It was only be described as a hot and sultry evening in Wolverhampton as we joined the throngs heading down to KK’s for another nostalgic trip down memory lane. This time was in the form of local Midlands cult legends Wolfsbane (10) who have re-recorded their classic debut album Live Fast, Die Fast and released it as Live Faster…
This short run of dates is celebrating that 35 year milestone and the pack of howling mad fans are chomping at the bit to see what the band have done in the update of this classic heavy metal album.
But that would have to wait, the early crowd were treated to a high octane set from East Mids trio Muddibroke (8) who made full use of their 30 minute set to blow us away with their hard hitting grungy inspired rock. Don’t let the glamour seduce you, this band has powerful songs with lyrics that might shock, but certainly are thought provoking. Songs like ADHD and You Don’t Own Me show why this band are making people sit up and take notice
A world away from the angst and trauma of Muddibrooke are the good ol’ boys of Hillbilly Vegas (9). These guys are reading straight from the Lynyrd Skynyrd playbook of Southern Rock. Frontman Steve Harris is unapologetically forthright in his delivery, “A Hillbilly works hard all week, party’s hard at the weekend, we’re Hillbilly’s” And they work hard and bring the part to KK’s tonight. The band has pedigree as well with former Bad Company bassist Todd Ronning and Geraldo who has performed with Paul Rogers. Music wise it’s what you see on the tin. Hillbilly Southern rock, straight up foot stompin’, thigh slappin’ country rock and the crowd love it. Most of the set is taken from their 2022 album, The Great Southern Hustle and this album is now on my Spotify shuffle! I love it when a gig has mixed genres like this, it makes the evening much more interesting.
So in the words of Blaze Bayley “You’re all howling mad shitheads!” but he did say it in his own lovable way!
The larger than life frontman is as hyper as ever and you can see he is well up for tonight. All four original members, Bayley, Jase Edwards, Jeff Hateley and Steve Danger, are all here. It’s great to see Edwards able to be part of this as he’s been battling poor health, but on his own riser and seated, he can still rip out those riffs.
They open up with the first track of Live Fast…. - Manhunt This sends the crowd wild, screaming along to the chorus "Manhunt! Manhunt! Manhunt!” (other words are available! - paid up HMS Editor) and this set the tone for the night as they worked their way through that first album track by track, with Blaze telling us stories along the way. Some of the tracks have been re-worked. “We wanted to re-record it in the way we originally envisaged it” says Bayley.
You forget what a great album that was, don’t forget it was this album that made Steve Harris look to Bayley when he needed a top notch metal vocalist. As well as that blistering opener, there are tracks like Killing Machine, Pretty Baby and of course I Like It Hot and to hear it all again live tonight was memorable. But it didn’t stop there. That was just the first half of a superb night of heavy metal. They could have quite easily done one or two more songs and walked off leaving us happy, but no, they did virtually another whole set of more classics including Steel, Smoke And Redlight, Paint The Town Red and the early punky Spit It Out.
At the end, Bayley teases us with the hint of new Wolfsbane material, now that is something to howl about!
They open up with the first track of Live Fast…. - Manhunt This sends the crowd wild, screaming along to the chorus "Manhunt! Manhunt! Manhunt!” (other words are available! - paid up HMS Editor) and this set the tone for the night as they worked their way through that first album track by track, with Blaze telling us stories along the way. Some of the tracks have been re-worked. “We wanted to re-record it in the way we originally envisaged it” says Bayley.
You forget what a great album that was, don’t forget it was this album that made Steve Harris look to Bayley when he needed a top notch metal vocalist. As well as that blistering opener, there are tracks like Killing Machine, Pretty Baby and of course I Like It Hot and to hear it all again live tonight was memorable. But it didn’t stop there. That was just the first half of a superb night of heavy metal. They could have quite easily done one or two more songs and walked off leaving us happy, but no, they did virtually another whole set of more classics including Steel, Smoke And Redlight, Paint The Town Red and the early punky Spit It Out.
At the end, Bayley teases us with the hint of new Wolfsbane material, now that is something to howl about!
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