Fans were fully determined to chant along to every word, many admirably refusing to let the fact that they clearly had no idea what half the lyriucs actually were dampen their enthusiasm. But hey, you can’t fault the effort! Paul Smith, a natural front-man, exuded charisma, and easily whipped the crowd up into a frenzy thanks to his unbridled energy and enthusiasm, so much so that every time he so much as raised an arm, people erupted into cheers.
»Fucking sheep«, I sneered to myself with a condescending shake of the head, before getting caught up in the excitement and cheering along with serious gusto. Shame on me!
With a steady mixture of new songs and older classics we were treated to a triumphant set by a band that against all odds are still on top form. The Heaven sound system seemed to be lacking just that little something but somehow this didn’t seem to affect the band or the crowd’s enjoyment of the gig one little bit.
The only thing that would have concerned me if I were a member of the band (apart from which lovely ladies to select from the audience to re-enact elements of Mötley Crüe’s groupie-loving past of course) would be the fact that the songs from their first album got by far the biggest cheers of the night. Have they ever released anything to match the success of that record? Not just yet it seems!
While the new songs were good, some of them great, none of them sounded like bona fide anthem material along the lines of Graffiti or Going Missing which brought tears to the eyes of more than a few fully grown men and women when played (not mine I hasten to add, what do you think I am, some kind of sissy?)
The encore felt just that little bit flat after the heights reached by the main portion of the set. Perhaps the band were running low on energy by then. Then they struck into Apply Some Pressure which resulted in mass chanting, air punching and the serious moistening of more than a few pairs of knickers. (Again, not mine. Maybe.)
That proved to be the perfect climax for the crowd who left still in high spirits before their adrenaline ran dry and everyone realised quite how battered and bruised they actually were.
As for the support band, Clock Opera, the most positive feedback I overheard was: »He’s got quite a nice beard ...«
Foto: Man Alive! / Lizenz: CC-BY-2.0
