Post by neilcrud on Feb 15, 2007 22:29:27 GMT
TIGERTAILZ
The Harrowing
Dressed To Kill
Circle Of One
St David’s Hall, Cardiff
10th February 2007
The Harrowing
Dressed To Kill
Circle Of One
St David’s Hall, Cardiff
10th February 2007
(Review n pix by Katy Rees)
Not being a glam rock fan myself, I was a little apprehensive at first about
going to see Tigertailz. It was their first performance at St David’s Hall
in 16 years, the long-awaited homecoming gig for the boys from Pontypridd
and Cardiff, and although the crowd was very small it generated a lot of
excitement.
I didn’t actually get to see The Harrowing (winners of the schools
competition set up by Tigertailz) or Circle Of One as they had already
played before I arrived, but I managed to catch a little of KISS tribute
Dressed To Kill’s set on the monitor just outside the actual concert hall.
From what I could see they were pretty cool, although I wasn’t really paying
much attention as I was there only for the headliners.
Tigertailz were brilliant from the word go. While the short intro “Bezerk”
was played on tape, we were treated to an amazing performance by a troupe of
young female dancers dressed as little devils; their mix of dance and
gymnastic moves deserve serious credit. I have never seen an opening quite
like this before and it just seemed right to have this small but very grand
performance to lead the band in.
The band started their set with “Sick Sex” followed by the lively “Livin’
Without You”. Huge overhead projector screens showed clips of beautiful
women either slaughtered or artfully bound and gagged, as well as snippets
of certain Tigertailz music videos and this show itself, being filmed for a
DVD. Even at this early stage in the show the atmosphere of the crowd was
positively electric, with everyone going mental for songs like “Tear Your
Fucking Heart Out”, “Noise Level Critical” and “Dirty Needlez”.
A number of songs from the new album “Bezerk 2.0” were played, such as “For
Hate’z Sake”, “Falling Down” (the only song I know the words to as I’ve only
seen the video about 200 times!) and the beautiful “I Believe” which sounds
like nothing you would expect from this band but is still brilliant. I,
personally, would also like to have seen the band perform “Do It Up” and
“TVOD” from this album, plus other songs such as “Action City” and “Belly Of
The Beast”.
About halfway through the set, guitarist/vocalist Kim Hooker invited Danilo,
reportedly the biggest Tigertailz fan in the world, to join him onstage.
Danilo is from Italy and was able to come to the gig in Wales because of the
generosity of other fans, who sent him money to travel over after reading
about his plight on the Tigertailz forum. He was presented with the white
catsuit worn by the vocalist in the “Love Bomb Baby” video, made some 15 or
20 years ago, which he then proceeded to change into before returning to the
stage (also in a pink cowboy hat!) to sing with the band during “Love
Overload” (at least I think it was that song, I can’t really remember).
After the amazing “Call Of The Wild” the band left the stage, but returned
to perform “Creeping Death” and “Love Bomb Baby”, joined by the KISS tribute
for the latter – that was a strange experience, being encouraged by Gene
Simmons’s double to sing Tigertailz. Special credit goes to my mate’s
brother Christopher, who decided to go crowd surfing and danced with the
band onstage, only to be thrown off by a burly security man within a matter
of seconds.
All in all it was a truly brilliant gig. Kim Hooker, guitarist Jay Pepper,
drummer Matt Blakout, live show keyboardist Tim and bassist Glen Quinn
(filling in for Pepsi Tate, who is currently in hospital – get well soon
dude!) were all on top form. St David’s Hall was only half full, but it
seemed better that way as this was one of our local bands – had the venue
been full the atmosphere wouldn’t have been as good. In some ways, going to
see a local famous band is better than watching a band from elsewhere in the
UK or the entire world, for that matter. The atmosphere is always much more
relaxed and if the band’s set was full of mistakes I doubt the crowd would
hold it against them. On the afternoon of the gig I had made up my mind not
to bother going, feeling I would be disappointed by what I saw, but I am so
glad I changed my mind. I'm still not a fan of glam rock, but this was
undoubtedly one of the best gigs I have ever been to.
10/10