Metal Mania Stripped Across America Live

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For a brief period of a year or two various bands who were made famous during the ’80s when MTV still cared about hard rock got together for a few shows and three compilation albums under the title Metal Mania: Stripped, where they played some of their hits in an unplugged setting. The albums were a combination of brand new acoustic recordings and previously released acoustic versions contributed for those releases. The shows supporting the albums resulted in a live DVD in 2006, which has been out of print for a few years now. Not everyone who contributed to the albums took part in the shows, but the headline performers were Stephen Pearcy from Ratt, Jani Lane from Warrant, Firehouse and Kip Winger from Winger. The shows used for the DVD were filmed at album release show at the Key Club in Hollywood in February 2005 and on the ‘Stipped Across America’ tour at Myth in St. Paul in on Halloween 2005. Originally released in Europe under the title Stripped On The Strip this new edition takes the name of the tour as its title, and features some very interesting live acoustic performances of classic songs by the headline acts above, plus L.A. Guns (Ballad of Jayne), Great White (Save Your Love), Slaughter (Fly To The Angels) and Alias (More Than Words Can Say), but doesn’t add any new material or unreleased. There are just eleven tracks here (plus a specially recorded bonus track from White Lion‘s Mike Tramp), and only Kip Winger (Seventeen and Madelaine, both at the Key Club) and Jani Lane (Cherry Pie and Uncle Tom’s Cabin, both at Myth) get two each. The footage and sound are both good, but the shows themselves were obviously a lot longer than are presented here. It’s a shame the full shows couldn’t be included, or that at the very least more songs per act weren’t included to at least give the illusion of continuity. Instead the whole show play like a collection of videos instead of a concert performance. Interesting and worthwhile for sure, but feels a little half-hearted as a product.

Written by Andy Lye
More: 2006, Acoustic, Live DVDs, Quick.Play Reviews, Various