Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 31, 1993                   TAG: 9303310281
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DAMN YANKEES, JACKYL PROVE LOUDER ISN'T ALWAYS BETTER

Of course, there are some who say that about all rock music. Of course, they're wrong. But in the case of the Damn Yankees, which played Tuesday night at the Salem Civic Center, that saying couldn't have been more true.

It all sounded just so alike.

Predictably, the Damn Yankees were loud, even by rock standards. Any band with Ted Nugent has to be, right? Pure loudness is no substitute for music, however.

Musically, Damn Yankees had nothing to offer. The songs were unmemorable, existing only to be smothered by a muddy mess of pounding bass and guitar feedback. About the only number that had any decipherable melody was "Silence is Broken."

Overall, though, singers Tommy Shaw, formerly of Styx, and Jack Blades, formerly of Night Ranger, seemed lost in it all. Only occasionally did their harmonies break through the blare.

Nugent's non-stop whirlwind lead guitar work never let up through a 90-minute show attended by 2,452 people. Nor did Nugent change the whirlwind from song to song. He just basically played the same solo from start to finish.

He had a message to match the assault as well, blasting gun control and saying that in America he should be free to drive into town with a double-barrel shotgun on his lap to use on any carjacker who tries to steal his car. He also said people should be free to shoot their televisions any time MTV plays rap music.

Then Nugent, an avid bow hunter, targeted a guitar and an elk decoy propped on stage with a pair of flaming arrows.

With guitars slung low, topless (at least by set's end), and with back-length hair whipping wildly in the manufactured smoke, Jackyl opened Tuesday's show.

In an equally loud-for-the-sake-of-loud display of booming power chords and howling vocals, the band's five members showed they had every tired hard-rock pose and cliche down pat.

The group even invented one of its own, centering its centerpiece song, "The Lumberjack," on an actual chain saw buzzing in place of the guitar solos.

Frontman Jessie DuPree ended the song by sawing up a wooden stool. That's rock 'n' roll.

Otherwise, there was nothing ever remotely original about Jackyl, from the power chords to the howling. It was imitation AC/DC meets Sam Kinison.