Wildhearts @ LMUSU
By Holden DeForge
With people still slowly drifting into the venue The Glitterati take to the stage. A crack of drums and a howl of overdriven guitars sees the band launch into 'Heartbreaker' and a rampant set that keeps upping the energy levels with each song until you feel veins are going to burst somewhere on stage. Pushed to the front of the stage, vocalist Paul Gautrey makes use of what little space he has, prowling and pouting his way across the stage making eye contact with any female in sight. He's soaked up the best bits of every great rock and roll frontman and blended them into one, topped off with a strong voice that holds melody as well at falsetto as it does at full tilt, screeching so hard you can feel his vocal chords wondering just quite what they've done.
'Back In Power' demonstrates the band's tightness as the bass and drums punch out a heavy rock groove and guitarist John Emsley nonchalantly squeezes the life out of his low-slung Les Paul. Good old-fashioned rock and roll executed with flair is The Glitterati's staple and the set gets stronger with each song. Gautrey works the crowd with a charm and confidence; "for those of you coming to party with us later, our dressing room's just through those doors there" he drawls before the band launch into the excellent new track 'Still Thinking About You'. The swaggering beat sees the ever increasing crowd shaking their collective asses before the band kill them off with old and new singles 'Do You Love Yourself' and 'Here Comes The Close Up' both of which incite a mini moshpit and approval from the crowd. Closing with 'First Floor' the band thrash away at their instruments on stage, Gautrey clinging to his mic stand before swinging it through the air almost decapitating his cohorts before losing it to the security pit and screaming his way to the end of a blistering half hour set. And they're only just warming up.
The attraction of beer and good company means I miss Therapy?'s set but reports from old fans walking back through to the bar are not all together favourable. When I return to the hall The Wildhearts have just taken to the stage and opened with 'I Wanna Go Where The People Go'. The room is now wall to wall and the song is met with a frenzy of delight, the whole first half of the hall bouncing along as everybody sings out the chorus. Great hard rock tunes all with fantastic melodies, delivered with style leave me wondering how I never got into the band first time around. Ah the mistakes of youth, I feel I have missed out on ten years of great fun. The band rock through an impressive back catalogue as well as delivering some fine new material. Ginger is an amiable frontman, chatting between songs, dreadlocks flailing wildly during them. There seems to be a lot of bands making comebacks at the moment but this is one that is more than welcome. Fine harmonies provide sweet contrast to the dirty guitars and pounding drums and combine to make some very catchy tunes indeed. Lets hope the band keep producing more of the same for another ten years.
