It’s not that often that a musician of the calibre of Kotzen visits these shores, (it's been five years since he was last in the UK), never mind play the hallowed stage at Trillians, but tonight these two events became one.

Now on the final leg of the UK stage of his tour, Kotzen has wowed crowds up and down the country. Tonight it was Newcastle’s turn to witness the guitar players guitar player, along with bassist David Filice and drummer Demian Arriaga.

Performing a set that featured songs covering his more recent solo outings 'Go Faster', 'Into The Black', 'Mother's Head' and his latest release, 'Peace Sign'. 

Unfortunately tonight's set did not include anything from his 'Forty Deuce' opus, which a few people commented on after the show, but this was their only gripe from what was a great night of Blues, Funk and Soul orientated rock. 

Opening up with 'Peace Sign' the title track from his latest album it was clear from the off that the well attended and informative Trillians crowd were in for a great night of sterling guitar tracks.

The man himself had a very humble on stage persona and didn’t have much stage banter with the audience, preferring to just let his guitar do the talking as he ploughed through the set putting his heart and soul into each and every song.

This guy had the crowd in the palm of his hands from the off and kept them enthralled with every chord change, every string bend and every ounce of pure guitar genius.

With the crowd behind him after every song, some singing every word and a few even trying to mime a few guitar notes, many wished this night with their hero would never end. 

The set was swamped with highlights but songs of the set for me had to be funked up ‘Bad Things’, the excellent ‘High’ and ‘Paying Dues’, and the simply superb ‘Beautiful Life’.

These were just a few of the highlights from this great 1-hour 30 minutes of pure guitar genius with not an ounce of ego in sight.