Skid Row Night Ranger Shepherd's Bush Empire London 11-3-18

First up at the ungodly hour of 6.30 was Bad Touch who's 30 minute set showed that all of the road miles stacked up in support of second album Truth Be Told have been so worthwhile.

Here is what they played.

Take Me Away (new song)
Good On Me
Heartbreaker Soulbreaker
My Mother Told Me
Get (Lift?)Your Head Up (new song)
Outlaw
99%

A perfect mix of 2 new songs and 4 classics saw the rapidly expanding crowd react accordingly and the band led by Stevie Westwood went down a storm.Stevie is a great front man with superb stage presence and his voice fit's the classic rock feel of the music with it's warm tones superb.
Rob Glendinning on lead guitar's return to the band has been a huge success and his lead playing is excellent.
Both new song's with big guitar riff's and even bigger choruses show album number 3 could blow the door's off.
Ending with the cowboy anthem of Outlaw with Rob in stunning form alongside Stevie's vocal line in the outro was a set highlight before a romp through 99% ended the set in style.

Superb.

Next up was Toseland in a 30 minute set with the following set list.

Puppet On A Chain
Living In A Moment
Life Is Beautiful
Fingers Burned
Renegade
Hearts And Bones

I will be honest I got a little bored as the song's are very similar even when James Toseland played keys on 2 songs.A bit of variation in pace would help in my opinion as it would have been difficult to spot the change with the sound not great either.
James has a good voice with a similar tone to Myles Kennedy and I look forward to album number 3 on Frontiers Records Srl later in the year.

































From the moment I heard Don't Tell Me You Love Me on the radio way back in 1982 Night Ranger have been one of my favourite band's and seeing them support Foreigner in 1985 is a life highlight.We have been very fortunate to have finally seen them back in the UK in 2011,2012 and 2015 and after a headlining slot in Wales on Friday saw a co head lining slot in London added.

A 68 minute set can never be enough from a 36 year career and with only 2 ballad's played it was a heavy set with some Damn Yankees added.The purist in me struggles to say why play those song's as their catalogue is amazing but I'm still singing along like a loon!!
Here is what they played.

Somehow Someday
Touch Of Madness
Four In The Morning
Sing Me Away
Coming Of Age
Rumours In The Air
Night Ranger
Sentimental Street
Come Again/High Enough
Don't Tell Me You Love Me with Deep Purple Highway Star interlude
Sister Christian
You Can Still Rock In America

Starting with sadly the only song of their latest album Somehow Someday was a good opener although the sound was a little muddy.
Soon in to classic Touch Of Madness and the outro solo from Brad Gillis still produces noises from a guitar no other man on the planet can get near.The sheer enjoyment and energy the band produce is staggering with live wire bass man and vocalist Jack Blades at the heart of it all.I want a pint of whatever keeps him going at the age of nearly 64.
Kelly Keagy as ever is sat stage right and possesses one of rock's finest voices which is made more staggering as he pound's his kit to an inch of it's life.
The vocal chemistry and interplay from Jack and Kelly is mind blowing as is the guitar interplay from Brad and Keri Kelli with Eric Levy on keys a little low in the mix.
Classic followed classic with me word perfect if not tone perfect!!
Great to hear Night Ranger played again before Sentimental Street saw Kelly in full flow and Brad's guitar solo at close hand outstanding.
Before too long and in what seemed a blink of an eye and You Can Still Rock In America ended a set that showed Night Ranger are still on of the finest live band's on the planet.
From the audience reaction they need to come back soon for a 2 and a half hour sole head lining set as soon as possible.
Here's hoping.

Finally just before 10 and for about 60 minutes Skid Row smashed London into submission with a set of classic's that I haven't seen played live for over 25 years.

This is what they played.

Slave To The Grind
Sweet Little Sister
Piece Of Me
Livin' On A Chain Gang
Big Guns
18 And Life
Makin' A Mess
Rattlesnake Shake
Psycho Therapy (Ramones cover with Rachel Bolan on vocals)
Quicksand Jesus
Monkey Business
Encores of I Remember You
Youth Gone Wild

I haven't seen the band live since Seb Bach left and it was weird seeing dark haired vocalist ZP Theart fronting the band but he did a great job hitting notes Seb hasn't in years.
The wonderfully named Rob Hammersmith on drums also did a great job driving along the song's and the 3 guitarist's all played their part.
Rachel Bolan on bass and guitar tag team Scotti Hill and Dave Snake Sabo all srvive from the band's glory year's and were superb.
Hit followed hit and the crowd went suitably nut's with Piece Of Me a highlight with the crowd word perfect.
Quicksand Jesus saw an extended Dave guitar solo showing a tone and quality that still remain's very high.

2 encore's of I Remember You with ZP in great voice and Youth Gone Wild saw fists's in teh air as the anthem finished a great night out.

Who made the decision to play Bon Jovi on the p.a. as the band left the stage brought a smile to my face after their falling out back in the day too.

Skid Row were a lot better than I expected and I would go and see them again and ended a wonderful 4 band night.