Toseland Engine Rooms Southampton 11-10-16

First up were local 4 piece Western Sand who due to illness were down to 3 but if I am honest if they hadn't said you would never have known.
Heavy with hints of Black Stone Cherry and Mississippi Queen went down very well in their short 4 song set.
One to keep an eye out for.

 Next up was Illustr8ors who have just released their debut ep.
The eagle eyed would have spotted the last time they saw them they were known as Blackwolf and playing a heavy AC/DC classic rock influenced style.That has gone and been replaced with a new image and a new sound.

All 4 songs from the ep were played along with an opener that I missed the name of and also 3 more tracks namely Sellaphane Dreams,Won't Blame Me,Fever.

All showed off Scott Sharp's vocal prowess and stage craft with the taut rhythm's of Tom on drums and Ben on bass very impressive.John and Jason on guitars have replaced the rifferama with a more melodic signature to the riffs but with no less power or class.

Something Biblical's huge chorus and crashing rhythms were a highlight as was Swimming With Anchor's chorus with Scott all over the stage.
It was over too soon with their first single Your Animal finishing a set that whet the appetite for what is to come.


Toseland hit the stage like a wrecking ball with the new tour the venues and crowds have doubled.
Playing for around 90 mins with the focus on new album Cradle The Rage here is what they played.

Cradle The Rage
Puppet On A Chain
Nothin' You Can Do About It
Stranger The Things
Gotta Be A Better Way
Life Is Beautiful
Never Love Another
Kingdoms
Fingers Burned
Too Close To Call
Living In A Moment
Waiting For The Answers
Hearts And Bones
Crash Landing
Encore
Singer In A Band
Renegade
We'll Stop At Nothing

James Toseland has a warm dry sense of humour and is a good front man with a Myles Kennedy style voice and his band never stop moving with Ed Bramford and Zerab Mulua on guitars very capable of riffing harmonising and dual guitar soloing.
Joe Yoshida is a powerhouse drummer and Roger Davis on bass is from the Steve Harris foot on monitor team.

Dipping into the back catalogue for first single Life Is Beautiful and the healthy size crowd knew every word with one couple on their 10th of 11 gigs on the tour so far.

The songs do have a tendency to be quite similar with big riffs crashing drums and huge choruses but they do at times mould into one and a change of pace or rhythm will be a big step forward on their next cd.Even when James wheels his keyboard on the songs still have that familiarity.

The autobiographical Singer In A Band sees us all wishing the same as James and they left to huge applause and I look forward to the next cd as they really could go global.