Aquanett Brings the Big Hair, Big Guitars and ’80s Metal Back to the Charlestown Rathskeller
Aquanett at the Charlestown Rathskeller turns the Rathskeller’s outdoor stage into a full-blown ’80s rock show Friday, September 18, with three hours of Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe, Whitesnake, Poison, Aerosmith and the other bands that ruled rock radio and MTV.
Aquanett takes the stage from 8 to 11 p.m. at the Charlestown Rathskeller’s wooded Down Back music venue.
Tickets are $15 in advance plus Eventbrite fees or $20 at the door, and this is a 21+ outdoor show.
The Rathskeller suggests arriving early for dinner and drinks.
That might be the calmest part of the evening.
Aquanett Has Been Doing This Since the ’80s Were Still a Recent Memory
There are plenty of bands playing ’80s covers.
Aquanett has spent more than a quarter-century trying to recreate what it actually felt like to attend an ’80s hard-rock concert.
The Springfield, Massachusetts-based group formed in late 1999 and played its first shows in early 2000.
That timing is interesting.
The members weren’t looking back on the ’80s from 40 years away. They launched Aquanett less than a decade after Nirvana, Pearl Jam and the alternative-rock explosion had pushed much of the music they loved out of the mainstream.
They went in the opposite direction.
Big guitar solos.
Big choruses.
Lights.
Costumes.
Special effects.
And, naturally, very big hair.
Aquanett celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2020 and has continued touring throughout the Northeast since then.
This Isn’t an ’80s Pop Dance Party
The decade was big enough to contain Madonna, Duran Duran, Cyndi Lauper, Prince, Michael Jackson and New Kids on the Block.
That’s not Aquanett’s neighborhood.
Their show is rooted firmly in the hard rock and metal side of the 1980s, particularly the bands that turned Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip into rock-and-roll mythology.
Think Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, Mötley Crüe, Guns N’ Roses, Def Leppard and Poison.
Add Aerosmith and other arena-rock heavyweights and you get a much better idea of what Friday night will sound like.
This is music built around distorted guitars, soaring vocals, enormous hooks and choruses specifically engineered for several thousand people to sing simultaneously.
Aquanett brings that attitude to a considerably more intimate backyard in Charlestown.
The Band Wants to Recreate the Concert, Not Just the Songs
Aquanett’s own description makes a point of separating the group from a conventional cover band standing in the corner of a bar.
The musicians use a complete stage production with lighting, effects, costumes and theatrical presentation intended to evoke the excess of an actual 1980s rock concert.
That’s an important distinction.
A convincing version of a Def Leppard song is one thing.
Recreating the era requires some spectacle.
The clothes mattered.
The poses mattered.
The guitar heroics mattered.
MTV mattered enormously.
By the middle of the decade, a band’s image and its music had become almost inseparable.
Aquanett leans into all of it.
MTV Changed What a Rock Star Looked Like
When MTV went on the air in 1981, it gave rock musicians something previous generations didn’t have: a national television outlet playing music videos around the clock.
Suddenly, sounding like a rock star wasn’t enough.
You needed to look like one.
For the hard-rock bands that followed, subtlety wasn’t particularly useful.
Hair grew.
Stages grew.
Pyrotechnics grew.
Music videos became miniature movies.
Bands such as Mötley Crüe, Poison and Bon Jovi understood that perfectly, while Def Leppard became one of the defining rock acts of the MTV era.
By the late ’80s, Guns N’ Roses had injected something darker and more dangerous into the formula.
Aquanett’s show draws from that whole period rather than treating the decade as one interchangeable collection of nostalgic hits.
Meet the Current Aquanett
Aquanett currently lists Madison Humel, Michael Abdow, David Ward, Matthew Macri, Rick Thompson and Edmond H. Dupont III as its performing lineup, with Ian Jones handling sound engineering.
Humel is the newest chapter in the band’s history.
A longtime vocalist who grew up around music, she developed through theater, singing competitions and choral ensembles before spending more than a decade performing with bands, established musicians and tribute acts.
She studied with local musician Livio Gravini and credits him with teaching her to make authenticity the foundation of a performance.
That becomes particularly important when you’re stepping into songs originally sung by some of the most recognizable rock vocalists of the 1980s.
Michael Abdow Has a Career Far Beyond the Tribute Circuit
Guitarist Michael Abdow brings some serious progressive-metal credentials to the stage.
He’s an international recording and touring musician, songwriter and producer whose work includes Fates Warning and longtime Fates Warning vocalist Ray Alder.
Across his career, Abdow has released four solo albums, appeared on numerous other recordings and toured on four continents.
He’s also been featured in major guitar publications for his technical and melodic playing.
And he’s been doing this particular gig for a long time.
Abdow joined Aquanett in 2008.
For a band recreating an era in which the lead guitarist was often nearly as important as the singer, having a player with that background makes a difference.
David Ward Has Been There Since the Beginning
Guitarist David Ward goes back to Aquanett’s formation.
Ward grew up studying the guitar styles of Van Halen, Ozzy Osbourne and Iron Maiden, later taking private lessons, attending a Connecticut guitar workshop and studying music theory at Holyoke Community College.
During the 1990s, he played in hard-rock and metal bands including Sweet Tragedy, Aces High and Straw Dogs.
Then came Aquanett.
Ward joined the Springfield-area project in late 1999, just as the group was taking shape, and played its first shows in early 2000.
He’s remained with it for more than two decades.
Along the way, Ward has even played alongside Mötley Crüe vocalist Vince Neil and Extreme drummer Paul Geary.
For someone who built his playing around the music of that period, those are pretty appropriate names to have on the résumé.
Aquanett Has Survived Longer Than the Era It Recreates
There’s an amusing bit of arithmetic here.
The period most people think of as the classic hair-metal explosion didn’t last very long.
By the early 1990s, musical tastes were changing rapidly. Grunge and alternative rock became dominant, and many of the bands that had filled arenas only a few years earlier suddenly seemed to belong to another age.
Aquanett itself has now existed for more than 26 years.
That’s considerably longer than the period of popular music it recreates.
And the audience hasn’t disappeared.
If anything, several generations can now recognize the songs.
Some remember buying the records when they were new.
Others discovered them through older siblings or parents.
Some weren’t alive until years after the last can of Aqua Net had been emptied backstage.
The choruses still work.
The Rathskeller Has Already Brought Aquanett Back This Year
September 18 isn’t Aquanett’s first trip to Charlestown in 2026.
The band played the Rathskeller on June 20, and its return less than three months later says something about the fit between band and venue.
Aquanett’s own current tour calendar lists the Charlestown show between dates across Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and New Hampshire.
Earlier this month, the group played its annual Labor Day weekend show at the Windjammer in Westerly, followed by appearances at the Three County Fair and MGM Springfield.
After Charlestown, the tour heads to Saratoga Springs and Clinton, Massachusetts.
So this isn’t a local band occasionally assembling for an ’80s night.
Aquanett maintains an active regional touring schedule.
Down Back Is Built for This Kind of Night
The Charlestown Rathskeller is a restaurant, tavern and live-music venue tucked into the woods at 489A Old Coach Road.
Its history stretches back to 1933, when the Rathskeller began life as a speakeasy-era establishment.
The modern property combines a restored dining room and tavern with an outdoor patio, bars and its seasonal Down Back entertainment area.
Down Back sits across the backyard from the restaurant.
There’s an outdoor stage, backyard bar, burger shack, bonfire and room for lawn games including cornhole and bocce.
It’s intentionally less polished than an indoor theater.
That’s part of the attraction.
You can arrive early, eat, have a drink and then head outside for the show rather than treating dinner and the concert as two completely separate outings.
Come Early if You Want Dinner
The Rathskeller’s kitchen is open until 10 p.m. Friday, while the tavern itself remains open until 1 a.m.
The restaurant’s regular menu leans toward hearty tavern food: burgers and sandwiches, grilled meats, seafood and shareable appetizers.
The venue specifically encourages Aquanett ticket holders to arrive early for dinner and drinks before the 8 p.m. show.
That’s probably the better plan if you’re actually hungry.
Once Aquanett gets going, abandoning your spot halfway through Pour Some Sugar on Me because you suddenly remembered dinner may seem like a questionable life choice.
Friday’s Show Is Outside
One detail worth knowing before buying a ticket: this is an outdoor performance.
Aquanett’s concert listing identifies the September 18 Rathskeller date as a 21+ outside show.
The Down Back setting is one of the reasons the Rathskeller has become such a busy warm-weather music venue, but outdoor concerts inevitably come with weather considerations.
Anyone attending should check the venue and band’s event pages before leaving if Friday’s forecast becomes questionable.
No separate rain location or rain-date arrangement is advertised in the current ticket information.
$15 Now or $20 at the Door
Advance tickets are $15 plus Eventbrite fees.
Admission rises to $20 at the door.
The show runs from 8 to 11 p.m.
Eventbrite lists a refund policy allowing refunds until seven days before the event, so that window is effectively closed for anyone buying during event week.
The Rathskeller also warns that tickets may sell quickly.
This is not an all-ages event.
Aquanett’s own listing specifies 21+ for the Charlestown performance.
There May Be No Better Setting for Three Hours of Musical Excess
The joke about ’80s hair metal is that everything was too much.
Too much hair.
Too many guitar solos.
Too much spandex.
Too many lights.
Too much hairspray.
Too much everything.
That’s also exactly why the music remains so much fun to revisit.
Nobody wrote Livin’ on a Prayer hoping the audience would quietly appreciate its restraint.
These were songs built to be played loudly in a room full of people who already knew the chorus.
Aquanett has spent more than 25 years preserving that part of the experience.
On September 18, they’ll bring it outside to a stage in the woods of Charlestown.
Tease the hair accordingly.
Details
Event: Aquanett at the Charlestown Rathskeller
Date: Friday, September 18, 2026
Time: 8–11 p.m.
Location: The Charlestown Rathskeller, Down Back outdoor music venue
Address: 489A Old Coach Road, Charlestown, RI 02813
Band: Aquanett
Music: 1980s hard rock and metal tribute
Current Band Members: Madison Humel, Michael Abdow, David Ward, Matthew Macri, Rick Thompson and Edmond H. Dupont III
Age: 21+
Advance Tickets: $15 plus Eventbrite fees
Door Price: $20
Setting: Outdoor show
Food: The Rathskeller serves lunch and dinner; the venue encourages concertgoers to arrive early for dinner and drinks
Kitchen Hours Friday: Noon–10 p.m.
Rathskeller Friday Hours: Noon–1 a.m.
Parking: On-site parking is available at the Rathskeller
Weather: Outdoor event; check with the venue for any weather-related changes
Contact: 401-792-1000
More information is available at the Event Website link below.
To purchase tickets, click the Event Ticketing link below.
Featured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people, location, or activities shown.