Artist: Tesla, Stormzone

Venue:  02 Academy, Newcastle

Date: 15 June 2009  

Well it’s been quite a while since I saw Tesla in any form and to see them again was a real treat. They are one of the great rock n' roll survivors of the 80's who refused to lie down and die, and since their reprisal in October 2000, the band have gone from strength to strength, with album after album and tour after tour.

But first the support for tonight, imagine my surprise to enter the venue and catch the last song of one band, only to be told that I had missed another who were on even earlier!  I thought two support bands max then, but no to my surprise another band would be donning the stage before Sacramento’s finest and that was Irelands finest Stormzone. 

Well I’ve seen Harv Harbinson and the rest of Stormzone on numerous occasions but tonight was something different.  For a start Harv wasn’t wearing his customary white shirt and the rest of the band had a different demeanour about them.  Right from the opening chords of ‘Don’t Shut Me Out’, it was apparent that the Melodic Rock band I once knew had gone over to the Metal side ... and what a transformation!  The band really have gone all out to dispel that former life and have emerged from the melodic cocoon and turned into a ass kicking leather winged metal butterfly.

The band rocked on through with 'The Immortal', with frontman Harv rocking up a storm alongside Steve Dogherty and K Harris, who were throwing out the riffs like two reborn guitarists. The old school metal kept on coming with ‘The Labyrinth’ and the superb ‘The Memory Never Dies’.  Again Harv’s vocals were more at ease with this new metal side of the band than anything I’d seen them do before in the melodic side.

They continued the metal assault with ‘Death Dealer’ before rounding off one of the surprise sets of the year with ‘The Legacy Caries On’.  I must say this reinvention of the band meets with my approval, this is definitely the way forward for one of Belfast’s best bands. 

Now to the main event, as I said before it’s been a long time coming for me so I was really looking forward to seeing if the band still could rock my world, and I tell you I was most impressed with Jeff Keith and the boys.

The band opened up in emphatic style with the title track from the latest album ‘Forever Now’ and instantly the crowd and myself just erupted into a sea of excitement and this continued throughout the night.

It was straight into ‘I Wanna Live’ before really stirring up a storm amongst the crowd with the classic ‘Modern Day Cowboy’, which once again sent raptures amongst the crowd.  We were only three songs in and for me I could have left there and then and I'd have felt I'd had my monies worth, but I didn’t and the Hard Rockin' just went on and on.

The band lifted the bar once more with ‘Breaking Free’ before another classic this time; Hang Tough’ sent the crowd into overdrive once more with Frank Hannon showing some of his trademark licks with a touch of slide guitar for show.  

The band really were on fire tonight as they just ripped through the set with great tracks like ‘So 

What’, 'What A Shame’ and ‘Love Song’, before one of the highlights of the night the excellent ‘Signs’.  This was quickly followed up with ‘What You Give’.   If I had to pick one Tesla song that really rocked the place then 'Lil Suzie’ would have to it.  The crowd must have been hoarse after this one as the Newcastle choir sang out every word loud and proud along with Keith, it was a magic moment for sure.  

It was back to the more recent years with one of my favourite of the 'Into The Now' album the title track ‘Into The Now’, which was just a barnstorming version live, before the set ended with what else but ‘Comin Atcha Live’.

The stamps and whistles of the crowd paid off because it wasn’t long before the band returned on stage for the roof raising encore 'Edison’s Medicine’, which rounded off what has to be on the gigs of the year so far for me. 

 

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