ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON NOV. 10, 1989
By Steve Newton
It was an ear-shattering ol’ time down at the Metro Tuesday night. Volume maniacs were in their glory, along with those people who don’t enjoy talking while the band’s on.
No one would have heard them anyway–Oakland’s Babylon A.D. made sure of that.
A new hard-rock quintet that blasts out catchy tunes in the Skid Row/Warrant vein, Babylon A.D. was in town for one night only and they made the most of it.
Songs from the band’s self-titled Arista album made up the bulk of the set, and tracks such as “Maryanne” and “Hammer Swings Down” sounded like possible hits on any radio station with enough wattage to handle them.
The band also showed some versatility on the blues-laced “Sally Danced’, which one of the guitarists played with a beer bottle doubling as a slide.
Kind of a rockin’ thing to do, I suppose.
Although Babylon A.D. played about as loud as hearing-safety permits, little applause greeted the band when its regular set ended.
Seeing that the Metro crowd was more into cover tunes, they encored with AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long”–which got the dance floor hopping–and Aerosmith’s “Rats in the Cellar”.