A week ago, I saw Candlebox perform at the Recher Theatre in Towson, MD. To be honest, I wasn't their biggest fan. I didn't hate them, either. I was going because my boyfriend (Joey)'s birthday was that week. He loves them, so I bought us tickets. Well, I'm glad I went! I didn't realize just how good the singer's voice sounds. It's better live than on CD. It's really good – kind of soulful and bluesy. They weren't just another grunge band. Their guitarist was impressive.
But something caught me off guard. The singer was acting flamboyant and effeminate. That's definitely not a bad thing. It's just funny because if you watch their videos from the nineties, it's like a completely different person is their singer now: Not just the way he looks but the way he acts and moves. Yes, the rest of the band look a little different than back then. But that's because styles have changed and they are older. But the singer was very different. He had on a black vest, tight black jeans (tight hip huggers that showed off his bulge), and these white cowboy-ish designer shoes that matched his belt. And the way he was moving and acting was completely different than how he did in the 90s. He was practically doing the jazz hands. Every time he moved his hands, they were really flimsy. Like, when he put his hand to his ears to be like "I can't hear you" to the audience, he did it in this flimsy way. He reminded me of the lead singer of the Scissor Sisters. I like his stage presence, though! I think I like it better than how he used to act. They were awesome. Just not what I expected.
They did an encore and did "Breathe" by Pink Floyd. The lead singer didn't sing it though. It was the lead guitarist who sung it. The singer came back on stage after "Breathe" was over. (I think the singer had to go to the bathroom or something. That's just my theory).
Compare these two videos to get an idea of what I'm talking about. The second video isn't that great and doesn't really show just how flamboyant he was. But you get an idea:
Candlebox Performing "Arrow" at WOODSTOCK '94
Candlebox "YOU". Raleigh, August 5, 2006.
Joey and I. Joyce and I.
Before Candlebox started, this meat-head asshole came up to Joey and was giving him a hard time because Joey was wearing a Winger shirt. So I told him off and we walked away. We were on our way to walk up front when this happened. Later on in the show, the asshole somehow comes all the way up to the front of the stage where we are. (The club was really packed from front to back, so this is harder to do than you might think. Plus, I don't know how he would have even spotted us). Anyway, he started putting his arm around Joey and then tried to be friends with him. It was really weird. I noticed after he came up front that the back of his shirt said "Back door is best". What?!
Stewart is usually depicted wearing a Winger t-shirt (as opposed to the heavier Metallica and AC/DC shirts that Beavis and Butthead wore) which helps characterize him as out of touch, as Winger was/is not thought highly of in the Heavy Metal subculture. As a result, Winger became a subject of ridicule in the mid 1990s. According to the documentary "Taint of Greatness: Part 2" on the Mike Judge Collection Volume 2 DVD, this was due to Winger telling MTV he would not let the show make fun of him. This has been cited as a reason for the band losing popularity. About the same time Lars Ulrich of Metallica could be seen throwing dart on a poster of Kip Winger in the video for Nothing Else Matters. When asked about this Kip Winger once stated: "Our band was known to musicians, and a lot of musicians showed up to see me play – watching trying to figure out how I'm playing – we were like the 'hair band' Dream Theater — That is why it's the great irony that we ended up on that geeky guy's shirt on Beavis & Butthead, because Metallica couldn't play what we play, they couldn't do it, they literally – technically couldn't do it. And I'll fucking challenge those chumps to that any day of the week that they couldn't go back and play our shit, but we could play theirs with our hands tied behind our back. And so, I was a little t'd off about that, but in the end, none of that shit matters…"
When I worked at Bibelot in the music section (1999-2001), I found a solo CD by Kip Winger. It was in the New Age section.