Skid Row - Slave To The Grind

Number 21 ....finally,

Now that the festival season is over I am, as Aerosmith once sang, 'Back In The Saddle' .
Slave To The Grind follows on from their soft rock hit debut where the New Jersey group took on a heavier sound. They had always citied bands like Judas Priest and Anvil as influences in interviews and it seemed like a perfect time now to walk the talk.
Opener and first single 'Monkey Business' was a statement of intent with a mega heavy guitar riff complimented with a banshee shrill from mega mouth frontman Sebastian Bach. The song still had a chant-along-chorus that would still raise fists at concerts like any good Hair Metal anthem.
Skid Row were always about tales of the dissaffected youth and on the title track they sided again with the rebel in all of us. This track had a breakneck speed tempo about it, which must have suprised their pop metal fans at the time.
The album was a real tour de force for the likeable Bach, from the sneering 'The Threat' through to the punky 'Riot Act'. It was on the power ballads that he really did shine. 'Quicksand Jesus' and the emotional 'In A Darkened Room' were perfect examples of this.The songwriting had matured a great deal as well, it had a more group dynamic and I dare anyone not to be moved by 'Wasted Time.'
Video to Wasted Time in HD
However the Punk of the band bassist Rachel Bolan still seemed to be the main songwriter, and he was the main protagonist on my favourite track 'Psycho Love' (still sounds great 20 years on).
The one track I could never get to grips with was 'Mudkicker'. Never liked it, the song seemed to slow the pace and didn't seem coherent with the rest of the album.
Certainly this was a piece of work of its time and there is no doubt that the music landscape of 1991 would have been poorer without it.
Now in 2011 Skid Row still record and tour without Bach (who has his own career to concentrate on). I for one would love to see a reunion but I believe hell would more than likely freeze over before that ever happens!

Why I ♥ This Album

Five times five venues -  that is the amount of occassions that I have had the pleasure of watching the classic line-up of Skid Row. Always entertained and never had a bad show, and the best must have been at the New Docklands Arena (Now called EX-CEL) in November 1991. The show was originaly scheduled to take place at Wembley Arena but during a support slot with Guns n Roses at the stadium they were requested by the local council not to play 'Get The Fuck Out'.  After Sebastian had read out the letter from the council to the audience, they played 'GTFO' and were promptly banned for life. The ban was lifted in 2006 when Seb was support to GnR once more, but this time as a solo artist.
Right back to 91 though, the journey to the arena was fairly smooth from Andover. The DLR transport system in London was still far from perfect back then due to the continuing rebuild of Canary Wharf.
Myself and my friend Paul got there with a bit of time to spare. The line-up for the evening was a Hair Metal wet dream. Love/Hate were opening in support of their recently released 'Wasted In America' and the legendary LA Guns were playing their first London show. Both were superb but everyone was really only there for Skid Row's 'The Youth Gone Wild.
The lights go down, the intro to the song Slave starts and the announcer demands that everyone gets to their feet and welcome 'SKID ROW'. Then all hell breaks loose - flashing lights, twirling hair, tight silver trousers and the hottest flash bomb flames that I have ever felt, and I was standing half way back! The show was breathtaking, a band at the top of their game. A real great night out from the Vanilla Ice chant, Erasure baiting through to the Daily star ass wiping incident and that is even before we take in the music. Love/Hate joined Skid Row to cover 'Train Kept A-rolling' whilst LA guns buggered off back to their hotel.
You Tube Link To The Audio Of Skid Row With Love/Hate
The big adventure however was getting home as the DLR was shut and London Transport had kindly put on two buses an hour for approx 12000 people. As you can guess it was carnage getting home that evening, to tell you the truth. I can't really remember walking through the door the following morning, it is all a little hazy -  like most of my twenties!

Classic Line Up Skid Row

I have found the set list from that evening and posted it below:
Skid Row
London Arena Docklands
22nd November 1991
London, UK

Slave To The Grind
Big Guns
Makin’ A Mess
18 & Life
Piece Of Me
Drum Solo
Sweet Little Sister
Psychotherapy (Ramones Cover)
Snake Guitar Solo
Wasted Time
Psycho Love
Tornado
Mudkicker
Quicksand Jesus
Get The Fuck Out
Monkey Business
Riot Act
The Threat
Train Kept A Rollin ( With Love Hate )
I Remember You
Enter Sandman, Shout At The Devil Snippets
Youth Gone Wild