Our friend Allyson at Bring Back Glam has been reporting from Rocklahoma all week. She’s obviously a big fan of the event, given that a) she runs a site all about glam and b) she wrote the text for the Rocklahoma coffee table book that came out last year.

But she’s been making (perfectly valid) complaints about this year’s fest for the past ten months, taking issue in particular with this year’s line-up. And as it turns out, she was totally correct: attendance at this summer’s edition of the event was apparently abysmal.

Check out this photo Allyson took of the crowd. This was at dusk; if it was Ozzfest, everyone who skipped the second stage would be starting to pile in right about this time. No such luck for Great White, even though there was absolutely no chance of being burned alive at the outdoor venue:

Click to read more…

When I saw the news yesterday that Ratt are going to be performing Out of the Cellar in its entirety at their Rocklahoma headlining set this year, I got a minor stiffy. Out of the Cellar is a fucking fantastic album, an indisputable fact I haven’t thought about in quite some time. I won’t be attending Rocklahoma this year — or likely ever — but this year’s lineup seems to be heavier than in years past, with Anthrax (!) headlining Thursday night atop Saxon, Overkill and Metal Church, and Ratt headlining Friday night. If this festival were in New Jersey instead of Oklahoma I might consider going… although parts of smelly New Jersey are equally as scary as Oklahoma.

Here’s Ratt performing “Back For More,” probably my favoritest track from Out of the Cellar, in Japan back in 1991. Watch DeMartini RIP around the 3-minute mark. What’s up with Pearcy’s shirt? Also, needs more crowd shots: shots of screaming throngs of Japanese fans are endlessly entertaining.

-VN

Things were a tad slow at the MetalSucks Mansion this week, whatwith a lot of the U.S. still on holiday — but between bong rips and acid trips we somehow still found time to post about some events that went on this week:

• David Lee Roth got pulled over for speeding as he was trying to rush to the hospital for an alleged allergic reaction to nuts; or did he?
• Thousands of dental hygienically challenged guys with mullets are running around Oklahoma wearing Ratt and Ozzy concert shirts from a quarter century ago are at the 2nd annual Rocklahoma festival.
• At the Gates returned to the U.S.
• Act like a Viking, win some cool Amon Amarth stuff!
• Tweeny pop band Gym Class Heroes covered Lamb of God, igniting almost as much controversy as Fall Out Boy covering Pantera.
• Opeth and Amon Amarth announced two amazing U.S. tour lineups.
• All Shall Perish released two new songs from their forthcoming album.
• Ozzy Osbourne decided to toss that last remaining shred of credibility out the window by announcing plans to launch a variety TV show.

Apparently the palatial MetalSucks Mansion kitchen needed new granite, so guess who isn’t going to the hair metal extravaganza of the year, also known as the second annual ROCKLAHOMA? You guessed it.  Hey, I am the new guy, so I guess I can’t complain – unless Vince and Axl don’t send me next year.

As we speak, thousands of dental hygienically challenged guys with mullets are running around suburban Oklahoma (isn’t all of Oklahoma suburban?) wearing Ratt and Ozzy concert shirts from a quarter century ago.  Chicks have squeezed themselves into jeans and/or spandex that were probably last worn a decade ago and were better left in their dresser, or burned.  Honestly, people are just flocking to this event from all over the world, literally, and why wouldn’t they? Have you seen the lineup? Sure, there are some great hair metal bands coming to a city near you this summer, like Poison, Dokken and Motley Crue, but ROCKLAHOMA features an absolute smorgasbord of talent, top (e.g. Queensryche, Extreme) to bottom (e.g. Jet Boy, Trixter).

Click to read more…

Rocklahoma, the three FIVE day hair metal festival in Pryor, Oklahoma, kicks off its second annual event tomorrow. Hard to believe it’s been a year since last year’s massively successful event, but it has, and this year’s lineup is even more extensive than the last.

Pretty much every hair band ever — both those still on the touring circuit and a bunch of recent reunions — are playing. This year’s headliners are Queensryche, Warrant, Triumph, Bret Michaels and Ratt. Even bands that were peripheral but related to the ’80s hair scene have joined in the party, such as Extreme, Living Colour, Jackyl and Armored Saint. There are also two sidestages with a smattering of lower-level national and regional bands, though the Rocklahoma website makes this info hard to find.

Apparrently 100,000 people attended last year’s event; this seems crazy to me, but I guess it speaks to this music’s longevity. New MetalSucks columnist Michael S. Robinson plans to write a piece about this topic later in the week.

Any of our readers going to Rocklahoma? I know at least one person who is SUPER psyched!

-VN

Yesterday an advanced copy of the album by a certain nu metal band that shall go unnamed arrived at the MetalSucks Mansion. “Why the fuck would they send us this?” Vince wondered aloud, noting that we have never, ever, ever had anything nice to say about this particular group.

“Dude,” I countered, “At least we write about them. That’s more than I can say for most sites.”

Which got me to thinking: is there no one carrying the nu metal torch?

Click to read more…

The headline “JACKYL Frontman Returns With Second Solo Outing” on Blabbermouth last night totally startled me; I had no idea that Jesse James Dupree had a first solo album – or, for that matter, that Jackyl were even still around in any capacity. And I don’t really have much to say about the revelation that Dupree feels some need to make records without Jackyl; I mean, a) I’m not sure any of you give a shit and b) I myself don’t really give a shit. ‘Cause at the end of the day, you have to wonder why Dupree even bothers making solo albums – does he feel upstaged sometimes by the other members of Jackyl? Are there musical experiments he feels he can’t try within the oubliette of that band? Who knows?

ANYWAY, thinking about Dupree did get me thinking about those chainsaw solos that pretty much overshadowed every other aspect of his band (“Which ones are Jackyl again?” “The ones with the singer who does the chainsaw solo.” “Oh yeah!”). I always assumed that these mini-masterpieces of the aural equivalent of found art were just studio tricks – and even though Dupree apparently does try to recreate them live (at least according to some “fans” on the net), I can’t find any video of said recreation.

I did, however, find the below video of Dupree sawing a stool in half at last year’s Rocklahoma. Truth be told, the clip is only half as amusing as the description posted with it:

“Anyone who knows Jackyl knows that Jesse James Dupree always ends to the show with the ‘Lumberjack Song’ where he actually PLAYS the chainsaw as an instrument. Well, he also always chainsaws a bench and throws it. This is a video of that.”

Gentlemen, start yer engines…

-AR

Queensryche have announced that they’ll play their album Operation: Mindcrime in its entirety at this summer’s Rocklahoma festival. The album is generally revered as a classic amongst Queensryche fans such as our very own Vince Neilstein.

To be honest, I’ve never gotten that into Queensryche, mostly because there’s something intangible about Geoff Tate that makes me want to punch him in the vagina. But plenty of people, including Vince, have told me that I’m missing out in a big, big way.

So debate amongst yourselves: in terms of being an Event with a capital “E,” does Queensryche’s performing of this album in its entirety rival Metallica’s performance of the complete Master of Puppets? Or it roughly akin to Poison performing Look What the Cat Dragged In from start to finish?

-AR

We haven’t led you astray yet, right? So far our rumors for Rocklahoma have turned into realities, with the exception of our Motley Crue Sunday headliner prediction which hasn’t yet been announced, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

The same anonymous tipster who correctly told us that Extreme, Tesla, Kix and many others would be announced for Rocklahoma has just alerted us that Sammy Hagar will be filling the final Friday spot. Woah! No word on whether ex-Van Halen and The Other Half bassist Michael Anthony will be playing with him or not.

In addition to that, Motley Crue, Buckcherry and Drowning Pool (which our tipster mis-spelled as Frowning Pool. Intentional or not, I love that typo) will be teaming up for a U.S. Summer tour, and the tour will make a stop at Rocklahoma to fill the remaining empty Sunday slots.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it. And now back to your usual Saturday stoniness…

-VN

Here it is in all its glory, the 2008 Rocklahoma lineup. With the exception of the yet-to-be-named Sunday headliner (we called Motley Crue — the verdict is still out), we did pretty good with our predictions, eh? The full four-day lineup after the jump. Click to read more…

An anonymous source close to the negotiations has reported to MetalSucks that the following bands have been locked in for the 2008 incarnation of Rocklahoma, the 4-day ’80s rock festival in Pryor, Oklahoma:

• Extreme
• Cinderella
• Tesla
• Black N’ Blue
• Kix
• Bang Tango
• Enuff Z ’nuff (w/ Donnie Vie)
• Faster Pussycat
• Zebra
• Pretty Boy Floyd

The same source revealed to us Friday that Motley Crue would headline the festival’s Sunday night. None of the above bands have been officially announced yet; the press conference will be held on Tuesday, March 4th. For a list of officially confirmed bands, check out this article.

-VN

This just in from an anonymous source close to the festival negotiations, exclusive to MetalSucks: Motley Crue are confirmed to be the Sunday headliners for this year’s Rocklahoma festival in Pryor, OK, July 10-13. Additionally, Krokus are no longer scheduled to play the event; all official Krokus news has been removed from the Rocklahoma forums by the admins. Chew on that over the weekend.

Confirmed so far for this year’s Rocklahoma, the four-day ’80s rock festival in Pryor, Oklahoma from July 10-13:

Bret Michaels
Krokus
Vixen
House of Lords
Warrant (w/ Jani Lane)
Vain
Tora Tora
Beautiful Creatures

The official press conference announcing the rest of the lineup so far will be held on Tuesday, March 4th at 1pm Pacific time at The Whiskey A Go-Go in Hollywood, and will be broadcast simultaneously on Satellite Radio XM41, The Boneyard.

Any MetalSucks readers going this year?

-VN

Rocklahoma, the 3-day ’80s hair-revivalist festival in Pryor, Oklahoma, was one of the most successful U.S. festivals last summer and this year’s second edition promises to be no different. Numerous message boards and fan sites have been a-swirl with rumors and zealous fans trying to piece together the lineup based on already announced itineraries from likely bands. Now I know it’s pretty exciting for ’80s rock enthusiasts and all, but honestly, will any lineup really be THAT much of a surprise? I’ll give you a hint, it will consist of some combination of the following:

Autograph, Black N’ Blue, Bullet Boys, Cinderella, Dokken, Def Leppard, Enuff Znuff, Extreme, Europe, Firehouse, Lita Ford, Faster Pussycat (chose your favorite version), Great White, Journey, Jackyl, Kix, LA Guns (chose your favorite version) Motley Crue, Molly Hatchet, Night Ranger, Poison, Ratt, Skid Row, Scorpions, Slaughter, Stryper, Tesla, Twisted Sister, Vixen, White Lion, Whitesnake, Warrant, Winger, Y&T and <insert hair band name here>

Presumably everyone’s favorite sad-sack Steven Adler will appear in whatever band he can get a gig with these days (or he’ll resurrect Adler’s Appetite).

And, uh, oh yeah, Krokus is already confirmed.

-VN

According to a press release, the lineup for the 2008 incarnation of Rocklahoma, inarguably the most important metal festival in the U.S., will be announced on March 4th. So far the whopping lineup consists of Krokus and Vixen… but we’re positive some slam dunks will be announced for the follow-up to last year’s wildly successful first annual Rocklahoma which featured various incarnations of every ’80s band, ever.

We’ve got our fingers crossed for a main stage steel-cage match between both touring versions of L.A. Guns with a match between both touring versions of Faster Pussycat as an encore.

-VN

Allyson over at Bring Back Glam! reports that “a very reliable source” reports seeing members of Warrant hanging out with Jani Lane at the Rainbow (in Hollywood) last week and “another industry insider” claims Jani will be back with Warrant for 2008.

In these reunion-happy times, why the fuck WOULDN’T Jani Lane rejoin Warrant? Warrant with Jani is worth a hell of a lot more money than Warrant without Jani.

Get yourself psyched up for a Warrant reunion, if you dig that sort of thing, with this video (reposted from Bring Back Glam!) of Warrant performing at Gazzarri’s in the early days, along with members of Poison and Faster Pussycat.

-VN

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Even though the lineup for Rocklahoma 2008 — the sequel to this past summer’s wildly successful ’80s rock festival in Oklahoma — hasn’t been announced yet, tickets have been on sale for some time now. Allyson over at Bring Back Glam! reports that Rock Fever, the promoter of the event, has told her that some bands will be announced at the beginning of next month.

Allyson has also made some lineup predictions, some based on rumors (Iron Maiden, Def Leppard and Whitesnake as headliners!), others inevitable (Vains of Jenna, Firehouse, Sebastian Bach), and others longshots (Saigon Kick — we wish!!). Take a look at her list at Bring Back Glam!

-VN