80's metalheads....My favorite local band from the 80's

[tak]

Joined Forces with Jimi Bell on guitar.

Blast from the past! I had their EP, it didn't do the live stuff that I heard justice.

 

[Digital Jams]

Joined Forces with Jimi Bell on guitar.

Blast from the past! I had their EP, it didn't do the live stuff that I heard justice.

Yeah, I saw them several times in Middletown at a joint called La Mirage......Bell would just throw down.

 

[MrDan666]

Downloading now! Thanks for uploading this Ralph, i havent heard John Levin playing before, but have heard OF him.

You are very welcome Dan!
I think you are gonna love this!

Wow killer playing and tone!!! This stuff rocks, thanks Ralph!

No wonder he is Dokkens guitarist now.. he sounds so Lynch, but with his own things and style added too!

 

[HottKarl]

The reason for the thread is,
What local band was in your area who you felt should have made it but never did?

Some local bands from back in the 80's that I used to love seeing live:

Poison Idea
Wehrmacht

But the band that should've made it (and did to some extent) and were sort of local (from Seattle but played in Portland ALL the time) was The Accused. Just a great metal/punk/thrash band that always put on a great show. Awesome band.

 

[OUTLAW1969]

Honky. Pinkus was the bass player in Butthole Surfers but then Gibby decided to get all technoed out or something.

But they put on an incredible show!

I saw HONKY at a small club last year, here in Jacksonville. They are a great band! I bought my copy of "Balls Out Inn" that night. It was a Tuesday or Wednesday night, and there were only two people ( the soundguy and myself!) that even knew who Jeff Pinkus was


GREAT SHOW!!

 

[Shiny_Surface]

There was a band called Talice from my area, I think Billy Sheehan played in it actually

 

[PeteLaramee]

The links not doing anything right now. I'm going to have to try again.

I don't think they were from my home town (Burlington, VT) but a trio called Run21 was based/lived there for a while. The drummer (Stets) went on to play with Impelliteri and the guitar player (Doug Blair/Luceck) went on to play with WASP. I can't remember the bass players name, but he was a monster too. Suprisingly, there was a lot of talent going through that town. Damn I think the guitar player played part of his solo while riding a skateboard.

BTW - my least favorite band from my hometown is Phish.

 

[SFW]

I grew up in Baton Rouge... there were a couple of local bands that I thought had "it," but never made it.

Terra - shred metal
Bone China - funk metal somewhere between ST and AIC

Hrm, interesting.... What time frame was that? I'm a BR kid too.

Terra was around 86-88
Bone China hit their stride in the early 90s. They broke up in 94 I believe. Great band!

 

[PeteLaramee]

There was a band called Talice from my area, I think Billy Sheehan played in it actually

Do you mean Tallas with Billy Sheehan and Mitch Perry?

 

[guitar_god123456]

theres a bass player local to here whos in a few bands and at least one of them should be signed, cuz he's the best bass player ive ever met, and his riffs on guitar and bass simply own!

 

[70strathead]

Geez, from what i recall there were a few..

1.) Tour De Force - these guys were always on the bill when bands the local bands like Vengeance ( jake e lee's ol band), Aircraft ( Craig Goldy's ol band) and of course Mickey Ratt ( warren/robin's ol band)...The Guitarist was named Rob Hampton and played a blond strat and just tore every one up..he played VH note for note and Uli Jon Roth, which at that period ( early 80's) was super stellar. Most of them ended up in L.A. and just fizzled out.

2.) Valiant Alliance - Heavy/Neclassical band with Wayne Findlay a good friend of mine still ( rhythm guitarist/keys for MSG/Slavior)...Wayne was unbelieable to watch in 86 doing all the yngwie stuff but playing keyboards at the same time too!!

3.) Party Ninja's - this band was sorta a collection of great all around talent ( former members of Rough Cutt) and used to really kill at that time. They all played in their own separate projects, so it was sort of a fun thing. They opened for the riverdogs ( V. campbell's old band) one time and the guitarist ( Black guy named Danny Robinson) pretty much tore Vivian a new asshole!

 

[Chubtone]

Talas is the correct spelling of Sheehans old band.

How do you define "made it" Ralph. You mean never getting a record deal? This will have a big bearing on who I can list having been a part of the 80's LA scene.

There was a band out of Cleveland/Chicago called Defcon that was great. And my favorite band that never made it was from Cleveland and they were called Outta The Blue. They were like Van Halen meets the Beatles. Killer power pop metal tunes with sick soloing and awesome harmonies. They were so good, when they came out to LA to showcase for labels, their shows featured a who's who of late 80's early 90's LA rock guys. I saw them at the club that is now the Viper Room. I forget what it was called back then but it was a hole that no one played. Paul Gilbert and Russ Parrish sat at the table with us. Strangely enough, as poppy and hooky as Outta The Blue was, they always closed with a different Racer X tune. The singer/2nd guitarist and main guitar player were brothers and they nailed the Racer X harmonies every time. At this one particular show the guitarist Mike Szuter came out and jumped on the table in front of Paul, Russ and the rest of us and ripped the solo to Racer X's "Motorman". Gilbert and Parrish were stunned by this band, though my friends and I had already seen them 3 times that week.

So not too long after that Russ Parrish left his gig in Rob Halford's Fight and joined Outta The Blue. And Paul Gilberts solo material, reminds me quite a bit of Outta The Blue just not as consistently hooky as they were. Paul even produced an album for Outta The Blue when they became known as The Szuters and Mike Szuter plays bass for Paul in his solo band. Now they are called Magna Fi and were on Ozzfest recently.

However none of The Szuters stuff or Magna Fi is as good as Outta The Blue was. They've dumbed everything down in an attempt to be more "alternative".

 

[Gitfiddler]

Talas is the correct spelling of Sheehans old band.

How do you define "made it" Ralph. You mean never getting a record deal? This will have a big bearing on who I can list having been a part of the 80's LA scene.

There was a band out of Cleveland/Chicago called Defcon that was great. And my favorite band that never made it was from Cleveland and they were called Outta The Blue. They were like Van Halen meets the Beatles. Killer power pop metal tunes with sick soloing and awesome harmonies. They were so good, when they came out to LA to showcase for labels, their shows featured a who's who of late 80's early 90's LA rock guys. I saw them at the club that is now the Viper Room. I forget what it was called back then but it was a hole that no one played. Paul Gilbert and Russ Parrish sat at the table with us. Strangely enough, as poppy and hooky as Outta The Blue was, they always closed with a different Racer X tune. The singer/2nd guitarist and main guitar player were brothers and they nailed the Racer X harmonies every time. At this one particular show the guitarist Mike Szuter came out and jumped on the table in front of Paul, Russ and the rest of us and ripped the solo to Racer X's "Motorman". Gilbert and Parrish were stunned by this band, though my friends and I had already seen them 3 times that week.

So not too long after that Russ Parrish left his gig in Rob Halford's Fight and joined Outta The Blue. And Paul Gilberts solo material, reminds me quite a bit of Outta The Blue just not as consistently hooky as they were. Paul even produced an album for Outta The Blue when they became known as The Szuters and Mike Szuter plays bass for Paul in his solo band. Now they are called Magna Fi and were on Ozzfest recently.

However none of The Szuters stuff or Magna Fi is as good as Outta The Blue was. They've dumbed everything down in an attempt to be more "alternative".

then robbie lochner filled in for russ parrish in fight. how would you compare the two players?

 

[Chubtone]

then robbie lochner filled in for russ parrish in fight. how would you compare the two players?

Well, Robbie taught at my store a few years back and he is very, very into two handed, 8 finger tapping type stuff and to be honest, that stuff does nothing for me. He's an excellent player, but quite honestly Russ is much more stylistically what I'm into. Sorry Robbie.

 

[Digital Jams]

Talas is the correct spelling of Sheehans old band.

How do you define "made it" Ralph. You mean never getting a record deal? This will have a big bearing on who I can list having been a part of the 80's LA scene.

There was a band out of Cleveland/Chicago called Defcon that was great. And my favorite band that never made it was from Cleveland and they were called Outta The Blue. They were like Van Halen meets the Beatles. Killer power pop metal tunes with sick soloing and awesome harmonies. They were so good, when they came out to LA to showcase for labels, their shows featured a who's who of late 80's early 90's LA rock guys. I saw them at the club that is now the Viper Room. I forget what it was called back then but it was a hole that no one played. Paul Gilbert and Russ Parrish sat at the table with us. Strangely enough, as poppy and hooky as Outta The Blue was, they always closed with a different Racer X tune. The singer/2nd guitarist and main guitar player were brothers and they nailed the Racer X harmonies every time. At this one particular show the guitarist Mike Szuter came out and jumped on the table in front of Paul, Russ and the rest of us and ripped the solo to Racer X's "Motorman". Gilbert and Parrish were stunned by this band, though my friends and I had already seen them 3 times that week.

So not too long after that Russ Parrish left his gig in Rob Halford's Fight and joined Outta The Blue. And Paul Gilberts solo material, reminds me quite a bit of Outta The Blue just not as consistently hooky as they were. Paul even produced an album for Outta The Blue when they became known as The Szuters and Mike Szuter plays bass for Paul in his solo band. Now they are called Magna Fi and were on Ozzfest recently.

However none of The Szuters stuff or Magna Fi is as good as Outta The Blue was. They've dumbed everything down in an attempt to be more "alternative".

MAn I love when you Hollywood slingers show up with your stories!

 

[Gainfreak]

Talas is the correct spelling of Sheehans old band.

How do you define "made it" Ralph. You mean never getting a record deal? This will have a big bearing on who I can list having been a part of the 80's LA scene.

There was a band out of Cleveland/Chicago called Defcon that was great. And my favorite band that never made it was from Cleveland and they were called Outta The Blue. They were like Van Halen meets the Beatles. Killer power pop metal tunes with sick soloing and awesome harmonies. They were so good, when they came out to LA to showcase for labels, their shows featured a who's who of late 80's early 90's LA rock guys. I saw them at the club that is now the Viper Room. I forget what it was called back then but it was a hole that no one played. Paul Gilbert and Russ Parrish sat at the table with us. Strangely enough, as poppy and hooky as Outta The Blue was, they always closed with a different Racer X tune. The singer/2nd guitarist and main guitar player were brothers and they nailed the Racer X harmonies every time. At this one particular show the guitarist Mike Szuter came out and jumped on the table in front of Paul, Russ and the rest of us and ripped the solo to Racer X's "Motorman". Gilbert and Parrish were stunned by this band, though my friends and I had already seen them 3 times that week.

So not too long after that Russ Parrish left his gig in Rob Halford's Fight and joined Outta The Blue. And Paul Gilberts solo material, reminds me quite a bit of Outta The Blue just not as consistently hooky as they were. Paul even produced an album for Outta The Blue when they became known as The Szuters and Mike Szuter plays bass for Paul in his solo band. Now they are called Magna Fi and were on Ozzfest recently.

However none of The Szuters stuff or Magna Fi is as good as Outta The Blue was. They've dumbed everything down in an attempt to be more "alternative".

Very Cool Brother!!

I saw Russ in fight and he killed. I heard about him years ago when Gilbert mentioned him in a lot of articles.
That said, I consider never making it as not being signed as a band. All of the guys from Devias except for the drummer went on to do other things.
Jon is the Guitar player from Dokken. The bass player Greg is now with Ted nugent and Alice cooper and the Singer Frank just signed on to sing on Rob Marchellos new album.

Its a shame that Devias never got signed because they were ready when a lot of us were trying to catch up lol. They could have been signed in 84 but passed on a lot of offers waiting for a better one and they wound up screwing themselves.

~R~

 

[Gitfiddler]

TT QUICK

Dave, is he any relation to TT Boy?

 

[jaybird]

oh yeah, bonus point for anyone who guesses the gear used for his tone!!

LP's and Marshall

Kramer and Marshalls!!

That said, Its a Marshall 2205 with an EQ in the loop.

Haha that was my rig back then too! 2205 and Kramer! Still have the Kramer Pacer American w/ JB in it. Sound maybe like a JB on the tape, no?

As far as the Russ Parish comments, I visited GTI back in the early 90's, saw him - sick! I have some printout guitar lessons from him I just found a couple weeks ago when I moved, funny!

 

[Gainfreak]

Haha that was my rig back then too! 2205 and Kramer! Still have the Kramer Pacer American w/ JB in it. Sound maybe like a JB on the tape, no?

As far as the Russ Parish comments, I visited GTI back in the early 90's, saw him - sick! I have some printout guitar lessons from him I just found a couple weeks ago when I moved, funny!

Definitely a JB in his guitars! He tried using a Duncan Distortion but they kept feeding back to much and he swapped it back to the JB's.

 

[Strat+Marshall]

oh yeah, bonus point for anyone who guesses the gear used for his tone!!

LP's and Marshall

Kramer and Marshalls!!

That said, Its a Marshall 2205 with an EQ in the loop.

What kind of EQ?