Things are looking promising for the Stone Gods set long before the band take the stage. Despite The Wedgewood Rooms playing host to a regular procession of rock and metal bands, it’s not often that you see full-stack guitar amps on stage there.
Tonight, there are four.
There’s a definite sense of expectation in the audience, anyway – because Stone Gods are a reincarnation of The Darkness, without Justin and his novelty catsuits and with a new bass player.
However, as soon as the band take the stage and launch into “Burn The Witch” it’s clear that Stone Gods are a different beast entirely - for a start, the other musicians aren’t obscured by an immense ego prancing at centre-stage. The new frontman is one Richie Edwards, promoted from being Dan Hawkins’s guitar tech - and while he doesn’t have Justin’s towering vanity, he does have that essential charisma that a rock singer needs.
Richie’s not short on enthusiasm, either – it’s plain to see he’s having the time of his life up there, and he’s determined to drag us along as well. He takes the risk of reminding the audience that Sunday is considered the “dog day” of touring - when it’s hard to get an audience to turn up, let alone get excited - and he invites us to help him turn Sunday into Saturday with some crowd participation.
We’ve all seen this tactic fall very flat before, but Richie’s infectious energy carries it off. Despite his vaguely tough-guy image, he comes across more like a playful puppy who’ll love you for ever if you’ll just throw the stick for him one more time …
His confident antics take some of the focus away from his voice - which is by no means bad, but is either tired or in need of a bit more training, to judge by the moments where gruff verges on ragged. But a vigorous touring schedule should polish it up nicely, and it’s set off against the perfect backdrop – Stone Gods are about as good a non-covers classic rock act as you’re likely to hear anywhere.
Stone Gods have sampled widely from the back catalogue of British rock to produce a set that is much heavier and less poppy than anything The Darkness ever released. Never do Stone Gods really veer into full-on metal, at least not in the modern sense of the term, but there’s plenty of crunch and bite from the seemingly endless selection of freshly-tuned Gibson guitars.
And while the over-the-top comedy of their previous incarnation is notable by its absence, there’s a definite playful sense of fun to the songs. “Brought A Knife To A Gun-Fight” plays up to the rock’n'roll tough-guy persona with a swear-along chorus that’s already known fondly by the audience; while “Don’t Drink The Water” is what Iron Maiden might have produced had they decided to write a song about package holidays in Alicante.
There’s plenty of fun in the performance, too. Richie’s all over the stage, doing the chicken-nod or rock-star gurns (sometimes both at once) or egging on his band-mates, and the spotlight is on him for the whole set, quite literally. The other cutting edge to the Stone Gods attack is, of course, Dan Hawkins’s guitar playing.
Always somewhat overshadowed by his flamboyant brother in his previous band, Dan gets a chance to shine on his own terms in Stone Gods. All the lead guitar work is left to him, and there’s no denying that he’s a spectacular soloist, pulling out something fresh and appropriate for each track, always fitting with the style but adding some extra zing to the proceedings.
It’s a rollicking set, and never is there a moment’s hint that the band are disappointed by the turn-out. Like true professionals, Stone Gods play the show as if they were playing a sold-out arena and make everyone who came feel that they got their money’s worth.
In keeping with the big-show philosophy, they make the audience wait for the inevitable encore before Richie returns and thanks them effusively – almost gushingly – and belts out two acoustic driven end-pieces with the band grinning away behind him, before bidding us all a warm good night and heading backstage. Stone Gods put on a sterling show this evening, and if they work this hard for every audience they’ll end the tour with plenty of respect.
I doubt they’ll ever be a chart-bothering band, but I don’t think that’s what they’re after. It’s plain to see that not all the lessons they took away from their previous experiences were negative; Stone Gods deserve to put those lessons to practical use for some time to come.
Related articles:
Posted in Live reviews |
Tags: classic rock, fun, rock
