Saturday, July 12th Co-Headliners Great White & Steelheart

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For a band to continue to thrive 40 years in the music business, the mantra must be, these songs are bigger than any one member. GRAMMY nominated hard rock legends Great White are adding onto that line with the saying: expect the unexpected. It’s rock and roll, baby. The peaks and the valleys haven’t stopped– nor has the music. Great White’s ride runs deep and its passion for the music goes beyond any depth. 

Four decades in and Great White enlists Brett Carlisle to take over vocal duties and lead the charge on hit after hit. That arsenal of songs include the Grammy nominated Best Hard Rock Performance hit, “Once Bitten, Twice Shy,” Great White has sold over 10 million albums worldwide, has six Top 100 Billboard hits, nine Top 200 Billboard albums, two platinum albums, and clocked the top of MTV four times.  

To experience their hits live in concert—“Rock Me,” “Mista Bone,” “Save Your Love,” “House of Broken Love,” and “Lady Red Light”—is to ride an emotional wave of sultry connections, arousing lyrics, and an all-out marathon of hard-hitting orchestrations. Audiences might also hear tracks like “Stick It”, “The Angel Song”, “Big Time” or one of the many deep cuts from Great White’s 13 studio albums.  

California-based Great White is Mark Kendall (guitar), Michael Lardie (guitar, keyboards), Audie Desbrow (drums), Scott Snyder (bass), and Brett Carlisle (vocals). Since 1982, the Great White sound has captivated audiences worldwide with crushing, blues-based guitar riffs and swagger that invokes an emotional high for anyone that listens. The band’s core writing team of Lardie and Kendall forged numerous hits over the years, and when Desbrow joined in ’85, the grooves hooked an amazing stride. 

Now for more than a decade, Snyder has merged his unforgiving rhythm to Desbrow’s relentless percussion. Carlisle, born and raised in Alabama, brings a Southern rock charm laced with Bayou blue-based grit.  

From an early gig at the famed Los Angeles’ Troubadour, to sharing arena stages with rock’s biggest names like Judas Priest, Whitesnake, Scorpions, to globe-trotting alongside contemporaries Slaughter, Vixen, Skid Row, Vince Neil and more – Great White continues to bring its exhilarating live performance to the masses.  

 Steelheart is a band fronted by Miljenko Matijevic. Miljenko’s powerful voice and multi-octave range has become the heart and soul of the band. Although they began as a Hair/Metal band in the early 90s, Miljenko has recently reformed the band and turned it away from the Hair scene. Steelheart's new sound is modern and edgy while still retaining overtones of Miljenko Matijevic's roots. Writing, producing, Matijevic has Fused his past, present and thefuture together, creating an undeniable piece of art .“A modern day Led Zeppelin” (Mitch Lafon BW&BK). 

Steelheart released their self-titled debut album in 1990. It sold 33,000 albums on its first day in Japan alone, and quickly hit platinum status. The ballad “She’s Gone” which showcased Matijevic’s incredible vocal range hit #1 on the International Charts, staying there for 17 weeks. The second single “I’ll Never Let You Go (Angel Eyes)” reached #14 on the billboard charts, and was MTV’s 2nd most requested video. The album reached #40 on the billboard charts, making it (albe it just so) officially a ‘hit’. “Everybody Loves Eileen” and its accompanying video also garnered much success. 

The song “Can’t Stop Me Lovin’ You” further showcased Matijevic’s vocal range, but this time, lead guitarist Chris Risola’s guitar skills were also noticed. The accompanying video was another of the band’shits. Steelheart’s next effort, “Tangled In Reins” was a much more mixed combination than the debut, with songs like “Sticky Side Up” to smooth ballads such as “Mama Don’t You Cry”. Also, the song, “Steelheart”, featured Matijevic hitting his highest note of the three albums. The ballad "Mama Don't You Cry" charted #1 in many East Asian Countries, including Hong Kong, prompting their Asian tour in September, 1992. Nearing the end of the “Tangled in Reins” tour, Slaughter asked Steelheart to perform one last show which would occur in Denver, Colorado. The show took place on Halloween night, a night which will forever be remembered by Steelheart fans. While performing, “Dancing in the Fire”, a hit from the “Tangled in Reins” album, Matijevic decided to climb alighting truss, which was improperly secured. Matijevic tried to  evade the massive rig, but without success. The 1000 pound truss hit Matijevic on the back of the head, driving one of the greatest vocalists of all time, face first into the stage, breaking his nose, cheekbone, jaw and twisting his spine. Matijevic miraculously found the strength to walk off the stage and he was immediately taken to a hospital.“Steelheart” ended that night. Four years later, Matijevic formed a new version of Steelheart with Kenny Kanowski (guitars), Vincent Mele (bass) and Alex Makarovich (drums) to record and release the album “Wait”. The album was very different to the previous two albums. 

The single “Wait” went#1 in many Asian countries; however that was the main area of the album’s success, the grunge invasion causing the American European markets to be near closed to classic rock. Original member James Ward joined Steelheart on the tour supporting the album. Also on the “Wait” album, “We All Die Young”, the first track, was in the motion picture, “Rock Star,” starring Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston.