POP MUSIC REVIEW : Faith No More, Makeshift Jam at RIP’s Metal Bash

Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach let loose a few choice words during the climactic all-star heavy-metal jam on Friday at the Hollywood Palladium, during which he co-led a makeshift band that also included members of Guns N’ Roses and Metallica.

Bach suggested in a graphic way that the audience forget about the long-defunct Eagle’s upcoming reunion. “Because what you see tonight is just a bunch of musicians having a . . . good time, and that’s what it’s . . . all about!”

At least the Eagles weren’t around to hear themselves dissed . A little earlier, Faith No More--the headliner for this seven-hour event, the fourth annual party celebrating metal-oriented RIP magazine--took shots at the pretty-boy pop duo Nelson, at least one-half of whom was reportedly on hand.

“Everybody snap (your fingers) for Nelson!” exhorted singer Mike Patton, introducing one of Faith No More’s slower songs. “If you read RIP magazine, then you must know Nelson! We think it’s time for Nelson to be taken completely seriously.”

It was sheer affection, then, that drove Patton to shortly thereafter amend one of the lyrics of the band’s anti-anthem “We Care a Lot” to what sounded suspiciously through the muddled Palladium sound system like: “Rot, Nelson, rot.”

This was not an evening marked by affectionate ecumenical toasts, tact or taste, but it was high-spirited in its own question-authority-through-cussing-and-fashion way. Included on the bill were groups as veteran as Motorhead and as new as Masters of Reality. The ballyhooed jam, though it didn’t start till after 2 a.m. and played to a half-deserted house, did seem as clear a case of a bunch of musicians having a good time as bratty Bach kept over-insisting.

And in Faith No More, the RIP party had the ideal headliner to celebrate a year in which metal has made still more significant inroads.

It’s a group that enjoys both critical and popular acclaim and that--having been informed by more sources than just Black Sabbath--knocks down the hoary self-confinements of the genre with an irreverent pickax. Not just a great metal band, but a great band, with more emphasis on dynamics and structure than brassiness.

Certainly it’s not afraid to be contradictory: After spending some time on stage snidely ridiculing those who have pegged them as a metal-rap hybrid (“We stole this next song from Run-DMC,” quipped Patton), whom did the band bring out to duet on the hit single “Epic” but rapper Young M. C.?

More predictable was the appearance of Ozzy Osbourne, who took over vocal reins from Patton on Faith No More’s traditional encore of Sabbath’s “War Pigs.”

His repeated admonitions to “Go . . . crazy!”--even as the barricades were collapsing and security guards and photographers were scrambling onto the stage to avoid being crushed--might not have seemed so noticeably irresponsible if Ozzy had been doing anything to make the kids go crazy other than telling them they should.

When the lights came up post-Ozzy, most of the crowd figured they’d just seen the promised closing jam and split. What they missed: Bach, Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose and Metallica’s James Hetfield leading members of their respective bands through five raw-power songs, ranging from GNR’s “You’re Crazy” to Nazareth’s “Hair of the Dog.” Axl stage-dove twice; luckily, there were still enough night-owls on hand to catch him.