Release Date
June 24, 2022
Tracklisting
1.”Classless Act” (Featuring Vince Neil)
2. “This is for You” (Featuring Justin Hawkins) -> Skip
3. “Time to Bleed” -> Skip
4. “On My Phone” -> Recommended
5. “All that We Are” > Recommended
6. “Made in Hell” > Recommended
7. “Storm before the Calm” -> Background Music
8. “Haunting Love” -> Guilty Pleasure
9. “Walking Contradiction” – > Favorite
10. “Give it to Me” -> Skip
11. “Circles” -> Recommended
12. “Thoughts from a Dying Man” -> Skip
Who is Classless Act, Welcome to the Show for?
This album has a weird confusing focus demographic. In a nutshell, if you are into hard rock on the 80’s / 70’s side and any Slash solo album then the debut Classless Act album, Welcome to the Show is your cup of tea for the most part.
On the flip side, if you are a My Chemical Romance fan then this album is also for you. Most people getting into this album will most likely only like half and either ignore or tolerate the other half pending where you fall and your age.
For some reason it seems the label is really trying to get this band laid by 40 plus horny cougars as well as service the Eddie Trunks of the world. I was always under the impression the big label move is to focus on the younger market so your audience grows with you and buys into all of the marketing shenanigans.
Members
Vocals – Derek Day
Guitars – Dane Pieper / Griffin Tucker
Bass – Franco Gravante
Drums – Chuck McKissock
Why is Classless Act Unique?
Here’s the fun part. On first listen, checking out music videos, photo content & live appearances, you’re going to wonder where the hell did these young dudes come from.
The former drummer is London Husdon, Slash’s offspring. I had the pleasure of speaking to London & former guitarist Nico Tsangaris on the Appetite for Distortion podcast hosted by Brando in 2018 at IHeart Radio.
It was an awesome conversation with these driven rock n rollers. From what I dug up, both stopped playing with Classless Act sometime mid 2021, but not before doing massive shows with Slash and the like. I am assuming this is where Classless Act’s music industry mysteriousness comes from.
I read through a few interviews and the band glosses over how they jumped to a Motley Cue / Poison Stadium Tour off the debut album. The focus of the bio seems to be that Classless Act got together using social media and then poof, stadium tour with all the pro sauce.
The Motley Crue Stadium Tour came out of nowhere with minimal touring experience, seemingly no more industry connections and most likely lacking serious funds to buy on, which is a thing or favor deals between entertainment lawyers.
This is hardly a shade being thrown. When there’s blood in the water go for broke and exploit all opportunities. Every band / musician needs to seize every and any opportunity because it may be the only one you ever get.
Pro tip to all the young bands: talk to literally everyone everywhere because you never know when someone with juice will take a liking to you.
Where Did Drummer, London Hudson, Go?
Since this blog is about Classless Act, I will make this quick, but I think it is worth mentioning since it is Slash’s kid and this record sounds like a fresher Slash album.
London & Nico, package deal I assume, parted with Classless Act sometime in 2021 and then began SUSPECT208 with Scott Weiland’s kid, Noah Weiland, and Rob Trujillo’s kid, Tye Trujillo.
The band released two singles, “Long-Awaited” and “You Got It”, before breaking up due to multiple singer personal issues. They drew resemblances to Velvet Revolver.
London & Nico then began S8NT ELECTRIC (I guess pronounced Saint Electric). You can listen to S8NT ELECTRIC on Spotify.
Pro tip: Don’t name your band something impossible to remember. It makes googling unnecessary and annoying.
I checked out S8NT ELECTRIC and it has cool trashy genuine rock n roll vibe but the songs need a lot of work. The songs are way raw without any hooks and the performance on the recordings is questionable The song “Subliminal” I’m digging though.
Welcome to the Show – Review
All in all it’s a solid hard rock album that I think I would recommend to those into 80’s hard rock, but that’s a question mark. To be honest I didn’t want to like this album because the lead single, “Give It To Me”, was a pile of dated management polished cheese.
I read a lot of other reviews about this record out of curiosity and I was surprised on how praised it was. I will definitely give credit where due. The band’s performance is killer. There is a ton of energy, charisma & personality delivered on each track.
I give a general recommendation to hard rock fans to check this album out because there is something for everyone, but the kitchen sink approach to this album is out of control. I have no idea who Classless Act is.
What is this band’s actual sound? Is Classless Act another label management product where a team of 50 plus writes the music, another team dresses them and then they perform to a sea of 50 plus rock fans? Did Vince Neil secretly put this band together to make himself seem relevant again, if so maybe genius?
The weird marketing of Welcome to the Show is exaggerated by not taking advantage of the summer release. The song “Made in Hell” is a well written super pop song using One Direction and Five Seconds of Summer as a model. It is a happy beachy hooky song made unique with Derek’s manic voice.
You would think this would be the first obvious single to capture the younger market partying on boats at the beach etc… Just do what Diamond Dave would do. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Twenty somethings in bikinis (not mom or grandma in a bikini) partying with some young studs rocking out and taking over the world.
How was “Circles” not used as the second summer single? You take the same twenty somethings chicks from the beach put them in pick up trucks, daisy dukes & cowboy hats, get a young pop country pop star to sing one word and all of a sudden you’re riding the Country Music pop charts. Hopefully they push this song at some point because it deserves attention.
The album uses both Vince Neil and Justin Hawkins as a means to push this band, but why? Harry Styles, Taylor Momsen or even Lizzy Hale could have fit somewhere giving more relevant features. It’s funny because Classless Act even acknowledge this by not having Vince Neil in the music video where his vocals are featured.
Instead there’s a half ass ridiculous cut to 80’s Vince Neil drawn on an easel where the viewer stares at his mysterious vocals coming through the drawing as if a scene from Ghostbusters. In regards to Justin Hawkins he is barely audible on the track and it seems like a payday. Good for you, you deserve it. The last Darkness album, Motorheart, in 2021 was absolutely amazing, possibly better than the debut.
Listening to this album repeatedly I keep thinking it should have been split into multiple EP’s focusing on each spectrum of rock this album hits. The song “Give it to Me” could have been an old school English stand alone single not appearing on the album just in single format maybe with a b-side.
I really hope Classless Act move to a younger tour with bands like Palaye Royale, Black Honey, The Pretty Reckless or vets like My Chemical Romance. The talent in this band is so high and deserves to be treated with a more relevant touch.
I am routing hard for Classless Act and hope the band is given more opportunity to showcase what they want to showcase rather than be forced to read from the script. This band has so much talent and I look forward to the sophomore effort.
Cheers lads!
Classless Act Videos
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