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JOHN CORABI
Live '94 (One Night In Nashville)
Rat Pak Records - 2018
http://www.johncorabimusic.com

Having been unable to fend off the common cold, I found myself unable to attend a John Corabi solo concert that took place about 20 minutes from my home. It was an acoustic show that took a journey throughout his music career, so I was kind of bummed out that I had to miss the show. But I was able to somewhat salve that hurt by checking out this live album put out just nine days prior to the gig I missed.

I've become a big fan of Corabi for his work with THE DEAD DAISIES, but I've wanted to check out his back catalog for a while now. I just never had the time. Of course, he's likely to always be best remembered for being the frontman for MOTLEY CRUE on their 1994 self-titled album. I had moved on from CRUE after the Dr. Feelgood album, so I'd never heard this particular disc.

It might seem a bit odd that my first exposure to the songs on the Motley Crue album comes from a live disc recorded 21 years (the disc was recorded on October 27th, 2015 at The Basement in Nashville, Tennessee) after the fact, but it does give me the perspective of hearing the material on their own without having the preconceived notions of what a Crue song "should" sound like. I have to admit that if I heard these songs back in 1994, I probably would've been amongst the crowd who invariably said the album was NOT MOTLEY CRUE.

But time passes and I did indeed get to listen with fresh ears, and I have to say that I really enjoyed a lot of what I heard. Corabi and his more than capable backing band play the entire album. The first seven songs (not including Corabi's brief recap of how he came to join the band that makes up "Track 7" on the album) are smoking hot rock songs. They range from the down and dirty stomping of "Power To The Music" and "Uncle Jack" to the more melodic stylings of "Loveshine" before going back to slapping you around sonically with "Hammered". I wasn't crazy about a number of the songs on the latter portion of the disc though. I thought "Til Death Do Us Part" and "Welcome To The Numb" were placeholder songs at best and I wasn't all that enamored with "Driftaway" either. I thought "Droppin' Like Flies" (not to be confused with the standout ARMORED SAINT track of the same name) was interesting musically. But I did thoroughly love "Smoke The Sky".

Again, I'm not sure that I would've enjoyed the Motley Crue album when it was originally released. I can see why it was not widely accepted at that time. But I'd be lying if I said anything other than I really enjoyed hearing the songs presented, for the first time for me anyway), this way. And while not every song struck home with me, there's enough hear that makes me want to track down the studio recording and give that a spin as well.

3.9 Out Of 5.0