L.A. Guns at the Rust Belt -- July 10.
Sunday, July 10, 7 p.m.
The Rust Belt, 533 12th Avenue, East Moline IL
Now touring the country in their incredible 40th year of professional performance, the hard rockers and glam-metal musicians of L.A. Gun play East Moline venue the Rust Belt in support of their 2021 album Checkered Past, a recording that led Blues Rock Review to rave, "It takes a special band to maintain a consistent sound without sounding stale."
With the group first formed in 1983 by lead guitarist Tracii Guns and drummer Rob Gardner, the discography of L.A. Guns is composed of 17 studio releases (14 original studio albums, two cover albums, and one re-recording album), nine live albums, 13 compilation albums, four EPs, 27 singles, six video albums, and 25 music videos. After some early lineup changes, the group – consisting of Guns, vocalist Phil Lewis, rhythm guitarist Mick Cripps, bassist Kelly Nickels, and drummer Nickey Alexander – signed with PolyGram and released its self-titled debut album in 1988. It reached number 50 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). After Alexander was replaced by Steve Riley, L.A. Guns' 1989 follow-up Cocked & Loaded reached number 38 on the Billboard 200, with the single "The Ballad of Jayne" giving the rockers their debut on the Hot 100, reaching number 33.
Released in 1991, Hollywood Vampires reached number 42 on the Billboard 200, with three of the album's four singles charting on the Mainstream Rock chart, and "It's Not Over Now" hitting number 62 on the Hot 100.Despite a number of lineup changes, the band continued to issue new albums with new musicians throughout the 1990s: 1996's American Hardcore featured vocalist Chris Van Dahl and bassist Johnny Crypt; the 1998 EP Wasted featured vocalist Ralph Saenz; and 1999's Shrinking Violet showcased vocalist Jizzy Pearl.
The classic lineup of Guns, Lewis, Cripps, Nickels and Riley reunited in 1999 to record Cocked & Re-Loaded, while 2002's Waking the Dead was recorded by the four-piece lineup of Lewis, Guns, Riley and Adam Hamilton, after which founding member Guns left the band. After three albums without the guitarist, Lewis and Guns reunited for the first time since 2002 in 2016, and the following year, L.A. Guns released The Missing Peace, which reached number 16 on the Billboard Hard Rock Albums chart and number 12 on the Independent Albums chart. Since then, The Devil You Know was released as the album's follow-up in March of 2019 and Renegades in November of 2020, and the group's most recent recording Checkered Past is earning L.A. Guns some of their strongest notices in years, with SleazeRozz.com writing that the album "returns the band back to melodic hard rock with a fist full of attitude."
L.A. Guns play their East Moline engagement on July 10 with sets by Faster Pussycat and Skarlett Roxx, admission to the 7 p.m. concert is $19.89-29.50, and more information and tickets are available by visiting TheRustBeltQC.com.
