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Well as last minute decisions go to
check out a band, this has got to be one of the best and well worthy of the
300 mile round trip down to Sheffield to see the mighty Buckcherry as part
of their warm up for this years Download Festival.
To kick the night off were local band
Silverjet, a band that have come a long way since their incarnation back
in 2000, with varying band member changes along the way but with the band that
we now know consisting of frontman and guitarist Dave Kerr, Andy Mewse
also on guitar, Paul Oates on bass and completing the line-up Jon
Hardcastle on drums.
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The band opened up their hard rocking
account with songs both old and new and got things underway with a
personal favourite of mine the immense ‘Mardigras’, which got things
started the way a good rock show should, with driving riffs and a thumping
rhythm section which continued throughout their short but impressive set.
The band seem to have thrown the shackles
of their heroes The Dogs D’Amour and The Quireboys sound away and have
developed their own sound as the new songs included in tonight’s set
showed to great effect, with one of these being the excellent ‘Love’, a
real rockers delight. The band did what they a good support band is meant
to do and warm
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up the crowd and they did throughout
their half hour slot which came to a climax with ‘Face To Face’, which
kept their old fans happy as well as the new ones who had never seen
the band before pointed out to me after their rousing set. |
Next up were London based The Venus Guns
who brought a whole new sound to the night. The band are one of those bands
that you will either hate or simply admire for bringing something new to the
already genre laden world of rock. The band have that unique attribute of
being something totally different with a sound that I can only describe as
mix between The Doors and Aerosmith and with frontman Jay’s vocals the
band are definitely working on being different and certainly influenced by what’s
hot and what's not.
The band got things going with ‘Angry
Pig’ and instantly they made people turn to the stage and take notice,
whether it was for praise or retribution they did get themselves talked
about and as they continued their set with ‘Vontease’ they began to win
over the vast majority of the crowd, who to be honest were only waiting for
the arrival of Buckcherry.
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There were a couple of highlights for me
as well as the two openers the country vibe of ‘I’m On Ya’ and the up
tempo rocker ‘Leadfoot’ really stood out from the rest, with the
latter rounding off a very interesting set.
Now the main reason for our journey, a
band that I have been looking forward to seeing live ever since their self
titled debut album and not being a fan of staying in a tent at festivals,
the band's announcement of some warm up shows prior to Download gave the
perfect opportunity to see them live.
As the venue was reaching its capacity it
was clear that I wasn’t the only one who took snap at the chance of seeing
their heroes live in a venue where you can actually see the band for one.
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As the lights went down and the band
slowly came on stage a unanimous cheer went out an even louder cheer went
out a frontman Josh Todd came and took his position centre stage and
announced it was “TIME TO ROCK”...
And rock they did as they opened things
up with ‘So Far’ from the bands new album ‘15 Minutes’ with Todd doing
what he was destined to do, entertain the masses, and from the off he did
just that with the rest of the band equally charged up for the show. At this the
storming set continued with another from the ‘Fifteen’ album this time
with ‘Broken Glass’, which sounded superb on CD but live it was just
awesome.
By now the crowd were just hyper and as
the set continued they just got even more so, so when the band went into
their back catalogue in particular the 'Timebomb' album for ‘Porno Star’ and
‘Fall’ the place just erupted.
With the majority of the set
concentrating on the new album it was back to it for ‘Out of Line’ which
saw a little audience participation as they clapped along and then things
were brought down just a touch (and I mean a touch) with ‘Everything’,
before really bringing things down with ‘Sorry’, a real smoothy of a track
which is magic on disc but live it's just a monster.
It was time to bring things back up to
speed with the first single off the new album the obvious crowd favourite
‘Crazy Bitch’ and the equally superb ‘Next 2 You’ with both guitarists
Keith Nelson and Stevie D just ripping things up and with Xavier Muriel
thrashing away on the drums and Jimmy Ashhurst pounding out the bass, this
was one of the many highlights of the show for me.
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The band returned to 'Timebomb' for ‘Ridin’,
another crowd favourite then once again it was back to ‘Fifteen’ for
‘Onset’, which Todd informed us was about leaders. The band got a
chance to get their breath back on ‘You’ before really going to town with
‘Slam’n', then it was time for the one that we all wanted to hear and the
one that really got the ball moving for the band, both because of the
superb musical content, but also because of its lyrical content, the show
stopping ‘Lit Up’, which really saw the crowd throw away their inhibitions
as they just congealed into a mass of excited sweaty bodies.
The band left the stage at this point but
it wasn’t long before they returned to put the icing on the cake with
‘Brooklyn’, another of those tracks that sounds alright
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on CD but live it’s a totally different
animal. It has loads more bite and ferocity, something that
you just can't capture in the studio. This rounded off a great night of
pure honest Rock N' Roll and if this was a warm up show for Download, then
when the band hit the stage there, you better get the fire brigade on stand
by, because if this show is anything to go by then they will set the stage
on fire. So if you're going down to Download this year, no matter what you're
doing or what bands you're into, you have to check out Buckcherry as you
won't be disappointed.
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