We arrived so fashionably late for this show that we'd already missed The Last Band as well they'd gone on first! Still we were only at this gig for one of the two double headliners Hardcore Superstar who really should have been sole headliners Instead of playing as main support or the third of the four bands on this bill and the first one we saw.
As normal they came onstage to This Worms for Ennio before they launched into a frantic Beg for It that was played at a pretty fast place and Jocke started to really work the packed crowd as he normally does and the only difference in his appearance was a pencil moustache. Liberation followed and really got everyone going.
Yes they asked us to shout louder and cheer more before they'd play My Good Reputation that had some of the bands normal mickey taking going on and that riff was just crushed by Vic's pummelling and Martin's relentless bass runs. They then went all Halloween on us for Dreaming In A Casket a song I was still singing three days later it was so stuck in my head.
After more imploring us to scream louder they showed us how to Touch The Sky with all the hands they had waving in the air and half the audience were bouncing along to it. They went a bit more vampiric on Sensitive To The Light that went down a storm.
Dear Old Fame kept the pace us as they really showed just how consistently great a live band they are before playing the bands new single and the only non-greatest hit of the set Have Mercy On Me and it sounds well like another classic Hardcore Superstar song.
Above The Law was a great rallying call for a little bit of insurrection that was followed by last Call For Alcohol surely not it wasn't even 9pm yet. They then went proper disco with a good few bars of No Limits before it morphed into the classic Moonshine that closed the set nicely.
They then came back for a swift encore of We Don't Celebrate Sundays to leave many of us wanting a lot more from them.
After the break during which time the DJ played such a great set of disco classics that loads of people were dancing and singing along to it and it actually ended up upstaging the alleged headliners Fozzy easily the worst of the eight bands I saw this week.
Well they opened with Judas a song so familiar I'd swear it was a cover song but it was also totally cliched 80's metal, damn these boys can play and are as tight as you'd want them to be but why were the bands chanting endlessly between songs the band's name, was it to drown out any naysayers I wonder?
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Drinking With Jesus was ok but not the best song on the subject by miles and lead singer and ex pro wrestler Chris Jericho was soon doing his best Vince Neil meets Sebastien Bach in-between song routine screams but it was already getting a touch boring by the third song of the set and no matter how much Rich Ward did he came across as more of a stunt guitarist than great lead guitarist as it was all about the flash rather than the music.
As they were wailing about putting it Deep Inside it was becoming clear that I wasn't the only person to find Fozzy boring as the crowd had started to thin out somewhat and then they Wanted To Start A War a song that left me totally cold, I guess I'm really not the sort of music fan this band is aimed at.
They then played by far the best song of the bands set a cover of Abba's SOS I think they had the message sent for something to make them less cliched and derivative. They came up with an answer in the next song Bad Tattoo in the form of a pretty good Theremin solo that lifted the song well above the rest of the bands tired material.
They then closed with the totally awful Enemy that was just bad in all the wrong ways, and then rather than go off and come back for the encore they stayed on stage and Chris Jericho covered his head with a towel like really!! The moronic chanting of the band's name continued from the remaining half of the audience as yes more than half the audience had already left before they finished things off with the totally perplexing and awful Sandpaper before they spent 4 minutes arsing about over a bollocks outro piece when they should have just sung another song.
Had the two bands reviewed here been the other way round this gig would have been an 8 out of 10 but like this it's a 6.
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