Bands We Thought Would Be Better Than They Are/Were

[Jesse]

What bands seemed like they should've been better than they actually were? Like, on paper, they should have been phenomenal, but in actuality, they were simply "meh", okay at best or actually horrible?


For me:
The Firm. Jimmy Page + Paul Rodgers should've been the supergroup of the century. They didn't suck, but those albums paled in comparison to Zeppelin and Bad Company, like not even close.

Rossington Collins Band. This is the band that made me think of this topic. Basically Lynyrd Skynyrd with a female singer. A REALLY GOOD female singer! And a REALLY GREAT lead single in "Don't Misunderstand Me". I dunno, rest of their output just felt flat in comparison to what they should have sounded like in my mind.

Vanderhoof. Two guys from Metal Church making retro-Rock music. Good cover of Deep Purple's "Burn" and two or three other decent songs. The rest kinda sucked.

The Bama Band. Hank Williams Jr's high-energy, rockin' backing band making their own music! And it's overly slick, over-produced Nashville Country music. Couple of rockers, but mostly not.




I know there's more, but I'm drawing a blank right now. Somebody help me! LOL!

[mak1203usedbemak]

Feb 17, 2024 18:35:05 GMT -5 Jesse said:

What bands seemed like they should've been better than they actually were? Like, on paper, they should have been phenomenal, but in actuality, they were simply "meh", okay at best or actually horrible?


For me:
The Firm. Jimmy Page + Paul Rodgers should've been the supergroup of the century. They didn't suck, but those albums paled in comparison to Zeppelin and Bad Company, like not even close.

Rossington Collins Band. This is the band that made me think of this topic. Basically Lynyrd Skynyrd with a female singer. A REALLY GOOD female singer! And a REALLY GREAT lead single in "Don't Misunderstand Me". I dunno, rest of their output just felt flat in comparison to what they should have sounded like in my mind.

Vanderhoof. Two guys from Metal Church making retro-Rock music. Good cover of Deep Purple's "Burn" and two or three other decent songs. The rest kinda sucked.

The Bama Band. Hank Williams Jr's high-energy, rockin' backing band making their own music! And it's overly slick, over-produced Nashville Country music. Couple of rockers, but mostly not.




I know there's more, but I'm drawing a blank right now. Somebody help me! LOL!

I have to say Rossington Collins band was really disappointing for me as both were my favourite guitarists, I don't think the female singer worked even though she was a great singer for sure, The Firm were a major disappointment as well ,The band who I thought might/should have become big were Junkyard but I don't know if they had record company support or marketed well during the MTV years

[Jesse]

Couple more:

Dream Theater. Virtuoso musicians creating epic melodic Metal, on paper they should have been one of my all time favorites. In reality, while I respect their musicianship, they kinda bore me.

Dio. Powerhouse singer from Rainbow and Black Sabbath going solo, awesome! And those first two albums absolutely WERE awesome! Everything thereafter: Meh.

Peter Frampton. Guitarist from Humble Pie gone solo, killer live album, but always a bit softer and forgettable on his studio albums than expected.

[bucky]

I remember reading an article in Kerrang Magazine in the mid 80’s on Guns n Roses…I went out and bought their first EP and loved their cover of Mama Kin…I just had a feeling they were going to be huge so as soon as Appetite for Destruction was released I bought it and loved it….Well they hit the Big time pretty Quickly and then around 1988 I gave another new band a chance…The Dogs D’Amour…That first release “In a Dynamite Jet Saloon” and their Acoustic EP “Graveyard of Empty Bottles” were every bit as good as Guns n Roses….They had a cool look(that kind of Dirty Ass Rock n Roll Gypsy/Pirate look/style)…I thought they were going to be as big if not Bigger than Guns n Roses…
Before Guns n Roses I really thought Hanoi Rocks was going to be Huge but just when they were about to break it here the Tragedy of the death of their drummer Razzel kind of ended the band. Michael Monroe is still one of my favorite Frontmen

[Jesse]

Feb 26, 2024 10:54:13 GMT -5 bucky said:

I remember reading an article in Kerrang Magazine in the mid 80’s on Guns n Roses…I went out and bought their first EP and loved their cover of Mama Kin…I just had a feeling they were going to be huge so as soon as Appetite for Destruction was released I bought it and loved it….Well they hit the Big time pretty Quickly and then around 1988 I gave another new band a chance…The Dogs D’Amour…That first release “In a Dynamite Jet Saloon” and their Acoustic EP “Graveyard of Empty Bottles” were every bit as good as Guns n Roses….They had a cool look(that kind of Dirty Ass Rock n Roll Gypsy/Pirate look/style)…I thought they were going to be as big if not Bigger than Guns n Roses…
Before Guns n Roses I really thought Hanoi Rocks was going to be Huge but just when they were about to break it here the Tragedy of the death of their drummer Razzel kind of ended the band. Michael Monroe is still one of my favorite Frontmen

I was going for bands that I thought would sound better to me than they did/do. Sounds like you were listing bands you thought would be bigger commercially than they were/are...... which I had planned on doing a thread of anyway So, here's my list of bands/artists I thought would be bigger than they were/are

Skid Row-Looking back, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised that they weren't bigger. They were plenty big at the time, but I really thought they'd end up bigger than Guns'n Roses. That debut was killer! Better singer than GNR, TWO great guitar players, knack for hooks, they SHOULD HAVE been bigger than Guns'n Roses. But, as I said: looking back, I shouldn't have been surprised. Debut was great, but more "Hair Metal" in style than straight-ahead hard rock. 2nd album debuted at #1 on the charts, but in an effort to sound "heavier", it just wasn't as good as the debut and the wheels fell off pretty quickly after grunge hit.

Pirates Of The Mississippi- Country band, but came out around the same time as the Kentucky Headhunters and kinda mined the same "Southern Rock side" of Country music. From the getgo, the Pirates were slicker and better produced and I thought they'd ride that to superstardom. Again, in retrospect, I see what happened. Despite trying a few rockers as singles, their big hit was a ballad which pigeon-holed them. Much like the Kentucky Headhunters, after their debut, the record label, Country radio and the Country music media sorta turned their backs on them and toward the next shiny objects to promote to Country audiences. The difference between the two bands is the Kentucky Headhunters said "fuck it, we'll be a rock band and make music for our fans" whereas the Pirates of The Mississippi kept trying to appease the Nashville gods with slicker and slicker by-the-book Country music that didn't really appeal to anybody.