The Beatdown

Shockingly, Lawless's manager didn't respond to my requests for an interview. After all, he's got to be good at damage control by now, right?

And the night's damage wasn't done. Due to the lackluster turnout for the W.A.S.P. show (which also featured erstwhile Ratt frontman Stephen Pearcy, LA Guns and Metal Church) and the recently canceled Jam Against MS benefit featuring Hal Ketchum and Montel Williams -- which pre-sold only 83 tickets out of a possible 1,600 -- MOD president Michael O'Donnell and partner Morrison were forced to dissolve their company. Morrison says the pair had poured their heart and soul -- not to mention $150,000 -- into preparing for the W.A.S.P. show over the past six months, renovating a theater that had tumbleweeds in the aisles when they took it over.

But the combined losses from the two shows was just too great to absorb. Now a new company, 44th Avenue Productions, led by Scott LaBarbera, has taken over operations at the Oriental. O'Donnell and Morrison will both continue to work at the theater, and while they're surprisingly upbeat about the changes there, neither is willing to bury the hatchet -- unless it's in Lawless's skull.

"Think about it, Blackie," O'Donnell wrote in an open letter to MetalSludge.com. "Do you really think your fucking mike stand will fit into a shitty bar? Because that's where YOU are going to be. It's not 1985 anymore."

I'm sure that will come as news to Lawless.