Steve Whiteman front n' center with KIX on the Sunset Strip.Photo By: David Needle

Just for KIX & Hollywood hunnies Femme Fatale storm the Sunset Strip's "Key Club'"one last time!
By Gerry Gittelson
Metal Sludge Editor at Large

HOLLYWOOD – Kix singer Steve Whiteman is sitting backstage late Friday in a dressing room at Key Club, trying to explain his everlasting youth a few minutes after the rock band took its final bow in front of a delirious sold-out crowd on the Sunset Strip.

Kix had just rocked the venerable club like it was 1991 all over again, complete with precision live versions of “Don’t Close Your Eyes” and “Blow My Fuse,” and Whiteman, still sweaty but not quite knocked out, held up his Pabst and kind of looked at it.

At 50-plus, what is Whiteman’s secret for staying so young?

“I guess the No. 1 thing is you’ve got to work out, No. 2 would be don’t eat and fast food, and No. 3? You fuck a lot,” Whiteman said.

In a fun, Steel Panther kind of way, the great singer is bawdy but not vulgar, and he was totally in his element getting a little down and dirty during Kix’s 90-minute set – sometimes the teaser, sometimes the prancer, and sometimes the romancer.

He has been blessed with ever-lasting youth, even if Whiteman does not know it. Either way, there is a lot of young-kid in him, and that’s a fun site in a Hollywood rock scene that gets a little more wrinkled every season.

“I was a way better singer in my 20s,” he sneered.

The Maryland-bred fivesome still loves to come to Los Angeles, and originals Brian Forsythe (guitar), Ronnie Younkins (guitar) and Jimmy Chalfant remain in place.

It was packed and crowded at the Key Club. Everyone was singing along to “Cold Blood,” and over and over again we belted out the chorus: “Good love is all you need/Cold blood is all you bleed.”

There were just as many folks in the club by the end as there were in the beginning, and that’s a good sign in this fickle town.

Femme Fatale storm the stage to a packed house.  Photo Robert Downs

Lorriane Lewis opened with her new version of Femme Fatale featuring …. drum roll please …. ALL girls. And they’re all hot, just like Lewis, who now that we think about is probably drinking frm the same elixir potion that keeps Whiteman so new-looking.

It’s not just the glossy paintjob, it’s what’s under the hood that really matters, and Femme Fatale delivered an impressive set of rockers back their old MCA era, and wow was Femme Fatale good – not just back then but tonight, too.

Lewis proved her usual sultry, sexy self, singing to all the boys, and guitarists Nita Strauss and Courtney Cox, bassist Janis Tanaka, keyboardist Katt Scarlett and drummer Rachael Rine are like an all-star team of the best, most rockin’ female players in Hollywood. You could tell they were well-rehearsed, and they’re taking the party to the Monsters of Rock Cruise soon, too.

Lorraine Lewis Ms. Femme Fatale.

And the best part of all was Athena Lee coming out and playing drums at the end.

Lewis and her friends were at the Rainbow at this point, closing in on 2 a.m. It’s the de rigueur place to be after the beer and vodka run out backstage at Key Club. It’s a good night at the Rainbow with the usual assortment of rockers, groupies and wannabes.