm seeing Winger tonight at an outdoor show not far from my house. It will be a great way to kick off the long holiday weekend. I am always a little (okay, a lot) sad when Labor Day rolls around becuase it means my beloved hot and sunny days are coming to an end. Ohio is cold and grey all winter long and it sucks.

I have been looking forward to this Winger show for quite awhile - a show report is forthcoming of course!

Winger To Headline Prog Power USA Next Fall

Coming at you September 2024: Winger will headline Prog Power USA and play Pull in its entirety. Yes, I'm very interested in this - Pull is an amazing album.

Taking place in Atlanta, GA from September 4 - 7, tickets are on sale now via Ticketmaster. Looks like an event pass is $280. The event poster is below.

Winger, 'Voodoo Fire' -- Official Video

Winger now has a video for their song "Voodoo Fire" from the new album Seven. It's a strong song and I dig it - a lot. Really good stuff here - Winger's new album is one of the strongest of the year.

‘I Wanna Rock: The ‘80s Metal Dream’ - Documentary Review

Paramount+ released a three-part documentary earlier this month called I Wanna Rock: The ‘80s Metal Dream (MTV Entertainment Studios). The documentary is directed by Tyler Measom and is only on Paramount+ - so it's worth a subscription to watch!

I watched the series over two nights. The segments are about an hour each, so easily digestible. Interviews feature John Corabi, Kip Winger, Janet Gardner, Snake Sabo, Dee Snider and other industry folks, including journalist Lonn Friend and music manager Vicky Hamilton.

Titles of the three segments:

Ep 101 - “I Wanna Be Somebody”
Ep 102 - “Headed for Heartbreak”
Ep 103 - “Smells Like Change”

You can pretty well guess what is covered by the segment titles. Of the three sections, I thought the most interesting bits were found in two and three.

The throwbacks to clips of musicians changing their look and sound to fit into the 80s metal mold was gold and I loved the little hunk showing when Michael Bolton tried to be a Glam singer (I wrote about that here once, years ago).

Janet Gardner talks about how she got into singing and her start with a Mormon singing group. Of course there's discussion of her parents' Mormon faith and conservative values and what they would think of their daughter wearing short skirts on stage with Vixen. Janet talks about her time in Vixen's heyday with mostly great memories and also addresses the rampant misogyny in the scene back in the 80s (and 90s and 00s and...)

The best parts of the documentary for me are the behind-the-scenes clips of Kip Winger working his butt off as an unknown session guy and then when he is tinkering in the studio with Reb Beach. Kip talks a lot about Winger's struggles and how Beavis and Butthead really hurt his band. He talks about the lean years during Grunge and also when his wife died. Then there is joy on his face as he walks viewers through his dream career of writing orchestral music.

Snake Sabo of Skid Row is pretty open and I will admit I did not know about his childhood trauma and mental health issues. I knew that he has been an advocate for mental health treatment in recent years, but good on him for coming out of the other side of abuse. He also touched on dealing with Sebastian Bach's drama a little, but not too much.

Seeing all the old promo photos from bands that made it huge - and those who didn't - is also a great treat. Watching all the photos flip, you can really make a nice playlist of some rare Glam. I mean, Candy is featured - with audio clips and an interview even! Really, "Whatever Happened To Fun?"

Your friend and mine, Riki Rachtman shows up to talk about what "killed" the 80s scene and he is dead right when he says it wasn't grunge so much as it was Garth - as in Garth Brooks and country music. I just read The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman and there's an entire section of the book dedicated to Garth Brooks and his complete domination of music in the 90s. For the first time, country was "cool" and mainstream and Garth released a chart-topping album almost every year of the 90s. His live shows were unmatched (I even saw one in like 1994 or 1995) and he was very upfront about what he liked. Garth apparently loves arena rock and over-the-top shows, so he modeled his career on that and making songs that he would like. So between country getting huge and grunge dominating the "traditional" rock market, 80s music was pushed aside and considered washed.

Watch the series for the Vicky Hamilton interviews and learn how horrible she was treated by a lot of big bands, especially Motley Crue and Poison. Then there's Guns n' Roses. No wonder the poor woman needed some therapy after all of that!

New Hair Metal Documentary Coming To Paramount+

This is exciting! A documentary about the glam metal heyday of the 80s is coming to Paramount+ on July 18. It's called I Wanna Rock: The ‘80s Metal Dream. The documentary is in three parts and will feature members of Skid Row, Winger, Twisted Sister, Vixen and The Scream (yes, John Corabi!)

I'm down for this and I can't wait. Watch the trailer below!

Tom Keifer Band / Winger / John Corabi Show Review

Saturday night, Eric and I headed to Harrison, Ohio (it’s near Cincinnati) to see John Corabi / Winger/ Tom Keifer Band.

The show was at the Blue Note. A nice venue, with sort of a weird indoor layout, but the outside was nice for a rock show. Basically a big stage was in a parking lot. It worked.

John Corabi did an all-acoustic set. Eric poked me in the ribs when John started “Hooligan’s Holiday.” I love that song but it just isn’t the same acoustic. I noticed a few folks wearing Union shirts and I thought that was nice. A couple standing next to me wearing those shirts later bought new Corabi merchandise. In the end, Corabi’s set was short and I did admittedly talk through a lot of it with a person I met at the show. Shout out to Mike from Lexington! He was at the show because he had been trying to see Tom Keifer live for about 20 years!

Winger’s set was awesome and tight as always. Yes, I got to hear “Down Incognito” and of course “Miles Away.” The band also did a couple tracks off their new album Seven. People were really getting into it, especially as the show went on. “Headed for a Heartbreak,” “Easy Come Easy Go” and “Madalaine” were all big highlights for me. So was seeing Kip Winger in his little microphone headset. It never gets old seeing him wear that thing.

Tom Keifer Band’s set started out with some nutty technical difficulties. Like, crazy loud and screechy feedback that gave way to an actual song. The feedback drug on and I was about to put in ear plugs. It was pretty painful until “Hot & Bothered” really got going. Even still, I was having trouble making out the words to the song.

During the part of the show where the band always takes a group selfie with the crowd, the soundboard made some weird “boing boing” noise. I assume it was on purpose (for whatever reason) but then Tom made a comment on all the weird technical stuff so I knew that was a weird mistake, too.

Show highlights were “Night Songs,” “Shake Me” and “Gypsy Road.” The biggest disappointment was that the band didn’t play “The Last Mile” which is my very favorite Cinderella song.

Oh and sorry for the delayed review. I’m having a lovely bursitis flare that is making typing really freaking painful. Really awesome during the workday, too. And no old age jokes either. This bursitis is from when I broke my shoulder running two years ago – and landing on my elbow was a really nice side injury. Every day is an adventure I guess.