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Jake E. Lee’s Long Awaited Return With RED DRAGON CARTEL Ruined By Buffoon Singer.
Hollywood, CA — Welcome to the speed of the internet folks. Good news travels fast, but bad news travels even faster.
It’s been less than 24 hours since the debut of Jake E. Lee’s new project RED DRAGON CARTEL at the World Famous “Whisky-A-Go-Go” and we’re here to report – it was a fucking train wreck.
It seems many fans are none to happy with what they heard last nite. At least not from the singer. Fans have been excited for this project for months and many have waited years, even decades for the return of Jake E. Lee. And to many – wow was it a let down.
The word on the street is that last night’s debut show was embarrassing in many ways. Too bad for Jake, as the fans have been patient for 20 years and for all the hype that surrounded this gig it was actually beyond sad to many who attended.
Listening to these clips is atrocious. The lead singer Darren Smith is horribly out of key but that isn’t the half of it. You expect that from a D-list hairband singer, but not from a guy who is suppose to walk in the shoes of the late and great Ray Gillen. Worse yet, was every stupid cliche’ rock star comment you would NEVER expect to hear at a show featuring a class act like Jake E. Lee. But Smith did them all, said them all and just played himself as a fool like it was his first time on stage.
As the first chorus nears for “Bark At The Moon” Smith yells “Sing it for me” and the crowd does just that. So, what is his next remark? A rousing “That sucked!” Sounds like he’s channeling his best Geoff Tate sans the vocal ability of course. As the band plays on Smith gets lost vocally and screams “I’m fucking drunk!” at the 1.12 mark of the “Bark…” clip. As Jake takes center stage for the solo of what could be considered his biggest ever hit,once again Mr. Moron with a microphone walks up (4.30 mark) and holds up his beer, then motions for a response from the crowd, not once, not twice, but three times and shouts some in-audible nonsense into the mic. All the while his ‘boss’ and the main reason there were hundreds of people crammed into the “Whisky” was trying to do his job. Play lead guitar. Not done yet, nope – more from the moron. Due to the fact the song was such a big smash, they extend it to nearly 6 minutes so Mr. Lee can give the fans what they want. More of him playing his guitar. Cringe worthy is what happens during the last minute of the song as Jake tries to perform while the lead Asshat jumps around in the middle of stage ala a drunk Jim Morrison.
And guess what? That is just the nonsense that happened during one song.
“Rock N’ Roll Rebel” is another low light for sure. Smith seems to be reading lyrics off the floor and at several points during the song sings “Rock N’ Roll Devil.” Umm, wrong title dumb fuck. Clearly Smith’s vocal talent does not match Jake’s ability to still shred the guitar. The only clear match on stage all night was the singer’s beer gut and the drummer’s even bigger beer gut. Hello guys, no one is gonna win a Josh Todd 6-pack contest so please keep your shirts on.
After the band complete “The Ultimate Sin” Smith yells out “We’re back Motherfuckers!”
Our question is, “How is that possible?” You were never even here. If anything, the frontman should have set up a ‘welcome back’ to Jake with a simple hand gesture and bow. And done so with a grace and style that fits the man that Jake has always been. A fans comment below sums it up saying “Ray must be crying in heaven.”
The mighty youtube has already posted a half dozen video clips and they don’t lie. Overall the biggest complaint from the fans is Jake’s choice of singer. We’ll let these video clips speak for themselves.
The following comments were taken from these YouTube clips from fans.
kevfla
EPIC FAIL! The singer BLOWS!!
Paulieflix
Great to see Jake E. Lee back in action.. But he must get a better vocalist…
jbromusic
jake deserves to have a much better singer than this.
Watson Fiveohthree
Jake is awesome and the band sounds great but that vocalist is a tool and needs to go asap.
Dan McCloy
Jake is awesome. Hate to say it, but the singer is ruining this. I wasn’t expecting Ray Gillen, but this guy is really bad.
Joe Polito
Fack vocalist is so bad I cant listen to the rest of the song, Damn! Jake Nice, OMFG Jake please listen this guy is making you look bad, he is off key more than he is on key, F@ck Me!
Daniel Rosenqvist
Ray is crying in heaven, when this singer do a horrible job.
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