"This is a rock show, man. Don't be fooled by the 12 string." So quips Kip Winger, trying to rouse the crowd during his gruff but splendid acoustic performance of "Madelaine" at Hollywood's Key Club on Feb. 7, 2005. But fans who attended the CD-release party that night for VH1 Classic's Metal Mania Stripped – a CD collection shamelessly named after the best show on cable's best network – can be forgiven if they didn't know how to respond to the sight of their aging hair-metal heroes singing acoustic versions of their biggest hits. Seven of those performances are captured on the first 32 minutes of this DVD, although it's frustratingly unclear why the producers didn't simply film and include the whole show.
Winger, who also sings "Seventeen" and appears ever-so-casual in a ratty shirt and jeans with about three days of facial scruff, looks perfectly normal compared to the gutter glam of L.A. Guns ("Ballad of Jayne"), the portly presence of Alias' Freddy Curci ("More Than Words Can Say"), and a bespectacled, bleach-blonde Jani Lane (Warrant's "I Saw Red"). But a black-turtlenecked Mark Slaughter, whose band is the only one to play drums during this segment of the DVD, blows everyone away with a gutsy, blues-infused version of "Fly to the Angels." Great White's performance of "Save Your Love," given two years almost to the day after a horrific fire during one of the band's concerts killed 100 fans in Rhode Island and embroiled singer Jack Russell in legal problems, is also surprisingly effective.
The second half of the DVD consists only of 16 minutes from the first night of the Stripped Across America Tour, filmed on Halloween night 2005 at Myth in St. Paul, Minnesota. Lane is there again, doing a robust unplugged version of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and an uncomfortable dirty ol' man's take on "Cherry Pie," as is an unhealthily thin Stephen Pearcy (Ratt's "Back For More"). Firehouse, like Slaughter in the previous segment, emerges with the strongest performance in "Don't Treat Me Bad," a song that wasn't even that good the first time around. A bonus clip of a barefoot Mike Tramp singing White Lion's "When the Children Cry" to a goofy Japanese television audience, though, along with the haphazard editing of the two main sections indicates that this collection was hastily assembled. Why? The opportunity to show the world that most of these guys still have the chops to play, despite how pathetic they may appear or how far their careers may have fallen, should have been celebrated with a DVD that – including bonus features – lasts a lot longer than one hour.
Live From The Key Club:
1) Madelaine-Kip Winger
2) Ballad of Jayne-L.A. Guns
3) More Than Words Can Say: Alias
4) Save Your Love: Great White
5) I Saw Red: Jani Lane
6) Fly to the Angels: Slaughter
7) Seventeen: Kip Winger
Stripped Across America Live From Myth:
1) Back for More: Stephen Pearcy
2) Uncle Tom's Cabin: Jani Lane
3) Don't Treat Me Bad: Firehouse
4) Cherry Pie: Jani Lane
Bonus material includes White Lion's Mike Tramp in Japan, TV promos, behind-the-scenes footage and photo galleries.