KADAVAR, Buffalo Summer @Slade Rooms, Wolverhampton 24/10/13

Welsh band Buffalo Summer have apparently never played Wolverhampton before, but they are not strangers to the Midlands. RTM had seen them in Leamington, opening for Skid Row back in March. We liked them then, we like them now.

Back in the spring we wrote: “This is hard rock with a bluesy tinge that has no pretensions to be anything else” and at the risk of tooting our own horn in a quite self-regarding way, we were bang on. The only thing we can add to that tonight is that since then, this type of retro rock is bang in vogue and Buffalo Summer could find themselves getting in on the whole Temperance Movement bandwagon.

They aren’t too dissimilar to TM and singer Andrew Hunt looks the part dressed in his flares. The fella can sing too, and there is a real Black Crowes type charm to songs like “A Horse Called Freedom” and new single ”Down To The River.” Look out for Summer, as their sun is shining brightly.

What can you say about Kadavar? The German three piece are perhaps the hairiest band this side of ZZ Top and if a band that that sounds like Led Zeppelin jamming on a Black Sabbath song while a pencil thin drummer beats the crap out of his kit sounds like it might be for you, then ladies and gentlemen, welcome along to your new favourite band.

The group stuck out album number two earlier in the year. Fantastically titled “Abra Kadavar” it is nine songs of sheer 70s sounding brilliance. However, they are slightly more contrary than you might expect, they only play four songs from it in their 75 minute set, choosing instead to showcase nearly all of their self-titled debut record.

In common with most of the crowd we suspect, RTM isn’t too familiar with the older stuff (albeit it only came out last year) but no matter, it is quite majestic, indeed it always amazes how a band with three members – whether it be Motorhead or Rush, or indeed Kadavar -  can sound so huge. The seemingly impromptu jam in “Eyes Of The Storm” is just massive, the band cutting loose and having fun in a mass of hair and riffery.

The tunes from “…Kadavar” are even better than you would have hoped. “Doomsday Machine” and “Come Back Life” are particularly majestic, while the other stuff sees plenty of vinyl being sold at the end.

The group are not particularly demonstrative and apart from the odd “thank you” they barely speak, whether this is because of a lack of confidence is unclear, but really you wouldn’t want them any other way.

There is no encore, all three just waving as they exit the stage, before Bon Jovi’s “Runaway” plays us out. That unexpected track proves if nothing else that these German’s do things with tongues in cheeks on occasion, what happened before proved that they are very special indeed.