New Jersey's own AMERICAN ANGEL made a triumphant return to Starland Ballroom in Sayreville earlier this month. The band appeared there last April to a packed house, along with other longtime local favorites XENON and LAW AND ORDER. This time the band was supported by CHINA WHITE, who were playing their first show in twenty years!

It was just in time for the Holidays and there was a somewhat festive atmosphere at Starland on the Friday evening. Both bands even played some Christmas songs in their set; of course AMERICAN ANGEL had a local hit back in the day with "Best Part Of Christmas", which could be heard in regular rotation on WSOU around the holidays year in and year out.

The band these days features the ever-charismatic front man Rocco Fury alongside longtime members Mike Bisulca, Marc Ambrosy, Jay Druzba and somewhat new guitarist Sean Tarr (of TNA). The band tore through a fifteen song set and played all the fan favorites such as "It DonÕt Come Easy ", "Lonely Brown ", "After The Laughter", "Lessons" and of course "How Can I Miss You", along with some cuts from their 2007 comeback CD "Vanity". They even pulled out the long lost song "Lady Radio", which was from the original AMERICAN ANGEL demo cassette!

They gave a few songs the acoustic treatment including the aforementioned "Best Part Of Christmas", and another newer Christmas song they recorded a couple years ago "Christmas All The Time" (which was presented complete with a "snow storm" on stage!).

Some of the faces may have changed from the early days of the band but it's still great to hear some of the old songs again and having it happen just in time for the holidays was even better.