STONE SOUR @Wolverhampton Civic Hall 14/12/12

It scarcely seemed possible that when Corey Taylor got together with some old bandmates and reformed his first band Stone Sour in some Slipknot downtime, they would still be here 10 years and four albums later and selling out venues like the Wolves Civic to boot.

However, that is the situation they find themselves in. And when the houselights go down to herald “Gone Sovereign” and the beginning of the show there is near delirium amongst the gathered throng.

That track – and indeed five more that are played tonight – are from the new “House of Gold and Bones PT1” record. The second part is due next year. Part one is a stellar affair, and if it doesn’t quite hit the heights of album number two “Come What Ever May” it is a massive improvement on 2010’s patchy “Audio Secrecy.”

Sour enter the stage with the band dressed in black, and the other members (still including Slipknot’s James Root amongst their ranks) are content to let Taylor hog the limelight. It is a role he accomplishes with aplomb. Although, new bass man Johnny Chow has a beard that might just eclipse the vocalist on its own.

The setlist is a 90 minute long storm through their best moments. “Hell And Consequences”  from “……May” is a showstopper, while the delve back to the debut album for “Blotter” is rapturously received. It is “Absolute Zero” that perhaps showcases their talents best. Sitting on the new album, it is a stone (sour) cold classic of a track. An effortless riff and chorus is driven on the back of Josh Rand’s guitar crunch and is casually tossed out early on.

A four song encore (also including a snippet of Alice In Chains “Nutshell”) sees Taylor play a solo “Bother”, which the crowd sings for him, before he is joined by the others for “Through Glass” and “Digital (Did You Tell)” which he dedicates to a generation that “needs to unplug and live their lives” before “3030150” draws us to a superb close.

When they toured with Avenged Sevenfold a couple of years ago in arenas, Stone Sour were largely upstaged by a band who had an arena show. Sour don’t and looked a little forlorn having to follow AX7s histrionics. Not here. They are the perfect band for these shows.

They have done this on the back of the quality of the songs they have. Taylor’s mega status as the singer in one of metal’s biggest bands might have got Stone Sour noticed in the first place, but it is the fact they are damn good that keeps the public coming back.

Stone Sour were quite brilliant tonight

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.

LITTLE ANGELS, Skin @Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall 7/12/12

The late 1980s and early 1990s are an often neglected period in British music, which is tremendous shame as it was an era that really should be celebrated.

We had bands like The Quireboys, Terrorvision and three of RTM’s all-time favourite bands in The Almighty, The Wildhearts and Thunder making fantastic records.  Most of those bands are still going, even if past glories are some way behind them – indeed we have seen a couple recently.

To that list of active groups we can now add the Little Angels. Toby Jepson and the boys were an odd case. Over the course of three full-length albums (the last of which went to number one in the charts) they made a series of fantastic songs. And then they split. For 18 years they pretty much all went their separate ways – bass man Mark Plunkett managing Boyzone, guitarist Bruce Dickinson forming a music school and Jepson becoming a frontman and producer for hire – before the tragic death of former drummer Michael Lee drew them back together last year.

They played a couple of warm up shows in June before a return at Download, which has now become a proper tour. And moreover a sold-out one at that, as the Wulfrun is absolutely rammed.

Opening act for this here shindig are another band that reformed last year for some shows and are back for more. Skin’s debut album was, to RTM’s ears more a collection of decent singles and whilst we were never the biggest fans of the band, rather gratifyingly they sound just like they always used to.

In fact we do feel rather transported back to the early 1990s at the Irish Centre in Digbeth, which is where we last saw them. Frontman Neville McDonald is still all flowing locks and vocal power and songs like “Tower Of Strength” and “Take Me To The River” are premium quality nostalgia, in fact the only thing that has seemingly changed is the physique of guitarist Myke Gray. Now a top Personal Trainer, he is firmly in the wouldn’t-like-to-meet-down-a-dark-alley category. Perhaps, as their closing number – and still best song – says “Look But Don’t Touch” indeed.

So what so you do if you are trying to make a comeback after 18 years? There are ways to do it, of course, but reeling off your four best known songs one after other might be just about the best. That is exactly what Little Angels do here.

“She’s A Little Angel” kicks us off and is quickly followed by “Kicking Up Dust,” “Boneyard” and “Radical Your Lover” before we even have a chance to draw breath. Jepson – who keeps chatting to a minimum – says hello before “The Way That I Live” and “Back Door Man go past in a blur.

This really is a night that is as good as you might have dreamed it was, and seldom has a 90 minute set gone by so fast. A poignant “Don’t Prey For Me” – the song they played at Lee’s funeral – is given an airing, but this is not a night to feel anything other than a celebration. The band themselves are clearing enjoying themselves, with Jepson laughing with The Big Bad Horns during “I Was Not Wrong,” before “Young Gods” closes things off.

There is still time for a semi-acoustic sing-a-long of “I Aint Gonna Cry, which sees the frontman playing the first half before being joined by his bandmates and the cover of Bryan Adams’ “Kids Wanna Rock” that always used to finish Angels’ gigs off.

A definite contender for one of the top 10 gigs of the year, this was just great fun. It might have taken tragedy to bring them back together, but sometimes something truly wonderful comes out of despair. As long as they don’t leave it 18 years to do this again.

RED FANG, El Caco @Birmingham Institute Temple 6/12/12

The last time Red Fang were in these parts they were opening for Mastodon downstairs in the main institute. It seems that a spring spent touring with the Georgia legends has paid off as the venue is packed to the rafters despite the horrendous weather conditions outside.

The early beneficiaries of the heaving crowd are Norway’s El Caco. The band are a mixture of hard rock and stoner rock, although RTM detects more than a hint of Therapy? In their songs. Indeed they seem to be enjoying their first visit to Birmingham, as although relative unknowns over here they are on to their sixth album in their homeland. The three piece are led by bassist/vocalist Oyvind Osa, who combines nicely with guitarist Anders Gjesti, but as they don’t actually introduce any of their songs nothing quite sticks in the mind the way it might have done.

Sticking in the mind is exactly what Red Fang did back in the spring. RTM saw them perform opening duties for Mastodon at the Brixton Academy and couldn’t help but be impressed at what was essentially four beardy fellas plugging in and playing some great heavy, Black Sabbath-inspired songs. Good job, then, that pretty much the same thing occurs here.

Most of their songs are built on immense riffs, but occasionally they can get extremely catchy to go with it. Second song in “Throw Up” with its “say what you gotta say” refrain is everything that tonight’s opening act didn’t have. If most of their set came from 2011’s stellar outing “Move The Mountains, then the move back into their first album for “Bird on Fire” is a very successful foray indeed.  Elsewhere, “Human Remains” sounds epic in this setting, while “Number Thirteen” and “Malverde” most echo Mastodon.

Fang do share something else in common with their more illustrious touring partners too, a reluctance to communicate with the audience. Frontman Bryan Giles is not an especially charismatic man – even to the point where a new song is played but not introduced.

However, this is a minor quibble, because this type of music, perhaps more than any other, doesn't need to rely on charisma, more just great songs. And beards, obviously.

Luckily, as Red Fang have proved tonight, they have both those things in abundance. 

BEN FOLDS FIVE @Academy Birmingham 3/12/12

When we don’t even bother with the support band, when someone in the main group, about halfway through the set refers to the singer of Metallica as “James Hatfield” and makes the devil horns sign in an ironic way to general tittering from the crowd it is clear that RTM is not on safe ground.

This is one of the rare occasions that we come blinking into the light and into the mainstream. However, us being here isn’t quite as odd as it first appears. In the mid 90s a band emerged that was genuinely different from the grungey norm and played piano rock n roll with quirky lyrics. Their first two albums were actually very good indeed. Splitting up after album number three in 2000, they released a comeback album earlier in the year and guess what? That’s pretty good too.

That band is Ben Folds Five, the name seemingly a student-type joke as there are only three members of the band, led by the eponymous star banging away on his piano like a nerd version of Little Richard and they have a drawn a near sell-out crowd at the Academy.

Both crowd and band are soon reliving the past as “Jackson Cannery” kicks off with some fine vocal interplay between the band members, while “Erase Me” from the comeback album “The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind” features more harmony vocals than your average Queen song.

For a band that uses the piano as its driving force there is an amazing amount of difference in the songs – “Uncle Walter” evokes the spirit of 1950s rock n roll for example, while the seemingly spontaneous “Rock This Bitch” with its bluesy references to Birmingham comes from a different place all together.

The encores of the crowd pleasing “One Angry Dwarf And Two Hundred Solemn Faces” and “Song For The Dumped” take things up a notch and Folds’ geeky charm carries the whole thing along in a jaunty way.

There are a couple of problems with the gig, though. First it is very, very long – clocking in at two hours 15 minutes – and it just isn’t, well, for want of a better word, exciting. There is nothing visceral about what goes on here. In fact, for part of the evening it feels more like a recital than a gig and doesn’t quite hold the attention. It is, after all, essentially three fellas just standing there playing some piano based songs.

We will forgive them appalling lack of knowledge when it comes to Metallica and we will forgive the rather plodding nature of some of what happened. File under glad we’ve seen them but probably won’t bother again. 

DAN BAIRD AND HOMEMADE SIN @Wolverhampton Slade Rooms 1/12/12

At 9pm precisely, after having had no support (the covers band that were originally scheduled to open had cancelled – playing their “final ever” gig the week before) the band that is in RTM’s opinion the greatest rock n roll band in the world strides out on stage.

Ok so, it’s the Wolverhampton Slade Rooms in front of barely 100 people, and a world away from the overpriced and overhyped Rolling Stones gigs at the O2 Arena, but if anyone doubts the validity of our opinion then the second Dan Baird and Warner E Hodges begin the opening bars of “Younger Face” then it becomes clear that Mr Baird and Homemade Sin are pretty damn incredible.

The bluesy “Crooked Smile” follows, before the band plays a new song. The true skill of the band is shown here, as Baird totally forgets how it goes, playing the bridge in the wrong place, while the grinning members of Homemade Sin follow his lead, before laughing with each other – and the crowd.

There is a tremendous warmth in the room throughout, as band and audience – although small – really connect, although it is not hard to enjoy songs like “Julie and Lucky and “Ain’t A Damn Thing To Be Done”

Baird, as might be expected, dusts his old Georgia Satellites past off for a pair of 80s classics in “Keep Your Hands To Yourself and “Railroad Steel” which sound as fabulous today as they ever did. Actually, that does Homemade Sin a disservice, as so good are the aforementioned Hodges, bass man Keith Christopher and drummer Mauro Magellen, that they, In terms of musical ability perhaps eclipse anything Baird has done before.

However, their real strength is just how much fun they are – and how off the cuff everything feels. This is rock and roll the way it was meant to be. There is no setlist for example, and Baird is happily playing Elvis songs before Hodges – very much the Keith to Dan’s Jagger if you will – reminds the frontman there is a strict curfew. Baird is forced to apologise, but didn’t need to, as everyone was just swept along.

A singalong “Shelia” follows, before what would have been the encore of “Two For Tuesday” complete with a segue into Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Hey Tonight”, and a bar room boogie of “Hard Day’s Night” finishes things.

After two almost faultless hours Dan Baird and Homemade Sin prove that they are the kings of this type of music. None of it would have been possible without Creedence, of course, as Baird would himself acknowledge, but as rock and roll bands go, this is the best on planet. And they didn’t charge £400 for the privilege of seeing them.

Simply stunning.

The Twins Of Evil: Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson @NIA 29/11/12

Back in the day RTM quite liked Marilyn Manson. In fact, sometime around the turn of the century we saw him play the NEC Arena as it was then and he was thoroughly exciting.

This was at the height of his most dangerous phase, and moreover at the height of his creative peak. Say what you like about Manson, but for a spell back there he was very, very good. Albums like” Holly Weird” and “Mechanical Animals” stand up with anything that came out in that period, but let’s be honest, that was a long time ago.

Fast forward to 2012, and Manson is bloated, hasn’t released a decent album in a long time (this year’s” Born Villain” is a partial return to form, but won’t win album of the year any time soon) and worryingly, he appears to have totally lost both his voice and memory. RTM will give him his due, he remembered some of the words and sometimes in the right order, but it’s a fleeting moment where he gets it right.

Then there is the show itself. It’s all very dated. “The Dope Show” rocks along, but sounds as much of its time as, say, Limp Bizkit’s “Rollin’” would. It might just be us, but is it really shocking in 2012 to have a LED video screen flashing up the word AIDS behind the band? Or is it just a bit silly?

After his hour – which includes a truly execrable version of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of These) by the Eurythmics, which sounds even worse than it did on the record years ago – you are left to conclude that, rather like all those bands that made the horrible Cool Britannia movement in the late 90s, Marilyn Manson has very little to offer anymore.

Still, surely Rob Zombie will be better, though?

Well, the answer is yes, but it is a yes with a but. First of all opening song “Jesus Frankenstein is lost in a terrible sound, and when you can actually hear what is being sung Zombie’s voice sounds terrible. To be fair, he explains this himself, saying he ruined his vocal chords the night before in Glasgow, but this merely tells half the story.

"More Human Than Human” you see, still sounds fabulous. At this point you are left to reflect that while White Zombie might have released a couple of good albums in the mid-90s the rest of Mr.Zombie’s career hasn’t quite lived up to that. “Sick Bubblegum” and “Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy) are good enough songs, but they pale into insignificance compared to band material like “Thunder Kiss 65.”

Also, having heard a lot about how good Zombie’s show was – and indeed having seen his previous band years back –RTM was disappointed in it. Yes there were lights and screens, but precious little else. Indeed there is nothing here that any arena band worth their salt doesn’t do.

There is a cover of “Schools Out” that makes you long for Alice Cooper to do it properly, before a disappointing evening ends with Zombie’s best song in “Dragula”, but really, the only thing scary about this show, considering that it was billed as “The Twins Of Evil” is just how poor it was.