Post by bloodandlipstick on Jan 3, 2010 10:39:05 GMT
Venue4Events, Rhyl 02/01/10
The first gigs of the New Year - don't you just love 'em?
Tradition demands that the answer is "no" for several reasons, principal among them being the fact that all the most popular bands will have grabbed the prime Christmas gig slots and that the punters are broke and hungover.
The net result? Bands playing to each other and the bar staff and everyone feeling miserable and wanting to be somewhere - anywhere - other than where they find themselves on a bitterly cold January evening.
Except the bloody kids of today have no respect for the traditions that us miserable old gits have spent years establishing, so the bastards packed Venue4Events out on the second day of a new decade and proceeded to have an absolute ball.
It's a Red Mamba gig so something has got to happen at the start of the night to create a bit of a drama and in this instance it is a power short that requires the calling out of an electrician.
Electricity restored, it is left to Concrete Kiss to open proceedings and they accomplish the task with some aplomb, serving up a solid set that tips several winks to Motley Crue, both visually and aurally.
They've got some decent original songs in the locker so it must be slightly galling for them that it takes a run through "Alright Now" to really break the ice with the crowd but they made a lot of friends on the night, particularly among the Kixxstart Kitty contingent, I suspect.
Kixxstart Kitty are the latest vehicle for Zach and Carl, late of Bite and Fuzzy Peach, a couple of guys I've always had a soft spot for because they want to be good, old-fashioned rock n roll stars so badly.
I know that every smalltown has its contingent of wannabees who can talk the talk but this particular pair can at least walk the walk as well as frontman and guitarist respectively.
In the past they've been let down by rhythm sections that haven't been able to match their ambitions but things might finally be clicking into place for them in the new band.
The template seems to be the New York Dolls, though the hair is bigger and the make-up more lurid and OK, it's camper than Butlins, dated as hell and in the cold late of day seems slightly preposterous even to me, but surely the whole point of a band like Kixxstart Kitty is to transcend the conventions of ordinary life and bring a bit of glam-our to proceedings.
On the night they achieve this with enough balls and swagger to leave the whole audience eating out of their collective hand with a combination of gutsy glampunk originals and a beefed up medley of Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" and "Pokerface" that you would have to be a complete miserable bastard not to grin along to.
They finish with a stomp through"Fight For Your Right To Party" that effectively throws down a gauntlet to the headliners who have to top a set that has been received with much enthusiasm by the vast majority of the audience.
Leucine are another band who have perhaps had a tendancy towards ambitions that exceed their abilities in the past, but their recent trip into the studio showed that those abilities have been doing a fair bit of catching up in the last 12 months.
However, even this didn't prepare me for the improvements that they've made as a live unit - was this really the same band?
Singer Tom has always been a supremely confident frontman but in the past he's allowed showmanship to compromise the minor consideration of staying at least approximately in tune but this time the audience got the best of both elements from him.
Twin guitarists Adam and Jonny acted as perfect foils for each other, while Andy proved once again that he is one of the most underrated drummers around these parts but the ace in the pack is bassist Russ Pearson.
The guitarists flank the stage and are relatively static, certainly when compared to the hyperactive nature of their frontman, so Russ is a kind of link between the two, covering every square inch of his area of the stage, helping Tom out on vocals and adding an extra visual aspect to proceedings in the process - and he used to be such a quiet young chap back in his Race Against Disaster days!!!
If you enjoy one of the bands at a gig in January you are usually doing quite well - getting three good acts on a single night is almost unheard of at this time of the year - result!!!!
The first gigs of the New Year - don't you just love 'em?
Tradition demands that the answer is "no" for several reasons, principal among them being the fact that all the most popular bands will have grabbed the prime Christmas gig slots and that the punters are broke and hungover.
The net result? Bands playing to each other and the bar staff and everyone feeling miserable and wanting to be somewhere - anywhere - other than where they find themselves on a bitterly cold January evening.
Except the bloody kids of today have no respect for the traditions that us miserable old gits have spent years establishing, so the bastards packed Venue4Events out on the second day of a new decade and proceeded to have an absolute ball.
It's a Red Mamba gig so something has got to happen at the start of the night to create a bit of a drama and in this instance it is a power short that requires the calling out of an electrician.
Electricity restored, it is left to Concrete Kiss to open proceedings and they accomplish the task with some aplomb, serving up a solid set that tips several winks to Motley Crue, both visually and aurally.
They've got some decent original songs in the locker so it must be slightly galling for them that it takes a run through "Alright Now" to really break the ice with the crowd but they made a lot of friends on the night, particularly among the Kixxstart Kitty contingent, I suspect.
Kixxstart Kitty are the latest vehicle for Zach and Carl, late of Bite and Fuzzy Peach, a couple of guys I've always had a soft spot for because they want to be good, old-fashioned rock n roll stars so badly.
I know that every smalltown has its contingent of wannabees who can talk the talk but this particular pair can at least walk the walk as well as frontman and guitarist respectively.
In the past they've been let down by rhythm sections that haven't been able to match their ambitions but things might finally be clicking into place for them in the new band.
The template seems to be the New York Dolls, though the hair is bigger and the make-up more lurid and OK, it's camper than Butlins, dated as hell and in the cold late of day seems slightly preposterous even to me, but surely the whole point of a band like Kixxstart Kitty is to transcend the conventions of ordinary life and bring a bit of glam-our to proceedings.
On the night they achieve this with enough balls and swagger to leave the whole audience eating out of their collective hand with a combination of gutsy glampunk originals and a beefed up medley of Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" and "Pokerface" that you would have to be a complete miserable bastard not to grin along to.
They finish with a stomp through"Fight For Your Right To Party" that effectively throws down a gauntlet to the headliners who have to top a set that has been received with much enthusiasm by the vast majority of the audience.
Leucine are another band who have perhaps had a tendancy towards ambitions that exceed their abilities in the past, but their recent trip into the studio showed that those abilities have been doing a fair bit of catching up in the last 12 months.
However, even this didn't prepare me for the improvements that they've made as a live unit - was this really the same band?
Singer Tom has always been a supremely confident frontman but in the past he's allowed showmanship to compromise the minor consideration of staying at least approximately in tune but this time the audience got the best of both elements from him.
Twin guitarists Adam and Jonny acted as perfect foils for each other, while Andy proved once again that he is one of the most underrated drummers around these parts but the ace in the pack is bassist Russ Pearson.
The guitarists flank the stage and are relatively static, certainly when compared to the hyperactive nature of their frontman, so Russ is a kind of link between the two, covering every square inch of his area of the stage, helping Tom out on vocals and adding an extra visual aspect to proceedings in the process - and he used to be such a quiet young chap back in his Race Against Disaster days!!!
If you enjoy one of the bands at a gig in January you are usually doing quite well - getting three good acts on a single night is almost unheard of at this time of the year - result!!!!