Now Arriving From The ‘80s, Great White And Quiet Riot

Cum on feel the noize

Get the hairspray ready.

Girls rock your boys

The ‘80s are back.

Get wild, wild, wild

And they’re going to rock your world. Again.

Or something like that.

Here it is: Quite Riot. Great White. Spokane. North Idaho. This week.

No kidding.

Seems some sort of bizarre hole in the space/time continuum has landed two of that decade’s hard-rock superstars in our corner of the world at almost the same moment.

Great White - “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” - plays The Edge in Coeur d’Alene Tuesday. Quiet Riot - “Cum On Feel the Noize,” “Bang Your Head” - stops in for a night at Outback Jack’s Wednesday.

Eerie isn’t it? I don’t know whether to bang my head on a wall or break out the Aqua Net and join in.

I’ll likely do the latter.

Sure, with 10 years of hindsight we can easily make fun of big hair and spandex (take a look at your high school yearbook photo). But we did, after all, listen to this stuff not so long ago. And, some of us actually enjoyed it.

I’m not pointing fingers here but I know a whole lotta folks who’ll be coming out of the heavy metal closet come Wednesday when Quiet Riot shows up. It’s nostalgia, man.

And you just have to give these guys credit for sticking to it through the ‘90s - years that so cruelly turned their backs on the bands like they were so much unhip flotsam.

After their fall from arena-rock grace, both Great White and Quiet Riot continued to tour and make regular stops in the Inland Northwest. They slogged it out on a club level, playing the music they - and plenty of others - still dig.

“Writing good songs and being true to yourself makes you timeless, transcending the fashion of the day,” says Great White singer Jack Russell. “If we don’t wear flannel, that doesn’t make our music less valid.

We play what we love to play.”

On Wednesday, Quiet Riot arrives with all the members who made 1983’s album “Metal Health” the highest charting debut ever by an American metal band. That’s Kevin DuBrow on vocals, Frankie Banali on drums, Carlos Cavazo on guitar and Rudy Sarzo on bass.

The show starts at 9:30 p.m. at Outback’s; tickets are $10.

The Great White show starts at 9:30 Tuesday night at The Edge. Mykey’s Outrage opens. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door.

Real good stuff

If, perhaps, Quiet Riot and Great White aren’t your thing, don’t start planning your nights in front of the TV yet. This week offers plenty of good shows for those who dig smaller hair and a different music style.

Tonight, catch Celtic rockers from Canada, The Clumsy Lovers, as they headline at Outback Jack’s. Trust me, you’ll do a little jig to their beat. Or maybe you’ll do a big jig.

Tiana Gregg opens the show at 9:30 followed by Sporto. Cover is $4.

On Monday, San Francisco’s super jazzsters Junk funk their way into Outback’s.

This combo, which features a sublime baritone saxophonist, melds rock, jazz and funk into an exceptionally independent sound. The four members have played and recorded with the likes of Morphine, Fishbone, Flea and Pete Townshend.

Show starts at 9:30. Cover is $5.

If you missed hillbilly punkers Elmer last Friday you can thank the rock gods for this second chance. The Portland foursome, now featuring two former Motherloaders, plays Ichabod’s Thursday with The Pills and Cooter. Show starts at 9:30 p.m. Cover is $4.

Spokane’s rock/jazz innovator BeeCraft plays tonight at Ichabod’s North with Driftopia. Cover is $5. Catch BeeCraft at the Fort Spokane Brewery Thursday.

CD release parties

Five women from the West Side ladle out some “Peachfish Stew” at the Fort Spokane Brewery tonight.

But don’t go looking for food.

This is Swamp Mama Johnson and their offering is a heady brew all right, but this one is all heavy helping of blues, boogie-down-rock, and even some Jamaican beat.

Hailing from Bellingham, the fivesome has named its third - and just-released - album “Peachfish Stew.” The CD finds the usual Swamp Mama danceable blues, but with a few extras thrown in.

“It’s just a little more of us peeking out,” says saxophonist Tracy Ferrara.

“People’s Choice” uses a skipping ska beat to land a gut blow in the soft underbelly of religious intolerance. “Voodoo Angel” cranks it down a sultry notch with mystical imagery and haunting guitar work.

The woman-as-piece-of-meat premise lands squarely on its ear in “Irresistible Dish” as singer Lisa Mills slings out a boogie warning from one sister to another: “stop playing with your food.”

“Better save him for later, late snack in the night … he’s a tasty little tidbit/ just a sweet hunk of meat/when you’re finished you’ll just toss him on your countless heap.”

In typical Swamp Mama style, most of the songs break down midway into guitar-and-horn-driven instrumentals. Sometimes it works, other times it’s just too predictable. Like, Oh here comes another one.

Still, the album is a fun concoction with some searing sax work and tougher-than-heck vocals.

The Swamp Mamas celebrate their new stew at the Fort Spokane Brewery tonight. Show starts at 9:30. Cover is $6.

For something completely different: Spokane foursome Sugarpig slaps down its seven-song self-titled debut album at a CD release party Saturday.

This here is all brawny metal and thunderous funk. Don’t have the stomach for the weighty stuff? Don’t pick it up. But if you like well-put-together musical muscle, head over to Ichabod’s North and grab a copy.

Thick bars of rock and rhythm frame singer Darin Dilling’s growls suitably on “Be With Love.” “Trip Beasley” vents a catchy barrage of noise run through with mesmeric guitar work.

Juvenile lyrics sink “Yo! Mama” (a rather callow insult on someone’s rather dysfunctional mother) and “Mighty Stinky” (which delivers noxious lines like “what else is a man supposed to do when there’s no porta potti/it’s either on the floor or…”).

Still, the metal-tight groove and rapid-fire vocals on “Motherhood” show just how good the Sugarpig’s squeal can be.

For the Love of Suffering and Felix Shmitt join Sugarpig at Ichabod’s North Saturday. Cover is $4.

Party for all ages

The Cheney trio known as Greg hasn’t been on stage much this summer. But that’s only because they’ve been busy laying down their dense-yet-fluid sound on a soon-to-be released album.

Now, however, the Greg guys are back with an all-ages party Saturday at Sound Decision and Hanna’s Pub in Post Falls. Unit and Tiana join in the fun.

The show is free and located in the Pleasant View Business Center, 3930 W. Fifth St. Doors open at 5 p.m. and music begins at dusk. A beer garden will be available for adults.

Look for Greg’s new album - the band’s third - around the end of the year.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos

MEMO: Send nightclub news to Winda Benedetti at The Spokesman-Review, 999 W. Riverside, Spokane, WA 99201 or fax it to (509) 459-5098. She can be reached by phone at (509) 459-5089 or by e-mail at windab@spokesman.com. Deadline for Friday publication is the previous Friday.