If you happen to remember the old Thunderdome, which is located in Brooklyn, you might remember that it was a great place to see good rock shows and that the club was known for booking both local and national acts .. then the club changed hands, it was remodeled and then switched over to a dance club, then they started to book rock bands again, then they changed over to a dance club again...hopefully that wasn’t a confusing mess! Flash forward to today: Club Mate has rock bands every Friday and if you haven't been to Club Mate, the decor is interesting. They have stripper cages on both sides of the stage, the club is decorated with trippy designs and it has this retro vibe, but very modern feel..it’s a cool club and I still see it as the old Thunderdome, which was a great rock n roll venue. Ok, enough nostalgia from me on that matter...I went to check out a great Glam Metal show on 12.7.07 at Club Mate. It featured Philly bands The Dropoutz and The Primadonnaz!

Both bands are very visual, they’ve had some line up changes since the last time I’ve seen them, and the original billing for this show was 80s glam band Pretty Boy Floyd as the headliner, but PBF have since disbanded (again), so it was left to the two latter bands to fill the void. The Primadonnaz are an interesting band...their singer, Mikey, kinda reminds me of a heavily tattooed rag doll..his hair is really messy and reminds me of what Twiggy Ramirez from Marilyn Manson was doing, looks-wise, during the band's Mechanical Animals era (minus the dress, of course) and the bands drummer is their secret weapon..that guy’s an animal! The Primadonnaz have a new bass player from Canada...I know that some will say he’s not really a new member, but he’s new since the last time I saw the band! The Primadonnaz music is sleazy, gutter trash rock that’s very much a cliche of the late 80’s hair metal scene...in the bands set, they through out a cover of the Divinyl’s “I Touch Myself” which was pretty interesting because they added their own sleaziness to it, but I can’t deny the fact that hearing a female sing that song is just a little more interesting! The band closed with their theme song, “King of the Drag Queens” and I will be the first to tell you, The Primadonnaz brought most of the crowd with them and when they left the stage, it was easy to see that the bulk of the crowd followed the band.

The Dropoutz were the headliners of the night. Now a three piece, the last time I saw them they had an extra guitar player, but they have since scaled down to a trio. Their set was good, but I will admit that I got kinda sick of hearing their singer, Mikki Twist, rag on Pretty Boy Floyd, because two of the guys in the Dropoutz were used as the backing band for Steve Summers, who is essentially Pretty Boy Floyd..it’s a long story, but after a while, it came off like a pissed-off girl friend who was just bitter and talking shit...The Dropoutz played 2 Pretty Boy Floyd covers in their set and even though the place was pretty empty by the time they came on, they did a decent job of rockin’ out and I just personally got a little sick of the “Pretty Boy Floyd” talk, I mean it was a Dropoutz show, so I was ready to focus on them and just let the past go, but anyways...it is nice to know that there’s still a glam/glitter rock scene going on out there, and there’s still people who appreciate this kinda music, like to dress up and have a good time!

For more info on either band, go to: THE PRIMADONNAZ: http://www.myspace.com/primadonnaz01 THE DROPOUTZ: http://www.myspace.com/thedropoutz

Tags: dropoutz, primadonnaz, thunderdome