Carmine Appice agrees with his guitarist: "It is a great lineup, today. In the '70s the business was different. There was more jamming and it was less about songs. Jimmy Kunes is a better singer, but Rusty was a rebel and that gave Cactus this underground thing. There was no other bass player like Tim Bogert, but Pete Bremy [Bremy's first show with Cactus is in Detroit this week] who plays with Vanilla Fudge does a great job playing the Cactus parts now."

I couldn't resist asking McCarty which drummer he thinks is the most badass, Badanjek or Appice. The guitarist was annoyingly but understandably diplomatic. "They're two of the best," he says. "It's like comparing John Bonham to Charlie Watts; two entirely different schools of drumming."

Friday, July 22, at the Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; 248-544-3030, with the Muggs supporting. 

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