Sunday 26 September 2010

Reckless Love Live!

Last night saw a pretty much packed Relentless Garage play hosts to Finnish melodic rock glamsters Reckless Love on the London date of their first full UK tour. These guys have been making a name for themselves in melodic rock circles with their hellishly fun debut album getting rave reviews all round, so I had to be there or be square as they say.

First up was some band whose name I didn't quite catch. They were a hard rock band with old school leanings but they lacked the songs to get the crowd going. Speaking of the crowd, let me say I have never seen so many hot chicks at a metal or rock gig. Damn there was some flesh on view last night! Of course it's not that surprising since the band is pretty much built around 80s sexual innuendo and sleaze and this gets the chicks to dress up or shall we say dress down!

Second band of the night was Jettblack and they were bloody good. They are similar to Reckless Love in many ways but with a slight harder edge to the guitars with more shredding solos. These guys have some cool tunes which are lyrically very similar to Reckless Love with song about chicks, rocking and more chicks! They got a great response from the packed crowd and were the perfect warm up band for Reckless Love.

Finally at around 9.20 or so it was time for a bit of reckless loving from the Finnish chaps. Oli Herman the frontman is one energetic dude it has to be said. They immediately launched into Feel My Heat, the opening cut from their debut and they never looked back after. Having only the one album out renders the set length rather inadequate but we got the whole album played in various order and also the electric version of Def Leppard's Hysteria which Oli told the crowd was played acoustically at Download Festival earlier in the summer, but we got the full version and it was spot on. Oli is a great frontman make no mistake, the dude is one energetic little powerhouse with his high kicks which makes him look like a very young version of David Lee Roth. He's not blessed with an amazing voice or anything but he gets the job done and has the ladies in particular getting all hot and bothered.

The best songs were Romance, Wild Touch, Badass and Beautiful Bomb of course which had all the hot ladies swooning and singing along let me tell you! A very well attended night and just a great feel good gig with super catchy tunes which ended rather quickly with a set which was barely an hour long but like I said they ran out of songs. I just hope they bring their next record out pretty soon and capitalise on the success they've already had and play a longer set next time. Thanks for the great show lads, you guys know how to rock!

Sunday 12 September 2010

Muse at Wembley!

In a huge turn up for the books, I have just returned from the sold out Wembley Stadium show! Things looked decidedly dicey as far as getting a ticket. I posted a "wanted" item on Gumtree a personal free ad site here in the UK. I upped my payscale up to face value. Luckily I live pretty close to Wembley so I left my ad and just wandered down to the local vicinity to hang out in the bookies and wait for any offers to come in. Soon I started getting a few texts and 1 call. Unfortunately all these fell through for various reasons and a ticket could not be snagged. Just when I thought all is lost, I get a call from some girl saying she was willing to sell her ticket for face value. She explained she had a migraine coming on and didn't feel up to going. She lived in Highbury which is not that close to Wembley but not a million miles away either. Luckily for me she agreed to come to the venue to exchange. Yeah she was pretty as well, damn and I got her number on my phone hehe and she even touched my arm as she left!

Anyway ticket was in hand, 40 cash was handed over to ease her throbbing temple, the damsel happier somewhat but not "bad head" free was back on the train to Highbury with my "there there's" ringing in her ear and I went back to the bookie again and then got some fish and chips down me and finally off to Wembley.

Missed the first band.
2nd band was called White Lies. Jingly jangly pop rock. Not horrible.
3rd band was Biffy Clyro. Last time I looked the singer had all brown hair and beard, now he's got all blonde hair and beard. Damn they are one energetic band. They were running round like whirling dervishes all through their set. I only liked 2 songs from them, well I only KNOW 2 songs. One is Mountains which I know the title of, the other one I don't know the title of but know how it goes. The Scottish Biffy were OK!

Finally it was Muse. Basically they had the massive crowd eating out of their hands the whole night. Not for nothing are they labelled perhaps the best live band in the world. I think on record I can safely bypass Muse. I've got too many bands and albums that I'd rather play but the live experience was something else and it was a bloody experience. I think I can sum up their sound as being a conglomerate of dancy epic U2, touch of pompous Queen, little bit of The Who swagger, and a smattering of Led Zep rock and roll and some Pink Floyesque introspection. I think that encapsulates their sound very well. The stage set was pretty damn amazing. Like an angular pointed 3d building with big screens on it for projecting bits and pieces. There were lots of gimmicks as well with the band members going in front and out front on floating bases, a spaceship with dangling alien, bouncy eyeballs thrown over the audience etc. They played nigh on 2 hours and I think every single person in the house was singing most of the words apart from stupid old me cause I ain't gotta a clue!

The songs I liked best were the opener not sure of the title chorus says "we will be victorious". Also liked this song that sounds a bit like Queen's We Will Rock You in the drumming anyway. I liked some of the heavier grooving as well. Some of the overblown ambient piano sections got a touch tiresome. Overall I am glad I went at least once to see this band that almost everyone in the UK loves - it was worth it!