Collateral & Piston The Lounge Archway London 28-9-19
Saturday night in London and the last night of the co headline tour and for a while at least we can forget the deluge battering the capital.
First up are Cannock 5 piece Piston who have just released their eponymous debut album to critical acclaim and their 45 minute set hits us hard with 8 tracks off the album with 2 covers thrown into the mix.
Led by vocalist Rob Angelico on vocals and the superb talent of Jack Edwards on guitar the band hit hard straight off with Dynamite which does just that as they explode across the stage taking no prisoners with the big chorus showing star quality.
Rainmaker up next shows the classic rock base of Brad Newlands on drums,Luke Allatt on guitar and Stuart Egan on bass giving the band the structure and depth to let Angelico and Edwards do their thing with another fine chorus and short fiery solo from Edwards.
One More Day has pummelling drums from Newlands and a driving insistent riff that grabs you by the scruff of the neck and doesn't let go.
Blow It Away after a short drum solo has an AC/DC riff before the first cover of AC/DC's Gone Shootin' that the band do great justice too with Edwards solo a highlight.
Carry Me Home has an acoustic strummed intro before rocking out and gives Angelico a chance to show us off his complete vocal range to great effect.
Go Now has a stop start dirty guitar riff which reaches a crescendo at the chorus.
Leave If You Dare has a rolling guitar riff before Into The Night is driven by Edwards drum rhythm and Angelico's vocal.
They leave us with a cover of Creedance Clearwater Revival’s Proud Mary although many associate the song with Tina Turner and it brings the house down with Angelico and Edwards a blur and leaves us wanting more like all good live set's do.
Very impressive.
Collateral are making waves with appearances at Ramblin' Man and the recent Jon Bon Jovi cruise heightening expectations with the only downer the delay in the debut album till early 2020.
Their 50 minute set sees 3 songs played from their debut ep 4 Shots and 8 from the debut album with so much promise shown that is really is the beginning of something special.
Here is what they played
Big Shot
Going With The Wind (4 Shots ep)
Dreaming
Merry Go Round
Just Waiting For You (4 Shots ep)
About This Boy
Rosie
In It For Love
Promiseland
Midnight Queen (4 Shots ep)
Lullaby
Angelo Tristan's 1000 watt smile breaks as he stands centre stage with his long jacket circa Jon Bon Jovi New Jersey era flowing and boy can he sing too.
A melodic tone with melodies to die for and a confidence to play stadiums and songs to back him up too.
To his right stage left is Todd Winger on guitar and superb backing vocals and another with star quality.His guitar riffing and fast fingered solo's are a sight to behold and I really hope that his live guitar tone which is nice and raw makes the album as there is no need to sanatise this.Very very impressive.
Jack Bentley Smith on bass and backing vocals and Ben Atkinson on drums are a great rhythm team but more about the songs which are LA 90's influenced and yes of course there are Bon Jovi leanings too.
Going With The Wind has Angelo on acoustic guitar and wonderful melodies adding to the depth of the song and Winger's solo is short and to th epoint not over staying it's welcome.
Merry Go Round has a wonderful chorus built for radio and MTV if anyone remembers them.
About The Boy is an auto biographiocal take on a young Angelo's life and another superb chorus built for arena size sing alongs.
Just Waiting For You sees Winger's great solo dip into Dry County in style and notes.
Midnight Queen is where it all started and from the audience singing along a fan favourite already before Lullaby again saw a mass singalong and left us all on a high.
Collateral are set for big things and it will be interesting to see how they develop and bring their own things to the table.I could have done with out the Lay Your Hands On Me hand waving on numerous occasions and in my honest opinion their is enough star quality and charisma in the band and song writing to temper these thing's but that's just me.
An excellent evening with a lot to look forward to.
