Review: Monsters Rock Live

The closet theater/musical geek in me has been watching the Reg Garter shows from year to year. It's one of the best, sort of.

First off, the performers. The band is outstanding again. The lead guitarist in particular is pretty good. The women are all outstanding singers. The dudes... not so good. They keep casting these choir boys to sing rock-n-roll, and it doesn't work. They just aren't very good.

This year's IAAPA clip is the performance of "Bring Me To Life" by Evanescence. Seriously, short of getting the real Amy Lee up there, it couldn't be better. It totally blew me away. It was so good that the 40-somethings I was there with liked it, and they had no idea what the song even was. Breaking from familiarity isn't such a bad thing (more on that in a moment).

The other complete song in the show is Bon Jovi's "Dead or Alive," which gets mixed reviews. On one hand, the band is great (though the acoustic part would sound better on a 12-string). On the other, as I mentioned, the vocals are lame. The dudes just aren't cut out to sing this stuff.

As for the rest of the montage music, I try to remind myself that most people don't see the show every year, let alone more than once a year. However, the set list is getting really, really tired. The music isn't challenging for the performers, and it's not that interesting anymore. Every time I hear that stupid Kiss song I want to throw up. It's clearly starting to wear thin on the crowd too, looking around at crowd reactions.

I'm not suggesting that they go the route of one of the Dorney shows, where the band can actually handle Missy Elliot's "Work It" live, but certainly there's plenty of more contemporary stuff out there that can "rock" without being offensive (though Welcome to The Jungle" isn't exactly a family song in the first place). Seriously, drop in some Matchbox 20, Avril, the light punk of Sum 41 or Green Day, or something.

Good performers again (not counting the guys), but it's time for new material.

I agree with you Jeff, this years show is probably the best one i've seen.Especially the version of "bring me to life". Granted: "welcome to the jungle" and "paradise city" are getting old, but the guitarist they had up there certainly knows how to tear it up like buckethead himself! I also happen to be a closet fan of "were not gonna take it" :)

Hey Yeah I know everyone in the show and they will be happy to know alot of people enjoy the show. Also the guys are good but some of the songs don't fit them good. Hey did everyone forget the keys KEVIN IS AMAZING AT THE KEYS and Bard he rocks at Drums.

We were walking by the Red Garter after a trip on MF and heard something that caught our ear. Anyway, we saw 95% of the show and it was outstanding!!! I agree with Jeff, "Bring Me To Life" was almost as good as the original. The lead guitarist is outstanding, and that is coming from a fellow guitar player who is very cynical. All three girls are beautiful to listen to and watch. If any of the cast reads this...fabulous job. It's great to see a solid rock show these days.

I like this year's show alot, especially the Evanessence song. Those girls are amazing and I like their rendition of it better than the one I hear on the radio. The band rocks and Brian on lead guitar is, as always, incredible. The girls costumes are cool, but the guys are just OK. Not one of them could pull off the red mesh tank top from last year though, so I am glad they did not go there. Kevin's (keyboards) make-up is very cool, he looks incredibly creepy. I liked the clips from last years show in the beginning, and it was a nice surprise to hear an old Elton John song, but I wish they didn't change the lyrics. If you usually don't stop to see the shows, change your plans and check it out. It is well worth 25 minutes.

I miss the "kitten" playing bass. Need more girls in the band. Too much of a sausage party and reinforces the idea that girls can't rock. I'm not saying they should be the Donnas, but you get what I mean.

Jeff, the kitten was a sax player, not bass. I think her name was Kim. Not that I really noticed or anything . . .

My bad, you're right. There are a lot of rock star bass players that are female, so I guess it's my subconscious talking!

Yeah the sax name was kim and don't worry i'm going to be the quitar person soon in the shows.