This was another absurdly early Friday night gig in London, meaning W&H were running a little late finishing work and having to skip dinner to get in to the Islington Academy part way through Voodoo Six's set and missing first band on totally. Well what do they expect when doors open at 6.30pm?
VOODOO SIX (the third band with Voodoo in the name I've seen so far this year so it must be a trend of some sort)sound like good straight ahead Biker rock in a similar vein to Orange Goblin or Peer Gynt with a healthy slab of Motorhead thrown into the mix for good luck. The one big weak point they have is that one of the guitarists looks a lot like Phil Collins, but thankfully they have no audible sign of influence!
Soon enough it was time for the packed club to welcome back MICHAEL MONROE and his current all-star band of Ginger (Wildhearts) on Guitar, Steve Conte on Guitar, Sami Yaffa on Bass and Karl Rockfist on drums. They ran out and started at a frantic pace that never let up with Trick Of The Wrist followed manically by the lead track on their excellent new album Sensory Overdrive.
The band were in overdrive throughout like they had all split 20grams of crystal Meth between them. There was hardly a pause as they crashed through Got Blood that had Michael twirling his mic stand and running all over the place. Hammersmith Palais was the first song about that much missed venue I heard over the weekend and sounds great with a fine solo from Ginger who was swaggering around on his side of the stage with his low slung guitar all evening.
78 for me is the best and catchiest of the new songs and yes it is hard to take 78 out of the kid for sure. As ever Michael wants to be Motorvatin' us and in this form its like they are bawling down the motorway doing about 120mph complete with a great Sax solo. 60's 70's 80's 90's baby is one of those songs I've loved from the moment I first head it and it sounded viciously good tonight.
Not Fakin it has to be one of the best reworkings in rock in that I'm sure most fans don't realise that most of the music and half the lyrics are stolen from Lucifer's Friends Rock & Roll Singer!
Michael announced Superpowered Superfly as the new single (if they still exist) and you do have to be superpowered to keep up the pace this lot play at. Bombs Away is more than a little topical at the moment and they sounded properly venomous on it before doing the two Damned songs that seem to be a feature of the current Michael Monroe band's set: Love Song and Machine Gun Etiquette and they both sounded extremely punky and not at all Dysfunctional while they were looking for Malibu Beach Nightmare for everyone to sing a long to.
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Modern Day Miracle has one of those call and response chorus' that even while still a new song got us all singing along on the "Shut Up! Stop Talking, you're giving me a headache" part!
Dead Jail Rock & Roll got the reaction a hit ought to get with the place going more mental and singing along more to it as they built to their finish with a version of Back to Mystery city that just left us all wanting more.
They came back out and the encore opened with a long version of I Wanna Be Loved. After the main part of the song Michael did his only climbing of the night, clambering up to the balcony and telling us he was going as far as he was allowed to go before carrying on the song. Then the band took the riff down as he climbed down and somehow managed to go into the intro to Eye Of The Tiger of all things! Michael smiled and then did a passable Sly Stallone impersonation while proving he didn't know the lyrics to the song!
It morphed it first into the Stooges' Dirt and then into The Doors' Crystal Ship and back into I wanna be loved before they wrapped the night up with an almost curfew busting version of Life Gets You dirty. They then exited like the whirlwind they had been all night long so that we could all get out of the academy by 10pm!! Rock and Roll!!
This was by far the most energetic and high octane show I've seen so far this year. Catch this band live if you can as they are touring extensively. You won't be disappointed.
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