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After seeing the
Phil Lewis fronted LA Guns 16 months ago, I was a little wary of this latest
incarnation of the band. Hailed as the original line-up of the band,
which in all honestly was just Paul Black on vocals, Tracii Guns on
guitars, Tracii’s son Jeremy on bass and filling in for Nicky Alexander we
had Chad Stewart on drums. Not exactly the original line-up they
were billing themselves as, but enough of them to draw a modest crowd for
tonight’s gig.
But first up the
supports. First up were Jack Viper who themselves have had a line-up
change for this tour. Replacing vocalist Jay R who couldn’t make
this tour for reasons beyond the bands control, was David Domminney who
stood up to the mike and gave his all, despite having to rely on the
lyrics being written down in front of him on stage. Despite this fact I
found his vocals more to my liking than Jay R’s, but this is just my
opinion.
The band rampaged through the set which included the tracks
‘0800 F**k You’, ‘Walk The Line’ ‘Blown Away’ and ‘Murder City Blues’,
finishing off the set with ‘Go F**k Yourself’ with Domminney strapping on
a guitar and showing he’s a fine guitar player as well a good standby
vocalist. |
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Now on to the
second act on tonight’s bill, the legends in their own bedtime that is Red
Star Rebel’s. A band who I have given mixed reviews to in the past
mainly due to the bands onstage persona’s that sometimes get the better of
them, as they try to live the Rock N' Roll dream.
The band have
immense talent but after their somewhat disappointing set at last years
Wildside Festival in Nottingham, I was a little hesitant at seeing them
live once more. But give them their dues, they do put 110% into
every show whether they are on top form or not and thankfully they were on
form tonight. Maybe not at their best, but they were a vast
improvement from their Wildside showing.
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With frontman
Blackie you don’t know how he is going to be on stage. Sometimes he
just looks bored with the whole thing and other times he’s the
quintessential sleaze band frontman and tonight was a little more of the
latter as the band set about re-establishing my faith in them. The
band got things going with the excellent ‘On My Way Too Hollywood’ and the
equally impressive ‘Nicky Heartache’.
Then it was time
for drummer Stevie Rebel to stand aloft the drum kit with drumsticks
ablaze as the band went into one of my favourite Rebel songs ‘Too Young
Too Care’ and with Meady’s twin guitar intro, I was really starting to
respect the band once more.
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Another
favourite of mine is the bands Every Rose Has Its Thorn/Home Sweet Home
style song the very impressive ‘The Fast Die Young And Pretty’, before
rocking things up once more with the catchy ‘Aint Love A Bitch’ and the
classy ‘Victory Victoria' and ‘Lost Soul’.
The band finished on a
high with the Rock N' Roll anthem ‘Your Just Another Drug I Gotta Kick’,
which rounded off a very impressive return to form by the band. This is
the performance I expected at Wildside and not the five wannabe’s that
were on stage that day.
Now on to the main
event LA Guns, or should I say The Tracii Guns band as they should still be
called. No disrespect to Paul Black, but he is no Phil Lewis, who will always
be the voice of LA Guns in my eyes. Even though Paul wrote material for the
first album and has released demos of him performing the songs well before
Lewis under the Black City Breakdown 1985-86 title, his vocals aren’t a
match for Lewis’s. But what you did get with Black was a show and with Guns
ripping up the guitar like he was born with it around his neck and with
his son Jeremy on bass, he seemed at his most relaxed in a long time, as he
seem to enjoy playing guitar once more.
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With a set that
would be predominantly from the self-titled debut from LA Guns with a mix
of material from both the new album and stuff evolving Guns himself.
Things got
underway with ‘Feel The Fire’ before delving into the first LA Guns album
for ‘No Mercy’, ‘One More Reason’ and ‘One Way Ticket’. Which is in fact the
only song on the self titled debut to show Black as one of the writers and
in fact it’s the only mention Black gets on said album.
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The set was split
up with ‘You Cant Always Get What You Want’ and ‘Ballad of Jayne’, the only
track taken from Cocked And Loaded, but the highlight of the night for me
was when Tracii’s son Jeremy took up the mike for a storming version of
the Brides of Destruction track ‘Shut The Fuck Up’. Then it was back to
Black for ‘Sex Action’, mixed with a little ‘Paint It Black’ before Tracii
Guns ripped it up with a great guitar solo finishing off with a little
AC/DC in the form of ‘Hell Bells’.
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'Never Enough' was
next before Black decided to do a little crowd surfing as they went into
‘Liquid Diamond’ before finishing off with what else but ‘Electric Gypsy’.
It wasn’t long before Black returned to the stage to give us an impromptu
drum solo, after which he was joined by the rest of the band who then did a
three song encore which included ‘Over The Edge’, ‘Don’t Worry Baby’,
finishing off with ‘Rip and Tear’.
All of which rounded off an altogether
disappointing set. I would rather it been Phil Lewis and Guns together, or
maybe Guns with a different vocalist doing new material under a different
banner, but I suppose we can't have it all ways. Let's hope that this may come about in
the not too distant future and god forbid we don’t get the Saxon scenario
with two bands under one name. |
The only saving
grace of the night was the fact that Red Star Rebels are back on course.
Although shortly after this tour ended we were saddened by the news that Stevie
Rebel has left the band due to damage to his hand. We wish him all the best
for the future, whatever it may bring. |
