Bannerman's, Edinburgh
Monday October 31st 2011
80s hair metal icons were in Scotland for the first time in over 18 years on Halloween night. An excuse for a party? Absolutely.
Opening up proceedings were "local" lads Driller. I say local, as two of the band, singer/guitarist Alex and drummer KK are Brazilian, and bassist Jet (or Tom) is a cockney, but they're based in Edinburgh, and rock hard. Over their half an hour set the band played a brand of hard rock fused with metal with a unique twist. The riffs were chunky, and the songs melded the hard with the melodic beautifully. A great discovery of a band I'll be keeping a close eye on. Make sure you check out their EP "Alchemy of Love".
Next up were Italian hard rockers Lola Stonecracker. Minus a guitarist (who allegedly found himself in jail in Sweden), the Bologna boys still put on a rocking show. Playing a Guns n Roses style of sleazy hard rock, the band, ably fronted by the charasmatic Alex Fabbri fired through a cracking set, which included handing out lighters, CDs and t-shirts to eager audience members. Joined by half of Faster Pussycat for a run through The Misfits' "Attitude" they had the crowd eating out of their hands before finishing with a trash rock breakdown of Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "Relax". Impressive.
The main event of the evening was of course, the triumphant return of Taime Downe's Faster Pussycat. Putting an updated twist on the band's back catalogue, the entire room was captivated from the get go. Songs like "Bathroom Wall" and "Non-Stop to Nowhere" haven't aged a day, and had a good portion of the crowd singing along. Decked out in PV and a now trademark hat, Downe's voice sounded as good as ever, and he made sure that the entire crowd was getting involved. Flaunting the smoking laws by puffing away during the encore, he showed that even middle aged men in black lipstick can be cool. A sleaze metal cover of Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" was followed by the barnstorming "Don't Change This Song" to close out a highly impressive show.
Two excellent support acts were followed by a veteran band who can most definitely still cut it. A great way to spend Halloween night.
****
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