Shakin' Street at the Bowery Electric

Ross the Boss, Albert Bouchard & Fabienne Shine

Born in Tunisia, North Africa, and raised in Paris, France, Fabienne Shine started writing songs as a youth. She became a model and actress as well as a musician, and reportedly often jammed with Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. In 1975, Page reportedly encouraged Shine to form and lead a band. In 1976, she formed a band called Speedball, soon to be renamed Shakin' Street after a song by the MC5. In 1979, as Shakin' Street prepared to record its second album. the guitarist sold his last guitar to buy some heroin, so the band fired him. Ross "the Boss" Friedman of the Dictators joined Shakin' Street for the album and the revamped band toured Europe and the US in 1980, opening the "Black and Blue Tour" for Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult. In 1981, Friedman left Shakin' Street to start a new heavy metal band, Manowar, in Aubirn, New York, and Shakin' Street disbanded shortly thereafter. Shine launched a solo career in 1995, and Friedman played on her second album. Various lineups of Shakin' Street have reunited periodically since 2004; the current lineup consists of Shine, Friedman and several members of the latter-day Dictators.

More than 40 years after the original band's formation, Shakin' Street performed its first ever New York City concert at the Bowery Electric tonight. This New York version (Shine, Friedman, guitarist Freddie Katz, bassist Dean Rispler, drummer JP Patterson) launched into the hard rocking set with a signature tune, "Solid as a Rock," and continued with both older and newer songs from Shine's catalog. The songs featured Shine's vocals as the centerpiece, backed by classic guitar-based melodic metal arrangements. Despite all the flashy guitar work, Shine commanded the small stage like an ageless rock star (she is 74 years old). For the finale, she invited Albert Bouchard of Blue Oyster Cult to join Shakin' Street on stage to sing and play cowbell a cover of the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog."

Visit Shakin' Street at www.shakin-street.com.

Setlist:

1. Solid as a Rock
2. No Compromise
3. No Time to Lose
4. I Gotta Fly
5. I'm Your Girl
6. Suzie Wong
7. Don't Tell Me How to Shake It
8. Every Man, Every Woman a Star              
9. The World and Me
10. Soul Dealer
11. I Want to Box You
12. Vampire Rock
13. I Wanna Be Your Dog (The Stooges cover)