Great White - Thunder by the Bay - Sarasota, Florida - January 17, 2015

 

 We saw Great White perform this past Summer at Hairapalooza, a festival in Pinellas Park that featured several of the 80's greatest "Hair Metal" bands, we were absolutely blown away by their performance! There are 2 different versions of the band out there touring, one version featuring original vocalist Jack Russell that we have never seen live, the other version with Terry Ilous of XYZ fame on vocals, original guitarist Mark Kendall, long time Great White  guitarist / keyboardist Michael Lardie, drummer Audie Desbrow and bassist Scott Snyder who joined Great White in 2008. Great White was lumped in with the Hair Metal crowd "back in the day", but they were a step above their contemporaries with their fantastic blend of Blues based hard rock.

 

 Once we found out that Great White would be performing at Thunder by the Bay we knew that this was a must see show for us. Thunder by the Bay is an annual Motorcycle festival held in the streets of Downtown Sarasota, this event , in its 17th year, draws thousands of bikers from all over the Country. You could not have asked for better weather the day of Great White's headlining performance, sunny and in the upper 70's, absolutely perfect! This was our first year attending the fest. and we were extremely impressed, to completely block off a decent sized city's downtown area is a feat not to be taken lightly for sure. We checked out some of the bikes and vendors as we worked our way toward the stage while Florida based band Lazy Bonez was playing, this was a band that we have heard good things about, but we have never had the chance to check them out. They play covers of 80's arena rock staples, quite a few people in the crowd really seemed to be into them and we were pretty impressed ourselves. The band seemed to be having alot of fun onstage and they did a great job of getting the crowd pumped up for Great White. We'll be sure to check Lazy Bonez out again.

 

 Tracking down our credentials proved to be somewhat challenging. We didn't know where to turn as there wasn't any office or will call. We ended up speaking with security who handed the copy of our email confirming our photo pass to a Thunder by the Bay official who disappeared for several minutes. Seems that the email was passed around to several people before we were told to head to the left side of the stage where a tent was set up. When we got there it was confirmed that our names were on the list, but not just for photo passes, we were also confirmed for a meet and greet with the band which was a nice surprise as we were not expecting it at all. We met the band and spoke with them for a few minutes and they were all very cool to speak with. After the meet and greet we then proceeded to work our way to the front of the stage. 

 

 After a few minutes it was time for Great White to take the stage. Their intro music was the theme from the movie Jaws, Bill was in the photo pit at that time (along with many other people, not sure who they were as most didn't have cameras) ready to snap as many pics as possible. Looking behind us the crowd went back several blocks, there were a lot of people at this show! It was fantastic to see such a huge turnout for Great White. The band blasted through many of their signature hits such as Lady Red Light, Save Your Love, Face the Day, Once Bitten Twice Shy and many more. Terry Ilous is an amazing frontman and sounded fantastic covering all of the band's material. The stage was about the size of a postage stamp but the band made the best of it.

 

Full Setlist: 

 

Shot in the Dark, Desert Moon, Lady Red Light, (I've Got) Something For You, Face the Day, On Your Knees, House of Broken Love, Save Your Love, Mista Bone, Big Goodbye, Can't Shake It, Rock Me, Once Bitten Twice Shy

 

 As you can see it was a fairly short set, but still a great show! This was our second time seeing this lineup of Great White, two great shows from the band and we'll be sure to try and catch them any time they're in the area.

 

Our special thanks to Melissa Kucirek, the band's publicist who has been one of our best contacts since we've been doing the concert photo / review thing. We've been surprised at both Great White shows we have attended, in a good way though!