Quiet Riot - Live at the Us Festival 1983 Review

Following a pair of DVD releases, Shout! Factory has announced the release of several performances on CD from the famous US Festival in California including QUIET RIOT. Spearheaded by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, the US Festival intended to be a celebration of technology and culture, with a temporary stage and open-air venue paid for by Wozniak himself just for the purposes of the festival. The event featured "Heavy Metal Day" on on May 29, 1983 with the aforementioned QUIET RIOT along with the following stellar lineup: MÖTLEY CRÜE, OZZY OSBOURNE, JUDAS PRIEST, TRIUMPH, SCORPIONS and VAN HALEN.

Despite the historical value of the performances, the festival was a failure, with two reported deaths at the 1983 festival and Wozniak and promoters losing some $24 million. Setbacks aside, the performances remain a worthy footnote in rock history, and Shout! Factory aims to memorialize these moments, first through DVD and now on CD. ...full text istening to LIVE AT THE US FESTIVAL 1983, it’s clear that a young, hungry Quiet Riot took the stage almost 30 years ago determined to destroy all those in front of them. Listening to the recording, this is definitely not the best concert Quiet Riot would ever perform, but it’s certainly one of the most energetic. It’s interesting to hear Dubrow, and hear how close his live vocal was to his recorded work. While there’s a lot more frenetic energy from Dubrow throughout songs like “Love’s A Bitch”, he sounds startling similar to his recorded work. The rest of the band doesn’t fair so well. Carlos Cavazo’s guitar sound is surprisingly sloppy on this recording; surprising because he would go on to become one of the better players throughout the era and even with his work now in Ratt. Drummer Frankie Banali sounds decent here, although the overall recording of the drums is a bit shaky on this recording. Bassist Rudy Sarzo sounds decent, although understated throughout.

Still, this live performance is not so much about the precision playing as it is about the energy of the day. Even early in their career in what had to be the biggest show they’d ever played to that point, Quiet Riot commanded the crowd to react. Dubrow was always good at interacting with the crowd, and it’s clear he was very comfortable from his earliest moments in front of big audiences. Hearing him rev the crowd up on songs like “Cum On Feel The Noize” and “Metal Health” brings back memories that most of us 40 somethings won’t forget....full text The US Festival, funded by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak, was two mammoth concert and technology exposition events held at Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino, California, over Labor Day weekend in 1982 and Memorial Day weekend in 1983. Shout! Factory has begun issuing performances culled from the US Festival, including 2012's Live at the US Festival 1983 CD/DVD from Quiet Riot. It captures the pop-metal band's complete set at the event on May 29, 1983, which was known as "Heavy Metal Day" and also featured Mötley Crüe, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Triumph, Scorpions, and Van Halen. This day was a crucial turning point in hard rock/heavy metal, as it became a major musical and overall cultural force through the rest of the decade. Quiet Riot -- vocalist Kevin DuBrow, lead guitarist Carlos Cavazo, bass guitarist Rudy Sarzo, and drummer Frankie Banali -- helped lead hard rock's charge into the mainstream with its hugely successful album Metal Health, released just a few months before the US Festival....full text There's a brief moment in the DVD that accompanies Quiet Riot's Live! At the US Festival where singer Kevin Dubrow, decked out in a rainbow tank top and red spandex pants and Cons, lifts guitarist Carlos Cavazo onto his shoulders during the band's biggest number, "Cum on Feel the Noize." Dubrow looks as though he's going to collapse under the weight of Cavazo, but he gives it everything he has for those few seconds before letting the guitarist down again. Opening up 1983's US Festival for the 375 000 in attendance on May 29—Heavy Metal Day—the band looks and sounds as though its punching a little out of its weight class. With a set full of generic metal originals about going crazy, living in the danger zone, love's role as a bitch and banging your head, soundtracked by the musical equivalent and accompanied by very little natural stage presence but a whole lot of will to try, the band does its best to play to the front row (which looks as though it was about half a mile from the stage). Quiet Riot's newly released set is an interesting time capsule of the festival, but it also highlights the dichotomy of a band that sometimes fought against and sometimes embellished its limitations, occasionally overcoming them, if only briefly (and usually during that cover of Slade's "Cum on Feel the Noize")....full text