My American Heart The Tap Bar at the Knitting Factory November 5, 2007 Written by Eric Atienza Photographed by Amy Davidson

When I first heard the name - My American Heart - the image that immediately sprang to mind was that of some young post-hardcore band heavy on high-pitched, inappropriately timed screams and citing Straylight Run and later AFI as their main influences. As five young guys with shaggy, unkempt hair took the stage I braced myself for what was sure to be a rough-on-the-ears set. When the five-piece launched into the first bars of their first song, however, the notes spilling off the stage weren’t the over-used, under-thought chords I was expecting. The soul of My American Heart did not lie in an old Used or Finch CD at all; instead they reached much further back, back into the days when Bon Jovi and Poison ruled the world, back into the heady, glossy, glittering days of glam metal.

Though they eschewed the ostentatious costumes the energy was the same as it was when bands like White Snake and Motley Crue tore up the radio. Their appearance was low key but their sound was all flash and greasy sheen and both their musical chops and all-over-the-place stage performance were straight out of Headbanger’s Ball.

Two decades ago this music, played loud and hard, managed to rule the musical world. My American Heart is armed with smaller hair and looser pants than their predecessors, but their dedication to the dirty, half-greasy shine of just-for-fun guitar rock and the instant chemistry that frontman Larry Soliman builds with any crowd is enough to set them on a very similar path as the iconic groups that came before.