A Nervous Wreck

I can still smell the summer of 1991, Poison, Ratt, Motley Crue, Tesla, Def Leppard and Cinderella were booked back to back at the big arenas. Big hair, pyrotechnics and rotating drum solos tore the town down. We used to wave our tickets and smile with pride at the loser friends of ours who had none and just stared in awe at the third row seats numbers printed in magic ink right on the front. To us those little letters were like a winning lottery ticket in hand.
We were living it up proper, even if it was just for an hour and a half. It was heaven on earth right here in Cincy. We would all pile in “moms hand me down” station wagon wearing last years concert shirts, stop by the mini-mart at 9 mile and Beechmont (the one place our fake IDs would fly), grab three bottles of Boones Farm (for the girls), a case of Little Kings, $5 in gas and head downtown. We naively navigated the city streets in search of the damn place and tried to kill as many bottles as we could along the way. We had the shitty speakers straining the whole way there and back to “Home Sweet Home” and “Talk Dirty To Me” (again for the girls). Everyone was supposedly “staying the night” at some other friends house and with any luck our alibis fit like a glove. We thought we were partying like rock stars and we even had the fresh “arena stink” clinging to our clothes and the ringing in our ears to prove it! Not to mention the fresh new concert shirts to show off in the fall when school started again. We were rebellious rock’n-rollers...and loving every minute of it.
Now our parents have torn down the posters of Vince Neil and Tommy Lee in our rooms and replaced them with an HGTV total make over with woven wool wallpaper and tucson tile. A total workout cyber gym sits where the $199 “top of the line” Pioneer dual cassette player once sat and the “big trouble” we were usually in has long since been forgotten about.
But in our hearts the music lives on. Most of the big hair bands have broken up or are playing with only one original member... aging ungracefully but still dashing out the backstage door as if there was a vintage 1990’s mob waiting by the bus (Sorry, no such luck Bret). But that does not mean the flames of frenzy have died down to a withering ash...at least not here in Cincy.
Local long hair rock rebels “ A Nervous Wreck” are fanning the flames and fueling the fire out of the ashes the big hair rock legends left behind. These boys are ripping into the rowdy guitar riffs and deafening drum beats loud enough to make Black Sabbath look like a children’s church choir on prozak.
Stacking the set list with the best hits from rockers like Motley Crue, Poison and countless others. In short “A Nervous Wreck” is doing a damn good job keeping the music alive and kickin’.
They aren’t just cover crazy copy cats either, they have their own original tunes that could top the charts if given a chance. They have a great following of fans and fit the bill perfectly opening for Bret Michaels, Warrant and Firehouse (at Whiskey Dicks). In fact, for two out of the three shows I saw they were much better than the headlining band! Some may even say three out of three shows (Bret Michaels did do a decent job so I’ll give it a tie on that one, but still that’s a bold statement).
“A Nervous Wreck” has a first class presentation and a dyed in the wool rock n roll soul, excellent song writing ability and a savage stage presence keeps the calendar full of bookings. The band has a promoter booking them dates all over the United States but you can still catch them here locally (for now) at several area clubs.( Milford’s new “Bad Habits” has them on Feb. 3rd.) They have a great self titled CD you can pick up at the shows. If you can catch them as a solo act you better jump on it because otherwise you’ll have to pay the premium ticket price to see them open for the big bands they are booked with.
Shane Mosley (lead vocals), Marty Bates (guitars and backup vocals), Pat King (drums and backup vocals) and Johnny Perkins (bass and backup vocals) collectively make up the band. They get a great crowd of hard rock hungry “Ain’t Lookin’ For Nothin’ But A Good Time” fans and what the hell is wrong with that! A 7oz Little King, and a great “Shout At The Devil” cover and I feel 17 all over again!
See and hear more from “A Nervous Wreck” on our web site www.eastsidevibe.com or the bands home page www.myspace.com/anervouswreck