Notes From The Iowa Tour Circut

How did I miss this: the Bulletboys are back together (did they ever leave?) and were in Iowa as early as a month ago! Thank God for the internet, as there is video proof that they were in Waterloo on February 25th.
Not that I would ever make the trip up to see them but, you know, it’s good to know the opportunity was there.
You don’t know who the Bulletboys are?
Well, for about a minute and twenty-five seconds, they were the heir-apparent to Diamond David Lee Roth-era Van Halen. It was the late 80’s, Diamond Dave was just starting to annoying people to the point where they were ignoring him, Sammy Hagar was feeling a little more secure in his role as the lead singer of Van Halen, and the rest of us were longing for anything that sounded remotely like the original incarnation of Van Halen.
Leave it to original Van Halen producer Ted Templeman to come to the rescue: he found a near-sound alike and agreed to produce their debut album. With the stars perfectly aligning, the band got signed to V.H.’s own label and thus began the marketing campaign that tried to sucker a bunch of stoned rock fans into thinking that the Bulletboys were the next V.H.
I’ve smoked a lot of pot in my time, but I never got high enough to ever think the Bulletboys could hold a candle to the mighty original Van Halen.
It wasn’t too long after that before grunge effectively put the kibosh on all things metal, but being especially harsh on hair metal and this kind of pseudo nostalgic headtrip. And make no mistake about it, Bulletboys were the worst kind of nostalgia: parasitic retards with minimal talent and even less material. They were a band built on hype, and when that kind of house of cards is given huge budgets that don’t translate to sales, you find yourself in Iowa twenty years after the fact, trying to pay off your debt and uttering pointless patriotic nonsense to a room full of drunks.
This is Iowa hoss, not Edwards Air Force base. So lay off the “U.S.A.!” chants and understand that the reason why you didn’t get the response you were looking for was because we’re tired of that bullshit.
Plus, we were confused when you called it "the fuckin' United States of fuckin' America." We usually just call it the U.S. of fuckin' A."

Here’s the weird thing, I swear that the dude playing guitar with the Bulletboys at their recent Waterloo gig is the same dude that played with Enuff Z’Nuff when they played at a recent Clinton, Iowa gig. I’m not sure what the story is with this guy, but it’s obvious he gets around.
UPDATE: He’s Tory Stoffregen who, evidently, is from Cedar Falls and fronts the band The Black Mollys.
Here's the comparison video: Enuff Z'Nuff in Clinton, Iowa December of 2008. Donnie is apparently back with the band and singing vocals. But who's that dude in the hat with the guitar? Well, it's the same dude that just played with Bulletboys! How does this happen? And Donnie, take off your fucking coat, you're doing a goddamn show!