It was three days of head banging fun at the Place, April 14-16, as a good sized crowd experienced or re-experienced the ’80s thanks to a cadre of ’80s metal tribute acts.
While I missed the first day, which featured Dave Chomiak’s new Bon Jovi tribute, Runaway, Whitesnake Tribute and and Lethbridge Tragically Hip Tribute the Hip Trip, but I caught parts of the other two days.
There were a lot more people than I expected for a long weekend, but the people who were there were there to party ’80s style.
I’m not a huge hair metal fan, but I appreciate any act that goes to the effort to sound, and especially look the parts.
This was definitely the case for the Edmonton Dokken tribute Breaking the Chains and the Scorpions Tribute “the Zoo.”
I don’t listen to much, if any, Dokken, but would be willing to give them another listen after seeing the tribute. They sounded great and the lead singer switched hats for “Dream Warriors.”
They were tight, they dressed ’80s. The lead singer hit those piercing high notes with ease and the lead guitarist shredded all the way including incorporating two handed tapping, like most hair metal bands did.
The Zoo, the Scorpions tribute were outstanding, though they barely cracked a smile, dressed in black, wearing dark sunglasses and stoically dug deep into the Scorpions back catalogue. The lead guitarist, the only one without sunglasses and wearing a backwards ball cap, finally cracked a smile four songs in.
Which was the about time I had to leave because of the extreme volume.
I had to return for Stage Fright, Dave Chomiak’s Def Leppard tribute, who are always a treat for Leppard fans.
They were as loud as the other two bands put together.
They played all the Def Leppard hits you could handle including “Photograph,” “Woman” and all of the hits for “Hysteria”as expected and dressed their mid ’80s part in torn jeans and t-Shirts.
The played the riffs spot on and Chomiak really hit those high notes.
On Saturday, I missed the Dokken tribute, but was just in time for Bridgette Yarwood’s Black Sabbath tribute. She had a completely different band than her usual Bridgette Yarwood band bandmates except bassist Ian Morrice, who was counting the April 23 show as his last one in Lethbridge before moving. They featured Gibson SG wielding guitarist Tyler Eresman, supplying those bone crunching, menacingly detuned riffs and otherworldly solos and drummer Isaac Neufeld.
She nailed the Ozzy Osbourne vocals and even his spastic on stage mannerisms as she weaved and bobbed and
frenetically danced all over the stage.
They brought up a cloaked James Swinney on stage a for a haunting harmonica solo for one songs.
They played a mix of deep cuts and crowd favourites like “War Pigs,” and of course “Paranoid,” which signalled the end of the show.
Yarwood switched coats for the last song, which I hoped would segue into some solo Ozzy Osbourne, but they were sticking with Sabbath for this show.
They went whole hog, adding their own spooky church window backdrop and dressed all in black, wearing home made upside down crosses.
Each of the band brought their own big stage backdrops reflecting the history of the bands they were impersonating.
I had to get up early for a Calgary run, so had to miss Live Wire: the Motley Crüe tribute ending a long weekend of head banging classic metal mayhem.
— by Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
