AIRBOURNE, Orange Goblin, The Treatment @The Institute, Birmingham 9/12/13

As you get older time really does seem to fly. For example, can it really be close on three years since RTM first saw The Treatment?

Still impossibly young, that night in Nuneaton they were bottom of a bill to showcase the High Voltage record label, but even then they stood out.

Now they are readying album number two, "Running With The Dogs" and they seem to have the brightest of bright futures.

If years spent touring with everybody from Thin Lizzy and Status Quo to Black Stone Cherry (we think this is the fifth time we've seen them) make them polished. Their songs make them excellent. There is nothing subtle about them. This is straight up hard rock the way it used to sound. They sing a song called "I Bleed Rock And Roll" without any irony at all - and moreover you actually believe they do.

Finishing their set with old song "Shake The Mountain" The Treatment are as always, youthfully exuberant and thoroughly entertaining, and possibly set to leave the support circuit behind.

AC/DCs "Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock And Roll)" blasts out as Orange Goblin march out onto the stage. It is a prescient choice. For the 16 years since their début masterpiece "Frequencies From Planet Ten" came out - they play "Saruman's Wish" from it tonight - Goblin have been making stunning music, but only now are they finally getting the rewards.

Long one of RTMs favourite bands, OG have spent 2013 on the road, and it shows in a 40 minute set which is joyous, heavy and yet accessible all at once.

"Acid Trial" is monstrous, "Filthy And The Few" is one of the finest songs of this decade and "Some You Win, Some You Lose" welds into your brain and doesn't let go and that's just for starters.

Man mountain he may be, but clad in his Rainbow t shirt singer Ben Ward is no different from many of the crowd tonight and that is Goblin's key strength. Not Rock stars, just one of the best metal bands on the planet. Tonight is Orange Goblin's vindication for sticking at it.

Airbourne sound like AC/DC. Every article about the band has to say this it seems. This statement assumes that a) the band don't know and b) it's a bad thing.

Right from the moment RTM first went to watch the group, at the old Academy 3 back about seven years ago, to the twice a couple of years back they warmed up for Maiden and all the other times in between, one thing has set the Aussies apart and it is the sheer glee with which they perform. Oh and the volume. They are right up with Motörhead in ear ringing stakes.

And blimey, they can pull the punters in. Yes it's a great bill, but The Institute is heaving when the four piece arrive to the Terminator theme.

Right from the first bar of the rather appropriately named "Ready To Rock" this is a show of crazy proportions. The band are always bouncier than a Kangaroo with too much fizzy pop, but by third song in "Girls In Black" singer/guitarist Joel O'Keefe is on a roadies shoulders being carried around the crowd and it's clear they mean business here.

Then there's the songs. Riffs abound, and "Diamond In the Rough" is classic Acca Dacca Double entendre, the title track of recent record "Black Dog Barking" is a heavy hymn to the rock n roll of youth, while "Ain't No Way But The Hard Way" is full of cocksure stomp.

The encore sees "Raise The Flag" literally shake the room and then take it up a notch further as O'Keefe performs from the balcony, before an ebullient end of "Runnin' Wild" sees a snippet of "Paranoid" and the frontman smashing beer cans with his head. Don't tell us they are mere clones, Airbourne are simply too good live for that.

A special night. Three great bands, and headliners sound better than ever. In years to come reviews might even talk about a young band that sounds like Airbourne. We might almost forgive their gloating about the Ashes score. Almost.

STATUS QUO, The Treatment @Wolverhampton Civic Hall 13/3/13

You have to hand it to The Treatment. The chances are that if you have been to a rock gig in the last two years, they have been the opening act. In the last six months they have been around America with Kiss and Motley Crue, the length and breadth of Britain with Thin Lizzy, they have supported Slash on his recent short arena tour and now this, sold-out jaunt with the original Status Quo.

Such experience has proved invaluable and they are slowly moving from the fresh-faced kids with potential that RTM saw at the bottom of a free gig in Nuneaton a couple of years ago to a confident hard rock band.

Depending on your point of view they are outdated glam chancers, or are trying to inject some of the sunset strip into British rock. At RTM we are very much in the latter camp and, whilst you are never going to get a Dream Theater or Slayer or whoever singing songs like “I Want Love” or “Get The Party On” in a world where bands like Bon Jovi are sticking out execrable nonsense, there needs to be some good time rock and roll about and in that respect The Treatment are as good as it gets right now.

In case you didn’t know this reunion of the original Status Quo line-up – “The Frantic Four” of Francis Rossi, Rick Parfitt, John Coughlan and Alan Lancaster – is a pretty big deal. This is the bands second show in Wolverhampton in the space of a week and both were sold out.

The chants of “Quo, Quo, Quo” have started almost as soon as The Treatment end and at 8.05 precisely the houselights go down and the voice says “Are you ready to rock? Will you welcome the finest rock band in the world…..Status Quo!” The quartet duly launch into the old blues boogie standard “Junior’s Wailing.”

To say the reception is good is an understatement. All around RTM there is pandemonium a fact that the effortlessly charming Rossi has 3, albeit cheekily, when he says “you feel better now? It like you have finished after whatsitcalled….you’ve had your climax now, you’ve climaxed all over this band…”

Actually the whole show is one big thrill. Absolutely flawless from beginning to end, the band is clearly loving it and the crowd lap it up. The songs too are pretty much just a joyous run-through of boogie, Lancaster sings the first two, Parfitt weighs in with “Little Lady” and Rossi sings most of the rest.

The two guitarists show their skills here, with the interplay really to the fore, while Coughlan – who has aged a little better than bassman Lancaster, who is clearly struggling with his movement by the end – keeps the beat superbly despite the stifling heat.

After “Roadhouse Blues” finishes the main set they are soon back for “Don’t Waste My Time” and the Chuck Berry standard “Bye Bye Johnny almost literally waves us a fond farewell.

This is the second time RTM has seen Quo. The first was the Christmas show last year, which was good, but nowhere near as good as this. This is Quo as they should be, just a damn fine boogie rock band, with rubbish like “Margarita Time” and a Christmas carol medley stripped away. The gig had a relaxed vibe – Lancaster found time to pick his nose before “(April) Spring Summer and Wednesdays” for example – but was an almost perfect celebration of a fine British rock band. 

THIN LIZZY, Fm, The Treatment @Rock City 9/12/12

We had The Treatment marked down for big things when we first saw them nearly two years ago, stick as they were at the bottom of a free gig in Nuneaton. Happily – and unusually given our past tipping record includes seeing a then unknown band called Muse open for Feeder and not only saying “no one will ever like these” but also tipping the other support band Straw as ones to watch – we seem to have been right.

A summer of touring with Kiss and Motley Crue has done them no harm at all, and given them a profile stateside, but moreover it has given them quite a confidence. They are making headway in this country too, and Rock City is packed for a performance that not even the loss of bass halfway through can spoil. The Treatment have good songs “The Doctor” chief amongst them, which they combine with a willingness to meet the public (they are stood by the exit shaking hands with nearly everyone at the end) and what they lack in originality they make up for in effort. They might just break through in 2013.

If they are looking for role models they could do a lot worse than look at FM. The kings of 80s AOR have been riding the crest of a wave since their return a few years ago. Full length reformation album “Metropolis” was a fine affair, while this years “Only Foolin’” EP contains a title track so good it would make even Thunder weep.

That they also back it up with “Don’t Stop” and “Over You” with its Bon Jovi-esque hook, before rounding the whole thing off with a version of “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” that sounds like they wrote it, only re-enforces the thought that FM are very, very good indeed.

As, of course, are Thin Lizzy. The band have been one of our favorites since we were in short trousers and scored third place in the gigs of 2011 for a quite stunning affair. They did it all again this January too, so much so we came back for a third go.  This apparently is the final time on stage for this incarnation. A brand new album is to come out under a different name next year.

For now though, we must just enjoy them while we can. The secret to what makes Lizzy so good, is that there is no secret at all. Just a collection of some of the finest songs ever written. The setlist, broadly speaking, is the same as they have trawled around with for a couple of years. But somehow, although you have seen it before, right from the time “Are You Ready” kicks things off to the time 90 minutes later when “Black Rose (Rosin Dubh)” ends it, it is quite simply the best hard rocking party you could wish to see.

Then there is Lizzy’s diversity. The metal of “Massacre” mixes so effortlessly with the rock n roll of “Dancing In The Moonlight” while “Killer On The Lose” is full of menace and swagger and “Jailbreak” is simply an anthem.

If anyone doubts the fact Lizzy are perhaps the finest band of their type in the world, any group that can better “Cowboy Song” and “The Boys Are Back In Town” and then follow that up with “Rosalie” and the aforementioned “….Rose” can send me their album.

As ever Scott Gorham takes a backseat and allows Ricky Warwick to give a phenomenal performance as frontman and if this is to be the last time that Lizzy perform these songs then, dammit, they went out on a high.