Y&T - Bristol Thekla 28th Oct 07
There aren’t many bands who I would make a five hour round trip to see but with the opportunity to finally see a full set by the superb American hard rock outfit Y&T it wasn’t to much to ask… and my goodness was it worth the journey!
Arriving in Bristol and finding the “Thekla” wasn’t too difficult, but getting used to the fact that venue was a boat floating on the river near Bristol’s City Centre took a while longer! In fact, the setting turned out to be perfect as a packed, enthusiastic crowd greeted both the headliners and support act Tigertailz loudly.
Unfortunately I missed much of the Tigertailz set catching only “Thrill Pistol” and the glamtastic anthem “Love Bomb Baby” but managed to secure a superb view of Y&T who for two hours produced one of the best live performances I’ve had the privilege of witnessing. The cramped conditions and small stage actually helped produce a fiery atmosphere as Dave Meniketti accompanied by long time co-hort Phil Kennemore on bass, the impressive John Nymann on guitar and drummer Mike Vanderhule powered through one hell of a set that encompassed just about everything a long time fan could hope to hear… and a little more!! Responding to shouts from the audience, “This Time” was a surprise inclusion and much to my delight the classic “Earthshaker” album (reviewed a while back on Rock Of Ages) was well represented by the likes of “Rescue Me”, “Hungry For Rock”, “Hurricane”, “Dirty Girl” and of course the magnificent “I Believe In You”.
Sounds levels on first song “Open Fire” meant the lyrics were rendered almost inaudible, at least where I was standing, for the early part of the number but this was soon fixed and from there on it was a night of classic hard rock with “Mean Streak”, “Midnight In Tokyo”, the ever popular “Summertime Girls” and the superb encore of “Forever” amongst the many highlights.
One interesting point was the number of people I heard with Welsh accents (and not just members of Tigertailz!). It appears many other punters made the journey across the bridge and surely a gig in Cardiff or Swansea on the next tour would be well attended… I’d be there for certain!
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BL
November 2, 2007 at 2:48 pm
I like the first say three Y and T albums well enough, but was never huge on them. I like Tigertailz a lot though.
November 2, 2007 at 7:53 pm
It was something quite special, IMHO one of the top shows of the year so far. I can’t get on your “nobody plays South Wales” horse with you Bill, as all the bigger bands play Cardiff, not Bristol. OK so there isn’t a decent sized venue in Brizzle but ……
November 2, 2007 at 9:41 pm
I’ve re-read it and I can’t see any “nobody plays South Wales” comment above. I was pointing out that a sizeable portion of the audience seem to home come across the bridge to see the show - a comment I thing probably came from you on the night - and that Y&T would surely get a good audience at Cardiff’s Point or even Swansea’s Sin City venue.
I have no “horse” about bigger bands playing Cardiff rather than Bristol. My concern is that smaller bands like Y&T and more precisely Magnum and Thunder - both UK bands - seem to be going no further West than Bristol. That to me is a disappointment. I wouldn’t expect you to share that point of view though as obviously your location is more suited to Bristol shows, but I simply can’t afford regular 5 hour trips to see bands and I don’t see the problem with writing what might, if I’m lucky, act as a hint to some of these non-Arena sized band to play the odd gig in South Wales.
November 2, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Guys, guys. Move to The East Midlands Its where the action is LOL :-)
November 3, 2007 at 12:01 am
I think thats a fair point Simon, the East Midlands does have the lions share, though TBH I’m in quite a good position to reach all 3 areas quite easily, so perhaps don’t really understand the frustration Bill feels. There does seem to be a strange spread of gigs recently, with more often than not bands sticking to London, the Midlands, perhaps Scotland and then calling it a UK tour. The Trews come to mind as an example, a band that plenty over this way would make the effort to see. Bill, I wasn’t digging at you, rather making the observation that one side of “the bridge” seems to get the club bands and the other, the arena bands. Unfortunately, this County gets neither!