In 1988, for my 14th birthday, my stepfather bought me 2 tickets to see Stryper at the Erie Civic Center. I was excited. My young concert going life was just getting started. The next few years saw cheering for Whitesnake, Great White, Bon Jovi, Anthrax, Aerosmith, Skid Row and many other metal acts of the day, but Stryper was a band that I could argue about. To this day I still know I was right about them all along.
In the beginning, Stryper created European style metal. I listened to it and saw that it was good. Their first two releases were heavy. Dual guitar licks, wood shedding rhythm, sky high vocals, big catchy choruses and a yellow and black gimmic. The title track of their second release, "Soldiers Under Command" is an underrated testament to the best of 80's metal. It shreds. Albeit dated, the whole LP is great.
From there, Stryper got caught up in the dreaded "Dial MTV" version of popularity. The strength of the sappy single "Honestly" sent them into platinum status, and overall the lighter stroke of their 3rd LP "To Hell with the Devil" was as palatable as any release in the Hair Metal world. It was also a very good LP.
The tour of the "To Hell with the Devil" LP is where I caught him up with them. It was December in the PA snow belt and a cold night. My excitement kept me from feeling the icy wind blowing off of Lake Erie.
The whole day was full of excitement. I was taking a very rudimentary computer class in Middle School, and this day I was able to print out a "Stryper Rules" banner in black and white on a continuos ream of paper thanks to the Apple IIc in the lab. The banner went up as soon as I walked in the door of my bedroom. The irony of pinning up a false idol from a band that preached the word of God is not lost on me today.
The house my family rented at the time was around the corner from a old school building converted into music store/studio. Artists visiting Erie occasionally recorded spots for local radio at this studio. My mother briefly worked at a talent agency in the same building. She came home that afternoon and told me she met a few of the guys from the band in the hallway, but had no clue who they were.
I was mad at her for not leaving work, coming to my school, pulling me out of class and rushing me back to meet the guys. Somehow it my young mind it made complete sense. Why wouldn't she do that?
The rest of the afternoon consisted of picking the right black concert shirt to wear, listing to my Stryper tapes and making sure my long feathered hair was on point.
The show itself was just about underway when I got there. Most everyone had already gone in. I got to my seat just In time for the opening band, "Hurricane" to prep the crowd for the God Rock to come. Hurricane played a solid set, which was familiar as I had their (then) current tape featuring the minor hit "I'm on to you."
Stryper came out and played a very loud set of hair metal glory with all the "yellow and black" bells and whistles. Toward the end of the set, same as every night on this tour, the house lights came on. The band then proceeded to throw striped bibles to lucky fans in the crowd.
I was close to the stage and positive Oz Fox (who was 15 feet away from me) would bless me with the keepsake. We definitely made eye contact. Oz pulled his arm back like he would pitch me the book, and looked away to throw it elsewhere. This dude, who talked up my mom earlier that day, dissed me.
Today, I feel like I may bump into him sitting in the coach section of some random flight to Birmingham, and tell him to eat shit (unless he gives me a bible).
As I matured, I grew out of bands like Stryper. Tastes across the world advanced past the cock metal heyday right along side of me. It's almost like putting away the comic books for novels. However, somewhere in my mind, that period of time holds a fondness for several bands, and Stryper is definitely there.
For those who care, Stryper is set to release a new LP. It's supposed to be heavy, but for me they always were. I'm considering spotify for reasons like this. I don't want to commit, but I do want to hear. That's feels sacrilege, I support artists by buying music, but my ADHD tells me to get a streaming service because the responsible adult in me thinks it's a better investment. I digress.
Nago
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