Gig review: Sebastian Bach at Enmore Theatre, Sydney

Live review: Sebastian Bach at Enmore Theatre, Friday, November 28 2025

By TERRY LIBEROPOULOS

THE fans might have aged, the hair might be gone but they still produced plenty of high energy during the Sebastian Bach concert in Sydney.

After first visiting Australia in 1990, Bach played six shows this time around under his own name and not that of his former band in Skid Row.

Having played in Melbourne the night before, Brody DeRozie’s guitar failed to arrive with the team but Virgin Airlines were able to locate it and get his instrument back two hours before they went on stage.

Those who arrived earlier were treated to the support band in Willie J’s 6V6s – a Melbourne-based outfit formed 18 months ago.

But the capacity crowd of more than 2500 at Enmore Theatre in Sydney’s inner-west erupted when 57-year-old Bach jumped onto the stage, belting out the number “What Do I Got to Lose” from his album Child Within The Man.

He followed it with “Slave To The Grind’ from Skid Row’s 1991 album of that name. But the fans, most of them over the age of 40, were there to hear every song from Skid Row’s self-titled first album which made its debut in 1989.

And that came with the third song of the night with “Here I Am” which was followed with Bach introducing both of his guitarists, including Fede Delfino from Uruguay. After going through a number of drummers, it was his son Paris – the eldest of Sebastian’s three children – who had the honour of performing for his dad’s band.

The noise level went up a notch or two when Bach still showed he had some powerful vocals with one of Skid Row’s most successful songs with “18 And Life”.

Bach has always been a big KISS fan and was part of the Kiss Army in their early days. He paid tribute to the recent death of Ace Frehley by singing “Shock Me”, which was on the Love Gun album.

And Bach dedicated the song “I Remember You” to not only the Spaceman from KISS but another recently departed musician in Ozzy Osbourne.

And the tributes didn’t end there with Ronnie James Dio and Bon Scott getting a mention – the last by singing AC/DC’s classic ‘TNT’.

Bach admitted having trouble reading the setlist that was taped on the stage floor, blaming his eyesight on marijuana. He retracted that comment after finding out that the drug was illegal in Australia.

After playing “Midnight/Tornado”, Bach reached out to the crowd by saying that song completed the entire original record.

The fans would have none of that and Bach knew that, pointing to his large tattoo on his arm that reads “Youth Gone Wild”. It was the band’s debut single that received massive airplay from MTV.

The song set the place into a state of frenzy, the upper level all standing with Bach spinning the microphone like a cowboy and somehow managing not to capture the equipment despite his failing eyes.

It was the final song of the night before the band walked off but they soon returned for an encore.

Born in the Bahamas under the name Sebastian Philip Bierk, Bach moved to Canada at an early age. Growing up in Ontario, he told the audience about the similarities between Canadians and Australians – mostly being they both liked to drink beer.

As a young teenager, he walked into a record shop with just one dollar. Sitting on the shelf was an album from Australian band Rose Tattoo titled Scarred for Life.

The price on the vinyl was 98 cents and he was thrilled to walk out of the shop with a new record as well as two cents in change.

One of those songs on that album was “We Can’t Be Beaten” and with Rose Tattoo singer Angry Anderson in the crowd, Bach chanted out the song before finishing up with “Get the Fuck Out”.

And once that finished, that is exactly what the crowd did. But they did so, with huge smiles on their faces.