SKID ROW, I Am I, Buffalo Summer @Leamington Assembly 12/4/13

On November 20^th 1991 RTM went, along with my still best mate, to the NEC for our first ever gig. Back in those days, ripped jeans and leather jackets were the order of the day.

What happened that evening had a profound effect on my life. Rock n roll has never again sounded quite as cool, or as dangerous as it did that night. So began a lifelong love of live music that has – despite many changes – never left us. The headline act that night – after LA Guns and Love/Hate had played – was our favourite band at the time, New Jersey’s Skid Row.

Arriving at the Leamington Assembly (or Academy as Skid Row’s frontman Johnny Sollinger refers to it as) we see people like us, and ok there might only be 500 of us as opposed to the 1000s from 22 years ago, but it is testament to what Skid Row meant to people.

Time will tell whether Buffalo Summer ever get that sort of following. The South Wales band are to release their debut record this month and on the evidence of their 25 minute set tonight they have some decent songs to go on it. “Waltz Right Through” and “Down to The River” echo bands like Heavens Basement, while reminding RTM of No Sweat, an Irish rock band from the late 80s/early 90s. This is hard rock with a bluesy tinge that has no pretensions to be anything else.

I AM I, though, have pretensions to be quite big. Any band with ZP Theart as its singer would. The former Dragonforce man has a rather overbearing stage presence, which you either love or hate. We are in the latter camp, which is a shame because we do like I AM I’s songs. We were at the band’s first ever gig, last May in Birmingham and the opening track was ruined by Theart’s microphone not working, strangely the same thing happens tonight.

The band has changed since then, and it’s a better, more confident showing than that night. Theart, though is at the centre of everything they do, marching into the crowd during “Cross The Line” as he doesn’t feel its lively enough. “Kiss of Judas” is an excellent song, as is “Silent Genocide” but quite what possessed them to play John Farnham’s “The Voice” who the hell knows? A band that could, perhaps be excellent, but still has work to do.

The Ramones “Blitzkrieg Bop” blasts out as Skid Row join us. Perhaps oddly for the bands of the glam era, three of the original members, guitarists Scotti Hill and Dave “Snake” Sabo and bass man Rachel Bolan remain – this is crucial as the trio were the main songwriters in the band, and while the elephant in the room is that former singer Sebastian Bach isn’t here, his replacement Sollinger is an able singer, and Bach, a man of such …urrmm “character” that he makes Theart look demure, isn’t really missed. Perhaps the salient point here is that Solinger has been fronting Skid Row for 14 years and, as such has been there longer than his predecessor anyway.

The unmistakable riff to “Slave To The Grind” kicks us off and instantly, perhaps for one night only, Skid Row are the best band in the world again, the heroes of our youth, the most dangerous band in the world. “Big Guns” only reinforces that point as do “Piece of Me” and “18 and Life” both from that astonishing debut record.

However, if most of the set does come from the first two albums, this not just an exercise in nostalgic wallowing, there are two songs from the “Thickskin” album which are better than we recall,  but best of all are the two songs they play from the forthcoming new EP “United World Rebellion Part 1.” “Let’s Go” and “Kings Of Demolition” both – on this listen – sound like they are right up there with anything in the back catalogue.

The band know, though, that they have to play the classics, and seem happy to do just that. “I Remember You” and “In A Darkened Room” are two superb ballads, while “Monkey Business”- which they use to let Snake and Hill play a solo -  is still full of groove and menace.  

The encore is the punky “Riot Act” before “Youth Gone Wild” finishes things, just like it always used to. It might be a touch incongruous to see men in their late 40s (in band and crowd) talking about being young and rebellious but, as Solinger points out “it doesn’t matter how old you are,” which is a fair point and one which neatly sums the night up.

There is always a little trepidation in nights like this. You are desperate for your old heroes to still be good. Tonight, though, Skid Row proved they are a few notches better than “good.” They were proof positive, that if you have some of the finest songs ever recorded, then some of your original members stand up and play them, nothing can really go wrong, and it doesn’t matter whether its 1991 or 2013.