Recap: Sebastian Bach at Empire LIVE 5/22/2024 -By: Michael Bruce

I’d like to discuss a few things in this review, if that’s ok with you folks.  Let me first say, that last night was my first night ever in Empire Live.  This is the venue that hosted the Sebastian Bach concert last night.  It’s very simple, wide open, but a very clean and well organized venue.  I’d say great place to see a rock show. I also enjoyed the fact that they kept things very on time, and didn’t keep people out late on a Thursday night.  The entire show was over by like 10:40.  Second of all, as a lifelong musician I actually look forward to seeing opening bands.  Discovering a band live, is to me, still the best way to discover new music/artists I may really like.  YouTube, and all of this other internet stuff…it’s OK?  But, when you see performers, and their songs live in person, you get the true vibe of what THEY’RE all about.  Last night was a good ol’ fashion hard rock n’ roll show in a great dark venue with a GREAT opening band.  The Bites from Hollywood, California came out, and had me smiling within 5 seconds.  Really cool songs, really fun, in your face, great personality, and a very well-rehearsed SHOW.  I put show in capital letters because they did not come out on stage and play their songs.  They came out and put on a SHOW.  There is a big difference people.  It was very worked out, smooth, and as entertaining as hell.  I am now a fan, and will be more closely checking out their tunes.  This leads me to my third topic of this review.  Let’s discuss the one and only Sebastian Bach!

If you didn’t know, Sebastian Bach was born in The Bahamas.  He was raised in Peterborough, Canada.  Without the whole story, fast forward to age 19, and landing with guys from New Jersey who had a band called Skid Row. In January of 1989, Skid Row’s self-titled first album was released, and Sebastian Bach truly became a lead singer rock star.    From the moment the MTV generation heard “Youth Gone Wild”, and that big voice of his, it was instant success for the band.  I was one of those people.  Sebastian had a big voice, a big personality to go with his height, and the ladies sure liked his looks.  He helped drive the band to big platinum album heights, and the Skid Row train rolled successfully into the early 1990s.  At some point for various reasons, the Skid Row run with Bach in the front of the stage ended, and Sebastian went out on his own.  He has been a solo performer ever since, and has even sang in other musical realms such as playing the lead character in Broadway’s “Jekyll and Hyde”.  Let’s get to Albany, NY in 2024.  

Sebastian and his band hit the stage with the first single off of his brand new album, “What Do I Got To Lose”.  This comes off of the “Child Within The Man” album.  Bach has been getting a lot of praise for this new album, and rightly so.  A lot of fun new rockers, with his 80s flair we love so much.  Make sure you check out the video for this single as well.  Sebastian has such a beloved deep history with Skid Row, but the audience was more than receptive with him starting the show with a brand new song.  In fact, the audience was downright LOUD!  Next up, 1991’s first single off of the then new Skid Row album, “Slave To The Grind”.  However, before he played the song, a teenage rocker right in the front was holding up a Slave To The Grind vinyl album cover.  Bach noticed, and had the kid throw it up to him so he could sign it for him, and then threw it back.  How cool is that!  Also, very cool to see some teenage rockers there last night very into some 80s style rock.  After that, Bach made reference to the first Skid Row album being 35 years old this year.  He proceeded to perform songs off of it throughout the night.  “Here I Am”, “Big Guns”, “Sweet Little Sister”, “18 And Life”, “Can’t Stand The Heartache”, “Piece Of Me”, “Rattle Snake Shake”, “I Remember You”, and “Youth Gone Wild”.  If you LOVE the first Skid Row album like I do, what a treat!  He also performed another song off of his new album called, “Everybody Bleeds”.  I expected to hear “Monkey Business” off of the “Slave To The Grind” album, but I did not expect to hear “The Threat”.  One of my favorites off of that album.  

Throughout the show, I really enjoyed Sebastian’s personality.  He kept it lite, he kept it fun, he kept it real.  He’s a big kid really.  He smiled the entire time, and played off of the audience.  There was some kind of scuffle near the front of the stage, and Bach made it clear that if you were there to do anything other than have a good time, to get the F out.  But even that turned into a laugh when he said, “Anyone getting kicked out please stop by the merch table on the way out and get a t-shirt”.   Some woman threw Bach a Skid Row pillow case.  He was totally over joyed.  I know Bach is a total pop-culture collector junkie.  Especially music related items.  He’s a huge Kiss fan, and loves collecting Kiss items.  He has fun with his band members too. He pointed out that he doesn’t have the best hair in the band anymore thanks to his new bass player Clay Eubank.  Then he turned to drummer Andy Sanesi, to point out he has done lots of drumming gigs for Fankie Valli and The Four Seasons.  The band then jammed a nice little rendition of “December, 1963 (Oh What A Night)”.  He didn’t use his guitar player Brodie Derozie for any gags, but let’s just say Brodie did a more than fine job on guitar.  Bach even poked fun at himself for being older.  He made jokes about having to go easy on the “head banging”, and the fact that reading the set list with his older eyes is harder than the singing.  Ahhh, the singing.  You’re probably all asking me while reading this, “How did Sebastian Bach sound at 56 years old”.  I think he sounded REALLY GOOD.  No, he doesn’t have the highest gears of notes anymore, BUT he still has gears and he used them well.  If you know his voice, you know it was all him.  He was indeed Sebastian Bach.  He sang really well, and he picked his high note spots wisely.  Me AND the audience were more than satisfied with his vocal performance.  

From The Bites opening the show, to the very end of “Youth Gone Wild”, it was such a fun night!  A great rock n’ roll show.  Sebastian Bach said during his show when referring to the spirit of rock n’ roll, and music in general, “I’d rather be real stupid than artificially intelligent”.  THAT is a fantastic quote!  Keep the music REAL, and that’s exactly what he did.