Losing my Hair Metal
My grandmother bought me a Stryper cassette for one of my birthdays as a kid. I had never heard of the group, and apparently, neither had she, but simply went of a sales clerk’s recommendation.
And so I give a mighty shout-out to that anonymous sales clerk, who introduced me at a young age to a band that would become one of my favorites over my teenage years.
Last night, the veteran hair-metal band, having recently re-formed, played Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles. I could not miss the opportunity to finally see one of the bands I “grew up on”.
I must admit, seeing one of my favorite bands as a teenager was incredibly fun and entertaining. These guys certainly knew how to play their axes and Michael Sweet’s voice was once again about 3 octaves above the stratosphere. Yet both musically and lyrically the band is pretty much irrelevant nowadays, seeing that hair-metal is nothing but a revivalist genre and their cliché-ridden lyrics betray a fairly irrelevant version of Christianity to listeners who seek anything more than kitsch.
Nonetheless, it was fun, and I found myself in the midst of a crowd in typically in their late 30s to early 40s. When the lead singer was talking to the audience between songs and speaking of the hit video “Calling On You” released in 1986, a youngin’ in the front row screamed out “I was 4!”
Then I started thinking…..so was I.
Themocracy
Which grandmother?
Grandma Hodel
No surprise– it would be just like her to ask a sales person what is the “latest” since she had no clue. Miss her