Adam Ant with the Glam Skanks at the Brooklyn Bowl, Friday Feb 10, 2017

Hard to believe that it has been 4-1/2 years (Sept 2012) since the last time we saw Adam at the Hard Rock on the Strip, but that was such a good show that we made it a point to check him out again this time out. Even though Adam's long-time guitarist/band leader passed away just a couple of weeks ago, Adam continued on and still put on a terrific show.

Opening the night was the all-femme Glam Skanks - a 70's-styled glitter rock band that bordered on parody, with songs like their spelling theme song, "Teenage Drag Queen", "Whatever Happened to Tube Tops", "Fuck Off" (not the Wayne County song, but probably influenced by it) and a cool cover of Shocking Blue's "Send Me a Postcard". It was all a bit contrived, but they looked good, played well - no virtuosos, but quite solid - the singer was quite good and they were entertaining.

Adam then came out with a relatively stripped-down band - guitar, bass and two drummers (I think the group was the same as in 2012 other than the guitarist) with no female backing singer this time and performed Kings of the Wild Frontier in its entirety, to the delight of the crowd, who were all singing along all night long. The guitar was super heavy and hard-edged, the bass solid and, of course, the drummers kept the wild rhythms all night long. Adam joined in on guitar here'n'there throughout the night, looked amazing, and thrilled the jam-packed club.

After Kings, the group went through a variety of songs, from "Xerox Machine" through "Prince Charming" and Goody Two Shoes" and tons more obscure and well known numbers. Adam got the audience to singalong with the first encore, then gave us a rockin' take on "Bang a Gong" and then got super heavy for the finale, "Physical (You're So)".

(The proliferation of cell phones was amazing!)

I didn't fight the crowds to get close enough for better photos - sorry! - but did think that this was a decent place to see touring bands. Not too big, decent sight-lines throughout, good sound overall and several bars (drinks being medium-expensive). This was the first time I saw a band here, but hopefully they will bring in some more cool touring groups.