By David O’Neill
Due to unfortunate traffic delays I missed Himalayas (something we’ll be making up for in the next couple of days, so watch this space) and all but the last track of Sophie Lloyd’s set, something I hate doing as I usually commit to covering all bands on any gig.
Anyway, with the usual cawing of crows Ronnie, Dave, Lloyd, Shiner and finally Shane entered the arena to rapturous reception. If they wanted a partisan audience they couldn’t have wished for any other one.
Ripping into ‘Who Did It’, the crowd were screaming the hook at the tops of their voices, dammit what a way to start a night! ‘Don’t Stop The Reaper’ just carried on the momentum before the flames burst from the stage front for ‘Man On Fire’. This was a breathless opening with even Dave moving from stage left when Lloyd went on his usual meanderings across the stage, no such luck from Shiner though, firmly secure on stage right as usual!
Shane was like Tigger on blue smarties, dancing and cajoling the crowd at every opportunity, not that they needed any encouragement to join in at every opportunity.
‘Don’t Give A Damn’ and ‘Someone Someday’ led to even more singalong hooks being joined in by the virtual capacity crowd and everywhere I looked people were either singing along or their arms were raised in unison. There was a bit of a sidetrack with the inclusion of ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ but it was a great version.
‘Wake up (Sleepwalker)’ and ‘Find A Way’ continued this, with Shane commenting that the German audiences loved ‘Find A Way’. Why wouldn’t they? At the end of this the new album cover dropped and someone in the audience close to the stage fainted. At this point Shane stopped everything until she was assisted from the arena.
However, ramping up the energy and sheer enjoyment that yours truly and the audience were experiencing before ‘Let’s Go Psycho’ hit the heights we were all anticipating. With lights, smoke and pyrotechnics gratuitously spread across the whole stage if anyone had any doubt what the level of this show was going to be beforehand, by now they had none! I have been to many gigs in this arena over the years but I have NEVER seen it like it was at this gig.
Just to add to all the excitement there was the announcement that the boys will be closing out Steelhouse Festival next July, Good job I’ve already got my ticket because there were a lot of people there that are likely to go on the back of this announcement.
With all the expended drive the band had exerted to this point you’d wonder if there was bound to be a slight down turn in the tempo, but no, the singles from the new album were up with ‘Glass Heart’, ‘Lay It All On Me’ and ‘Waiting For Me’ slowed things up slightly until the latest single ‘Still‘ was a solo performance from Shane at the front of stage. It was the audience’s turn to take a breath before ‘Sin On Skin’ ripped it up again into the usual final track, ‘Rock And Roll Ain’t Dead’.
However, as it was their headline set it wasn’t as ‘Blink’ started winding everyone else up to ‘Go Get It’ before they declared ‘This Time I’m Ready’ to ‘See You Again’. Oh yes we will! You are! And everyone there definitely will!
Not a headline band you say! Ask anyone of the capacity crowd there and you will get an unequivocal, “go to Steelhouse and say that!”. Well deserved announcement and a brilliant way to show off your craft. Hard work, talent and being generally nice guys has paid off in Spades!
- All images courtesy of Janson Bulpin/@beyondthenoise/Cosa Nostra PR.
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