Artist:  Robin Black, Disarm & Teenage Casket Company

Venue: Rios, Bradford

Date: 8 April 2006  

Another Saturday night another trip down the M62 to Bradford Rio’s.  This time the rock n' roll capital of Yorkshire plays host to the Toronto’s Robin Black.

But first the support acts, firstly Teenage Casket Company who I’ve caught at this venue a number of times and without sounding too hash, need some new material.  The band have been riding their album ‘Dial It Up’ for quite a while now and the much needed injection of new material into the show will stop them getting stale.  Saying that the band still give their all and with the graveyard time slot (as the band described it) of 7.45 pm, it's hard for anyone to get motivated.  But give them their due they do give 110%, especially guitar/vocalist Jamie Delerict who always tries his best to get whatever crowd numbers jeered up.

The set consisted mainly of songs of the ‘Dial Up’ album, opening up with ‘Bad Girl’ and ‘Another Part of Me’, both songs sounded good and the band sounded as tight as I’ve heard them, plus the moderate crowd that's turned out tonight seemed to enjoy what they're hearing.

The band seemed to have dropped the ego thing they had going on my last visit to see the band and this had vastly improved they show and now were concentrating on making music and not how they looked on stage.

Highlights of the set had to be ‘Don’t Look At Me’, a song that is also the bands new video, and ‘Cocaine’, both of these songs aren’t on the Dial It Up album and if this is the quality of the new material then the future is rosy for them.

The set was ended with the Poisonesque ‘Ain't Got Nothing On Me’.  With the likes of Kid Ego and Red Star Rebels thrusting into the limelight and making a name for themselves over the past year, Teenage Casket Co must pull out all the stops over 2006, or they may find themselves left at the starting line in the glam rock stakes.

Next up was Disarm, a band that unlike Teenage Casket Co have an immense stage presence.  Mainly due to vocalist/guitarist Brad who goes on stage all gun blazing.

With a sound very much in the Backyard Babies/Buckcherry vein, Disarm deliver sleaze/punk rock n' roll of the highest quality and are always a pleasure to hear live.

The band has a star in the making in the form of guitarist Jamie who rips out riff after riff with great ease.  The set was full throttle stuff from the off with songs like ‘Faster Faster Kill’ and the Sex Pistols ‘Pretty Vacant’ sounding great.

The bands short set was intense and brutal but well worth it, the band has come on leaps and bounds and I wish them well with future gigs and hopefully see them again soon.

Now to the reason for the trip down to Bradford, Robin Black with his Intergalactic Rock Stars, or just good old Robin Black as they now prefer to be called.  The band sort of sneaked on stage without any fanfare on an unsuspecting Rio’s crowd whose numbers had swollen sum what by this time.

Opening up with ‘Better Than You’ from the band debut release 'Planet: Fame', the stage was set for another stellar show.

It was only the second song and Robin set about undressing much to the delight of the young female members of the crowd and some male members, before going into ‘So Sick of You’.

Then it was over to the new album for ‘Why Don’t You Love Me’, with Robin telling us he was glad to be back in the UK and by the looks of the faces on the crowd in front of him, they were mighty glad the band were back too.

The bands full on glam fest was about to reach new heights with ‘We Saw Right Through You’ and ‘Shoot Em Up Now’, with occasional shouts for Jagermeister between songs, the band were fuelled up for sure.

With Robin high kicking to the start of ‘Outta the City’ the Jagermiester was hitting the parts other herbal drinks couldn’t reach.

Then it was time for ‘Some Of You Boys’ before going into the classic Sweet track ‘Hellraiser’ which sounded just as good as the original.

It was time for Killer KY to strut his stuff on the intro for ‘Over You’, with Starboy not being outshone on rhythm guitar, this was certainly how to sleaze it up Canadian style.

The set was concluded with the rousing ‘This Ones Gonna Hurt You Bad’ before the band went off only briefly then returned as Killer KY and new drummer Chris Kidd set off into solo mode.  Robin came out into the crowd to give his approval of the bands efforts on stage, then he returned to the mike for ‘Teenage Sex’ before the band left the stage for the final time.

This was another fine performance by the band and I can't wait to see them later in the tour at Newcastle’s Carling Academy.  If you’re a fan of the glam era than you should check out Robin Black on this tour and see the new generation of glam at its best. 

Setlist: Better than You, So sick of You, Why don’t I love You?, We saw right through You, Shoot em up Now, Outta the City, Some of you Boys, Hellraiser, So Over You, This ones gonna hurt you Bad.  Encore: Teenage Sex.

 

 

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