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Artist: Vain Venue: Trillians Rock Bar, Newcastle Date:
25 November 2009
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| Metallica
and Journey might be multi-platinum household names, but for the more
discerning rock fan the San Francisco Bay Area’s best band is Vain.
Led by ever-present eponymous front man Davy Vain, they have been
plying their trade since the mid/late 1980’s and this current tour is
an anniversary celebration commemorating 20 years since the release of
their debut album ‘No Respect’ and first UK tour – and their
previous visit to Newcastle – as special guests on an early Skid Row
tour. Initially
pitched within the ‘sleaze rock’ glam metal scene, they never quite
received the same level of promotion as Skid Row, Guns n’ Roses et al.
However, Vain have never really gone away, consistently releasing
albums of an excellent quality and expanding their style without
betraying their roots , to maintain a niche as cult favourites with the
underground rock crowd in their US homeland as well as in the UK and
Europe. It is testament to
the quality of their music that twenty years since that last visit to
Newcastle, Vain can return to play a mid-week show during an economic
recession to a venue bursting at the seams with loyal fans who sing
along with every lyric, dancing, jumping around and in some cases air-guitaring
with every beat or note. Glance
around the room and you’ll see people grinning from ear-to-ear, such
is the electric atmosphere created by the triumphant return of one
rock’s best kept secrets. The
guys sound tight and the songs authentic as on the album and there is a
chemistry which is greater than the sum of its parts.
Vain are a band which just meshes perfectly.
Hitting the stage with the blistering riffs of ‘Secrets’ they
intend to take no prisoners. The
set-list spans their entire career but focuses on the debut album.
Highlights include rockers such as ‘Who’s Watching You’,
‘Push Me Over’, ‘Down For The Third Time’, ‘No Respect’ and
their most well-known song ‘Beat The Bullet’, during which there was
some great crowd interaction when a
fan at the front held aloft a cardboard cut-out bullet that Davy took
and held up as he sang the song. But
what sets Vain apart from many of the other bands spawned from the
80’s "sleaze" scene is their ability to create atmosphere
with mid-paced and slow-burning numbers like ‘Icy’, ‘Smoke and
Shadows’ and ‘So Free Now’, which add another dimension to the
show. Some of the best songs in their catalogue are the dreamier,
mysterious tracks. The only other band I can compare them to in
that sense is LA Guns, but whereas the Guns are very much Hollywood
vampires, Vain have a unique northern Californian vibe that none of
their contemporaries have ever come close to. All-in-all
this was a triumphant return to the UK from a brilliant and very
underrated band. It has
been almost five years since the previous Vain album so here’s hoping
for some new material from Davy and the boys very soon.
A
mention must also go out to special guests on this tour New Generation
Superstars who are becoming better every time that I see them.
They are an English band who play fiery scuzzy garage rock and
the crowd loved every minute of their set, which included stand-out
songs from their two albums. Highly
recommended, catch ‘em, at a venue near you soon! Special Guest Reviewer: Lightnin Alex Lee Hooker III |
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