GABBIE RAE

April 7, 2016
Mohegan Sun’s Wolf Den
Uncasville, Connecticut

If you didn’t know it already, I am a fan of 80s Metal and Rock. At any given time, my playlist will be blaring out songs by Girlschool, Rock Goddess, Def Leppard, Aldo Nova, Autograph, Kix, Anthrax or WASP just to name a few. Social media has brought a lot of us together to discuss the bands of this era, share news of the bands or just be able to read reviews of shows and see pictures from those shows.

Over the last year and half or so in a lot of those circles I’ve been hearing about this young woman out in Los Angeles named Gabbie Rae. A New England transplant with an angelic voice inspired by the music of my era, is being called the next Queen of Rock. Gabbie Rae is praised by many of the rockers I have been listening to to longer then she has been alive.

In sort of a homecoming, she came to play at one of my favorite venues. I had to go and check her out and find out for myself what all the hype was about, and of course shoot a show.

The crowd at the Wolf Den was excited and full of fans, family and friends of Gabbie. A good turnout and a friendly crowd. As the lights came down the band took the stage and as music started she came out from behind the drums singing not a cover tune but an original piece of music, and I liked it. She started the night with three of her own songs, “Can’t Stop Us Now”, “Deadly” and “Shinedown”. After those songs then she started into the covers, Heart’s “Barracuda”, “Say What You Will” by Fastway,followed by a couple of Heaven Below songs that I think she completely owned, “Original Sin” and “My Undoing”.

Whitesnake was next on her hit list and she belted out “Love Ain’t No Stranger”. Her next song was a cover of a song from Sass Jordan, “High Road Easy”. By this point I was very impressed, not only by her voice but also the band she had backing her. On guitar the newly 21 year old, Sam Bam Koltun, Chris Raposa on bass. On drums was Roger Trial, all I can say is, good job man, truly something to be proud of.

A small acoustic set was up next as stools were brought out and the lighting dimmed a bit as Gabbie and Sam took their seats. I was shocked to hear the opening chords of “All Along The Watchtower”, one of my favorite tunes, which was done beautifully. But to hear her sing “Ace of Spades” acoustically, that was definitely a first. The last song done like this was “World on Fire” by Slash.

At this point she had a family friend, Bob Conti of the AC/DC tribute band Dirty Deeds, hop up on stage and together they sang AC/DC’s “Highway To Hell” it was amazing. Bob does a dead on Brian Johnson. By that point I was glad I have made the drive down to the casino for this show. Gabbie Rae sounds great and her stage presence is undeniable and unexpected from a 17 year old young woman.

Next was Gabbie’s tribute to one her inspirations, the late great Ronnie James Dio, with horns proudly thrown, she started into “Last in Line” followed by one of my favorite Dio tunes, “Neon Knights” followed by the one song that can’t be left out of any Dio tribute (at least in my opinion) “Rainbow In The Dark”. You could feel the passion that she puts into these songs, it was as infectious as her smile.

It was now time for the set to come to an end, and for this song she chose her song “Scream”. A good catchy tune that just pardon the pun, screams to be repeated over and over in your head.

But wait… It wasn’t the end.

There was an encore, one more song to end the evening, which was “Sweet Child O Mine” a Guns N’ Roses tune, which seems strangely appropriate with all the attention that band has gotten this week.

Now the show was over.

It isn’t often you get to catch a rising star, but I do believe I caught the performance of one that night.