The last time the original lineup of Hanoi Rocks performed together was at the Tavastia in Helsinki, Finland on July 27th, 1982. On September. 23rd, 2022, the band got back on stage at the Helsinki Ice Hall together for a special occasion. Closing the night, celebrating singer Michael Monroe’s 60th birthday, the original five members of Hanoi Rocks—guitarists Andy McCoy and Nasty Suicide, bassist Sam Yaffa and original drummer Gyp Casino—played through a 13-song set pulled from the band’s first five albums, including “Tragedy,” “Million Miles Away,” “11th Street Kids,” “Malibu Beach Nightmare,” for the first time in more than 40 years.
Throughout the evening, Monroe played with the many pigments of his musical past, and present, from the current solo band of Yaffa, guitarists Steve Conte and Rich Jones, and drummer Karl Rosqvist and past members joining on stage for the birthday bash. Monroe also regrouped the short-lived Demolition 23, formed in 1993 with Hanoi bandmates Yaffa, Nasty, and drummer Jimmy Clark—former guitarist Jay Hening died in 1997—around the band’s recently rereleased self-titled album.
Initially recorded as a tribute to Monroe’s late friend and collaborator, Dead Boys’ and Lords of the New Church singer, Stiv Bators, Demolition 23—a name pulled from the 1973 William S. Burroughs book Exterminator—was originally recorded at the Power Station in New York City and produced by E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt.
“Demolition 23” is a collection of covers—the Dead Boys’ “Ain’t Nothing to Do,” the U.K. Subs’ “Endangered Species,” and “I Wanna Be Loved,” originally released by another one of Monroe’s late friends, Johnny Thunders (and The Heartbreakers), in 1977. Several original tracks co-written by Monroe, his late wife Jude Wilder, and Van Zandt, including “Hammersmith Palais,” “Dysfunctional” and “The Scum Lives On,” also appear in earlier demo form on the reissue, along with the Monroe- and Bators-penned “Deadtime Stories.” The reissue also features new detailed liner notes with commentary on each track.
The Fat Angel Sings 