On Friday, May 12, Pound Em Productions of Dickinson, brought the band Hairball to the West River Community Center Ice Rink in Dickinson.  This is unusual for me, I have nothing but good things to say about this event.

I was mistaken about the Hairball concert, I had heard about it last year, and I thought that they had multiple bands that performed rock songs from the 1980s.  Hairball is the name of the band, it is just one band, and they performed for about 2-1/2 hours.

Here is a quote from the band’s website, Hairballonline.com:

“Hairball is a Rock & Roll experience you won’t forget.  A band puts on a concert – Hairball puts on an event!  The lights, sound, video screens, smoke, fire, blood, bombs, confetti, spiders, snakes & monsters (oh my) and the screaming hoards of rabid Hairball fans create an event – an event that hits you so hard, it’ll take a few days to recover! Rock & Roll will NEVER die!!!

Vocalists Bobby, Steve and Joe Dandy lead the band through a 2+ hour, mind-blowing, and drop-dead accurate homage to some of the biggest arena acts in the world. Van Halen, KISS, Motley Crue, Queen, Journey, and Aerosmith are but a few of the acts fans will see brought to life. The Hairball stage becomes an entirely new rock concert before your very eyes countless times throughout the night.”

The above quote from the Hairball website describes the band’s performance this past Friday night, better than I could.  The band played for about 2-1/2 hours, non-stop.  I was paying attention to other things at the concert besides the band, and I could not give you an accurate count on how many times a “different” lead vocalist would take the stage.  By “different” lead vocalist, I mean that someone would come on stage dressed as Kiss, David Lee Roth, Freddie Mercury, or Axl Rose.  But there were more than this, because they also performed Journey songs, and AC/DC songs.

I would estimate that there were about 700 people at the concert.  I believe that pre-sale tickets were $25, tickets at the door were $35, and I heard that the VIP tickets were $100.  There was a VIP area upstairs, and also directly in front of the stage in a corral.  There was a very large open area for general admission ticket holders that was plenty big enough for everybody to stand, and it wasn’t overcrowded.  About two hundred to three hundred people sat in the bleachers.

Bernie Marsh, owner of Bernie’s Esquire Club, was the supplier of beer.  There were two drink sales areas, each manned by about four or five people.  You could buy several beers at once, and carry them away in a plastic bag with ice in it.  Bernie Marsh was in a good mood, his son Max was in an O.K. mood, and I believe that I saw his daughter Marinna Marsh, wearing very tight, black leather pants.

It looked like Marinna, but damn her legs were skinny, and she just had a baby about five months ago, could that be Marinna?  Who else would get that skinny?  I tried to stay away from her, but when she came out to clear tables wearing those tight leather pants, all I could think about for five minutes was slapping her ass very hard.  I am still thinking about it.

About half of the women who came to the concert, dressed up like trashy women from the 1980s, wearing high heeled boots, black stockings, short skirts, ripped cut-off jean shorts, and big hair wigs.  About a third of the men dressed like rock band members from the 1980s, wearing zebra striped, and leopard spotted spandex pants, and long hair  wigs.

The Hairball band was very good, the stage set up was very professional, it was indoors and not cold, there were enough security personnel, you could buy a sack full of beers and go sit down, and there were enough bathrooms.  There was nothing wrong, no problems, no fights, and everyone was having a good time.  The women got drunk, became more social, and danced with everyone.

There were many local celebrities at the Hairball concert.  Brady Paulson, who has the local band Outlaw Sippin, performed for about 45 minutes with his band Kramer, a 1990s tribute band.  Brock White, the organizer of the First On First concerts in Dickinson was there, along with event organizer April Grant.  Kim and Heather Landis of the Mollies.  Vocalist Geliza Hoese.  Sammy Chavez.