Both pieces of the Skid Row puzzle have been in Vancouver this year. Who does the better Skid Row?
The 80’s were fun times for hard rock as Heavy Metal began to really branch out and take big strides in the music scene. Not only was it musical entertaining but the ego clashes amongst bands and band mates, was likened to a soap opera. Frankly, it really led to the downfall of a lot of these bands because they just could not handle the stardom. Record companies loved the publicity for one, and really, did they care? As soon as Grunge rock came along that was the new shiny toy and all this hair metal stuff imploded all over itself.
One of the best near the late 80’s to early 90’s was Skid Row, where as the internal clashes within this very popular band caused an rather early demise. They had a couple really solid hit albums, then the band had issues with lead singer Sebastian Bach and fired him back in 1996. Since then, Skid Row and Bach have been taking shots at one another all these years and still goes on to this day in fact. Bach would go back to Skid Row but the band still absolutely wants nothing to do with him. Where does this leave fans? Well, we get 2 entities playing Skid Row music, and this year both are on tour. Its now 2024, who did it better? The band (Skid Row) has been trying all these years with various vocalists to emulate Sebastian and this time around when we saw them, they had Erik Gronwell, who was a deadringer for a young Sebastian. On the other hand, tonight we get a 56 year old Sebastian Bach on vocals but, is his band able to actually play Skid Row music? That’s what I came to see.
Tonight I will judge for myself at the Vogue Theatre in Vancouver (courtesy of MRG Entertainment) as Sebastian Bach is in town along with local support from Brass Camel as well as Cincinnati Ohio’s Kurt Deimer.
Sebastian has released 5 solo albums since 1999. The latest is with “Child Within the Man” which was released in 2024. It’s actually contains some really good tracks on it, and we get a quick introduction to one of them on the first song of the night with “What do I Got to Lose?” which came off really good live too. I quickly made aware that Sebastian doesn’t like photographers taking pictures of him at the center of stage, which is odd to me, but maybe because he likes swinging his microphone like a medieval flail above the heads of the first few rows of the audience. God forbid he nails someone!
One thing with Sebastian, there is no shortage for banter about Canada and thereafter gets the crowd singing the national anthem. Frankly I found that out of place at rock concert, and him ribbing on CanCon made my eyes roll as that is the CRTC requirements the define Canadian musicians.. He feels he should have that qualification, even though he lived in New Jersey and L.A. for the longest time, and now resides in the Bahamas.
From there, we get to what really everyone is here for and that is to hear Skid Row stuff. “Slave to the Grind”, “Here I am”, “Big Guns”, “Sweet Little Sister”, Can’t Stand the Heartache”. and “18 and Life”. After all those, I am actually pretty impressed that Bach can still hold his voice up. Well, it’s not 25 year old Sebastian, but considering his age it’s not bad actually. He can’t do those crazy high octaves he used to do, but all the same he will admit he makes mistakes and is not perfect, “no fakes (referring to Skid Row clones?), no click tracks”. He actually mentions that in the show and that he uses no backing tracks whatsoever.
However, in saying this, I will make a mention of his bass player and guitar player nonchalantly wandering around onstage and not making it back to the mic for the backing vocals on time. That, I found extremely aloof and unprofessional. Not a lot of passion I sense with these 2, but maybe playing cover songs night after night begins to wear thin? Another item I will address is the lack of a second guitar player. You certainly miss the other side of the guitar, as Skid Row has 2 guitar players not one. IF you are going to perform Skid Row songs, do it right and have a 2nd guitar player. Did you know his son Paris Bach plays drums in his band? He does do a decent job behind the kit, seems pretty quiet compared to his dad.
“Freedom”, “Everybody Bleeds” and (Hold On) To the Dream” were the other 3 songs from the new album played. The audience was more in listening mode on those but got some favorable response.
At song 14 we had a special guest with 16 year old Nelina Nenadic who is a Rock Camp alumni and performed with Sebastian during her time in L.A. You can tell by about this point in the show where Sebastian’s voice began to sag a little but still kept it entertaining. The night ended with “Rattlesnake Shake” and the song that got Skid Row on the map with “Youth Gone Wild”. Skid Row ended with that song as well on their setlist this past March, and frankly, I think they did it better.
The question is, who did I like better? Well, there is nothing like the real thing, and Sebastian is THEE staple rock’n’roll-take-no-shit quintessential front man. At his age he did quite admirably and I was impressed! Sure, Erik Gronwall right now is the better singer but he is also a lot younger than Sebastian and CAN DO those songs the way Sebastian did back in the 80’s no problem. However, he is not the frontman with the swagger and attitude that Sebastian is. I know Sebastian likes to take shots at Skid Row for finding Bach clones but if you saw how many musicians he goes through, he is not one to speak either. Skid Row is the ‘better band’ musician-wise with Snake, Rachel Bolan and Scotti Hill who wrote all those songs that were played tonight (exception of Slave to the Grind that Bach was part of).
Skid Row are in abit of a spot at the moment however, as Erik Gronwall left the band and now they need yet another vocalist. Will they let Bach back in the band? Not likely as Snake, Bolan and Scotti have zero interest in having a reunion with Bach. I think Bach would though if they could patch things up but c’mon people, this is from 1996 already. However in saying all that, this is rock’n’roll and who knows what might happen in the future. Years are ticking by and no one is getting any younger, and fans support is starting to dwindle. On a Tuesday night I was shocked to see only 450 people or so at Sebastian’s show, whereas Skid Row sold out the Commodore Ballroom (Thursday March 7 and had a previous show the night before in Vancouver. Skid Row definitely had the more entertaining show in my eyes and ears, but where would they have been without Bach? Hard to say, love them both.
Be the first to comment