Remember when Manowar guitarist Karl Logan played in a glam band? Well, if you’re not a native of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, PA area, you might not be familiar with Logan’s 80’s band, Arc Angel – thankfully there’s this video from 89/90 to remind us.
Technically, Arc Angel wasn’t a glam band, per se, but they certainly had the melodic hooks, the hair, and the heartbreaker good looks to steal a fan or two from the Bon Jovi camp at the time. Logan, then going by Carl with a C, already had the chops that Manowar’s Joey DeMaio would a few years later seek out in Logan after the pair’s chance meeting when Logan almost clipped DeMaio with his motorcycle, although not yet played at “Louder Than Hell” volume. Forming in 1982, Arc Angel was a huge club draw throughout the 80’s Scranton/Wilkes-Barre scene, packing clubs like The Station, Staircase Lounge, and Gallagher’s with a high-energy stage show that many believed would land the band a major label deal.
Arc Angel actually only managed one official release – a 45 rpm single cover of Smokey Robinson’s “Tracks of My Tears,” with a B-side called “Crazy For your Love.” They had several other unrecorded originals, like the song performed on this video clip from a local Scranton TV talent show called “Spotlight.” They also performed a few notable gigs beyond the clubs that Pennsylvania locals may remember, like a televised anti-drug benefit that packed a college gymnasium, with fellow Northeast PA native Jimmy Harnen (remember the top 40 hit ballad “Where Are You Now?”), backing Harnen on his track “You’re All I Know.”
Arc Angel packed it in at the dawn of the 90’s after, interestingly enough, adding Twisted Sister drummer A.J. Pero to the ranks for a short time. Logan always had a certifiable six-string pedigree – he took lessons from Scranton guitarist Charles Russello, who himself was a student of Paul Gilbert. Logan himself has always been active in offering scholarly guitar pursuit. Anyway, not a bad upgrade in gigs – small-town Pennsylvania clubs to “Warrior of the World.”
