We have to admit it--we went to the Whisky to check out The Rockett Mafia with no small amount of trepidation. This writer is a big fan of Sunset Strip hair metal (we don't believe in guilty pleasures, just pleasures), Poison included. But a band performing Poison's classic Look What the Cat Dragged In debut album, led by Poison drummer Rikki Rockett? Let's face it--musical history tells us that this could be dreadful. Who remembers the chaos of Adler's Appetite, the band led by former Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler that performed the Appetite for Destruction album on tour with mixed results? It could all go wrong.
Thankfully, it didn't.
Rockett recently spoke to MC about the Rockett Mafia as part of our drummer roundtable, telling us that, "we are rolling around the country playing the first Poison record in celebration of the 40th anniversary. We are starting to write original music, and we will deliver an EP very soon."
The drummer has assembled a band that can do the old material justice. Let's be clear and fair--it's never going to be as good as the original band blasting through these songs in an arena or stadium, going hell for leather. But if Rockett wants to tour clubs like the Whisky A GoGo and play the songs that he loves, why shouldn't he?
Brandon Gibbs is the frontman, a singer who was in the Devil City Angels alongside Rockett and LA Guns man Tracii Guns. On guitar is Stacey Blades, a journeyman rock 'n' roll axe-slinger who has also played with the LA Guns in the past. Michael Adams (Puddle of Mudd) plays bass.
That's a solid band, proven immediately when the Rockett Mafia blasts into "Let Me Go to the Show." That they opened with that song also told the crowd from the off that they weren't going to be performing the Look What the Cat Dragged In album in order.
We do get it all though. Gibbs holds his own with the vocals, while Blades is an absolute shredder. "Good Love" was a highlight, as was the title track. The cover of Rick Derringer's "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo" was a fun time, but why are bands still playing Gary Glitter's "Do You Wanna Touch Me?" Given what we now know about the monster, that shit is surely best avoided.
But still, they soon got back on track. Bulletboys guitarist Mick Sweda, a sometime member of the Rockett Mafia, joined them for a rollicking "Talk Dirty to Me," and Tuff man Steve Rachelle got up to co-sing "Nothin' But a Good Time."
That was an appropriate way to end the gig. A good time was had by all.
