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It was just about 11:45pm when my friend Dave and I arrived at Dexter’s… which is also why I left the review of the first two bands in the capable hands of our CEO Brian Rademacher, although I do regret not being  able to catch their sets.
At any rate, as we arrived the first thing we noticed was that the parking lot, not unlike the parking lot for Joe Lynn Turner just a few weeks ago, was absolutely jammed with cars of fans gathered for the return of DANGER DANGER. It’s been over two years since these guys had performed together in our area so the fans came out in force looking forward to an incredible night ofmusic. Hell, even my friend Dave who accompanied me came all the way up from North Carolina to see them and just days before he was to be shipped back to Iraq for his second tour of duty.
So we, as well as the other hundreds of fans, were really looking forward to this.
As the lights dimmed, the crowd erupted as Steve West, Rob Marcello, Bruno Ravel and finally, the always amazing Ted Poley one by one took the stage. Then like a blast of a shotgun, the band burst right into “Boys Will Be Boys” from their debut, self-titled release. The band sounded great and Poley didn’t miss a beat all night long while he kept the fans riveted with his still powerful vocals and on-stage antics and attitude… a true front man in every sense of the words.
But the first thing that really hit me… having seen DANGER DANGER many times back in the day, was the lack of keyboards. Not that the band sounded bad as a foursome, but something just seemed to be missing as far as getting that full, fat sound they once had. This was very apparent on songs like “Don’t Walk Away,” “I Still Think About You” and “Don’t Blame It On Love” which, in my opinion, are all very dependant on those underlying keyboard tones and accents. Even “Bang Bang” just didn’t sound quite the same and I actually thought Ted was able to perform the song better with the band NORWAY backing him up at our little event in Linden just about a year ago because they had a keyboard player and that full, rich sound DANGER DANGER fans have become accustomed to.
Through out the rest of the evening, the crowd was treated to such DANGER DANGER tracks as “Beat The Bullet” (one of my favs off the bands sophomore release “SCREW IT!”), “Good Time” and “When She’s Good She’s Good (When She’s Bad She’s Better)” off their “COCKROACH disc and a scintillating guitar feature compliments of the talented Mr. Marcello. All the songs sounded good, but that’s just it… they were “good” but not “great.”
This brings me to my second observation which, to me, could have been avoided… the background vocals were just too damned loud! Background singers are background singers for a reason… to enhance the lead vocalist and not to overpower him to the point where they become almost overbearing! No exaggeration… when the band began to play “Crazy Nites,” Bruno’s voice propelled so much through the speakers that it just about made everyone in the place take a step back! No offense guys, but we came to see a DANGER DANGER show and one of the things that makes a DANGER DANGER show is being able to hear one of the best front men in the business in Ted Poley sing his ass off and not be over-powered by the extremely loud and sometimes just a tad out-of-key backing vocals!
The band finally wrapped up their base set with, as I mentioned earlier, the DANGER DANGER classic “Bang Bang” and another one of their rock anthems “Monkey Business.” These led up to their final encores.  The first of which had Bruno momentarily taking over lead vocal duties while inviting original STARZ guitarist Richie Ranno up on stage to jam the STARZ classic “So Young, So Bad” and I must say, they did a pretty damned good job! Then, as Ted once again took over the spotlight egging on the near-capacity crowd with about a 40 second “tease” of CHEAP TRICK’s “I Want You To Want Me,” the band jumped right into their 1989 hit “Naughty Naughty.” Again, Ted sounded just superb but the lack of keyboardsreally left you with the feeling that something was just missing.
Overall it was a fun night. It was great to hear the old songs again live but it just wasn’t the same. I think that the lack of a keyboardist really hurt the band more than anything else and might have even limited them as far as the set list went as well. I would LOVE to have heard songs like “Under The Gun,” “Feels Like Love,” or “Rock America” but they’re even MORE keyboard dependent than the ones they actually did play.
Honestly, DANGER DANGER will always have a special place for me but in this day and age, I would much rather hear Ted perform some of his solo material off of “Collateral Damage” or “Smile.” The material he is doing nowadays is just so much more substantial and with a writing partner like Vic Rivera, that’s one live show I would just about sell my soul to see. As far as DANGER DANGER goes… would I go to see them again? Absolutely, however… to steal one of their own song titles, new release coming out or not, you better “Get Your Shit Together” live and give the fans a little more of what they want. And I know… because I am one.
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