80’s band Slaughter rocked the house this past Friday night at Batavia Downs. The band was a late fill in as it was announced only 3 weeks ago that Skid Row (who were originally booked to appear) couldn’t make the gig due to travel restrictions still going on with Covid. The band still consists of founding members Mark Slaughter (vocalist) and Dana Strum (bassist) along with longtime member Jeff Blando on lead guitar and recent addition Will Hunt on drums. You may know hunt from being the current drummer in the band Evanescence.
The band took to the stage at 8:30pm playing the 4th single to the debut album titled ‘Mad About You.” A really good song selection to get the crowd right into it from the get go. Both Strum and Slaughter are true professionals in every sense of the word. They know how to engage the audience and use every inch of space the stage allows them. Strum was back and forth all night and Slaughter besides talking to the crowd in between songs donned the six string and played it on “Spend my Life,” “Desperately,” “Days Gone By” and “Real Love.” In fact, it was a 12 string acoustic he played for “Days Gone By.” The band threw in a few covers with Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song,” Van Halen’s “Ain’t talkin’ bout Love,” and The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” Slaughter had a fifth octave note range but you can’t expect him (or mostly any singer) to still carry that type of range years into their career. At times he made have struggled to hit certain notes, overall I felt Slaughter did an admirable job carrying the vocals for the entire set.
Well I will say Batavia Downs were handed lemons when Skid Row gave them the news they wouldn’t be able to perform just a few weeks ago. They turned those lemons into lemonade. I believe the fans who attended really were impressed to by the overall show performance. If you missed this show, don’t fret, another WNY appearance with be forthcoming as the band will be playing the Showplace Theater in Buffalo on April 1, 2022.
Setlist:
Mad About You
Burnin’ Bridges
Spend My Life
Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin cover)
Eye to Eye
Desperately
The Wild Life
Ain’t Talkin’ bout Love (Van Halen cover)
Days Gone By
Real Love
Fly to the Angels
Up All Night
Won’t Get Fooled Again (The Who cover)
We would like to thank Ryan Hasenauer of Batavia Downs for the credentials to review the show.
