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Official Website: www.ourblackfriday.com/
Myspace Website: www.myspace.com/ourblackfriday
Great White Photos
Our Black Friday Photos
GREAT WHITE was always a I band I liked. They were never in that mold of pretty boy “hair bands” to me. They were and are simply a solid blues-based hard rock act and great live band. That was evident as always as the band made its return to NJ on their 25th Anniversary Tour.
I arrived at Dexter’s shortly after 10pm, as after talking with Brian from Rockeyez earlier in the day, he said I may want to check out OUR BLACK FRIDAY as their singer, Vincent Solano, had recently won a competition where he got to sing onstage with none other than QUEENSRYCHE! The band did not disappoint as they put on a solid and entertaining set of original material and even threw in the classic ALICE IN CHAINS song “Rooster” for good measure. These guys are a name to keep an eye on as I feel they may be generating some noise pretty soon.
After the  enjoyable set by the openers, GREAT WHITE took the stage in a nicely filled room at Dexter’s. By the way, if we haven’t said it enough here at Rockeyez, you really need to check this venue out if you aren’t familiar with it. It’s one of the best NJ has to offer for live music.
Anyway, back to the show…
As I said, the classic lineup of GREAT WHITE (with the addition of Scott Snyder on bass) took the stage to “Call It Rock n’ Roll” off their 1991 “Hooked” album. The band looked like they were having fun and the crowd sang along to a good amount of the lyrics. Say what you want about these guys but I think they have always released solid albums and have a live show that few can touch. They are tight and have always sounded  spot-on when I’ve seen them.
Next up was “Old Rose Motel” from the “Psycho City” record and that was then followed by the classic “Face The Day” off the “Shot In The Dark” record. It’s always cool to hear that song! The band then jumped into their brand new release with the title track “Back To The Rhythm” before throwing in another early classic with “On Your Knees”. The song was accentuated with a bit of LED ZEPPELIN’s “Achilles Last Stand”.
Lead singer Jack Russell seemed very sincere and appreciative of the crowd and said so several times as he thanked them for sticking with band through the years.
“Save Your Love” was up next. I always liked the GREAT WHITE ballads that they’ve done over the years. They are classy songs and held together by the stellar vocals of Russell. Jack and the band then played the tune “Paradise” from Russell’s 2002 solo album “For You”.
As Russell explained how he and the band loved playing the blues they then broke into a couple blues-heavy tunes; namely the GREAT WHITE standard “House of Broken Love” and then Mark Kendall took over lead vocals on the Track “Kill That Red Rooster” which was featured on his solo CD (2006’s “2.0”). Kendall wasn’t the only member beside Russell to do lead vocals on this night as a nice surprise was when keyboardist/guitarist Michael Lardie took over the vocals on the “Hooked” track “Lovin’ Kind”.
The band finished out their set with “Desert Moon” and the all-time GREAT WHITE classic “Rock Me”. The encore featured “Can’t Shake It” and crowd favorite “Once Bitten Twice Shy”. All in all it was triumphant return to NJ for what I think was one of the better bands to come out of the 80’s. Hopefully they will return to Jersey soon.
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