There’s one sure fire sign that autumn is approaching. It’s not the chill in the air, the dark mornings or the leaves turning golden brown and falling from the trees, it is the return of Californian Rockers Y&T, to these shores, around the same time every year.
Tonight Northumbria University in Newcastle was packed as usual and it was great to see so many familiar faces in the crowd returning for an evening of classy melodic Heavy Rock.
Y&T delivered big time with “Black Tiger”, “Meanstreak” and “Forever” sounding vibrant and punchy. The more commercial “Summertime Girls” and “Don’t Wanna Lose You” nestled boldly beside the heavier “Hurricane” and “Eyes of a Stranger” while “Midnight In Tokyo” and “Winds Of Change” just oozed with melody and class, where Meniketti, despite his traditional British cold, sounded absolutely magnificent vocally.
Lead guitarist/vocalist, Dave Meniketti, is surely the most underrated guitarist around. Few have the killer combination of melody and technical flair who play for the song and his playing on “I Believe In You” more than deserved the extended ovation that he received.
Meniketti may be the last of the bands founders but he has certainly brought in members who more than do justice to the Y&T legacy. Guitarist John Nymann and drummer Mike Vanderhule have been in the band for nigh on 20 years and ‘new boy’ bassist Aaron Leigh, almost a decade, so it’s no surprise that the band is tight and lean throughout the night.
Of course, one of the many highpoints of the show was “Rescue Me”, a song so embedded into the Rock culture of Newcastle and Durham that it’d be inconceivable not to play it and tonight it nearly blew the roof off.
Roll on next year.
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