Artist:  The Glitterati, My 21 Grams, El Bistro

Venue: Legends, Newcastle

Date:  18 October 2006 

What a busy month for gigs this month has been so far.  This is my second gig in three nights and I can tell you all these late nights are just starting to take their toll on my weary bones!  It needs a great gig to get me back into the whole gig groove and tonight was, what was on paper at least, going to be one of those nights.

With three very different bands on the bill I was hoping for a bigger crowd than had actually turned up for tonight’s gig.   Many of the Glitterati dates had already been nearly sold out except for tonight’s show.  Either the lack of publicity by the venue, as I saw no posters advertising the show in or around the venue itself, but plenty for other up coming shows, or perhaps the lack of audience members may have also been due to fact the majority of the rest of the tour the venues were advertising the shows as all ages events, which tonight was not. Tonight was over 18's only.

But this aside the people who did turn up were given the chance to witness three very different bands with three totally different sounds.

First up were local band El Bistro, a band that I had caught just two days earlier on another support slot. The band didn’t push all the right buttons for me two nights before so I wasn’t expecting too much tonight.  The band tonight seemed to be more professional tonight, forgiving the few problems when bass player broke a string and had to borrow the bass of Jamie Snell from the Glitterati to continue their set.

The band delivered a lively set although I have to admit not really my cup of tea.  The band did have a couple of songs that had promise though, ’One In A Million’ and 'Skinny Boy' both showed the band had some ammunition in their set, and if they went more for that sort of sound overall, then I could be persuaded to check them out again. 

Next up were My 21 Grams who were a totally different kind of band, who obviously had worked both on their image and sound.

The band delivered a much heavier sound than that of El Bistro, with newest member frontman Alex, I feel is the reason behind this heavy sound, as his vocals lend themselves so much to that genre.

With stand out tracks of the short but effective set being the up tempo ‘Alkaline’, the bands last single, “Little Piece of Me’, and the excellent ‘Blackout’.  This band definitely have what it takes to go to the next level and are a band who I will definitely be looking out for in the future. 

Now for the main event, The Glitterati who having just returned from a successful stint in the US return to these shores to deliver their own brand of modern glam infested rock n' roll.

As the usual Glitter Band intro fades away it's straight down to business with ‘Betterman’ from the band now synonymous debut album.  Although the venue was far from full, those who were there showed the band that despite rumours to the contrary, Newcastle really does love this band.

The set continued it blazing pace as the band went straight into ‘You Got Nothing On Me’, after which vocalist Paul Gautrey announced that all but the Newcastle shows had sold out, but again I think that it was mainly due to the other venues adopting an all ages policy.

However despite the low numbers the band continued as if they were appearing in front of thousand, as the set went on with ‘Keeping Me Down’, the first of the bands new material which met with approval from the crowd.

Then it was back to the debut album for a couple of crowd favourites ‘Back In Power’ and ‘Here Comes A Close Up’.  Then quick as a flash is more new stuff this time the excellent ‘Cant Get Enough Of You’.  If this is a sample of the new album then I can't wait for its impending release, this song rocked big time.

After the rampaging ‘Do You Love Yourself’ it was time for the first outing for another new song this time the bluesy effort ‘Too Many Girls’.  The new song that really impressed me the most though was the fast rocker ‘I Want To Feel Like I’ve Been Used By You’.  Before the band left the stage it was time to really rip things up a little with ‘Heartbreaker’.

After a short interlude the band returned to really show us what they are capable of with the outstanding ‘Nobody Fucks Me Up Like You’, which rounded off another great set by the band who still rocked despite the lack of a real crowd.  Hopefully things will be totally different the next time I see the band which will be when they support Swedish glamsters Gemini 5 later this year.

 

 

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