"That 80s Hair Band of Texas"

That was the entertainment at Antone's last night. That 80s Hair band of Texas is, as the name implies, a band from Texas (Houston, to be exact) covering the tunes of 80s hair metal bands, plus a few other bands that I don't think fairly belong in the "hair band" category. I don't think its so much the hair that fits a band in this category so much as the spandex pants and power ballads.

So, for instance, although everyone in AC/DC has (or had) long hair, they could never qualify as a hair band because none of them would be caught dead in spandex pants, and they'd never stoop to doing 'power ballads.' And then there's also the fact that they're more blusey hard rock than metal. But bands like Motley Crue, Van Halen, Twisted Sister, Ratt, W.A.S.P., Def Leppard, Dokken, and Quiet Riot are all clearly guilty. Bad spelling and an inappropriate use of umlats seem to be a common theme too. (Blogger does not like umlats, thus the pedestrian spelling of "Motley Crue.")

And That 80s Hair Band for the most part covered songs of legitimate 80s hair bands, which, I found, I didn't really like as much as I thought I did. In fact I found that I didn't even recognize most of them, although I'm sure that any serious fan of the genre would. The songs that they played that I knew I liked. It was obvious from their performances of those songs that they're thoroughly competent at what they do. Unfortunately, my taste for hair metal doesn't go much deeper than Van Halen and Def Leppard.

I'd had a long day, I wasn't really getting into the spirit of the show, and I was tired. I ended up leaving a bit after midnight, which was about half way through the second of three sets. For those whose love of the genre extends to the likes of Ratt, Dokken, and Poison, I'd recommend them highly. If you have a shallower appreciation of the music like mine, I'd recommend drinking a lot of beer first.