Anthrax, "Black Lodge"

Ready for Their Close-Up  

THE VIDEO Anthrax, "Black Lodge," The Sound of White Noise, 1993, Elektra 

SAMPLE LYRIC "Giii-iiiive me, the one thing you can't giiii-iiiiive / take me to, the black lodge where you liii-iiiiii-iiiiiive" 

THE VERDICT I know. Delving into John Bush-era Anthrax already? But this song popped into my head recently and um, lodged itself there, if you'll pardon my pun, so I felt compelled to write about it. 

Let me start by saying dudes, I have no idea WTF this video is about. It's Anthrax though, and in an Iron Maiden-esque fashion, they tend to write songs about popular culture things they like (the Judge Dredd comics, Stephen King's The Stand). 

Turns out "Black Lodge" is no exception — it references a plot element in cult favorite Twin Peaks, which would've still been really recent when they were writing the material for this album. They even got the guy who scored Twin Peaks to work with them on the song — good one, Anthrax. 

So what's the Black Lodge? Without giving too much away or taking an intensely lengthy (and likely to be contentious, given fans' fervor for this show) digression into Twin Peaks, it's sort of... well... I probably can't really explain it without giving stuff away. (Also suffice to say if this is an issue, don't click on any of the above links! But if you're familiar with Twin Peaks, you'll get the references I make later on.) 

Is this what we see in the video? Mm, not really, though I guess there are some parallels between some of the shots in the latter part of the video and what you'd see in Twin Peaks. I don't see a lot of overt connections though. Let me give you my take on what's going on in this video. Or okay, let's start with just what's going on in this video! 

For one, you barely see Anthrax. Each band member's face is viewed in a very quick shot at some point during the video, and that's that. I think Charlie Benante's expression best captures my sentiments on what's going on with this aspect. So yes, let's strap in now and prepare ourselves, 'cause this thing is really plot-heavy.

 

The video is shot around LA, and has a very LA look and feel to both the interiors and the exteriors (well, by interiors, I mainly mean the house at the beginning). Though there are a fair amount of establishing shots of different places, I was only able to actually track down one of the locations — Evanston Apartments, which are used as an exterior shot early in the video. I couldn't find any of the later stuff though, where they're in a more run-down area, or the ostensible location of the house from the beginning of the video. 

Okay, sorry, I'm getting off track already. The video begins with some establishing shots of LA — the door to the house, palm trees, cars in traffic, etc. A recorded-sounding female voice intones, "Good afternoon. At the tone, Pacific Daylight Time will be two-forty-eight and thirty seconds." 

At the tone, we see a balding man dressed in a dress shirt, tie, and suspenders suddenly sit upright. He peers out through the curtains, then sits on his ratty couch while we hear a weather forecast for LA (as if played on a television in the room), and see more shots of palm trees. The song finally really gets going as the forecast ends, and the man gets more broody. 

We also start to see close-ups of the sleeping face of the woman in the video — she's older but well-preserved, and has one of those too-much-plastic-surgery faces. You know, shaved off nose, overly plump cheekbones, drawn mouth. She smiles in her sleep, and we see a rapid montage of what we can assume are her dreams — a younger version of herself posing in a swimsuit, running on the beach with a man, playing with a dog on a lawn, etc. 

Her memories remind me of one of my all-time favorite videos — brace yourselves, people, I'm not joking — Don Henley's "The Boys of Summer." What can I say, it's evocative. Before I moved to California, I thought my life out here would be like that girl with the wet hair painting her toenails. I can't explain it. 

The montage of memories reaches a hectic pace, ending with a shot of a wedding cake topper. We then see the man come into the bedroom, where she is sleeping with the light on (since as noted, it's the afternoon). He crawls across the bed and whispers in her ear. She awakens with bright eyes and a smile, but her expression quickly sours when she realizes she's no longer in her dreamworld.

 

Okay now I don't know this, but I have always assumed the man in this is not her husband (i.e. the man in her memories) but is, I don't know, like a super-fan or something. Why? One, he appears somewhat younger than her. Two, his manner with her is very servile and deferential. Three, she barely reacts to him. I know, I know, he could be her husband. 

But this sequence happens as John Bush sings "worship the ground you barely walk on" — hence, super-fan. Oh god, the sponge-bathing shot. This is like, the least hot bath-related scene you'll ever see in a metal video. We also see photos in her bedroom showing her younger self from her dreams, affirming that these are indeed memories. The woman sits at the edge of the bed, and the man spoon-feeds her. You can see a large antique vanity table cluttered with stuff in the background — whomever did set direction in this video did a nice job. The house is totally believable as where this odd couple lives. 

As the first pre-chorus begins, we see a montage of the woman putting on makeup and jewelry, more shots of her dreams/memories, and she and the man leaving the house. Oh, and we even see a couple of the guys from Anthrax! 

Next thing you know, they're out in his car, which is a giant, blue, late-model sedan. The woman is propped up in the backseat, with sunglasses and a wig on, plus a scarf over her head. I'm not sure if she reminds me more of Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard or of Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?. Nope, I think Norma Desmond. The woman in this even has something of a resemblance to Gloria Swanson. The man in this is totally her William Holden. Obviously this has a different plot, but there are some parallels I think. 

Anyway, they're cruising around an area that I'd guess is somewhere in east LA, or maybe Long Beach, when he spots Jenna Elfman. Yes, from Dharma and Greg. I'll let you guess whether I'm going to continue referring to her as Jenna Elfman or go with Dharma. Yes, that's right.

 

Dharma is extremely braless in a tank top and cut-off jean shorts. She's hanging around with a man in a pleathery jacket and very loud plaid pants, who possibly is supposed to be her pimp? Even though if she's a hooker she's being very, um, casual in her dress. Anyway, she's hanging around outside a dingy-looking dance club that probably doesn't exist anymore (if it does, I can't find evidence of it online). 

It rapidly shifts from afternoon to twilight as Dharma talks on a payphone and the man checks her out. He briefly converses with her and she leaves with him. Of course, once they're both in the car, somehow it's daytime again, but whatever. You can see like a zillion signs in the background (a Comfort Inn, a McDonald's), but I still haven't been able to track down where they are in LA. 

Anyway, Dharma looks a little sketched out in the car, but not as sketched out as she should look, since next thing you know a dude we haven't seen yet but who looks vaguely like Taboo from the Black Eyed Peas pops up from the backseat and chloroforms her. The shots of her wild-eyed that are almost strobe-lit are among the bits that are more reminiscent of the Twin Peaks stuff in this video. 

We next see the car, at night, pulling into some kind of sketchy underground area, which I'm assuming is the Black Lodge. Unless of course, as we'll see in a moment, the Black Lodge is more metaphorical. Or just less of a physical place, or something. 

Anyway, as the pre-chorus swells we see Scott Ian for like two seconds, followed by some hurried shots of the men hurrying down the hall carrying a passed-out Dharma. We also see the older woman sitting before a collage of photos that appear to be of her younger self, as well as a younger version of the woman as she is dressed now (wig and sunglasses), who doesn't seem to really exist. Yes, this is where this video starts to get really confusing.

 

With the first real chorus, we see that the older woman and Dharma are seated at matching vanity tables. Taboo goes over to see about making up Dharma. We also get a bunch of very Nine Inch Nails-esque shots of pieces of mannequins and dozens of copies of the same red qipao. Taboo puts makeup and a wig on Dharma, and dresses her in one of the qipao before wheeling her away. The woman appears oblivious, gesturing with a cigarette holder at nobody. 

A bunch of ominous shots of sort of old-timey medical equipment (or something) follow as Dharma is strapped into a chair with electrodes attached all over her body. The woman is strapped into a similar chair, as we'll see momentarily. Beside them is a pile of TVs, all of which have flickering blue screens. 

Taboo wakes up Dharma, and the man shines a very bright light in her face. With her makeup and wig on, she looks very much like an early 90s Cyndi Lauper. She squirms and tries to get away from the light. Ooh, here's where Charlie Benante makes that face! 

Oh lord, the next part is the creepiest part of the whole video for me. The man pulls out a tube of suntan oil and rubs it into Dharma's thigh, which discomfits her greatly. However, here's where we start to figure out what's going on. While Dharma hates being rubbed with the lotion, in the other chair, the woman looks pleasantly relaxed, and slides down as if she were the one being rubbed with the lotion. At the same time, we see one of the TV screens begin to come into focus, with an image of suntan oil being applied back in the day. 

Okay. So apparently, the older woman can enter her memories if she is hooked up to another woman who is having those things happen to her, even if the other woman (in this case, Dharma) finds it unpleasant. So she gets the physical sensations from the other person, though not the mental interpretations. And somehow, this makes her memories appear on TV. 

Hmm. Yeah, I'm not really sure I understand exactly what is meant to be happening, forget how we're meant to think this works. Possibly though I am thinking it is like the MST3K movie The Leech Woman. 

 

They repeat this for other of her memories. Dharma looks scared as she watches the memories on the TV. We also see montages of the memories along with shots of the man screaming (the other shots that are closest to Twin Peaks stuff in my opinion). The man produces a yellow lab puppy, which inexplicably also creeps out Dharma (I mean come on, it's a puppy), but which thrills the woman. When he tries to use the puppy on the older woman directly though, she goes limp. Let's not even think about where he gets the puppies from, or what he does with them after. 

As the song winds down, the man goes and talks directly to the older woman, touching her and kneeling before her. Taboo takes Dharma in to another room, where he photographs her in front of a red curtain. We then see her photo pinned among what appear to be dozens, if not hundreds, of photos of women dressed identically. So apparently they do this all the time. 

What's going on? What does any of this have to do with Twin Peaks? As far as I can tell, the visual reference of the red curtains seems to be the strongest connection — Dharma's shot in front of a red curtain at the end, and all the members of Anthrax appear with a red curtain as their background. So possibly Kyle MacLachlan is dreaming this whole video. 

I think my Sunset Boulevard connection (which I've admittedly invented) makes more sense though. I mean yes, I can't explain why this older woman is so intent on living in a dream world of her past that she can only access when she's either a) asleep or b) hooked up to another woman who's dressed as her, but in both cases, a faded beauty has lost all touch with reality. 

As William Holden narrates at the end of that movie, "the dream she had clung to so desperately had enfolded her." Though in the case of this video, it seems to have enfolded the woman, the man, and I guess some dude who looks like Taboo, too.

Bang Tango, "Someone Like You"

Low-Budget Done Right  

THE VIDEO Bang Tango, "Someone Like You," Psycho Café, 1989, Mechanic

SAMPLE LYRIC "With someone / sommmmmme-one / well there's someone just like youuuuuuuuuuuu / oh-ohhhhhh I nee-eed some-wuh-un / to take away the bluuuuuuuuuuuue" 

THE VERDICT Bang Tango are one of those bands that create a lot of contention. People who want to claim them as glam point out that they're a SoCal band (LA by way of San Diego) and I mean come on, got discovered at Gazzari's. 

People who want to say that they're not glam and got unfairly lumped in with glam (unscrupulous and money-hungry A&R men and blabla, whine-whine, we've heard that old chestnut a million times) point to the fact that they don't sound much like other glam acts. 

But come on guys, let's think about it? Who do they sound like? Well to me, Bang Tango sound a heck of a lot like the Cult! Sure, Joe Lesté doesn't have as deep of a voice or as obvious of a Jim Morrison fetish as Ian Astbury does, but honestly, he doesn't really fall outside this vein either. (And do both of them sort of look/sound like Glenn Danzig? Yup, they do.) 

I feel like both the singles on Psycho Café more or less sound to me like tighter, slightly poppier Cult songs. I don't mean this in a pejorative way at all, by the way — this is, by all evidence, a pretty good way to sound. 

(While I'm semi-on-the-subject, can I mention that Psycho Café is an incredibly lame album title, and probably not helping anything? Though I do wonder if it is at such a cafe that one could be served a Psychotic Supper.) 

But oh yeah, as I was saying, or at least implying anyway, this song rocks. Yes, Lesté gets a little screechy sometimes, but this is a really good, straightforward gritty-LA-pop-metal song. It's no surprise that Lesté later does vocal duties for LA Guns for a while — other than the Cult connection (which also likely comes in because all the dudes in Bang Tango are really pale and goth-looking), this song in particular I could totally hear the LA Guns doing. 

All that said, of course our purpose here is to look at the video. And in this case — congratulations are in order for Bang Tango. This video is really showing how it's done, in terms of having a low-budget video that's still really visually appealing. 

They didn't waste their money on swaths of fabric (which face it, always looks cheap), and they didn't rely on shooting it in black and white (which only sometimes makes a video seem artistic, and more often just makes it look like they're trying too hard).

 

No. Instead, all that we really see in this video is the various members of Bang Tango standing around playing the song amidst a whole bunch of different neon lights. And it totally, totally works. The high contrast between the neon and the dark background, and between the neon and these dudes' extreme paleness, makes the visuals really pop. 

It also calls to mind all the shots of LA at night that you often see in Sunset Strip metal videos. You know, like shots of pawn shops and bodegas and strip clubs with neon signs. Even the sillier things in this video, like swinging the camera around in a rapid circle, totally work. It makes the video feel hectic and intense, rather than the usual "these special effects aren't very special." 

I also like that the neon sort of stripes make this feel very 80s, even though this is the end of the 80s. Let's face it though, the beginning of any decade is really more or less still the one before it. I can make a good argument for the 90s not really beginning until like 1993, and similarly for the 70s not really ending until 1982 or so. 

But yeah, all the neon feels very Miami Vice (arguably my favorite way to feel!), and sort of bridges the gap between colorful 80s aesthetics and the more toned down, late 80s/early 90s look Bang Tango are going for. They've got a style that's somewhere in between the Cult and like, Faster Pussycat — lots of black, lots of layering, and lots of crosses, but with the occasional dandaical touch (bassist Kyle Kyle's Manic Panic hair). 

I know it was too late at this point for all those videos that came before. But really, this video had to show those other guys that if they could turn back time, they should've probably skipped all the like, weird modifications to late-model sedans, and foam rubber dragons, and walls made out of tin-foil, and just invested in some neon lights. Turns out that's all it takes to make a darn fine video.

Slaughter, "Real Love"

Mark Hearts Brenda Shannen!  

THE VIDEO Slaughter, "Real Love," The Wild Life, 1992, Chrysalis SAMPLE LYRIC "Real love! / Won't somebody showw-owww me? / Real love! / Isn't anyone one truuu-uuue anymorrre? / Real love! / Won't somebody showw-owww me? / Real loooooove" 

THE VERDICT When you think of famous women who've made cameos in heavy metal videos — nay, many of whom made their careers in heavy metal videos — plenty of big names come to mind. Tawny Kitaen, Stephanie Seymour, perhaps even Bobbie Brown, she of "Cherry Pie" fame. 

How is it that in this pantheon of metal pulchritude we have forgotten none other than Shannen Doherty? Oh yeah, probably because she was in a Slaughter video. 

But 'tis true — Heather Duke from Heathers, better known as Brenda from Beverly Hills, 90210 stars as Mark Slaughter's love interest in the video for "Real Love." 

This is actually probably my favorite Slaughter song. I mean, the verses in "Up All Night" are great, but it's played to death, and besides, the kids singing are just creepy. If we're gonna get technical, I actually like Mark's work with the Vinnie Vincent Invasion better, but for the moment focusing on the Slaughter output, I like this song best. 

The video takes us, ostensibly, behind the scenes, both of the music video itself, and of whatever it is we're meant to believe Shannen Doherty is doing. We see the space where Slaughter perform the song as a video set, with crew members setting up the instruments, and all kinds of various cameras and lighting rigs visible in the early shots. Shannen Doherty is likewise first spotted behind the scenes, though it's unclear if she's in the same place or somewhere else. Assuming she's not in the same space, as it later appears, she looks to be arriving at some kind of photo shoot.

 

I always wonder about videos like this — does the camera crew just film itself? Or is there a second, fake camera crew that plays the camera crew, and the real camera crew films that? This video is full of shots of like the dollys, and the video being played back on monitors, and stuff like that. Is it just the real stuff they were using, or is there a second layer of real stuff behind it? 

It's hard to say, since this video looks like it was actually pretty high budget — it's easy to forget now, but at the time people really loved Slaughter. I mean this is their second album, which was way less big than the first, and they still are getting Shannen Doherty money. By their third album, they would have been lucky to get Gabrielle Carteris. 

Amusingly, for some reason there is a pay phone on the set of the Slaughter video. I like that the band would have to make phone calls on their own dime — so weird. Anyway, Mark Slaughter is looking all pensive on the phone as a guy comes and taps on the glass, apparently telling him to wrap it up.

We then get a shot of an old-school office phone ringing — you know the type, with a bunch of different light-up keys for different lines below the number pad? Okay if you're much younger than me, you probably don't even remember these, but suffice to say it's the early 90s, so they don't have cell phones. They don't even have giant Zack Morris cordless phones. 

No one picks up though, and from the beginning of this video, Mark is making faces like a puppy who's just been scolded for peeing in the house. Also, suddenly in this video he plays the guitar — well, he holds one anyway. 

Mark is clearly the star of this video, though we do see the other members of Slaughter a bit. Blas Elias has his de rigeur customized gong behind him, and the camera tries to ignore the fact that at this point he's obviously the best looking member of the band. This effort isn't helped by Dana Strum, who makes a progression of ultra-serious faces at the camera. Tim Kelly (RIP) is in it the least — he's kind of off to one side, and frequently hard to see due to spotlights shining at the camera.

 

Oh! There's Shannen! She's sitting at a makeup table piled with products, and looking despondently at the phone. Um well he was trying to call you earlier honey, but you didn't pick up! Oh no wait, one of the lights on the phone is blinking. 

Maybe he is still trying to call, but she's not answering? Or maybe that means she has a message? Dang, it's been so long that I can't remember how non-cellular phones work. Is Mark on hold? Well I guess that's only possible if he deposited a lot of quarters, so. Oh wait, no, now we see Mark is on the phone again. Just as quickly it's gone though. 

Can I mention that the use of spotlights in this video is particularly egregious. It keeps looking like there are small-scale explosions going on next to Dana, but it's just the lights shining straight into the camera. Why did people think this was such a cool visual effect? It's just annoying. And it had to be hella bright for the camera operator. 

Now Shannen's looking haughtily sad while she has her makeup done. I know I'm mixing my popular teen shows here, but she's looking quite Blair Waldorf at this moment. At last, we see what she's doing — it is a photo shoot. At first we see her posing in front of a fake city skyline. 

Then during the chorus we get close-up glamour shots of Shannen, which are interrupted by flashes of white — I think we're meant to believe this is the camera shooting photos of her. She's full Brenda at this point in time — heavy eyebrows, heavy straight bangs — but she looks quite pretty (what can I say, I always liked Kelly better). 

Anyway, now Mark's on the phone again, but Shannen's already in a cab. Interspersed with band footage, we get moody shots of Shannen having her hair done while looking sad, and Mark sitting alone off set. 

Next thing we know Shannen's doing a different photo shoot, sitting on sort of a weird chaise lounge while wrapped in a sheet. What are we supposed to believe these photos are for? For some reason they're being shot with an old-timey box camera. 

As we head into the guitar solo, the video gets even more plotless. It's like they started out with a sort of narrative arc or plan, and then didn't shoot enough, and had to just mix everything together. We get Shannen posing in black and white, Mark on the phone, Shannen in the cab, lots of shots of the crew (or is the fake crew?) filming the band, etc., with no real rhyme or reason. 

I mean throughout the whole video, I'm not even sure who's the villain here. Mark keeps whining about his desire for "Real Love," but is he the problem? Is Shannen? They both seem sad and like they want to talk to the other one. Or something. Maybe if I understood what the glowing buttons on her phone meant I'd be better able to puzzle this out.

 

Nope. I guess not. Mark makes a sort of sour face, and hangs up the pay phone, walking back to the video set. Shannen just rides off in her cab, an enigma. And that's it. The video just ends. Which one of them wasn't being "true anymore"? We'll never know. 

But I mean, we can guess. And my guess is that while they could afford to get Shannen Doherty to be in this video, they couldn't afford — or possibly, given her reputation for um, let's say prickly behavior — couldn't negotiate her really being in this video. 

Based on what we see here, we can safely assume Doherty and Slaughter never actually crossed paths in real life. They don't even use that favorite low-budget trick of showing the image of one superimposed beside the image of the other, implying they're, you know, thinking about each other or something. 

Instead, we just get an icy non-relationship between a singer and a model/actress. Boo! This is not very romantic. This is not "Real Love." This is called a gratuitous cameo. It doesn't buy us very much. Nor does it seem to buy Slaughter very much. 

Unlike Color Me Badd (who are featured extensively in an early episode of a show), or the zillion bands who grace the stage of the Peach Pit After Dark (including, improbably, the Flaming Lips), Slaughter never even made it onto 90210. 

I should point out though that Doherty's appearance marks the second time (that I know of thus far) that an actor from 90210 appears in a metal video. The third one, as we saw not too long ago, was Jason Wiles (aka "Colin") in Bon Jovi's "Always." And the first one? Well, it's pretty amazing — too amazing to waste on the last line of a post about a Slaughter video. So unless you already know what I'm talking about, you're just going to have to wait and see. 

And speaking of last words, just when I think I'm getting to have it, it turns out Beavis and Butt-head totally watched this video — I can't believe I forgot that. Season 5, Episode 11, "Career Day" — "Real Love" is the first video they watch. Suffice to say the boys do not have kind words for Ms. Doherty. 

My favorite part though is when Beavis freaks out while trying to spit out the numbers "90210", and Butt-head slaps him, saying "Beavis, next time you're talking about that show, just say 'Beverly Hills' and forget about the numbers, okay."

Crimson Glory, "Lonely"

The Men Behind the Masks  

THE VIDEO Crimson Glory, "Lonely," Transcendence, 1988, Roadracer/MCA 

SAMPLE LYRIC "She can't wait another night / take another day / she doesn't want to be / lonely in looooooove / lone-ly in looooooooove" 

THE VERDICT I should love this song, but I just can't get past the goofy metal Phantom of the Opera masks. I am pretty sure I have turned down Crimson Glory merchandise in the past — they're one of those bands like the BulletBoys or House of Lords where deadstock is very available, but for a reason. 

I get that it's sort of progressive metal, but IDK — given how accessible this song is, sonically and lyrically, they probably should've just dropped the masks. Crimson Glory sort of feel like Grim Reaper put on masks and tried to make a stealth comeback. Okay not really, it's just that both bands have made the bold move of going with pudgy-faced, unattractive frontmen with super-pouffy hair. And in this case, one who calls himself simply "Midnight" (RIP). 

Still, this isn't a bad song, and it's interesting because it's a very power ballad-y topic — a sad woman who feels lonely, heartbroken over a man she should have never been involved with in the first place — but they've made it into a much more rocking song. 

Usually rocking songs written from a woman's perspective are less sympathetic to the woman — sort of bad choices/good girl gone bad stuff ("Fallen Angel"), exploring the woman's secret sexy side ("Thrills in the Night"), or, of course, implying the woman is actually a homicidal killer who victimizes men ("Midnite Maniac"). 

 

So long story short, it's not a bad song. Unfortunately, this ridiculous video — like those ridiculous masks — doesn't do them any favors. 

The video alternates between footage of a blonde woman, mostly alone in a bed, and the band performing the song. The band members are each playing atop their own cube, each of which is bathing their crotches in blue light. Humongous amounts of dry ice fog drift through the room, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention the red laser lights up above. In all, the room looks like your standard-issue cheap laser tag place. 

Laser tag aside though, for me this video is oddly Vixen-esque. The band walking out at the beginning silhouetted in fog reminds me of "Edge of a Broken Heart," and singing a rockin' number from a realistic woman's perspective while standing on platforms reminds me of "Cryin'". (It's the addition of the song that makes the latter Vixen-like, since lots of bands sing on top of platforms — think Dio's "I Could Have Been a Dreamer" and W.A.S.P.'s "I Wanna Be Somebody".) 

Huge, ghost pirates-like amounts of dry ice fog provide all the transitions in this video, by blurring out the screen and allowing for a smooth switch to the next thing that's happening. We see the woman walking around through dry ice fog in a white lace bodystocking, with the guitarist superimposed over her. The lead singer, Midnight, regularly disappears and reappears in banks of dry ice fog. 

I like that it looks like they couldn't get the woman anywhere near the band. We mostly see her sort of rolling on her back in an all-white bed, looking concerned. It feels like it might be an ad for one of those depression medications or birth control pills that they're trying to expand into covering PMS, or for a feminine hygiene product. From the expression on her face, it appears she may be experiencing a 'not so fresh' feeling. And given the band's name... okay, let's just stop right there.

 

Also the room she's in is completely white, and it's tiny — for some reason, the bed is in the middle of the room, and it looks like there's only one to two feet between it and the wall on each side. Based on these dimensions, we can guess this is an apartment in Manhattan. 

Well, more seriously, based on the budget of this video, we can guess this is (best case scenario) a fake apartment set they made just for this video, or (worst case scenario) a fake apartment set they made in the bassist's mom's basement. 

The other way we see the woman is, as mentioned above, walking through the fog in a lace bodystocking. Is it the same gal? I'm assuming it is, even though the woman in the bed has very fine, straight blonde hair, and the woman walking around has a teased mane of it. (Hair products were strong in the 80s!) 

While the walking woman looks a bit different from the laying-down woman, I'm assuming they couldn't afford two models to be in the video. I would say also that having two women doesn't really makes sense, but given how little anything in this video makes sense, that probably wasn't a consideration. 

They do a quick meet-the-band sequence at the end of the video, but come on — they're all wearing black leather and those goofy masks! It's beyond impossible to tell who's who, especially without the instruments (which in the case of the two guitarists, still don't help). 

I mean yeah, each guy is taking his mask off for the camera, but given that they are semi-opaque and super-imposed over footage of them walking toward the camera, it's impossible to really tell what's going on. In any event, it doesn't really matter, as they finish walking past the camera and we're left with just dry ice fog and laser lights. 

P.S.: Sorry the quality of the images on this post aren't up to my usual standards — good copies of some of these more obscure videos are really hard to come by! 

P.P.S.: Re: the title, come on people! Alice Cooper, anyone?