Ratt @ Celebrity Theatre

It's easy to wonder why some bands continue to perform at all. Just look at all the formerly larger-than-life acts now relegated to the casino circuit. Ratt isn't part of the casino circuit, but they once were larger than life. Essentially defunct by 2000, Ratt re-emerged in 2010 with original...

By Glenn BurnSilver

May 2, 2013

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It's easy to wonder why some bands continue to perform at all. Just look at all the formerly larger-than-life acts now relegated to the casino circuit. Ratt isn't part of the casino circuit, but they once were larger than life. Essentially defunct by 2000, Ratt re-emerged in 2010 with original vocalist Stephen Pearcy and an unexpected album. Why? "[Roadrunner Records founder] Tom Lipsky," says longtime guitarist Warren DeMartini by e-mail. "[He said he] 'would know what to do with Ratt.' And he was right." The thing to do was Infestation, a comeback album that evokes a time when Ratt led the '80s hard rock/glam metal Sunset Strip invasion while avoiding the maudlin efforts of Detonator, the 1991 release that nearly exterminated the band. "We had a loose concept of creating a record that would fit between Invasion of Your Privacy and Out of the Cellar," DeMartini says. Today, with old metal, uh, cool again, Ratt no longer feels trapped by time. What will the next album reveal? "It's more about the energy of the group than a particular direction or concept. I think that is the catalyst . . . to still have fans 30 years on! Who knew?"

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