Omaha, NE, USA - Media Reviews
Ted Nugent: Raging As Usual By John Cullinane
It was a typical show for Ted Nugent Tuesday night.
Performing before a relatively modest crowd of about 8,000 persons, Nugent came out raging like he'd had barbed wire for dinner.
The audience at the Checkerdome was obviously used to his antics and Nugent seemed bent on going one better than the last appearance here.
This time he wore a loincloth and had a new grimace or two to display.
He was Guitarzan.
The concert was opened by two fine new acts, Def Leppard and Scorpions.
Nugent's mother at the concert, but his show was not exactly one for the whole family to enjoy.
Nugent served up an evening of the gritty, searing stuff but nobody expected him to sing 'Danny Boy', anyway.
He had quite a bit of new material to offer that sounded a lot like previous efforts.
The crowd liked that.
The new songs were from his most recent album called 'Scream Dream'.
His guitar occasionally spit forth only rhythm and no melody but his manner had a genuine wildness to it.
Nugent did most of the singing although he had help on some of the lead vocals.
His band was as strong instrumentally as it has been in a long time, so the personnel changes have helped.
But the show was still all Nugent.
Nugent banging and ripping at volumes where speakers fear to tread.
A new song called 'Wango Tango' was just Nugent's style.
The rhythm was heavy enough to bounce around in your chest and then on in the stomach.
The song was long and churning and had a refrain that was moderately hot.
It got Nugent sweating like an animal and he seemed to enjoy that.
He reeled off the hits, too, like 'Just What The Doctor Ordered' and 'Free For All'.
For these the audience went crazy but not half as crazy as Nugent.
His playing was not pretty or fancy and never will be.
It was remarkably similar from song to song and was full of chords and speed.
A technician he's not but effective he is.
Def Leppard was a band of young Englishmen rock and rolling with a precision beyond their years.
They had a tremendous impact for the short time they had to play.
Scorpions got one encore and the crowd wanted another before the house lights went up.
The band played with all the energy of an American band and all the quality of a German band, which it is.
By St. Louis Post-Dispatch 1980.
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