In the Before Time (part 2)

Face Down

It was more than just a band name, it was an attitude, a likely way of landing after a night out chasing the dream. . .

In a previous post I mentioned that McKenna and Koslow were in separate bands in high school. Koslow played with Reilly in the RB Laurence Band. And McKenna played in Face Down. If RBL were like a cult, performing ritualized re-enactments of the great gods of Zeppelin, Face Down captured something more of the contemporary sense of what classic rock was in 1986. They performed Blue Oyster Cult and Bad Company, Pat Benatar and The Who, Dire Straits and The Eagles. Where RBL chose a band of brazen rock icons to imitate, Face Down chose songs to fit their strong suits as musicians and as people. Well rehearsed, tight as a drum, they showed how well a bunch of kids could take the sounds of the radio and turn them into something at once raw and polished, fierce and poised.

With sharp two-guitar work from McKenna and Salman Ahmed, solid bass playing from teen heart-throb, John Devlin, fierce drumming from Gerry White (currently the drummer in three different bands, Baby Teardops, Labretta Suede and the Motel 6, Sleep to Death), Face Down featured strong vocals from both Ahmed and Marissa Nashel, who came to belt, wearing a fringed leather jacket and stalking the stage during her featured Benatar song like she was looking for the guy who did her wrong somewhere in the audience so she could tell him off to his sad little face.

But the showstopper of the night, the song that really blew the roof off was Hotel California. The idea of pulling this off was, in its way, every bit as audacious as RBL doing live Dazed and Confused. Because it's a long song, with lots of parts. Because it's got a lot of strange lyrics that can be a tough sell. Because it's got a whole bunch of very recognizable guitar licks and if someone hits a clam or gets lost in the middle of those harmony guitar parts at the end, forget it, you can stick your steely knife and a fork in this beast because it's done. It's one long tightrope this band chose to walk, all together, balanced up on each other's shoulders. But they came through with grace and power, a bunch of kids doing the work of grownups, owning the whole thing like they made it themselves.

Here is the version they performed at the soundcheck the day of the Battle of the Bands, paired with a picture of them in all their teen heart-throb glory. Feast your eyes, feast your ears. Brace yourself for the  coming reunion gig. . .


Face Down's set list at the BOB (not in original order):

Burnin' For You (Blue Oyster Cult)
Rock and Roll Fantasy (Bad Company)
Sultans of Swing (Dire Straits)
Behind Blue Eyes (The Who)
Take It Any Way You Want It (Pat Benatar)
Hotel California (Eagles)