So reading about all of the finger pointing going on in the news regarding the fire that killed 96 people in neighboring Rhode Island last week, I have come up with the actual group of people we need to blame for this tragedy. The band Nirvana. Sure, one of them is dead, so we can�t do much, but�if they hadn�t have came along and had their big hit back in 1991, and put hair metal to rest temporarily, these bands like Great White, Night Ranger, etc. wouldn�t have to play these tiny clubs. They would still be on top, and playing arena�s where they could light gigantic pyrotechnical stage props.

I had a chance to see Great White when I was 16 years old. The year was 1985, and they were opening for Judas Priest at the Worcester Centrum (where I was this week as well), in beautiful downtown Worcester, Massachusetts. I found the ticket stub recently, and the show was exactly two weeks after I lost my virginity to Denise, my high school girlfriend. (Denise broke up with me when she started going to college, and I was still in high school. She started seeing this guy Dave. He was older, had a car, and was evidently cooler than me�until�I ran into Denise months after we broke up. We started seeing each other again, Dave had no idea though. I finally, uncomfortably, met Dave at a party we were all at. I knew I �won� when Dave showed up at the party with this mullet, a tight t-shirt that had a tuxedo pattern on it [remember those fucking shirts?], and at one point, he was playing air flute to the Jethro Tull that was playing on the stereo. I was a wise ass punk rocker, so I of course thought this guy was a fucking tool immediately. We went on seeing each other while she was seeing Dave, for the mere fact that I wanted to fuck this guy with the mullet and the tuxedo shirt and the ability to play air flute pretty damn well�s girlfriend. Plus, I was 18 years old, who doesn�t want to fuck anything that moves when they are 18, regardless of them breaking your heart or not. This was my second situation dealing with a girl fucking me over somehow. Instead of going on a life�s crusade to tell the world how painful heartache is, and how girls are evil and the usual bullshit, I decided to not be broken again. It�s worked well over the years. I can�t say I �expect� it now as that would be unfair to anyone I am involved in. But, I am always ready at, and have been for years now. It would be foolish to say �I can�t have my heart broken�, but I can say �sorry, you didn�t win� as much as possible when I have to.) Great White were the opener. Back then, if you weren�t Iron Maiden, Whitesnake, or Judas Priest you were looked at as sophomoric, or unimportant. I remember hating Great White at that show because I wanted to see Judas �the singer is not gay man, fuck you!� Priest, so we booed Great White. That is my one Great White story. Once they got more popular in the later part of the eighties (it�s funny that people say �80�s metal�, when that whole 80�s metal thing was actually around 1988-1991, at least the bands people talk about when they say �80�s metal� I don�t think of Judas Priest as 80�s metal, as they were better in the 70�s. Someone like Warrant, Skid Row, Winger and those bands, those were the bands taking the rock thing to what is now known as 80�s metal. When I think of 80�s music, I hardly think of metal at all. Maybe because I was paying more attention to punk rock, and alternative crap instead�or maybe because I could care less what was happening in the main stream at that time. Great White�s hit song, the cover of �Once Bitten, Twice Shy� came out in 1989, hardly �80�s� in my opinion.

Is there a reason that it is generally the busiest day of the month today at my work, and I�m writing about Great White right now?

before & after