Virginia hard rockers Firehouse play the Whisky this week, so we chatted with guitarist Bill Leverty about what we can expect…

L.A. WEEKLY: It’s been eight years since Full Circle — any sign of a new album?

BILL LEVERTY: Everyone is wanting to record again. Hopefully soon. In the meantime, we’re staying really busy playing live shows all over the place.

How, if at all, do you think Firehouse has grown and evolved in the past decade or so?

We’ve stayed pretty true to our melodic hard rock roots over the years. Having said that, I think the band has allowed us to grow as individual musicians because our style of “melodic hard rock” draws from a pretty diverse background. If you were to listen to our eight studio albums, you’d hear flavors of rock, blues, country, funk, pop and metal. We find a way make it all work with our sound, especially live.

Do you enjoy performing in L.A., and at the Whisky?

I love it. The Whisky is such an iconic venue. We played there when our first record came out and it still feels really cool in that room. There is real magic in the Whisky.

What can we expect from this set?

We get out there and have a great time. I think the audience feels that vibe. Our set list changes from night to night, but we always play the seven songs that were Billboard top 100 hits for us. A few of those tunes are love songs, so there’ll be a lot of love in the room. The rest of the set is changing all the time. We have a bunch of heavier tunes that never got radio airplay that we really love to play, so we throw in a lot of those when we play live. That’s what I love about the way we do it. We rock hard, we rock soft, and then we rock hard again.

What’s next for the band, after this gig?

Our next show after the Whiskey will be in Oregon. We have a lot of other shows coming up this year with bands we’ve toured with over the decades including Bret Michaels, Warrant, Lita Ford, Vince Neil, Night Ranger, REO Speedwagon, and many more. Next year, we’ll be on the Monsters Of Rock Cruise again. That’s the greatest gig on the high seas! I definitely feel a resurgence. Rock is not dead!

Firehouse plays with The Hard Way, SJ Sindicate, TangenT, Lioncourt, and the Jeff Carlson Band at 7 p.m. on Saturday, July 6 at the Whisky A Go Go.

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