The Poodles Live at the Underworld

It's always good to see a band you've liked for a good while for the first time, so I was looking forward to my meeting with The Poodles on Friday night. These guys are quite big in their native Sweden and regular chart botherers of course but their UK profile is really quite minuscule it must be said. This is not the first time they've played the UK as I found out. They played the much bigger Electric Ballroom 100 meters down the road. Not sure if they headlined but to book that place again would have been a folly as this gig was very poorly attended indeed with the crowd barely reaching 100 people or so by the end of the night. This was in the main due to either rank bad scheduling or just bad luck as Gotthard were playing in Islington and they would've taken a fair chunk of The Poodles audience no doubt. In fact I would've gone to Gotthard myself had The Poodles not been playing but I'm a much bigger fan of the Swedish troop especially since Gotthard got their new singer whom I'm not really a fan of.

Their were two support bands for The Poodles, namely Maverik and COP UK or Crimes of Passion as I know them as or as they used to be before the abbreviated name change. Unfortunately both bands played to roughly 20 people on the floor max with a few dotted around the small balcony.

Maverik is a band I've heard before on youtube and I didn't really think too much of them. They were actually sounding better live than in the studio. The band is from Northern Ireland and have their hearts in the right place alright, playing a classic form of melodic rock. It's just the song writing is not quite good enough yet to win them more fans. They have good instrumentalists though so credit due for that and for playing in front of a paltry crowd. Mind you I've seen a band play to even less on the famous Underworld floor before.

After Maverik came the newly name changed COP UK which confused me a little as I know them quite well as Crimes of Passion but didn't realise COP UK was their new moniker. I've seen them live before and their brand of melodic definitely has it's moments for sure. There is a decent sense of melody here and there by the long haired front man but the songs just don't have the wow factor. Once again good musicianship all round but not a stunning set of tunes.

at 8.15 sharp the stage was finally ready for the Swedes to take to the stage. I was pretty much right at the front and ready to see them strutting their stuff right in my face. The sound was a little too loud at stage front unfortunately and frontman Jake's vocals got drowned out quite often. The new album Devil in in the Details has some great tunes on it and the band made sure they played the biggest hits including their new anthem The Greatest with it's strong modern day Coldplay flavour. The slightly fuller floor was in strong voice despite lacking in number and Jake Samuels got a strong response from the crowd. He really is a very cool front man as well with a lot of acrobatic dancing in time with the music. He's only a small guy actually when you see him up close so is energy is totally understandable.

The band played a long set with many of their classics rightfully played with my faves being Metal Will Stand Tall, Night of Passion and that new gem The Greatest. The acoustic medley they played was superbly sung by Jake and since the guitars were acoustic, you could really see what a strong and melodic voice he has when not having to fight to be heard over the guitars.

The band played until it was nearly 10, so pretty close to the Friday night curfew and came out backstage afterwards to meet the few fans who had bothered to turn out. Overall they are a really fun band to watch live and in Jake they have a real live wire front man with a great voice too. It's a shame the gig clashed with Gotthard as I'm sure many of those fans would've been here instead. Maybe they might be disheartened by the poor attendance and not come back again though who knows, but at least I've seen this fun band once at least.

Set list

1. Before I Die
2. Caroline
3. House of Cards
4. Shut Up
5. I Rule The Night
6. Flesh and Blood
7. Cuts Like a Knife
8. Line of Fire
9. Everything
10. Acoustic Medley
11. The Greatest
12. Instrumental
13. Thunderball
14. Crack in the Wall
15. Metal Will Stand Tall
16. Like No Tomorrow
17. Night of Passion

Encore:

18. Echoes from the Past
19. Seven Seas