SEBASTIAN BACH
Where: Capital Ballroom, 858 Yates St., Victoria
When: Wednesday, Oct. 9, 7:30 p.m. (doors at 7)
Tickets: $61.99 from thecapitalballroom.com
Sebastian Bach will be battle-tested when he arrives in Victoria tonight.
The lanky singer and former frontman for hair-metal faves Skid Row is at the mid-point of a massive tour, having recently wrapped nearly 50 dates across North America. He’s signed on for another 32 dates through mid-December, including his appearance tonight at the Capital Ballroom.
“Physically and mentally, that’s like going to war,” Bach said of his current tour, during a recent interview with Ultimate Classic Rock.
Bach, who was raised in Peterborough, Ontario, has been a solo act since 1996, when he was fired by Skid Row amid high tension within the group. He’s stayed active in the time since, but will remain forever attached to the New Jersey-based group he joined when he was 18 years old. He scored a handful of big hits with the group — led by the chart-topping singles 18 and Life, I Remember You and Youth Gone Wild — which Bach believes he sings better today than he did in the early part of his career.
“Back when I first joined Skid Row in 1987, I was just a little kid. I was f—kin’ wild as they come,” he told Ultimate Classic Rock. “I wasn’t a great singer then. I had a good sounding voice, but as far as doing a two hour show, I was so young that I didn’t really have the muscles for that.”
He’ll play songs from his Skid Row era tonight at the Capital Ballroom, along with material from the recently-released Child Within the Man, his first solo effort in 10 years. The extra-large personality with attitude by the kilowatt always manages to keep his concerts interesting — in 2016, he delivered on cue at Upstairs Cabaret — but with new music on the setlist, he’s approaching his live performances with a revamped professionalism that matches his performances on Broadway revivals Jekyll & Hyde (2000) and The Rocky Horror Show (2001).
“When I did Broadway, I went back in my brain to good singing and what I mean by that is clean singing,” he told Ultimate Classic Rock. “Not shouting and yelling and screaming and dirty singing. Clean tones.”
The hard-rocking Child With the Man is a return to form, in some ways. Bach is an unmistakable rocker, and he’s never turning his back on that side of his personality — on stage or in a studio.
“I have a passion, for heavy metal, rock and roll, glam metal, all of this stuff. I’ll never lose that, because it’s a real love of rock. It’s always been who I am since I was nine f—king years old in the KISS Army. I’ve always been just a real fan of rock. I actually made a record that I’m a fan of. That’s something that nobody can take away from me — because all I have to do is press play.”
The album features appearances from Mötley Crüe guitarist John 5, Billy Idol sideman Steve Stevens, Orianthi, and Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge. His former Skid Row bandmates are noticeably absent, which is nothing new: The timeline of Bach’s relationship with the group is punctuated by a lack of collaboration with his former friends, who continue to perform as Skid Row.
“Those guys are currently on their eighth or ninth replacement for me,” he told New York rock station 102.3 WBAB, during a recent interview.
“I am way too focused on what I’m doing in my career to even really even think about that right now, to be honest with you. I’m just not thinking about the old days right now. I’m thinking about the fact that I’ve got a new song on the radio. I’m not thinking about 1989; I’m not thinking about 1991.
“I am overjoyed to hear my voice on the radio in 2024. That is more important to me than thinking about what happened in ‘91. I just don’t think about that, really. Not to say that I wouldn’t get the band back together, but I’m just focused like a laser beam on what I’m doing right now.”
