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As a first time visitor to Stockton’s Arc
I must admit I was impressed by the organisation and layout of the venue,
this is the venue's regular 'all ages' night and believe me the youth of
Stockton was out in force tonight.
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The venue was indeed packed to the
rafters with youthful exuberance as the first band came on stage the
place nearly erupted. Local favourites Get Vegas are a band that
I have seen now on numerous occasions and each time they impress me
with their professionalism both on and off stage and boy can these
guys can rock. Fronted by the very capable vocals of Jonny Cole, a
young man who has one hell of a voice.
The band opened up the proceedings
with 'Mr Rock N Roll' and from the off the crowd went bezerk as an
instant mosh pit evolved just in front of me. I was exhausted
just watching them!
The band then went into ‘What Did
Your Mamma Tell You’, which seemed to fuel the swelling crowd, which seemed
to be getting younger and younger. By this time the band were in full
flow, especially newest member guitarist Rik who was relishing what
has to be one of the biggest audiences the band have played before and
this fact really seemed to fill them with confidence as each song
unfolded. |
The set continued with one of my
favourites from the band ‘Hot Lovin’, which was started off by a short
drum solo by skins man Martin Saint. Then it was time for a bit of
Redneck boogie with ‘The River’, another great song and one where Rik led
the way with some quite superb guitars, this was backed by the very
capable bass playing skills of Adam Laing.
Then it was back to the rock with
‘Burning Soul’, another song where vocalist Cole really excels and which
started off with a little slide guitar from Rik, who I must admit has
fitted in well with the rest of the band and his enthusiasm to get to the
mike and whip up the crowd has given the band a little more stage
presence.
With the bands set almost at a close it
was time to pull out the big guns with the excellent ‘Sweet Honey’ and to
close the set ‘Bonamassa’.
This band have grown in stature since I
first saw them and with a number of gigs lined up out of Stockton I’m sure
they will make an impression on a great many others like they have on me
and will go on to bigger and better things.
As I said at the beginning this was an
all ages gig and after Get Vegas left the stage it was time for a beer so
off to the bar we trotted, only to find the bar upstairs wasn’t selling
alcohol, so we had to go downstairs to the main bar to get a drink, which
we then had to consume there and weren’t allowed to return to the main
concert area because of all the young impressionable young minds there
with any drink. Some of which I hasten to add had definitely been on
the Lambrini before they entered the venue. So due to this we missed
most if not all of the second band on tonight’s bill King Phillip, so my
apologies go out to them.
On our return from the bar we managed to
get a seat over viewing the crowd and settled down for the headliners.
Rattlesnake Remedy are a band that I
first caught supporting Love Hate at Bradford Rios and was mighty
impressed by them and have since seen on numerous occasions.
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The band have been on tour for a dogs
age now and the rigours of touring the country may have taking its
toll on them physically, but on stage they still manage to give 110%
and led by the extravert talents of vocalist Lee Stone, the rest of
the band seem to feed off his energy as he spins around stage like a
whirling Dervish.
The band open a now familiar set with
‘Black Sheep Fiddle’ and once again the crowd broke into another mosh
pit (to be honest a mosh pit broke out at every opportunity).
The set contained most of the songs
from the bands forthcoming debut release 'Magic Man', including the
gentle blues of ‘Hangover Blues’ a song that some of the young crowd
will be familiar with the next day. |
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The barnstorming funky ‘Killing Time’ to
which Stone invited the audience to dance, which you can probably already
guess it involved yet another moshing.
Stone was in fine form tonight as he
managed to cover every available space on stage with his presence, he has
to be one of the most animated vocalists I’ve seen for such a long time
and was particularly in good voice for the up tempo ‘Reach For The Line’.
Then he announced it was time to take a
ride, or was it trip? ... as the band went into the title track of the new
album ‘Magic Man'.
The set came to a close with the bands
first single released last May the excellent ‘Drag You Down’, this rounded
off another sterling performance by a much under rated band who deserve
another top support slot to bring their sleazy blues rock n roll to a much
bigger audience and with the release of the album imminent this would be
an ideal time to do so.
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