Pop Music Review : Michael Monroe Brings Out Big Guns at Whisky

Can something be so fake that it’s real? So posed that it seems natural? So manufactured that it seems organic? It worked for Andy Warhol, and it worked on Tuesday at the Whisky for Michael Monroe, the former lead singer of the ill-fated Finnish glam-rock band Hanoi Rocks, on the first of four nights at the Sunset Strip club.

“Not Fakin’ It” is the title of Monroe’s new solo debut album and the theme of the show, and Monroe performed as if he really believed it from the tips of his poufed-up blond hair to the seat of his shiny red vinyl trousers. Street legend has it that if Hanoi’s drummer Razzle hadn’t been killed in 1984 (he was the passenger in Motley Crue singer Vince Neil’s accident), the band could have been big enough to render Guns N’ Roses unnecessary. That may be going too far--in a guest appearance Tuesday, top Gun Axl Rose brought an aura of mystery that Monroe lacked.

Still, even next to Rose, Monroe was a star, building on Hanoi’s place as the missing link between the New York Dolls and the Crue with a buoyant, spontaneous, hard -rockin’ set of neo-glam anthems blessedly free of the big-show stunts and flash of the Crue, Poison and their ilk. And Monroe’s voice--a rich tenor that he pushes and stretches--is a relief from today’s sound-alike screamers.

But forget contemporary glam: The real roots revelation came in an encore medley of Little Richard hits--an unabashed tip of the hat to rock’s first glam-master. When the show concluded with an almost Iggy-ish version of the MC5’s “Lookin’ At You” (with Guns guitarist Slash sitting in), there was nothing being faked.

Conversely, L.A.’s Nymphs proved in a droning opening set that it’s quite possible to be completely real and authentic and still seem totally bogus.