What do you get when you mix together a kick-ass rock band, a kick-ass pair of breasts and Playboy channel-type scenes? Well, producer Greg Thompson (Skintight) is hoping you get an unqualified hit.
Thompson's going to be disappointed, though. This isn't to say that Erocktica Live! is a bad show—just that it could be so much better.
Opening with some rock-god riffing by Vegas guitarist Russ Letizia, the rock 'n' roll aspect of the show is promising, with drummer Lez Warner of the Cult, bassist Wayne Carver, co-lead singer Bobby "Momo" Thompson and singer-emcee Raymond "Ray-J" Jones making up a tight combo and providing that rarest of topless Strip species: live music.
With the band U.S.U.K. placed front and center—and blocking views of the dancers—Gabriella Versace (no relation) makes her entrance to Joan Jett's "I Love Rock 'n' Roll," soon followed by the phalanx of flesh in the form of the Solid Black Leather Dancers. A couple of numbers later and we are treated to the first of three live-video feeds from backstage, as Versace retreats to have some honey poured over her impressively sizable assets.
As the roughly hour-long show progresses, we'll also see Versace laid out on a motorcycle with a man nuzzling her chest, and then a naked, bound Versace with one man at her breasts and another using his head to hide her nether region. Perhaps it's Ray-J's commentary, but the scenes come off as less than erotic.
Much more successful is a number in which Versace goes from winged angel to bride and then slave at the hands of a dancer in groom's clothes, being erotic, visually arresting and well choreographed.
Versace's voice is strong and well-suited to the hard-rock numbers she sings, but the dancers' choreography, directed by the one-name Mistinguett, is uninspired. Luckily, the band and Versace's energy is palpable throughout, and the rockers in the full house needed little encouragement to get on their feet for the show's climatic rendition of Sir Elton's "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting."