After refusing to battle hour-plus lines in our quest to eat the best of NYC’s dumplings, today I ended up comfortably toasted with Zena Metal and Relapse Bob listening to Ratt’s greatest hits collection, Ratt & Roll 8191. It was the perfect afternoon activity for a rainy Fall day that capped another week of late CMJ Music Marathon nights full of booze, music, and a festival-best performance by Boston shredders Revocation.

A greatest hits collection doesn’t necessarily convey the original artistic intentions and context of a band’s songs as thoroughly as listening to a full album does, but it does provide an interesting look into a band’s career arc. By the late ’80s Ratt had shifted towards the cheesier metal constructs and lighter pop-metal of then-popular bands like Warrant and Poison, and listening to their greatest hits collection underscores that transformation. The fact is, everything after 1986′s Dancing Undercover is doused in heapings of weak sauce, even the moderate hit “Way Cool Jr/” (which Zena Metal pointed out I liked for purely sentimental reasons… the song does kinda blow). But out of all of Ratt’s later material we all agreed that one song matched the edge and swagger of their earlier stuff — “Nobody Rides for Free,” a track that only appeared on the 1991 soundtrack for Point Break.

Stephen Pearcy looks absolutely ridiculous in this video, the first step of his descent into his current status of looking worn-the-fuck-out. Someone needs to add this man to Men Who Look Like Old Lesbians.

-VN