It’s been a while since I last drifted through the hallowed doors of KKs, and it’s been suitably missed. On the agenda tonight there’s a band I’d not heard of until recently when their brand spanking new album was unceremoniously thrust upon me with the accompanying words “You’ll like this I reckon, it needs reviewing by Thursday!”. To be fair, they were right on the money and I thoroughly enjoyed it as you can read here and so, given that, it would’ve been remiss of me to not plod around the corner to see what they sounded like live in my local venue. They are The Dead Daisies, and here’s my thoughts on what happened next:
But wait! There were two bands preceding the headliners. “The Bites” being the first of these. Seven quickfire songs consisting of six from their current album “Squeeze” and a chunk of War Pigs to boot, these guys were enthusiastic and fun on stage, which given the fact that the venue was already packed, went down well. Having travelled from Hollywood to sunny Wolverhampton on a surprisingly chilly evening you’d’ve forgiven them for being a tad lacklustre but no, they came out with all guitars firing. Entertaining solos and the starter track ‘Knockin’ on the Door’ which has already grabbed 150,000 streams on Spotify, they ran through their set like a mustang through a red light, interacting well and demonstrating quite some skill in their presentation. A glance at their album told me their songs are all around 3.5 minutes long and this transferred into their live set too. Highlights included ‘Heather Leather’ with memorable (and discernible!) lyrics and a drum driven pace, and their final track ‘Do me a favor’ [sic!!] which shows Jordan Tyler and co. have moved on significantly from his early days on TikTok. Also sandwiched within this compact playlist, a new song yet to be recorded, ‘Fire in Hollywood’, coming your way soon! You heard it here first… or rather.. you read it… ah you get the idea!
THE BITES
Following up were “The Treatment”. These guys have been around since 2008 and it shows. There’s hints of the incarnation of “Rainbow” with Dio in songs like ‘When Thunder and Lightning Strikes” and it soon became clear that there’s an awful lot of the audience who were absolutely here for these as well as Dead Daisies. I’d place them in the Hard Rock category, music to drive to, and then subsequently acquire speeding tickets accordingly! Songs such as ‘Let it Begin’ gave the Grey guitarists licence to play and play they did, matched by a vocal by Tom Rampton which fitted the feel of the evening like a glove. The same can be said of ‘This Fire Still Burns’ and it’s clear they’ve found a format which works, but again curiously it’s their final track, ‘Running with the Dogs’, the title track from an album now at least 10 years old which left the biggest impression on me. The vocal was crisp and clear, music melodic and rocky enough to have my foot tapping, and a very good way to sign off as it made me want to investigate “The Treatment” more after the gig. Well played!
THE TREATMENT
With everyone now warmed up The Dead Daisies took the stage. I was curious to see just how many of the new album tracks would hit the setlist, and was surprised that in fact, only four from an 18-track performance appeared. ‘Light ‘Em Up’ is the aforementioned album title, the tour title too, (try saying that after a pint or three!), and so perhaps unsurprisingly was the opener. Short, but with a very tidy solo rammed in and helped by a sound engineer who really knew his business, it was clear from the beginning that these guys knew what they were doing. Other tracks from the new album “I Wanna Be Your Bitch” sounding suspiciously like Alice Cooper, “I’m Gonna Ride” and “Take a Long Line” (“The Angels” cover) went down well but it was obviously the older songs which generated an atmosphere which had the room nodding their heads in approval, ‘Bustle and Flow’ and ‘Lock ‘N’ Load’ being examples of such things. Somewhere in the midst of these there was a good 5 minute drum solo which, for someone who owns Deep Purple’s 10 minute live version of ‘The Mule’, was an absolute joy to behold.
Unbeknownst to me, The Dead Daisies are somewhat famous for both their personnel swapping but more pertinently here their cover versions of songs while playing the circuit. Having taken time out to eye up their current and previous lineups it’s not exactly surprising either. John Corabi has fronted Motley Crew, Tommy Clufetos has toured with Black Sabbath and Ozzy, and Doug Aldrich has played with Whitesnake, so with five cover songs and a medley (used to introduce the band) incorporated into the set there were quite some treats in store for the unsuspecting attendee such as me. A ”Muddy Waters” cover, as well as “Fortunate Son” by “Creedence Clearwater Revival” certainly came as a shock, but came complete with some excellent guitarwork and a vocal which on occasion drifted into a Lemmy-esque drawl, something which I noted happened on at least one album track. Snippets of ‘Dirty Deeds’, ‘Children of the Grave’ and ‘Whole Lotta Love’ had a crowd with an average age probably close to my own (50) bouncing along and presumably nursing calf muscles the day after, (much like myself!)
Crowbarred in between the covers that took up most of the second half of the show there was still room for a couple of Dead Daisies originals. Heading back to 2015 and 2016, ‘Mexico’ and ‘Long Way To Go’ were executed with style, panache, and much in the way of audience singing, leading up to ‘Helter Skelter’ by “The Beatles”, which is often touted as the first heavy metal song ever, and thus as a finale in a gig rife with tunes that could well have been from anytime circa mid 1980s, while substantially older than that, didn’t feel out of place at all. For myself, and from the crowd reaction, I’d put ‘Make Some Noise’ early on in the performance as the stand out track of the set, sounding almost Queenlike in delivery and tempo bringing ‘We will Rock You’ to mind, and I have an inkling Brian May would’ve enjoyed himself here just as much as Doug Aldrich did on the night playing it.
Late in the evening as I wandered back to my local haunt I remembered how I’d felt about the Dead Daisies album “Light ‘Em Up”, and how I’d read about how they’d stated “rock was alive and well”, and I think I’m not stretching my position too far to speak for the rest of the people who attended KKs Steel Mill and assert that actually, all of the bands demonstrated and embodied that sentiment tonight with aplomb!
THE DEAD DAISIES
If you’re reading this guys, nicely done to all three of you!
