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Once again
were back at Bradford Rio for the 3rd time in a week.
This time to see the mighty Statetrooper. But alas the crowd is somewhat
thin on the ground, which leads me to question what has happened to the
rock fan in Yorkshire? If they can't be bothered to attend a local
venue then the number of bands willing to play said venue will diminish.
But enough of my warbling and to the show.
Opening up for Statetrooper on this mini tour are the reborn Deadline.
With the introduction of new front man Dale Radcliffe, the whole
Deadline sound has been reshaped and rebooted beyond recognition.
The band have come out stronger than ever and this has made them a force
to be reckoned with. Bringing forth tonight a set that even
includes a mixture of older Deadline songs with a couple of new songs
mixed in for good measure, the band set out to impress and do just that.
The likes of 'Out of Reach' sounded so fresh. New song 'Exit
Wound' being a prime example of the new direction the band are going in
now. The songs have a harder edge them, while still retaining that
melodic feel to them.
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other new track 'Dream of Me' just has to be heard to be
believed. It shows a maturity in the quality of song
writing that the band have failed to provide in the past.
The band finished off their set perfectly with Skin's 'Look But
Don’t Touch', which is something that the old Deadline
couldn’t have gotten away with in a million years.
New front man
Dale has the ability to take this band that stage further.
His stage presence and interactivity with the audience never
ceased to amaze me. Anyone witnessing the bands
performance tonight would have thought they were playing for a
crowd of 10,000 the way Mr Radcliffe worked the crowd. Now
that's what I call a lead singer!
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In fact the
energy he exudes from every pore seems to be rapidly being absorbed by
the rest of the band as they now seem physically more chilled out and
happy in what they are doing. I kid you not, they even smile and
move about the stage now which is something I can't remember them ever
doing before. This once two dimensional band have been given the
kiss of life and for the first time in a great many years they seem to
have remembered that being in band is meant to be fun.
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My
personal feeling are that the band have been held back for too
many years with former vocalist Steve Lunn and a change of name
to go with the new sound and direction of the band seems the way
to go. The work ethic of the band over the years is second to
none and they have supported some of the biggest names in the
melodic rock genre and haven’t gotten the breaks. Hopefully
this new lease of life will bring them just rewards. |
Now to
Statetrooper, a band that I first seen live at the ill fated 'Night of
Rock' at The Boardwalk in Sheffield earlier this year. The bands
performance at that event impressed me greatly, enough to make me want
to come on out tonight and check their live set out again. I've
been a fan of Gary Barden since his MSG days so it's always a great
honour to watch this master at work.
Being the pros that Statetrooper are, they put on a show despite the
audience numbers being somewhat on the slim side. I guess the band
have been away for so long that it's going to take a bit of time for
word to get out that 'the boys' are back in town. In fact they're
not only back, but they're ready to rock you like you've not been rocked
in a long time.
Their set didn't stray too far from the one they played at The
Boardwalk, with the majority of tracks coming from their latest release
'The Calling'. An album that is well worth checking out if you
haven't had a chance to do so already. The only line-up changes
from that at Sheffield was the introduction of a new drummer to the
ranks, and the seemingly lack of a keyboard player, although this later
fact didn't affect the bands performance at all.
Opening up
with the title track off said new album, Barden was in great fettle and
guitarists Jeff Summers and Martin Mikkels are as sharp as ever.
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The
next song 'Casablanca' is a personal favourite of mine off the
same album and is just as good live. This was quickly
followed by 'I'm Alive' which was described by Gary as a ...
''behind the bike shed song''. By this time the band were
really starting to enjoy the gig and were having heaps of fun on
stage. Which from a fans point of view is always great to
see, after all why should we be the only ones having a ball?
The bands first
album may have been released by in 1989, but the track 'Shape Of
Things To Come' still fits into the set amongst the bands newer
songs, and still sounds solid.
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But the
highlight of the new album 'Amerasians' the hard hitting track about the
Vietnam war is the next track and sounds even better live if that was at
all possible. The next three songs 'Don't Say Goodbye', 'D.O.A'
and 'How Does It Feel' are once again off the new album, and once again
Martin Mikkels shines on all three tracks, especially on D.O.A.
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only other track off the bands first album played tonight is 'Veni
Vichi Vinci', which the band have to use a sample keyboard
intro. To which Gary Barden informs us he doesn’t like
using, but hey needs must. Again the quality of Summers
song writing means that the song doesn’t suffer from the lack
of keyboards.
The last track is
the awesome 'Twilights Last Gleaming'. After which the
band dispense with the formalities of leaving the stage only to
come back on, and go into 'Armed And Ready', which we all could
see coming. Well let's be honest, it simply wouldn’t be
the same if there wasn’t at least on MSG track played here
tonight! Once again Martin Mikkels makes the track his own
with some breathtaking guitar work.
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All in all
this was another fine performance by a band crammed full of quality
musicians and was well worth the 100-mile plus journey from the North
East to see.
Setlist: Casablanca,
I'm Alive, Shape of things to Come, Ameraisians, Don't say Goodbye, D.O.A.,
How does it Feel, Veni Vichi Vinci, Twilights last Gleaming, Armed and
Ready
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