Quiet Riot – One Night in Milan
Release Date: January 25, 2019
Frontiers Records
Quiet Riot is one of those bands that I just find myself shaking my head over. Tsk Tsk. Some things are just best left alone and I will say predictably like many that Quiet Riot died with Kevin Dubrow. Drummer Frankie Benalli (who isn’t even an original member in actuality) has continued to drag Quiet Riot’s legacy through the mud after more failed attempts than I can count and trying to find success in carrying on without any original members since Dubrow’s death and honestly, it’s every bit as sad as it sounds.
Since Dubrow’s death in 2007, Banali has recruited Mark Huff, Keith St. John, Scott Vokoun, Jizzy Pearl, Seann Nichols, and now we have American Idol dude, James Durbin. Quiet Riot’s line now consists of original member Frankie Banali on drums, bassist Chuck Wright, who has been involved in the band since the recording of “Metal Health”. Alex Grossi on guitar who has been in the band for 14 years and the new singer is James Durbin, who was on ‘American Idol’ during the tenth season.
Quiet Riot will be releasing a live album this year called One Night in Milan. Looking at the track listing, I’ll be honest and say that this actually looked really promising as this was a great collection of songs. The album kicks off with “Run for Cover” and after hearing this I had two thoughts; the first being that the production of this album is stellar. The second thought was this is one of the saddest performances I’ve ever heard. This literally sounded like a recording of a QR tribute band. Wait, I believe that’s pretty much what this is.
Grossi’s guitar playing is spot on and that dude is a fucking monster guitarist. Why is he wasting his time in this freak show? Surly he can find better paying gigs with his talent. I think Chuck Wright is just finally happy to actually have his face associated with Quiet Riot. Banali’s drumming? Whew. I mean, the guy is a solid drummer but he needs to remember that rule of KISS (keep it simple stupid) as the delivers some seriously cringe worthy drum fills that even a non musician could pick out.
James Durbin singing for Quiet Riot would be pretty much like replacing Bruce Dickinson with Bret Michaels of Poison. The thing that made Dubrow’s voice so distinct and iconic was that he had attitude, conviction, and most importantly power. Durbin possesses none of these qualities and doesn’t even come close. The absolute worst was when they broke out “Thunderbird.”
Even Benali’s touching story about how it was about Randy Rhoads could save this fucking trainwreck. In the original version of this song Dubrow’s voice was so emotional that you could almost hear him holding back the years. Durbin’s take on this song was so fucking lame that I kept waiting for Randy Jackson commenting with shit like, “Yo dawg, that was pretty pitchy.” It was so bad I couldn’t even finish listening to the track.
If you actually find yourself with the need to own a new Quiet Riot live album, the album comes out on January 25th on Frontiers Records but honestly, I couldn’t imagine any real QR even going for this crap. I’m sure the CD will make a great coaster or even something for you to throw at someone in self defense but musically and artistically this album has zero redeeming qualities. Now I’m going to go listen to Metal Health, Condition Critical, and QR III and remember the Quiet Riot that I grew up loving.
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