Hard-Rock Badlands Preps for Stadiums

Badlands is something of a hard-rock supergroup. Its high-voiced singer, Ray Gillen, used to sing in the version of Black Sabbath you don’t own any records by; Jake E. Lee is the ex-Ozzy guitarist who didn’t die in a plane crash. At the Palace on Saturday, Badlands, though a new group, looked ready to play stadiums, because two of them already have. Plenty of ‘em.

The problem is, you look at these guys and where you expect to see a smidgen of attitude, you see instead an ad in Music Connection magazine--”Band with deal seeks bass player; dedicated, image-conscious, pose only.” Like that. Lee played fast scales with the adeptness of a conservatory star and middlingly good blues fills, but you couldn’t say that he or his band really rocked. Still, Badlands pushes every stadium-rock hot-button there is. Flick a Bic.