Quiet Riot
New Haven Agora
Hew Haven, Connecticut
August, 1983
Interesting concert, this one, in that Iron Maiden and Fastway were playing at the New Haven Coliseum on the same evening, and if you presented your Maiden ticket stub at the door to the Agora, you got in free! So, in all, we got to see three great bands. Quiet Riot had just released their debut, “Metal Health”, and it was gaining momentum. Needless to say, the band played the entire album and interspersed solos needless solos within.
I remember each member, the late Kevin DuBrow, Carlos Cavazo, now a Ratt, Rudy Sarzo, and Frankie Banali, having a blast while blitzing through their debut. “Slick Black Cadillac”, “Thunderbird”, and “Breathless” were fine slabs of pop metal, but the band’s soon-to-be hit singles, “Cum on Feel the Noize” and the title track raised the roof! Dubrow’s voice was particularly strong, especially on “Love’s a Bitch”, while Cavazo ripped out one solo after the next – shame he’s been relegated to a second stringer in Ratt!
One could tell that even in their genesis, Quiet Riot was going to take on the metal world – and they did; their debut climbed to number one in the charts – a first for a metal band. A shame really, that the band fizzled out a couple years later.