Back in 1989, a new band was formed by Tommy Shaw (Styx), Jack Blades (Night Ranger), Ted Nugent (Amboy Dukes & Solo) and Michael Cartellone and it was called Damn Yankees. For all intents and purposes this was a Hard Rock supergroup long before the term had been used to death based on the accomplishments of all the guitarists who were involved. Cartellone himself was a relative unknown in comparison but sure was able to pack a punch on the drums behind these high powered players. The bands debut and self-titled album gained a lot of airplay and such was their popularity that a long form video release was done. This concert presents that original VHS release which comes from a concert in Colorado back in 1992 and it's a solid batch of Melodic Hard Rock that will have you singing along in no time. All of the bands biggest radio hits are present in songs like "High Enough" and "Coming Of Age", while "Uprising" and "Don't Tread On Me" show that the guys can be a little heavier if need be. I have to admit that I barely followed the band during their heyday, yet I liked what I heard on the radio stations that were still dishing out as much Rock as their audiences could handle. The concert definitely shows them as a powerful unit of players and vocalists and honestly how bad is a group that has members from Styx and Night Ranger going to be in that department. When it came down to the band vocally, it was clear that they had a lot more in common with the band that gave us Jack Blades, and in all honesty the musical direction that they were taking was leaning toward that radio friendly power ballad that Night Ranger was so adept at giving us. Shaw would showcase his stuff with excellence but it wasn't the Hard Rock Progressive vibe that Styx often was delivering, and while Nugent was still Nugent, the songs didn't have the same maniacal fire that his fan base had come to love from him over the years. The song "High Enough" is actually Nugent's first number one hit ever.
The concert has a lot of great moments and opens up with a slamming introductory tune that bears their name and just as we saw in the original video has the live concert segments interlaced with backstage footage, outside shenanigans and band bantering. Thanks to the wonders of technology this DVD offers you the opportunity to bypass all of the stuff that is now normally relegated to the bonus features section and allows you to watch just the performance pieces. I gave each one of these options the run through, since I remembered my friend owning the original VHS tape and I wanted to see how much different the end result would be on DVD. The sound is great and the picture is clear and with the bands music being so catchy it's hard to skip around to try and find a moment that you will like when all of them are easily enjoyable. The concert for the sake of the film only spans eleven songs and the closing three make this worth looking into all the more if you never saw it when it was initially released because the band slams out renditions of songs done by the bands they all hailed from. We get "Renegade" from Styx, "Cat Scratch Fever" by Uncle Ted, and the always incredible "Rock In America" from Night Ranger. They do all of this stuff great and it's probably because Shaw and Blades work so well together on the vocal harmonies. If tasty Melodic Hard Rock is your sound of choice go get yourself some popcorn, a couple of cold ones and blast this DVD out of your home theater system. It's a good time.
Track Listing
1. Damn Yankees
2. Uprising
3. High Enough
4. Don't Tread On Me
5. Where You Goin' Now
6. Fifteen Minutes Of Time
7. Come Again
8. Coming Of Age
9. Renegade
10. Cat Scratch Fever
11. Rock In America
Printer Friendly Page
Send to a Friend
