By David O’Neill
Returning to The Fleece, one of the better small venues in the area, were Swedish glam rockers H.E.A.T, accompanied by fellow nationals Art Nation and Welsh pocket dynamite Chez Kane.
Originally set for 30 minutes, Chez Kane opened up at 7.30 gaining an additional 10 minutes. Having gone solo from her sisters in Kane’d she has been performing on stages across many countries since doing so. However, it is always good to be close to home. Kicking off with Too Late for Love, the crowd soon warmed to the performance on what was a wet and windy night in Bristol. She prowled around the stage belting out the hook and was ably accompanied on backing vocals by the other band members.
Sounding like a cross between Pat Benatar and a young Bonnie Tyler (before she developed the grit in her vocals) she continually rattled the vocals out and provided some entertaining banter between on how long she has been nagging the H.E.A.T. band members to appear on the same bill.
‘I Just Want You’ from the ‘Powerzone’ album had a definite ’80s feel to the instrumentation and vocals, as did ‘Nationwide’. It reminded me a bit of The Hot Damn vocalist Gill Montgomery in parts (not a bad thing either). This was how the set progressed with frequent guitar solos by both guitarists in turn demonstrating their six string prowess. It was a great set of ’80s influenced melodic rock.
Next up were Swedish metal rockers Art Nation, coming on stage in heavy long leather coats with studded shoulder pads gave an indication of the style of music. Having listened to some of the tracks on Spotify, they reminded me of an electric version of Apocalyptica with a vocalist who has a hell of a set of pipes on him. Singing mainly in the higher register you could be forgiven for thinking it was a woman singing, but it wasn’t.
Unfortunately kicking off with ‘Brutal And Beautiful’ was rather spoiled by the radio mic dysfunction throughout, and even though I was in the front row the volume of the instruments made it difficult to hear even the sung vocals. Nevertheless, it was sorted for ‘Thunderball’ and boy was it worth the wait; what an incredible voice Alexander Strandell has. Accompanied on guitar by Christoffer Borg and bass by Richard Svard, the set just got better and better.
This is one melodic rock band that would be really well received at Steelhouse Festival. The only downside was the short set at just under 30 minutes, Finishing up with the anthemic ‘Need You To Understand’ left many wanting more. I was one of many in the audience that would have been happy with another 40 minute set.
Having seen H.E.A.T at Chepstow Castle last year I knew what to expect. Starting at 9.45, the opening track ‘The Heat Is On’ by Glenn Frey really gave everyone the clue as to what was to come. ‘Disaster’ (it was far from it!) opened up to an extremely dynamic Kenny Leckremo whipping his hair and huge grin all across the stage. Superbly supported by Dave Dalone (guitar) and Jimmy Jay (bass) at front of stage, the compact stage left Don Crash (drums) and Jona Tee (keys) in the darkened depths of rear stage.
‘Emergency’ and ‘Dangerous Ground’ rapidly followed with Kenny’s smile dazzling everyone. When they hit ‘Hollywood’, nearly everyone joined in the chorus. There was a slight rest for Kenny after ‘Beg, Beg Beg’ ran into an audience joined rendition of ‘War Pigs’.
The drum solo by Don Crash was rather left in the dark despite being excellent. The second half opened with Back To The Rhythm’ and ‘Living On The Run’. Kenny expressed his gratitude to the band and got quite emotional about it before recovering to deliver the new track ‘Bad Time For Love’. By now the crowd were loving it. ‘1000 Miles’ was followed by ‘One By One and ‘Tearing Down The Walls’ to finish off the night.
This is a great band and Winters End is in for a treat on Sunday night.
- H.E.A.T’s new album, ‘Welcome To The Future‘, will be released on 25 April.
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