Looking back a bit I realized that I have seen both these bands a few times, at Steelhouse, Download, among others. So, it was going to be a night of singing along to familiar tracks. My claim to fame is being the sound engineer for the Crows the same year of their first Download triple bill when they played a local rugby club on the back of a flatbed lorry – oh, highs and lows of rock n roll rise to fame.
Many of the crowd were obviously “Crow family” members, sporting band T-shirts and hoodies. However it appeared there were also a relatively large number of Monster Truck fans too.
Anyway, opening up with their usual tape of crows cawing, Ronnie, Lloyd, Shiner, Dave and Shane, entered to the usual “Cardiff are you ready!” from Shane, (believe me they were!) before launching into ‘Who Did It?’ rapidly followed by ‘Long Time Dead’. Shane was up to his usual antics jumping on and off the platforms on stage and moving around like a prowling lion frequently swapping places with Lloyd. Shiner and Dave generally just standing either side of stage giving the guitars everything they had. Ronnie continued to beat the drums like the maniac he can be throughout.
Shane’s usual banter continued between songs saying that he told the Monster Truck guys that Cardiff was going to be the best night on the tour. Without any comparisons to make the crowd were on fire. Needing very little encouragement to join in on the chorus of any of the songs. ‘I Don’t Give A Damn’ kept the tempo up before ‘Send The Reaper’ carried the crowd into ‘Wake up (Sleepwalker)’ one of the songs from the forthcoming album and the single gaining airplay on PlanetRock.
Many of the performances I’ve seen lately involved a semi-acoustic/piano version of ‘Blink Of An Eye’ – not tonight; the tempo was kept upbeat and full of energy. The crowd needed no encouragement whatsoever and boy they were loud. ‘Sin On Skin’ continued the crowd involvement before ‘Go Get It’. As is usual the finale was ‘Rock and Roll Aint Dead’ with Shane taking to the balcony, as is his usual style. The crowd knew they had been in a rock concert and much of the following days socials stated they should have been the headliner. On that point Shane pointed out that next year they will be doing a headline tour in support of the album: Goddammit, I guess I’ll have to go to that too
Unlike many of the recent shows the band did all their own graft getting the gear on and off stage too: still not too rock and roll to work. Well done guys.
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After about half an hour or so the Canadian rockers Monster Truck entered the fray to a very receptive crowd that was still quite full, unlike some of the previous tour nights when crowds had apparently left after the Crows had been on. After the energy of the Crows, Jeremy Wilderman came running on shirtless followed by Jon Harvey (bass/vocals) and Brandon Bliss (keyboards). With the departure of Steve Kiely earlier this year the drum slot was taken by Theo McKibbon.
Kicking off with ‘Why Are You Not Rocking’ just to keep the mood going, ‘Old Train’ and ‘She’s A Witch’ rapidly followed. Believe it or not the crowd WERE rocking and they continued to do so for the rest of the set right through ‘Denim Danger’, ‘Golden Woman’ and ‘The Enforcer’. The opening bluesy guitar solo on ‘Black Forest’ was the first slowdown in the tempo, but by then I think both the band and crowd needed a breather.
However, this didn’t last long as ‘Fuzz Mountain’ soon picked it back up into ‘Live Free’ and ‘Country Livin’. Another breather with ‘For The Sun’ and ‘Seven Seas Blues’ started to wind the crowd up again. By the time the band opened ‘Get My Things And Go’ the crowd was bouncing and joining in with all the choruses. It looked like the band were enjoying it too. I have to say that I noticed Theo McKibbon giving the kit a serious hammering throughout most of the set.
‘New Soul’ was another track that was well received by the crowd but the title track of the new album ‘Warriors’ really wound everyone up into ‘Sweet Mountain River’. At this point the “false ending” came and went with little impact, but ‘Don’t Tell Me How To Live’ is almost as good an ending as ‘Rock n Roll Ain’t Dead’; on a different bill it would have been a real set closer.
Both bands were at the top of their game. The next time to see the Hamilton quartet will be at Rockstock in December, so that will be a good gig.