By J.R. Taylor

We all know the official fate of ’80s hair-metal bands. Their members are fodder for reality shows, and any hit songs are set aside for mock head banging over overpriced cocktails. There’s still a forgotten subset of talented thrushy bastards who rebelled against the tyranny of grunge. Some were making their debuts as late as 1989. History’s certainly been kinder to those metalheads than to the Grand Funk-influenced crap out of Seattle.

Some of those daring acts are even staying on the road. This week’s BulletBoys show is supposedly part of an official 20th anniversary tour, and that’s probably accurate. The debut album didn’t come out until late 1988. By then, any self-respecting younger executive had lost interest. Flashy frontman Marq Torien had seen the best of times when he sat in on a Ratt tour as guitarist, but glammish metal was fading fast.

Never mind that the world could’ve used a new Van Halen. The music press was already addled enough to take Alice In Chains more seriously than the blues-rock of a band like Cinderella. Nobody’s saying that Cinderella was a great blues-rock act; it’s just that the aging ’80s band was more deserving of insane hype.

As it turned out, Skid Row would be the only latent metal act to get proper attention—if not appreciation. BulletBoys’ self-titled debut was certainly fun enough to trump the tired face of college-rock. Then things went wrong with 1991’s Freakshow. That one remains one of the great misfires of metal history. BulletBoys managed a minor hit with their cover of Tom Waits’ “Hang On, St. Christopher,” but that ambition was part of the problem.

A lot of momentum had been lost with a sophomore album three years in the making. That was a unique gap back then, and critics had only become more slavish in their sense of sanctioned cool. At the very least, Freakshow deserves credit for some unwieldy limited-edition packaging that wouldn’t be equaled until Tool came along.

By 1993’s Za-Za, it was too late for BulletBoys to reclaim their pop-metal edge. They might as well have been Enuff Z’nuff. That still wasn’t enough to make BulletBoys fade away. Torien kept the band going with the support of disaffected industrial types. There was even the inevitable turn on the Cleopatra label with lousy reworkings of their greatest hits. Longtime fans were rewarded with a proper compilation a few years later.

Anyway, BulletBoys hold up better than Damn Yankees and Screaming Trees—and any subsequent solo pursuits from either band. A recent live album even suggests that Torien can keep hitting the high notes. Show these underdogs some support, and maybe they’ll come by next year on a bill with Lillian Axe. And have they made it onto a Grand Theft Auto soundtrack yet? Someone should get to work on that.

Nov. 26, The Cutting Room, 19 W. 24th St. (betw. B’way & 6th Ave.), 212-691-1900, 9, $15.