I'm Retired! Now what?

One of the cool things about getting older is being able to say that I’ve seen so many types of popular music come and go.  There was the hippy music of the sixties, the early hard rock of the early seventies, the funk, the disco, the new wave, and they all seemed to have their own distinctive dress code.  And this was never truer than the hard rockin’, guitar driven, and completely ridiculous wardrobe of the 1980’s hairband days!  This was a time when guys could wear more makeup, use more hairspray, and sparkle with more jewelry than their girlfriends, and everyone thought it was cool.  Well, most people.  Okay, a few at best.  I saw some high school kids back in the day trying to pull off that look, and they just looked ridiculous.  If you weren’t on stage squealing out guitar riffs and belting out those high pitch hairband songs, the look was just plain stupid.  The old saying tends to go along the lines of, “Anything looks cool if you’re on stage with a guitar in your hands.

Few bands could pull off the look while pumping out the great tunes better than the band Great White.  I’ve always loved their song One Bitten, Twice Shy mainly because the song’s video showed off a few of the hair band vixens of the day.  Back in those days few looked better than hairband video queen Bobbie Brown.  I even bought the band’s CD …Twice Shy.  Singer Jack Russell has left us for that big hairband stage in the sky, but what’s left of the band Great White can still blast out those memorable tunes, and this summer they took the stage at the Hot Summer Nights Concert Series in Sherman, Texas!  A few years ago, I saw the band (with a different singer) play with Slaughter at one of the local casinos, but this particular show was free, and the weather was decent.  So with that being said, I loaded up my lawn chair and took in the concert.  And here’s my review of the Great White show! 

GREAT WHITE CONCERT SHERMAN, TEXAS         June 6, 2026

It was time to be, “Once Bitten Twice Shy” because Great White was taking the gazebo stage at Sherman, Texas!  Last week the Hot Summer Nights dipped into alternative rock, and now we were going full hair band!  Back in the hair band days we had Great White, White Lion, White Tiger, and White Snake!  Then we moved on to White Zombie and the White Stripes!  Strangely enough, the local opening act for the Thursday show was Oliver White!  How cool is that?

Some lady close to me was establishing her Great White fan status by saying, “I know who they are!  I was in middle school back then.”  Okay, back in the band’s heyday I might have been a few years out of middle school…or high school…or college, but who’s counting, right?  Good rock & roll is timeless, and I remember the band mostly because of the girls in their music video ONCE BITTEN, TWICE SHY.

 I’m not sure how many of the original members are left in the band’s current lineup, but nobody out on the lawn seemed to care.  Current lead singer Brett Carlisle wasn’t even alive when I bought the band’s 1989 album …Twice Shy, but once again, nobody seemed to care.  I also have to wonder how many gazebo stages with a Presbyterian church in the background the band has played over the years, but they had a pretty decent crowd on hand so the guys should have been happy to be rockin’ the gazebo!  I always have to wonder if the bands for these concerts are warned, “Don’t feel dejected if everyone doesn’t jump to their feet!  Getting out of these lawn chairs isn’t always easy for this crowd.”  The last time I saw the band they were playing at a casino, so I’m sure they welcomed the change of pace.

I don’t remember who was belting out the songs when I last saw the band play, but Carlise has been with the band since 2022, and he gave that extra pump of excitement that a band from the 80’s probably needed.  He certainly had the pipes to screech out the song ROCK ME just like the late singer Jack Russle did back in the day when real rock and roll guys wore more makeup and jewelry than their girlfriends.  For the evening Carlise did inspire a few of the local rockers to get up on their feet for a little community screeching, but for the most of us…well, the weather was great and sitting down during a concert is just getting more enjoyable all the time. 

Of course there were plenty of times to mellow out, because as hair band fans know, all the bands of the 1980’s had those ballads.  This was proven true when the guys crooned out HOUSE OF BROKEN LOVE and SAVE YOUR LOVE.  Now there’s a song that’s hard to listen to without swaying to the music, but it’s a bit hard to carry out any serious swaying in a lawn chair.  And in the true spirit of hair band rock some woman in front of me decided to use the concert as an opportunity to brush her daughter’s hair.  

“We’ve got one more song, and you probably know what it is,” Carlise called out from the stage.  Okay, it was time for everyone to push themselves out of their lawn chairs because we had all shown up for the night to sing along with Great White’s big song, ONCE BITTEN, TWICE SHY!  It would have been nice if those ladies in the 1989 music video would have joined the band on stage.  These video vixens are probably all in their mid-fifties by now, but I’m sure they still look great because good rock & roll is timeless.