In what is usually a fairly quiet time in the gig calendar some tasty tours have passed through town featuring tantalising multi-band bills. For lovers of sleazy glammed up Punky Rock ‘n’ Roll tonight’s show featuring Michael Monroe and Buckcherry was not to be missed.
They don’t come more glam than Michael Monroe. For over four decades, Monroe has consistently delivered the goods, whether with the legendary Hanoi Rocks, the sadly short lived Demolition 23 or through his impressive solo catalogue. Monroe never fails to satisfy and in his latest release, Outer Stellar, that trend continues unabated.
With Monroe hitting the stage first, it was all down to him and his Rock ‘n’ Roll troubadours to grab the show by the neck and kicking off with the evergreen “Dead, Jail or Rock ‘n’ Roll” he set the show off to a flying start.
Across the 14 song set, Monroe cherry picked material from right across his career as well as a decent selection from his hot of the press latest album. With fans of the older Hanoi Rocks era getting “Motorvatin’”, “I Can’t Get It” and the closest thing to a ballad, “Don’t You Ever Leave Me” complete with sparkling glitterball illuminating the hall, all coming in the first half of the set along with the rip roaring “Last Train To Tokyo” and “Old King’s Road” from his solo repertoire along with a banging “Hammersmith Palais” by Demolition 23 meant all bases were covered.
Never one to rest on his laurels, Monroe may well have released his best album in years in Outer Stellar as the likes of “Disconnected” which saw Monroe clamber to the top of a rather precarious stack of speakers; the furious Punk romp of “Rockin’ Horse” and an venomous “Shinola” all songs barely a week old, slipped seamlessly into his set alongside “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” added into the set as a late replacement for “Tragedy” and saw Monroe over the crash barrier and up onto the merchandise table at the side as his frantic roadie desperately tried to untangle his rather long microphone cord.
While Monroe was a veritable whirlwind of energy and the main focal point of the night, as you’d expect from one of the most flamboyant front men in the history of Rock, his band was on fire. Not only did they look the part of sleazy, gutter level vagabonds but they delivered the punches too with guitarist Steve Conte along with Rich Jones giving that Rock ‘n’ Roll edge as former Hanoi Rocks band mate, the effortlessly cool, Sami Yaffa and ex-Danzig sticksman, Karl Rockfist hammered down the rhythm section.
The sax rasping “Malibu Beach Nightmare” and the glorious “Up Around The Bend” brought the show to an apocalyptic climax, the bar was set way to high for Buckcherry to top that.
In truth, Buckcherry didn’t even come close. Not that there was anything wrong with their set, far from it, it’s just that Michael Monroe is an impossible act to follow.
Of course Buckcherry have a formidable frontman in the fleet footed Josh Todd and a potent guitarist in Steve Dacanay and in set opener “Lit Up”, a song to ignite even the most docile of audiences. The title track of their latest release “Roar Like Thunder” does just as it says on the tin and the rampant Icona Pop cover “Say Fuck It” gets everybody moving.
After almost 30 years in the business Josh Todd knows how to work an audience and the sleazy “Crazy Bitch” wraps up a satisfying show which would have been the talk of the town were it not for the incendiary opening set by Michael Monroe.
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