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Another Friday
night another trip down the motorway to Bradford Rio, the event this time
is the tour of two of the biggest names in 80's rock.
With both bands seeing line-up changes
from their original band persona’s of the late 80's, the nucleus of both
bands remains the same, with House of Lords it’s the very presence of
vocalist James Christian that has always made the band for me, and in the
Vixen corner the gal who put the whole Vixen thing together guitarist Jan
Kuehnemund.
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But first the formality of the
support act. In this case it was London based band Jack Viper, a
band that have been described as a band who have “the speed of
Motorhead and the intensity of Guns n Roses” and “Easily one of
most exciting sleaze bands around today”.
A brave boast
indeed so with these quotes in mind I was really looking forward to
actually seeing if the lived up to all the recent publicity.
Sadly I
had caught the band on an off night as vocalist Jay R was suffering
from a severe cold and the usual poor sound set up that is reserved to
the support acts at Rio’s. |
The band tried their best but the lack of
enthusiasm from the few numbers that had decided to come to the venue
early (another familiar practice at Rio’s). The set was a little samey
song wise with the band looking rather uncomfortable on stage, whether this
a combination of nerves and Jay’s cold, I will have to see the band on
another occasion to judge.
The band did a seven song set that consisted of
songs of note like ‘Rock the Night’, ‘Merry Go Round’, ‘Murder City Blues,
and the charmingly titled ‘Go F**k Yourself', which were the pick of the
bunch for me. I would like to see this band again to compare shows, just to
see if tonight was just a one off and see whether the band could really live up to all the
praise they have been had heaped upon them by the rock press lately.
I have only one thing to say about what the
next three hours had in store and that is ... a hot night is Rio’s was
about to get even hotter.
On to the House of Lords who have gone
through a major line-up change since I caught them at Firefest II at
Nottingham Rock City in 2005, at which they headlined and totally blew me
away.
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Now in the year 2006 the band return with a new album
under their belts and a new line-up. I for one feel that this line-up is a
much stronger animal that the one I witnessed perform at Firefest. James Christian and Co have
returned to the stages of the UK to put the name of House of Lords well
and truly back on
peoples lips.
Joining James tonight on stage were Jimi
Bell on guitars, BJ Zampa on drums, and replacing Jeff Kent on bass for
this tour was Jeff Scott Soto's bassist Chris McCarvill.
The band opened up in emphatic style with
‘Sahara’ from the bands debut release and as if by magic a vast crowd had
just appeared. It was as if you'd just opened a packet of powdered audience that
simply required you to add water, or alcohol ..., whichever seems more appropriate to
the night. This once again is a quite unique phenomena that I have
now witnessed on
numerous occasions at Rio's.
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Then it was straight into ‘Talkin Bout
Love’ from the Demons Down album and it's plain to hear that Christian
still has a mighty set of pipes on him, as this song sounds just as it did
all those years ago.
With James announcing that we would hear
something off every House of Lords album, this met with a great roar of approval by
all the House of Lords fans out in the crowd.
The set continued with ‘Love Don’t Lie’,
also taken from the band self titled debut release and once again I was just
swept away by the majesty of Christian's vocals.
The band then heralded the new era in their history with a track
taken from the new album World Upside Down, the sassy
‘Rock Bottom’, with Bell just ripping out some magnificent riffs on this
one. The set continued with ‘SOS’, also from the new album, and this like the
previous song, sounded great live.
Then it was time to go back to the
classic cuts with ‘ Edge of Your Life’, before it was back to the new album
for ‘All The Way To Heaven’ and another splendid live rendition.
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Now for a song that first got me into the
band and one that is instantly recognizable as House of Lords the
superlative ‘I Wanna Be Loved’. The band had managed to mix the old House
of Lords splendidly with the new with great ease and the well balanced set
continued with ‘These Are The Times’ and ‘Can't Find My Way Home’, with
Christian taking up the guitar for the later.
The set continued to go from strength to
strength with ‘I’m Free’ and the surprise package for me at least, the
inclusion of the infamous ‘Pleasure Palace’, which ended with a short solo from Bell
leading nicely into the final song ‘Slip Of The Tongue’, which rounded off
a magnificent set and one that would be hard to follow.
So were Vixen up for the challenge of
following a great set by Christian and Co ... you bet they were!
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Vixen opened up with ‘Love Makes You
Blind’ and immediately the band up for the gig with Jena SanzAgero showing
what a great vocalist she is and Lynn Lowrey giving it all on the bass and
the glue that holds its all together Jan Kuehnemund ripping it up on the
lead guitar with drummer Kat Kraft thrashing out the beats behind the
drums.
The set continued in similar vein with
‘Anyway’ the first song tonight off the bands new album ‘Live And Learn’
which is now due for an October release, then it was back to the band
second album ‘Rev It Up’ for ‘Street In Paradise’ with Jena Sanz-Agero
giving this her own personal touch by making this a little more hard edged
feel than the original and in my opinion a better version than the
original album version.
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Then it was back to the new album for the
title track ‘Live And Learn’ with Jena donning a guitar of her own for
this one. The band went from the new back to old without a breath and
then
went straight into the classic ‘How Much Love’, quickly followed by a rocking rendition
of ‘Rock Me Roll Me’, with a little audience participation with the mix of
‘We Will Rock You’ thrown in for good measure.
By now the band were really going for it,
especially bassist Lyn Lowrey whose antics were very reminiscent of a mix
between Marco Mendoza and Gene Simmons, and on ‘Love Is A Killer’ she
really was pulling out all the stops, as was Kuehnemund as she showed what
a great guitar player she is.
Then it was back to the new album for the next
one ‘Pacifist’. By this time the band were on fire as they continued with
one of my favourite Vixen songs ‘Cryin’, before another very impressive
song off the new album ‘You Wish’.
By the time the band had reached the climax of the show the doors of Rio’s
had been opened for the regular clubbers, who arrived just in time to see
the band really show what they are made of with the classics ‘Rev It Up’,
‘Cruisin’, and what Vixen set wouldn’t be complete without the show
stopper ‘Edge Of A Broken Heart’.
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With just a short break giving them just enough
time to catch their breath, the band returned to give an outstanding version of
Bowie’s ‘Suffragette City’, which rounded off a quite superb set and a
great night of old school rock n roll. |
