I was, and still am, a huge Ugly Kid Joe fan and back in 1992 this band could do no wrong for me. They were so different and really doing some cool shit with heavy metal. It was funky, it was silly and people generally hated them which made me like them even more. I totally remember this show taking place my senior year of high school and being so pumped that we were finally getting to see this band live. At this point they were between albums so they were performing a lot of yet to be released songs from the album that would eventually become “America’s Least Wanted.” All this, and with a ticket price of, wait for it, FIVE FUCKING DOLLARS!
The line up featured a local Atlanta band called Lovechild who honestly did very little to impress up. There was nothing memorable about this band. Matter of fact, was it Lovechild or Problem Chylde? I think it was Lovechild. Either way, I don’t remember hating them but I just remember thinking that they were just boring. Following them was a new band from Seattle called War Babies and right off the bat I was blown away. They opened with a song called “Satellite” and they were so good. I remember thinking that their singer sounded really familiar. I would later learn that it was Brad Sinsell from TKO which made sense. Their energy was really high and the audience really dug them. I also remember them playing their first single “Hang Me Up” which is what sold me and had me buying the CD the very next day. Unfortunately this would be the first and only time I would ever see War Babies live.
When Ugly Kid Joe took the stage the place was packed to the rafters and the place was just lit up with energy. The band took the stage and opened with a brand new song called “Neighbor” and the place just went nuts as a huge mosh pit erupted. I’ve since seen many metal shows at the Masquerade and that show still had one of the biggest pits I’ve ever seen there. Singer Whitfield Crane yells, “Carry me to the fucking bar!” and then dove into the crowd during the guitar solo. He then made it back to the stage just in time to kick into “Whiplash Liquor” which again had everyone going nuts. I knew just by watching these guys that they were so on top of their game and just really delivering a great show.
The set was chock full of new songs like “Don’t Go”, “Panhandlin’ Prince” but it was the song “Goddamn Devil” that totally killed. It was so heavy and just fun to hear and see them play. What I loved, and still love, about that band was that they had such a great chemistry on stage and Whitfield Crane has to be one of the most underrated singers ever. His voice was so killer and his presence as a front man was off the charts. Getting to hear all these new songs before they were to be released was so bad ass. This was pre-interwebs times so we didn’t have torrents and downloadable bootlegs. We actually had to wait to hear these songs life and that element of surprise was too damn awesome.
Ugly Kid Joe delivered their big hit set closer “Everything About You” to an insane audience but returned for an encore of AC/DC’s “Sin City” that featured the bassist from Southgang on bass. By the time this show ended we were exhausted. I couldn’t help but think that these guys were going to be huge. They had sold out the Masquerade and then a lil over a year later would sell out the Roxy theater here in Atlanta before being washed out to the sea of oblivion.
Getting to see Ugly Kid Joe in their prime like this was golden. A great and terribly underrated band that put on a show that to this day is engrained in my brain as being one of those shining moments in my concert attending history.
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