What a night last night!

As part of Michael Monroe's 60th Birthday Bash, the original line-up of Hanoi Rocks reunited for 9 songs.

Here's their set shot by somebody from the stands:





The 2001-2004 lineup of Hanoi Rocks also played 3 songs early on. Video from front of the stage:



Here's the full setlist from last night:

[www.setlist.fm]


Great to meet Dan after the show, glad you made it!

More later.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2022-09-24 12:42 by Topi.

Never paid much attention to Hanoi Rocks/Michael Monroe myself, but they have always been very popular in Japan, from the group’s debut through Monroe solo until recently, and toured the country numerous times. Search their names on setlist.fm and you will know that them “rockin’ ambassadors from Finland” played Japan more times than most of the European countries except for their home turf, including Monroe solo.

I have seen Hanoi Rocks only once — at the Summer Sonic festival 2002 in Osaka. They played an indoor arena (more like a big barn) that houses 10,000-plus people, and the place was packed with fans, entrance regulation being enforced. And Hanoi Rocks rocked! An energetic, adrenaline-rushing rock ‘n’ roll that stormed over the sweaty crowd. They are a bad boys rock ‘n’ roll band who came too early. Their influence on Guns N’ Roses is apparent.

Their image being as such, I recall Monroe’s remark in the interview published in a Japanese magazine all the more clearly;

“From time to time, kids came to see us at the hotel we are staying, saying, ‘I ditched classes to do this.’ I’m not pleased to hear that at all.”

Decent guy, I thought.

Great ! thanks for the info.

Now, they said the reunion was going to be a one-off, but obviously they're gonna say that. Basic PR. I wouldn't be surprised to see them back for, say, some festival dates next year. We'll see.

Quote
Topi
Now, they said the reunion was going to be a one-off, but obviously they're gonna say that. Basic PR. I wouldn't be surprised to see them back for, say, some festival dates next year. We'll see.

They were a great band. Glad you got to see them!

Michael Monroe? What's wrong with Matti Fagerholm?

What was wrong with William George Perks?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022-09-25 19:28 by Topi.

Quote
Topi
What was wrong with William George Perks?

or Keith Richard for that matter.

They were like finnish a copy of the NY Dolls.

All those wasted years is a good live album.

I remenber seeing them live in Paris in 2005. A good live act.

Quote
cimaz
They were like finnish a copy of the NY Dolls.

“Genealogy as cross-pollination of the Bad Boys Rock ‘n’ Roll”

The Rolling Stones>New York Dolls>Hanoi Rocks>Guns N’ Roses

Mötley Crüe, Twisted Sister etc…musically they sound more inclined towards Metal.

Probably the greatest night of my life.

Quote
cimaz
They were like finnish a copy of the NY Dolls.

All those wasted years is a good live album.

I remenber seeing them live in Paris in 2005. A good live act.

Not at all. The music amd the songwriting was far more melodic. Their sound, too: Piano (on the albums), sax, harp. They were more a mix of Mott The Hoople, Alice Cooper, The Stones (on the early albums) and punk. A unique combo!

Thanks for the videos, Topi, it was great seeing them back together again! I wish I could have made it to Helsinki - must have been fantastic

Quote
Dan
Probably the greatest night of my life.

A lot of people say that after meeting me!

Quote
RisingStone

Quote
cimaz
They were like finnish a copy of the NY Dolls.

“Genealogy as cross-pollination of the Bad Boys Rock ‘n’ Roll”

The Rolling Stones>New York Dolls>Hanoi Rocks>Guns N’ Roses

Mötley Crüe, Twisted Sister etc…musically they sound more inclined towards Metal.

Only on their last album (I'm talking about the real Hanoi Rocks here, not the comeback line up, with only Mike and Andy).

This is the original Hanoi Rocks:





[www.youtube.com]





[www.youtube.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022-09-26 11:10 by DandelionPowderman.

Speaking of New York Dolls, former Hanoi bassist Sami Yaffa did play in their 2004 reincarnation for a while.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022-09-26 11:19 by Topi.

Quote
Topi
Speaking of New York Dolls, former Hanoi bassist Sami Yaffa did play in their 2004 reincarnation for a while.

Together with Monroe's guitar player Steve Conte

Yep, was gonna add that.

I thought that whole Friday night was well constructed as far as the "script". First. Demolition 23 (with 3 Hanoi Rocks members on stage right away), then the 80s Michael Monroe solo stuff.

Seeing the 2001-2004 Hanoi Rocks lineup was a pleasant surprise.

Dregen and Ginger Wildheart perhaps less of a surprise - but nice to see them back out there with Monroe again playing that early 2010s material, which I gotta say is better than Monroe's couple of latest records.

The original (1980-1982) Hanoi worked surprisingly well, seeing as that they probably had very little rehearsal time together. Gyp Casino reportedly had last played the drums in the 1990s and had practiced for this gig mostly on his own. I think his drumming was lagging a bit at times, but not an easy job to play your first gig in over 30 years in front of 8000 people.

Some technical problems with the guitars too, Andy broke his string twice and Nasty had sound/monitoring problems at the start of "Million Miles Away". Andy tried to take over on the fly and the intro pretty much sounded like a train wreck.

But at least it was live, eh?

And those old Hanoi songs are just great songs. It's amazing to think McCoy wrote them in his early 20s.

All in all a really enjoyable night, I hope there's more to come. Michael Monroe is just an amazing frontman.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 2022-09-26 11:43 by Topi.

Singing 37 songs in one show at 60 is nothing short of sensational!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2022-09-26 15:40 by DandelionPowderman.

Cool band!

I particularly like this performance:-

German TV WWF Musik Conoy Warstein Sep 3 1984

[www.youtube.com]

A fantastic rendition of a great song. So wild and raw. And Michael was only 22 years old at that time.

Quote
DandelionPowderman

Quote
RisingStone

Quote
cimaz
They were like finnish a copy of the NY Dolls.

“Genealogy as cross-pollination of the Bad Boys Rock ‘n’ Roll”

The Rolling Stones>New York Dolls>Hanoi Rocks>Guns N’ Roses

Mötley Crüe, Twisted Sister etc…musically they sound more inclined towards Metal.

Only on their last album (I'm talking about the real Hanoi Rocks here, not the comeback line up, with only Mike and Andy).

I’m afraid I misled you with my inadequate narrative.

When I put, “musically they sound more inclined towards Metal”, I intended to describe Mötley Crüe, Twisted Sister etc, those “hair metal” bands, not Hanoi Rocks (and Guns N’ Roses for that matter).

Sorry for confusing you.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022-09-26 12:57 by RisingStone.

Quote
RisingStone

Quote
DandelionPowderman

Quote
RisingStone

Quote
cimaz
They were like finnish a copy of the NY Dolls.

“Genealogy as cross-pollination of the Bad Boys Rock ‘n’ Roll”

The Rolling Stones>New York Dolls>Hanoi Rocks>Guns N’ Roses

Mötley Crüe, Twisted Sister etc…musically they sound more inclined towards Metal.

Only on their last album (I'm talking about the real Hanoi Rocks here, not the comeback line up, with only Mike and Andy).

I’m afraid I misled you with my inadequate narrative.

When I put, “musically they sound more inclined towards Metal”, I intended to describe Mötley Crüe, Twisted Sister etc, those “hair metal” bands, not Hanoi Rocks (and Guns N’ Roses for that matter).

Sorry for confusing you.

Ah, gotcha!

Hanoi Rock is NOT a finnish version of New York Dolls??? NOT AT ALL!? There´s no similarity what so ever??? Yeah right. A totally different universe, right? Hanoi Rocks was a North korean girl band with two members that played Kraftwerk-covers, ate carrots and practiced yoga on tour.

Sigh...

Some cool photos by photographer Stefan Bremer on Facebook:

[www.facebook.com]

Quote
Bjorn
Hanoi Rock is NOT a finnish version of New York Dolls??? NOT AT ALL!? There´s no similarity what so ever??? Yeah right. A totally different universe, right? Hanoi Rocks was a North korean girl band with two members that played Kraftwerk-covers, ate carrots and practiced yoga on tour.

Sigh...

Some people tend to get misled by a band's looks, instead of actually listen to the music. That's why people call Hanoi Rocks both a hair metal band off Sunset Strip and a New York Dolls knock-off.

I'd say they were inspired by the Dolls energy-wise and visually. Not so much musically, as Andy McCoy was a way more melodic songwriter.

To be a copy of another band, as was claimed here, you'll have to copy their musical style, too, don't you think? Now you can unsigh

as Sami Yaffa said 'they weren't a hair band, they were a hat band'.

Music aside, there is little doubt Hanoi Rocks modeled themselves after New York Dolls in terms of image and presenting themselves.

And obviously NYD were a proto-punk band, a missing link that connects the Stones with punk rock.