Review:
'MONROE, MICHAEL/ CADILLAC THREE, THE'
'London, Islington Academy, 4th December 2013'
- Genre: 'Rock'
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Our Rating:
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As ever these days this was another early-starting gig that meant getting in just after 8pm, but even arriving that early we had missed most of The Cadillac Three's opening set.
We did manage to catch the last three songs of the set. As the band's name suggests there are three of them: a drummer a guitarist and a lap steel player and all three sing. They sounded like a slower, heavier North Mississippi Allstars crossed with Jeff Healey and hints of The Allman Brothers. The first song we heard - about A Nashville Mojo - had some good harmonies over the heavy as they could get it sound. The lap steel player especialLy seemed pretty good.
There was plenty of "Y'all having a good time?" between the songs before they started to sing about how She Stole My Heart. Well yes, I imagine she did if she could get all your hair out of your faces to see you. Still in a very solid but old-fashioned Southern rawk style they ground it out and had a good part of the audience with them. They finished the set with a song about going Down to the River which would seem to be obligatory subject matter for this kind of band.
They are good at what they do but I'm not sure if they had enough variety in the songs to make me need to hear more than the three songs I did hear. My jury's out for now.
Soon enough it was time for THE MICHAEL MONROE BAND to come running on-stage for the last show of the UK leg of the current Horns & Halo's world tour. They launched straight into Horns & Halo's at a frantic pace that suggested they had all been amped up to the max backstage. It was fast and furious and Michael was soon high-kicking his way into Trick Of The Wrist that had Steve Conte strafing the audience during his extremely fast and furious solo. They were a band on a mission and TNT Diet that followed like an express train to our ears so no let-up of the pace as Sami Yaffa and Rich Jones jostled each other while ripping through the tune.
The pace just didn't let up as Eighteen Angels was fired off double quick, but they then took the first breather of the evening so Michael could say good evening to us all and the band could get ready to launch the first real massed singalong of the evening on the recent single Ballad Of The Lower East Side. It was one of the slower songs of the evening, if still played pretty quick mind and ripping half of its tune from Michael Row The Boat To Shore. It really had the whole academy singing along to it. 78 was next up and that got the pace back up to full on sprint; certainly no-one onstage stood still at any point and it was just dazzling the energy coming from the stage. Stained Glass Heart was about as reflective as they got and I think had some good Sax work from Michael in-between the verses.
Got Blood? Started off fine and it had a reggae-style dub breakdown that Drummer Karl Rockfist mucked up in some way. I hadn't noticed but both Michael and Sami were both falling about laughing so much so that Michael had trouble singing the second verse and needed a breather at the end of the song to apologise for almost forgetting the words! He also apologised that he wasn't allowed to do any climbing tonight as the venue had threatened to withhold the band's fee's if he did!!
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When they had recovered their composure they launched into Child Of the Revolution. It sounded just great if a little fast; still not as fast as they dispatched In Black & White as if they wanted to be a speed metal band rather than a glam punk one. Modern Day Miracle, though, slowed things a touch and had Steve Conte gurning at us as he took his solo. It also brought to a close the first half of the show, comprising songs off of the two most recent solo albums.
This was the point that Michael looked over to Sami Yaffa and they gave us a great version of Underwater World, the first Hanoi Rocks' classic of the night that had the whole academy going wild. It was followed by Motorvatin' that just kept the pace up and had more sax madness before they switched to some Demolition 23 for Hammersmith Palais that had most of the crowd singing along with them before going back to Hanoi for Malibu Beach Nightmare and closing the set with one of Michael's biggest solo hits, Dead Jail Rock & Roll. The reserves of energy this band has is truly something to behold.
It didn't take too long for them to come back for the first encore; opening with Nothing's Alright from the Demolition 23 album that also had everyone singing along. Then, as if to defy the Academy's management, Michael climbed over one of the speaker stacks and into the audience before re-appearing on one of the bars to sing Eddie & the Hot Rods' Do Anything You Want To Do in a fine style. Eventually, he was back on stage for Saturday Night Special and they then crunched out a really great version of I Wanna Be Loved: the old Heartbreakers' classic that finished with a few bars of the Stooges 1970.
We all cheered enough to get them back for a second encore that opened with Hanoi Rocks' first single Problem Child: fairly spat at us machine gun style before they pulled its' b-side In The Year 79 out of the bag. Wow, did that pair of songs ever sound great before they finished things off with the Damned's Love Song and Machine Gun Etiquette to cap off one of the highest octane performances I have seen in a long time.
It was exhausting watching this lot play how have they got so much energy!! Do not miss a chance to see this band play and even if they let Dregen back in the band instead of Rich Jones just go and see them.
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author: simonovitch
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Michael Monroe goes through the barricades
Michael Monroe goes through the barricades
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