Artist:  Rattlesnake Remedy & Get Vegas

Venue: The Arc, Stockton

Date: 7 September 2006  

As a first time visitor to Stockton’s Arc I must admit I was impressed by the organisation and layout of the venue, this is the venue's regular 'all ages' night and believe me the youth of Stockton was out in force tonight.

The venue was indeed packed to the rafters with youthful exuberance as the first band came on stage the place nearly erupted.  Local favourites Get Vegas are a band that I have seen now on numerous occasions and each time they impress me with their professionalism both on and off stage and boy can these guys can rock. Fronted by the very capable vocals of Jonny Cole, a young man who has one hell of a voice.

The band opened up the proceedings with 'Mr Rock N Roll' and from the off the crowd went bezerk as an instant mosh pit evolved just in front of me.  I was exhausted just watching them!

The band then went into ‘What Did Your Mamma Tell You’, which seemed to fuel the swelling crowd, which seemed to be getting younger and younger. By this time the band were in full flow, especially newest member guitarist Rik who was relishing what has to be one of the biggest audiences the band have played before and this fact really seemed to fill them with confidence as each song unfolded.

The set continued with one of my favourites from the band ‘Hot Lovin’, which was started off by a short drum solo by skins man Martin Saint.  Then it was time for a bit of Redneck boogie with ‘The River’, another great song and one where Rik led the way with some quite superb guitars, this was backed by the very capable bass playing skills of Adam Laing.

Then it was back to the rock with ‘Burning Soul’, another song where vocalist Cole really excels and which started off with a little slide guitar from Rik, who I must admit has fitted in well with the rest of the band and his enthusiasm to get to the mike and whip up the crowd has given the band a little more stage presence.

With the bands set almost at a close it was time to pull out the big guns with the excellent ‘Sweet Honey’ and to close the set ‘Bonamassa’.

This band have grown in stature since I first saw them and with a number of gigs lined up out of Stockton I’m sure they will make an impression on a great many others like they have on me and will go on to bigger and better things.

As I said at the beginning this was an all ages gig and after Get Vegas left the stage it was time for a beer so off to the bar we trotted, only to find the bar upstairs wasn’t selling alcohol, so we had to go downstairs to the main bar to get a drink, which we then had to consume there and weren’t allowed to return to the main concert area because of all the young impressionable young minds there with any drink.  Some of which I hasten to add had definitely been on the Lambrini before they entered the venue.  So due to this we missed most if not all of the second band on tonight’s bill King Phillip, so my apologies go out to them.

On our return from the bar we managed to get a seat over viewing the crowd and settled down for the headliners.

Rattlesnake Remedy are a band that I first caught supporting Love Hate at Bradford Rios and was mighty impressed by them and have since seen on numerous occasions.

The band have been on tour for a dogs age now and the rigours of touring the country may have taking its toll on them physically, but on stage they still manage to give 110% and led by the extravert talents of vocalist Lee Stone, the rest of the band seem to feed off his energy as he spins around stage like a whirling Dervish.

The band open a now familiar set with ‘Black Sheep Fiddle’ and once again the crowd broke into another mosh pit (to be honest a mosh pit broke out at every opportunity).

The set contained most of the songs from the bands forthcoming debut release 'Magic Man', including the gentle blues of ‘Hangover Blues’ a song that some of the young crowd will be familiar with the next day.

The barnstorming funky ‘Killing Time’ to which Stone invited the audience to dance, which you can probably already guess it involved yet another moshing.

Stone was in fine form tonight as he managed to cover every available space on stage with his presence, he has to be one of the most animated vocalists I’ve seen for such a long time and was particularly in good voice for the up tempo ‘Reach For The Line’.

Then he announced it was time to take a ride, or was it trip? ... as the band went into the title track of the new album ‘Magic Man'.

The set came to a close with the bands first single released last May the excellent ‘Drag You Down’, this rounded off another sterling performance by a much under rated band who deserve another top support slot to bring their sleazy blues rock n roll to a much bigger audience and with the release of the album imminent this would be an ideal time to do so.

 

 

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