December 4, 2007 / Whiskey Dick’s (Columbus, Ohio)
The opening band (The Antidivision) was completely forgettable – a bad mix of rock/punk/goth/electro. They are on Stephen Pearcy’s label. Hope he’s not planning on retiring from the money he won’t make from them. They played to about 30 people, none of whom stood in the pit area up front. At one point they finished a song and nobody in the whole place clapped. The singer was like, “What, you can’t even clap? We drove 12 hours through a blizzard to play for you.” They did 2 David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust covers (“Spiders from Mars” and “Suffragette City”) but even those sounded uninspired.
Jetboy, on the other hand, was great – a nice tight setlist with mostly tracks from ‘Damned Nation‘. They truly seemed to be enjoying themselves, particularly guitarist Fernie Rod. Last time I saw them (at the Hollywood Rocks boxset release in L.A.), they didn’t play “Heavy Chevy” which was disappointing to me but they played it this night along with “Groove Tube” and about 10 others. There were definitely some die-hards in the audience and in my recollection, this might have been the first ever Jetboy show in Columbus.
Setlist (to the best of my memory)
Moonlight
Make Some Noise
Bad Disease
Heavy Chevy
Groove Tube
Bullfrog Pond
Stomp It (Down To The Bricks)
Don’t Mess with My Hair
Folsom Prison Blues
Feel the Shake
I wasn’t expecting much from Pearcy, even told my friend that if he played more than 3 or 4 solo songs right at the beginning, that I was going to leave. Fortunately, he played mostly Ratt classics which made it worth the $15 cover charge. I’m not really sure why he tossed Judas Priest’s “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” into the mix, but it didn’t sound too bad and the rest of the Ratt stuff sounded nearly as good as it did back in the day. And it was cool to see ex-Sea Hags guitarist Frank Wilsey playing in Pearcy’s band (he also played in Pearcy’s side project, Arcade, many years ago).
20 years ago, when I was sitting in shitty nosebleed seats at Richfield Coliseum (Poison opened), I never would have thought that some day I’d be standing 5 feet in front of Stephen Pearcy as he sang “Back for More”. Â
Setlist (Not in order)
You’re In Love
You Think You’re Tough
Slip Of The Lip
Lack Of Communication
Lay It Down
Back For More
Walkin’ The Dog
Body Talk
Wanted Man
You Got Another Thing Comin’
Draw The Line
Way Cool Jr.
I’m Insane
You’re A Lot Like Me (New Pearcy song)
Round And Round
