Turning Up the Radio

I've got a habit, call it bad, call it good, call it what you will, that my wife can't stand.

I like to listen to loud music in the car -- not just loud, really loud. I have to make sure that after I get done driving her car alone that I turn the volume back down to zero, or she is not a happy camper after she gets in the car.

Other than with my wife, I've only ever gotten in trouble for my loud music was one time in high school at an after- football-game-gathering at the local baptist church when some friends and I were in my car listening to probably something like Guns -n- Roses, at full blast, and a police officer came over to me and told me to turn it down.

My other bad habit when I drive is speeding... which is something I try not to do when people are in the car with me. I've gotten into my share of trouble with that over the years. But that's not really relevant to this post.

Recently, after running across the video for Cinderella's "Shake Me", from their Night Songs album, on YouTube, I've gotten back into my 80s metal music. So much that I've burned myself three CDs worth of my favorite metal songs from the 80s and early 90s and have had them on constant rotation in the car for the last month or so, at full blast.

They range from the aforementioned Cinderella song, to RATT, Great White, Lita Ford, Ozzy, Winger (hey Kip's actually a pretty good singer and Reb plays some kick-ass guitar), Firehouse, Guns, the Crue, Quiet Riot, Firehouse, and Fiona, to name a few.

I don't know what it is about this genre of music for me, but everytime I go awhile between periods of listening to it, I fall in love with it even more.It's like a fine wine - it just gets better with age. The screaming guitar riffs, the high-pitched vocals.... it just takes me back.

Metal took a lot of hits and crap throughout the 90s and early 2000s. They took Headbanger's Ball away.... Van Halen couldn't keep a lead singer; Axl went nuts (although he made an awesome comeback on Sebastian's latest CD "Angel Down"); Jani Lane and Vince Neil both got fat; Brett Michaels became a judge on Nashville Star... WTF?

Thankfully, metal and 80s style hard rock are making a comeback in a big way. In the last year, White Lion, Dokken, Whitesnake, Sebastian Bach, Night Ranger, Loverboy, the Crue, Asia, Def Leppard, Journey, Foreigner, and a host of others, have released screaming hot new CDs.

A little off track again... getting back to the main story here....

So I had to make a late-night Wal-Mart run tonight about 10:30. I popped one of my new homemade discs in, cranked the radio, and, since it was nice outside, rolled the window down. I was jamming the whole way to Wally World.

As I was about to make the turn from Wade Hampton Boulevard to go into the parking lot of our local Nasty Mart, I turned the music down to about a quarter of the way up on the volume dial. I was still having a good time jamming to the music as I hunted down a parking spot. Pulled in, listened to the remaining 30 seconds of the song, shut the radio off, rolled up the windows, powered down the car, and got out.

Then this dude unlocking the door of the car next to me says, "Hey, was that Danger Danger?"

I just started laughing.

"Uh.... yeah," I just sort of said, dumbfounded. Danger Danger was one of those metal bands that hit kind of late (their first album was released in 1989) and had to try to stay above water while grunge and alternative took over the airwaves. They're one of the lesser known metal bands, but still absolutely awesome. They're supposed to be releasing a new album this year.

"I haven't heard 'Bang, Bang' in years. Thanks man. The little bit I heard was a trip," he replies, laughing.

We chatted for a few minutes about the genre, who are favorites are, how its making a comeback. It was a really fun, 10-minute conversation.

There's a metal concert series each summer called Rocklahoma. They just had the 2008 concert. It's a week-long event. There were a ton of rockin' metal bands that just played there. I'd love to go to the 2009 concert. Doubt that will happen though --- but in the meantime, I'll just keep my metal CDs in rotation and the volume turned up.