SEBASTIAN BACH – FORUM THEATRE – MELBOURNE

SEBASTIAN BACH – FORUM THEATRE – MELBOURNE – 25.11.2025

Review: Craig Eriksson. Photos: David Harris

Sebastian Bach is currently on his Down Under Tour 2025 performing two of Skid Row’s most iconic albums for the first time ever in Australia. Tonight at the Forum Theatre in Melbourne, Bach performed Skid Row’s second album Slave To The Grind in its entirety and later this week at the Forum he will perform the self-titled Skid Row album.

For us hard rockers it has been a dream come true this month. A perfect trifecta having Metallica, AC/DC and Skid Row shows. It doesn’t get much better than that!

Sebastian Bach was the lead vocalist of American heavy metal band Skid Row from 1987 to 1996. Skid Row released their self-titled debut album in 1989 which was an instant success with hits like “I Remember You”, “Youth Gone Wild” and “18 and Life”. They backed it up with their second album Slave to the Grind released in 1991 with hit songs “Monkey Business”, Slave to the Grind”, “Wasted Time” and “In A Darkened Room”. Bach was fired by Skid Row in 1996 due to a conflict and escalating tensions within the band. Bach has gone on to have a successful solo career and much to the delight of fans, performs special Skid Row shows.

First up, hailing from Melbourne, hard rockers Dead City Ruins were the perfect support act with their high energy, massive riffs and powerful vocals by Steve Welsh. The dual guitar work by Sean Blanchard and Nick Casalini was entertaining and kept the crowd rocking along while Thomas Murphy on bass provided the rhythmic backbone and groove, while Nick Trajanovski on drums provides the beat and energy.Their performance mixed some older favourites along with some of their newer material such as We Are One, Devil Man and Bones.

Tonight’s show was an exclusive performance of the Slave To The Grind album and Bach announced it is the only show for the year where they will be playing the whole album. Bach came out absolutely pumped up with adrenaline and so too were the crowd. The energy and vibe in the Forum was electric and remained that way throughout the 2-hour, 24 song show.

They opened with WHAT DO I GOT TO LOSE? from Sebastian Bach’s Child Within A Man (2024) album. An absolute banger to kick start the evening making a strong statement that they were here to play and play mighty hard. The band then ripped into SLAVE TO THE GRIND and the Forum went crazy.

They mixed up the set combining the 12-songs from Slave to the Grind in with some of Sebastian Bach’s solo work along with the hit songs from Skid Row (1989) with BIG GUNS, 18 and LIFE, YOUTH GONE WILD and I REMEMBER YOU. This made it feel like a Skid Row greatest hits show. Hearing all of the tracks from Slave to the Grind was incredibly special as this album was on high rotation for me when I was living overseas on a working holiday around the time of its release back in 1991. Standout songs like RIOT ACT, PSCYHO LOVE MUDKICKER, CREEPSHOW were played with such intensity.

Bach is well known for his impressive vocal ability and range and Slave to the Grind allowed him to showcase this. Seb has not lost any of his vocal range and his vocals remain sharp and were outstanding, even in the highest registers. He is also very charismatic and witty on stage and quite the storyteller. He swung his microphone cord wildly around the stage and over the fans at the front of the stage during several songs. Throughout the show Bach announced he is 57 years of age and “rock‘n’roll keeps you young!” He went on to say that he believes “Melbourne is the capital of rock‘n’roll.” Bach was incredibly chuffed and quite emotional about how much the crowd was loving the show, he kept tapping his heart with appreciation.

Bach talked about how much he loved KISS and then performed a KISS cover SHOCK ME dedicated to the late Ace Frehley. During the show Bach also talked about other great hard rockers we have lost and then sang an Ozzy Osbourne cover of I DON’T KNOW and a Black Sabbath cover of HEAVEN AND HELL as a tribute to Ronnie James Dio.

Bach’s 3-piece band consisting of his son Paris Bach on drums, guitarist Brody ‘Bruiser’ DeRozie and Fede Delfino on bass were incredibly tight and played with such precision throughout the entire set. Delfino’s backing vocals were right up there too, almost matching Bach. When Bach introduced his son Paris Bach on drums before they played LIVIN’ ON A CHAIN GANG, Bach said to his son “If you fuck this one up you’ll be mowing the lawns, but if you get it right, I’ll increase your wage to $7.50” (laughed).

The ballads from Slave to the Grind were truly amazing with QUICKSAND JESUS, IN A DARKENED ROOM and WASTED TIME. These songs showcased Bach’s wide range and versatility with his vocal range. His ability to shift from the powerful high-pitch scream bangers to tender, emotionally intense vocals on these rock ballads is remarkable. Crowd favourite MONKEY BUSINESS was one of the biggest songs of the evening with many fans holding up their phones and filming the song while the rest of us were headbanging hard.

When they returned for the encore, Sebastain Bach said “Now I want to sing my favourite song” and then performed Rose Tattoo’s WE CAN’T BE BEATEN, which had the crowd fist pumping the air in unity. They closed out the show with GET THE FUCK OUT with their Manager on the side of stage signalling they had gone past the curfew and in the end was literally trying to drag Sebastian off the stage, he just wanted to keep playing. Sebastian then came back out and scrunched up each of the set lists and threw them out into the crowd as he farewelled and thanked the fans.

Check out our pre-tour interview with Sebastian HERE

SET LIST:
WHAT DO I GOT TO LOSE?
SLAVE TO THE GRIND (skid row)
THE THREAT (skid row)
BIG GUNS (skid row)
RIOT ACT (skid row)
18 and LIFE (skid row)
SHOCK ME (KISS cover – tribute to Ace Frehley)
QUICKSAND JESUS (skid row)
PSCYHO LOVE (skid row)
BEGGAR’S DAY (skid row)
FREEDOM
LIVIN’ ON A CHAIN GANG (skid row)
FUTURE OF YOUTH
IN A DARKENED ROOM (skid row)
CREEPSHOW (skid row)
MUDKICKER (skid row)
WASTED TIME (skid row)
MONKEY BUSINESS (skid row)
I DON’T KNOW (Ozzy Osbourne cover)
I REMEMBER YOU (skid row)
HEAVEN AND HELL (Black Sabbath cover tribute to Dio)
YOUTH GONE WILD (skid row)