Went to the local seafood festival on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain last night. On the bill was the pre-record-deal-signing version of local metalers LILLIAN AXE, appearing as CIRCLE OF LIGHT.
When Lillian Axe was first signed to a major label record deal in the late 80s, the record company basically said to the guitarist and drummer we want to put you two with these other guys we have signed to form the "new" Lillian Axe, so you need to fire your singer and bassist.
They did. And Lillian went on to modest success initially, Robin Crosby of Ratt produced their debut CD and the band released videos which MTV played. They released a couple albums and then started changing band members and record labels over the past 20 some years. The grunge era was not kind to many a hair band. Lillian is now basically the guitarist's band, Stevie Blaze, as he has been the only original member for many years. Kind of like Seventh Star era Iommi Sabbath.
Lillian Axe still exists and releases albums and tours. But evidently at some point recently Stevie Blaze reunited with the four original pre-signing members and started a "new" band. They are called CIRCLE OF LIGHT and are soon to release a CD of all their old material that did not appear on any Lillian Axe release.
I think this appearance last night was their second live show and they mixed in some cover tunes they used to play along with the old original songs.
They were great. It was oldschool pre-hair band metal. Here are some clips. The only problem is that it was too loud in front the stage and the audio is all kind of ****ed up. My iPod Touch does great for video but if the show is too loud it can't handle it. First time this has happened since i have started recording bits of live shows with it.
Here is the gig set up in Fontainebleau State Park:
