March | 2011 | The DFFD Blog

Monthly Archives: March 2011

by Salvi C. | March 24, 2011 · 11:16 am

Hail Hail “Hailstorm”!!

The new Ross the Boss album, “Hailstorm,” has been out for a couple of months now, and if you’re like me, you’ve been eyeing it with much trepidation. Let’s face facts: Most Dictator fans have not had an easy time with Manowar. Liking both bands is like trying to be a Democrat and a Republican at the same time, much easier said than done. Ross’ current band is cut from the Manowar template, so the question of the day is, does “Hailstorm” have anything that your average beer-swilling Dictator fan can enjoy?

First things first. There are a few basics that have to be accepted. Like every project Ross has ever been associated with, he’s the best thing here by a factor of about a million. No surprises there. The bigger pill that has to be swallowed is the crush-kill-destroy Viking imagery that permeates the lyrics, vastly different from Shernoff’s smart-a** NYC-centric point of view. Much like your fat aunt, this is difficult to get your arms around, and is a reluctant embrace.

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1975: Alex Cooley’s Electric Ballroom

This weekend marks the anniversary of the Dictators’ 1975 legendary road trip to Atlanta, GA, to open for Rush at Alex Cooley’s Electric Ballroom. Open from 1974 through 1979, the Electric Ballroom was a major touring destination of the time, hosting such names as Cheap Trick, Ted Nugent and Broooooce.

This was one of the earliest road trips for the Dictators, who were in the embryonic stages of the road from Complete Indifference through General Disdain, before settling down in Open Hostility. The guys only completed 2 nights of a scheduled 4-night stand before being sent home by Rush. The epic failure of the road trip has taken on mythical status, so much so that it’s recounted by band members with almost perverse glee. According to Shernoff, “It was right about here where they stopped ignoring us and started hating us.”

It’s hard to picture the Atlanta crowd digging Rush more than they dug our boys. Technically, it’s hard to picture ANY crowd digging Rush more than they would dig our boys, but that may be provincial thinking on my part.

— Salvi C.