Hellfest 2022

[Marcelocooper]

[quote=del post_id=316850 time=<a href="tel:1698647265">1698647265</a> user_id=3824]
[quote=mr.barlow post_id=316828 time=<a href="tel:1698521552">1698521552</a> user_id=4063]
[quote=Dannorama post_id=316827 time=<a href="tel:1698508135">1698508135</a> user_id=19]
Another grandpa here, although not as grumpy. (Well, maybe sometimes.) It has always irked me that these keyboard warriors are very loud when they’re protected by anonymity. My approach has only ever been, “don’t type anything that you wouldn’t say to their face.” Comedians who laugh at their own wit are boring AF.

Provide me a vip meet and greet and I'll say it to her face. I know a few Alice world people who would like to have a few words with her too.
[/quote]

So, what’s the few words then?

How dare you do what you have presumably been asked to do as part of your contract I.e. dress in a certain style, play in a certain style and act in a manner which adds energy to the show, entertains the crowd and potentially brings in some more punters?

How dare you ask for and be granted more money presumably by Shep for coming back to the fold after Demi Lovato and how dare Shep and Alice decide not to retain Kane instead?

How dare you look good?

How dare you try and build your own career?

She is a hired gun.Surely, after 50+ years of managing, Shep can or could have had a word with her or are Shep and Alice blinded by her talents, in awe of her personality and outflanked by her superior negotiating skills.
[/quote]

The first rule of being in a band. "Watch your back".
[/quote]

I think Nita is the most successful aside from Alice himself. She was the first female to have a signature Ibanez, she’s often recognized as one of the best guitar players out there, aways getting on top of the lists of beat/most influencial. Her album did get a good recognition and she can surely pull out any gig that’s thrown at her. She has stablished her name on her own and not as just a hired gun for Alice.


As long as Alice wants her in the band, she’s not going away. Any bad feeling or gossip ou anything that *may* be surrounding her is innocuous and, dare I say, smells as resentment to me. But, if anything is going to happen, I don’t think it is going to be a career breaker for her.

As for Kane. I like him, a lot. Would love for him to come back. As he said, he stick out as a sore thumb on the first shows, but if anything permanent is planned, he’ll have plenty of time to adjust.
To say he deserves it… I don’t think he does anymore than most of the musicians that have come and gone on Alice’s band. They are all pros, who never drew bad blood towards Alice, so as a profession, doesn’t the all deserve to be back?

[del]

Why does he deserve it?

[mr.barlow]

Why does he deserve it?

He was picked for several reasons back in 1985 and succeeded at all of them. The most important was helping Alice get in shape and stay sober.

He is one of the most important people in Alice's history and without him there would have never been a comeback.

Dick Wagner and Kane Roberts were the two most important people in Alice's career after 1974, bot only musically but personally.

Wagner helped Alice start to get his head turned around during the Dada sessions.

Kane helped resurrect his career from the ashes and help Alice regain his health.

That is why he deserves it.

[mr.barlow]

Also credit has to be given to Shep and Ezrin for coaxing Alice to record Dada after the disastrous Zipper sessions.

It's my opinion that it was DaDa that righted Alice's head and mindset. Wagner goes into some detail about those sessions and the events that led up to them in his book.

[cooperrocks]

I think Nita is the most successful aside from Alice himself. She was the first female to have a signature Ibanez, she’s often recognized as one of the best guitar players out there, aways getting on top of the lists of beat/most influencial. Her album did get a good recognition and she can surely pull out any gig that’s thrown at her. She has stablished her name on her own and not as just a hired gun for Alice.


As long as Alice wants her in the band, she’s not going away. Any bad feeling or gossip ou anything that *may* be surrounding her is innocuous and, dare I say, smells as resentment to me. But, if anything is going to happen, I don’t think it is going to be a career breaker for her.

As for Kane. I like him, a lot. Would love for him to come back. As he said, he stick out as a sore thumb on the first shows, but if anything permanent is planned, he’ll have plenty of time to adjust.
To say he deserves it… I don’t think he does anymore than most of the musicians that have come and gone on Alice’s band. They are all pros, who never drew bad blood towards Alice, so as a profession, doesn’t the all deserve to be back?

Excellent post and I agree with most everything you said. I love Nita's energy and I love her playing style. Alice does a lot of festivals overseas and often times it is with younger heavier bands. The energy and style Nita plays actually helps sell Alice to a lot of the fans, particularly the younger ones into high energy heavy bands. No Alice isn't particularly heavy himself but Nita helps a lot in him being accepted and Nita has brought Alice a lot of publicity in recent years. For example in one of the guitar magazines several months ago Alice and Nita were on the cover. The article really talked more about Nita but Alice got some good press too.

I love all the members of the current band (my favorite Alice lineup ever). They all are great musicians, great with the fans and great at what they do. So please don't take what I am about to say as a slam that is not my intention. But Alice is the biggest gig most of them are going to get for whatever reason. It is sort of like the original band. Outside of Alice himself when he went solo, none of the other band members had great success outside of the band. Nita is an exception with the current lineup. She seems to still have a bright future ahead of her in terms of a variety of options. I hope she stays for another 10 years but we will see what happens down the road. (Let me also throw in back during the Kane Roberts era, it was Kip Winger who went on to find great success for a while). Nita Strauss has added such a great element to Alice's band in a way no other band member has in many years.

[mr.barlow]

I think Nita is the most successful aside from Alice himself. She was the first female to have a signature Ibanez, she’s often recognized as one of the best guitar players out there, aways getting on top of the lists of beat/most influencial. Her album did get a good recognition and she can surely pull out any gig that’s thrown at her. She has stablished her name on her own and not as just a hired gun for Alice.


As long as Alice wants her in the band, she’s not going away. Any bad feeling or gossip ou anything that *may* be surrounding her is innocuous and, dare I say, smells as resentment to me. But, if anything is going to happen, I don’t think it is going to be a career breaker for her.

As for Kane. I like him, a lot. Would love for him to come back. As he said, he stick out as a sore thumb on the first shows, but if anything permanent is planned, he’ll have plenty of time to adjust.
To say he deserves it… I don’t think he does anymore than most of the musicians that have come and gone on Alice’s band. They are all pros, who never drew bad blood towards Alice, so as a profession, doesn’t the all deserve to be back?

Excellent post and I agree with most everything you said. I love Nita's energy and I love her playing style. Alice does a lot of festivals overseas and often times it is with younger heavier bands. The energy and style Nita plays actually helps sell Alice to a lot of the fans, particularly the younger ones into high energy heavy bands. No Alice isn't particularly heavy himself but Nita helps a lot in him being accepted and Nita has brought Alice a lot of publicity in recent years. For example in one of the guitar magazines several months ago Alice and Nita were on the cover. The article really talked more about Nita but Alice got some good press too.

I love all the members of the current band (my favorite Alice lineup ever). They all are great musicians, great with the fans and great at what they do. So please don't take what I am about to say as a slam that is not my intention. But Alice is the biggest gig most of them are going to get for whatever reason. It is sort of like the original band. Outside of Alice himself when he went solo, none of the other band members had great success outside of the band. Nita is an exception with the current lineup. She seems to still have a bright future ahead of her in terms of a variety of options. I hope she stays for another 10 years but we will see what happens down the road. (Let me also throw in back during the Kane Roberts era, it was Kip Winger who went on to find great success for a while). Nita Strauss has added such a great element to Alice's band in a way no other band member has in many years.

Up until the 1986 tour Alice's bands usually consisted of top notch seasoned musicians of the day...think Hunter and Wagner on up to Mike Pinera and Duane Hitchings.

1986 he used a then group of unknowns...a first for Alice. They were all much younger with the exception of Artie, and had zero touring experience on a national level.

Out of that band came Kane, Kip Winger, Paul Horowitz and Ken Mary. Ken is now considered one of the greatest metal drummers. If not for grunge killing hair metal, I think all of the above would have found greater success.

The Trash tour found him having a mix of seasoned and fresh talent and that has continued since.

Nita is the stand out in the current band but the music business is much different now for a performer like her. If this were the 1980s she's likely become huge like Lita Ford, but today there is little audience for her style, thus her playing to small audiences in clubs is likely her future.

I don't know what happened with Demi Lovato but thats the direction she needs to go in if she wants to grow her appeal. She'll have to mainstream herself if she wants to grow her career.

She took Ezrin's advice and went and learned to play outside her style which was wise. If you look at any of Alice's greatest guitar players all were very versatile players and that's why Alice used them.

A lot of musicians today pigeonhole themselves into genres. The players of days gone by came up playing in wedding bands, cover bands etc playing everything from jazz to polka. Those days are long gone thus you need three guitar players to cover the styles Alice plays.

Outside of her metalhead fan boys, her appeal is limited especially in the USA where metal's appeal is basically to an aging and dying off fan base.

2024 will be interesting to see where the line-up changes happen. Also it'll be interesting to see how much Alice pulls back on touring. I expect 2024 to be heavy on HV and festival dates.

[cooperrocks]

No question Ken Mary is very well-respected in the metal community. He might actually be my favorite drummer Alice has ever had but unfortunately some decent success but nothing massive and that's a shame because he is that good.