This is another 24 hour London gig as we arrived before the doors opened at 6pm to make sure we saw all of CRADSHDIET'S set and still managed to get in just as they were coming onstage to Queens Of The Stone Age's Feel Good Hit Of the Summer.
They kicked into their opener that I always call Kids On The Underground and I know that title is wrong. It sounded good from the queue to the cloakroom and getting louder as I walked into the ballroom, but Simon Cruz didn't sound anywhere near as good as Oliver H Twisted did last week in his new band Reckless Love and as he was the first replacement for original lead singer Dave Lepard (rest in Sleaze) it threw into sharp relief the fact that the current singer isn't as good as the previous two were no matter how cool his hair is or how good he looks.
Rebel was OK and was lapped up by the Crashdiet sleaze army who had got in early for them. Bound to Fall was about right as they seem now destined to be: a regular support act and rarely the headliners. They sounded tight enough and fairly blew through there set and they did sound Happy to be Alive. They just lacked the magic they need to get them above their current level and having a tribute come out to your first singer when you are still as young as these guys are is a bit weird.
What's it Got To Do With You was alright and the highlight of the set was a really good version of Down With The Dust that led to set closer Generation Wild. That also went down pretty well but they played it like they knew they hadn't a hope of ever being as good as the two bands they were supporting.
Next on were the band that should have been the headliners, and it says something for Wednesday 13 that they have the balls to go out on tour with a band as good as MICHAEL MONROE's opening for them, a brave move indeed.
Michael Monroe opened with Trick Of The Wrist that featured a great sax solo from Michael and damn, after Crashdiet this was in a different league of greatness. Even with new Guitarist Dregen added to the team to replace Ginger who left to continue his solo career they are still one of the best Rock and Roll bands touring at the moment.
Got Blood was next and sounded pretty cool. Modern Day Miracle was played at a frantic pace with Dregen and Michael running all over the place while Sammi Yaffa and Steve Conte tried to keep outta the way.
Michael then dedicated Motorvatin' and all of tonight's show to the memory of late Hanoi Rocks bandmate Razzle whose birthday it woud have been. Motorvatin' sounded great and saw Michael climbing onto the monitors at the front of the stage and also onto the safety barrier while twirling his mic lead around his neck and generally upping the ante. From that Hanoi Rocks classic he dipped into the Demolition 23 album for Hammersmith Palais, that sadly rotting empty shell of a venue. They then tore through the opening single from the current album Sensory Overdrive: one album of the year from Classic Rock magazine.
78 is a great tune and they nailed it in fine style.60's, 70's 80's Baby was next which is one of my favourite Demolition 23 songs and it sounded great with a few extra lines added at the end. They then went back to the new album for Superpowered Superfly and Bombs Away: both played at breakneck speed from this most high octane of bands. We then went back to the Hanoi years and more dedications to Razzle before they tore into Mystery City: a song Michael first sang in this venue back in 1984. It was then time for a Malibu Beach Nightmare before they closed the set with a great version of Dead Jail Rock & Roll and Micheal made a point of telling us that if we shouted loud enough they would get an Encore.
Of course we shouted loud enough and got the classic Hanoi Rocks Michael Monroe encore of Taxi Driver and 1970 (Feel Alright). The former alway sounds great live and Michael climbed the speaker stack at one point before doing his mime of driving a cab. 1970 broke down into Radar Love as it did the last time we saw him but this time he also managed to throw in a verse and chorus of Gwen Stafani's Hollerback Girl before going back into 1970 and leaving us wanting more.
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After that blistering set we could have left quite happily but stayed for WEDNESDAY 13 who I admit I knew little about before the gig but had guessed from the backdrop that they would be Horrorcore. In that they didn't dissappoint. They opened with Calling All Corpses - a song that owed a large debt to Alice Cooper as did much of their material. It was a touch odd to see a band singing I Walk With A Zombie while bouncing up an down on the stage like they were in the middle of an aerobics or Zumba routine.
They all look really Goth Horror cool but the endless cries to Make Some Noize ended up being a touch annoying and I almost expected them to cover Cum On Feel The Noize as they are so obsessed with it. Scream Baby Scream was based on the reaction you should have while watching the creature double feature but needed to be a bit more scary. Maybe I'm not a big enough fan of Horror films for this to work on me.
My Home Sweet Homicide again stole liberally from Alice Cooper and also the likes of The Misfits and 45 Grave. Silver bullets was pretty good but didn't need to ask us to make some Noize in it a couple of times, god dammit Wednseday 13 you don't need to keep doing that just sing the songs!
From Here To The Hearse doesn't quite sound like the total rip off of From Here To Eternity that it could have been unlike Happily Ever Cadaver. That one is a total rip off of She's A Cadaver And I'm Gonna Have Her, and they also rip off Screaming Jay Hawkins on this when Wednesday starts playing with his Skull on a shovel while singing it. Pah!
The oddest song of the set is Rambo which seems to be a paean to that godawful movie character, as surely Rambo isn't a horror movie and has one of those R.a.m.b.o. call and response things going on. Aargh! It left me shaking my head in a 'what? what? what??' kind of way.
Put Your Death Mask On took them back to the Alice Cooper meets Slade comfort zone and they seemed to like it there. He apologised that he didn't really want us all dead before they played I Want You Dead and then they played the sort of song they probably came up with while stoned. They've actually taken the concept far enough to have t-shirts made up to go with their re-working of The Ramones I Wanna Be Sedated into I Wanna Be Cremated. I'll let you guess what the t-shirts look like!! It was the best song of the set and led us to the last song of the night, 197666, which almost gets a Beavis and Butthead style laugh of the 'look what they just said' variety. Before departing the stage they told us several times to make some Noize. Oh, for fuck's sake.
They came back for the encore and opened it with Till Death Do Us Party which about summed up the rather juvenile nature of much of the material they have. It was however the first song of the set to actually get a mosh pit going: something which continued for Bad Things before they closed the show with Something Wicked This Way Comes.
They left me feeling like I had seen the sort of band who are perfect to see in the middle of the afternoon at a festival. I may well have liked them more if they had played before Michael Monroe rather than after him.
As befits a Rock show in London these days we left the venue by 9.45pm 'cos rockers like an early night!! Well that and the need to get the ballroom ready for the normal Friday night Club.
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