Metal Sludge — “Everyone has one“, is something that people say about others having an opinion.

Of course, whether that opinion is good or bad, well that is up for others to decide.

Earlier in the week in a social media reply, L.A. Guns frontman Phil Lewis chimed in with his opinion on a post about last weekend’s concert featuring the bands Great White and Riley’s L.A. Guns.

The show took place at the Cannery Casino in North Las Vegas.

An online thread on a Facebook titled ‘Great White‘ has had various responses to the band having yet another singer step-in to perform, and while the comments are mixed they are generally very supportive of the young singer who stepped up to the plate.

One blogger writes: “So who’s singing? Did they rehire Mitch Malloy or is that someone else?”

Various comments detail who is who, and educate some (that didn’t seem to know) that Malloy was replaced months ago by Andrew Freeman, who had missed this recent show due to prior commitments with Last In Line, the Dio tribute he sings for.

In that same exchange Lewis jumps in with: “And some other kid nobody’s ever heard of for the opening band as well.”

We’re going to assume that Lewis is referring to the support band’s singer, who happens to be Kurt Frohlic who fronts Riley’s L.A. Guns.

Lewis then adds: “Amazes me people actually go out for this.”

What’s most rich about this comment, is that it’s coming from a guy who is in a band with 3/5 replacement players with only 2 original members, where Great White currently have 3 of their classic era line-up and 2 replacements players in their band.

Who knows, but maybe Phil Lewis thinks it’s just the singer that matters?

L.A. Guns as most know are the 80’s rock poster child for hiring, firing and re-hiring… essentially a never-ending revolving door of replacing players.

This isn’t an opinion from Metal Sludge, but rather factual.

The proof is in the pudding as they say, go see the list of many dozens of players who were at some point in one of the L.A. Guns groups… all found on their Wikipedia.

It’s also fair to say, that the L.A. Guns brand in general have had a history of; “some other kid nobody’s ever heard” on >insert instrument here< in their line-ups going back to the 1900’s.

We say bands, as once again. most know there have been not 1, not 2, but at times it seems as many as 3 versions touring around playing live dates using the band’s famous badge logo.

Such is the case most recently, when the band’s founder and lead guitarist Tracii Guns played out in Denmark.

Guns is now booking shows as Tracii Guns of L.A. Guns. or as he jokingly referred to the project as, ‘Danish Guns.’

What’s that other old saying… ‘Don’t throw stones in glass houses.’

Carlisle is relatively unknown which is true, but based on his performance over the weekend with Great White, he is now on the rock radar for sure.

Carlisle was stellar in his performance with a voice that soars but he also has great control, timing, phrasing and awareness of his pitch too boot.

Riley’s L.A. Guns were direct support, and feature 2 of the classic-era lineup with Steve Riley (drums) and Kelly Nickels (bass), along with former L.A. Guns member Scotty Griffin (guitars) and lead singer Frohlic.

Great White who were headlining are lead by founder and lead guitarist Mark Kendall, Michael Lardie (guitars, keyboards), Audie DesBrow (drums) along with Scott Snyder (bass) and current singer Andrew Freeman (Last In Line).

Brett Carlisle actually has his own band called All Or Nothing and he was filling-in for Freeman.

Kudos to all bands, original or otherwise who continue to work and follow their path in life.


Stay tuned to Metal Sludge for Breaking News, Features and Updates along with both New and Classic interviews.