Artist:  Kid Ego, Majik & Whitefire

Venue: Legends, Newcastle

Date:  16 September 2006 

After hearing Whitefire's CD I was looking forward to seeing this young rock band live, especially them doing their version of 'Wishing Well', which they did very well on disc.

You could tell when they came on stage they were going to enjoy themselves but maybe due to over-excitement it took about 3 songs for them to gel properly, but they soon showed that they are capable of putting on a good show.

The singer had no obvious nerves as he constantly strutted his stuff on the small stage, the guitarists definitely got their rock poses right as they shared the limelight and the drummer delivered a decent set after a couple of dodgy moments.

The small audience seemed to take to them and enjoyed what was really a good set from such a young band who could possibly go on to do well on a festival circuit.  As for 'Wishing Well'? Not tonight.  Shame!!

As this 3 piece band Majik took to the stage you could tell where this was going, especially seconds into their first song as it was obvious they desperately wanted to be Wolfmother with Jimi Hendrix on lead guitar!

The song itself was just a mixture of noise and they seemed to be having "technical problems" with the lead guitar as you couldn't really hear it throughout their set, the bass being the prominent of the two.

It didn't seem to put them off though and even as they developed a rapport with some of the audience between songs, their self-indulgence during songs became almost irritating, especially when they ended up (for me) murdering a version of The Knack's 'My Sharona'!! 

All in all, their set was a bit empty and maybe for their style of show, a keyboard would have helped to fill out their sound.  Someone said that maybe tonight's crowd wasn't the right one to play to and after tonight's performance I had to agree.  (Sorry Darren!!)

There was a buzz around Legends as the stage lights dimmed and Kid Ego's fanfare burst from the sound system, and as they hit the stage you could tell by the few screams from the audience that this was going to be a totally different set from the last two!

From the start you could tell Kid Ego do have an ego about them mostly tongue in cheek, and I'd guess as the night went on, Motley Crue are high up on their list of influences!

Their songs are typically loud, fast and in your face, at times verging on the 'blue' side, which according to singer Zakk, upset some of the American audiences on their recent trip to the USA.

Zakk himself is a larger than life frontman with plenty of charisma, and held the crowd in the palm of his hand from the off, the sign of a good showman.  The rest of the band, Niki on drums, Phil and Birdy on guitars, along with bassist Rooke, proved that they are as good a musician as anyone beyond their ages, especially Rooke who must have been watching a "How To Be The Ultimate Glam Rock Bassist" DVD!!.  Somewhere along the line.

The longer they went on the more they got the audience to take part in the show with the sing-a-long chants and even managed to score a few brownie points from the male section of the crowd when they brought on two scantily clad dancers for a couple of songs, though Zakk made sure they didn't steal any of his limelight!!

As more people entered the venue they were instantly drawn to the band, and this just shows how good Kid Ego are, and after this exceptional gig, you can say the sky's the limit for them.

*A big thanks goes out to our special guest reviewer Bob Baldwin for this review.

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