Ablaze kicked things off tonight and debuted their new line up after a brief hiatus. The new look Ablaze came out swinging with a point to prove. Their short but sweet six song set was the perfect way to warm up the growing crowd.
New guitarist Cassandra Vlahos formerly of She Wolf felt like she had always been there, her playing perfectly tying in with Lead Guitarist Ben Anderson, her presence was pure rock chick and really gave the performance a huge lift.
Bassist Tore Falchi is the second addition to the new look Ablaze, while Falchi was super solid and locked in with Dan Mangano he seemed a little overwhelmed and nervous and at times looked uncomfortable but integrated into the band well. Maybe it was first show nerves. The core of Ablaze Ben Anderson, Danny Slaverio and Dan Mangano are unquestionably the driving force behind the band, Slaverio & Mangano’s voices work so well together and the brand of rock n roll they produce is so much fun.
Musically the band was the tightest I have heard them in quite some time. There is a new energy to the band I must say. They are a great band to open a night like this and they certainly did warm up the crowd.
My biggest disappointment was the absence of crowd favourite “Where’s My Drink”, but after all this was a short sharp introduction to the new Ablaze. I am keen to see what’s next for the band and hopefully there is new music on the horizon which truly gets to show off this line up.
Setlist : Gasoline, Dirty Little Secret, Next Train Out, Menace For The Medicine, Long Way Home, Just A Taste.
Sydney’s Big Red Fire Truck, I have been wanting to see forever. There is a real hype and excitement bubbling on the live scene about this band lead by Digby Robinson. BRFT are not backward in coming forward either. Their brand of 80’s hard rock knows how to hit hard and their energy is infectious. The songs are melodic master pieces that seem fresh yet familiar. The familiarity comes from the catchy as hell songs that don’t rewrite the music books but do bring a spirit and excitement of that golden era of super melodic hard rock.
Frontman Digby Robinson is in a league of his own as a frontman, flamboyant, energetic, charismatic and incredibly talented. There is no one that brings what Robinson does to a stage in this country right now. From the fluffly coat to the spandex pants and sunglasses he just knows how to grab your attention. His presence and voice is made for this modernised reboot of 80’s hair metal. It’s all here in this band, big riff, big choruses and an energy that harks back to the fun of band like Van Halen and Poison.
BRFT have this energy too them, the band are a collective of some of this countries finest musicians. By design the band can look different from one show to another as have an what appears to be killer supply of talent able to step in and adapt at any time. Tonight the BRFT band consists of Nick Casalini, who usually can be found with a guitar strapped to his body when he is the guitarist for Dead City Ruins, Casalini is also The Bennies bassist. Drummer Cooper Hills is the drummer in Sydney’s Wicked Things and guitarist Ben Frank is from Battlesnake, all amazing bands. Assembled together you have a band of larger than life players who are all incredible performers and showmen playing the role of supporting Robinson perfectly.
Fresh from a series of European shows this band is running hot. I know there is something special happening when I get a little too caught up in the live performance that I don’t take notes on the setlist. What I can tell you though is that both Ep’s were well represented and we were given a tase of the first track to come from their forthcoming album via Frontiers Music SRL early next year.
If you want a band to party with Big Red Fire Truck are one of the best at what they do. If you don’t leave a BRFT set smiling, then I’m not quite sure you have a pulse. If you are a fan of great rock n roll songs and then you need to check these guys live and on record.
The stage change over happens and we are left with quite a baron looking stage, one that would become the playground for the six members of Foxy Shazam. There was a comment from BRFT frontman Digby Robinson during their set that said if you think our show is high energy, then wait unit you see Foxy Shazam as they make us look like statues. How could that be possible was my first thought, well I was just about to have those words stand true.
Big Red Fire Truck GALLERY
Foxy Shazam are a band that first struck a chord with me around 2015, i had been handed a copy of their “The Church Of Rock N Roll” album to check out and from that first listen I found a band that somehow encapsulated so many things that struck a chord with me. It was Queen meets The Sweet, it had elements of funk, hair metal, ska and classic rock rolled all into one. At this stage I had heard The Darkness who were possibly a little bit of a direct comparison to what I was hearing here, but Foxy Shazam had something about them that The Darkness didn’t. For me The Darkness were perhaps a little bit of a novelty. I have never been truly sold on them if I’m completely honest, I like them as a casual listen but can take them or leave them on record. Live it’s a different thing but if I had a choice between The Darkness or Foxy Shazam to listen to it’s Foxy Shazam all day everyday.
Foxy Shazam then seemed to disappear on me. I thought they had simply disbanded as they hadn’t released anything again until 2020 and it was 2021 before I even realised it. “Burn” was different to ‘Church”. What we did get from the bands hiatus is an incredibly well written record that had this more theatrical feel to it. It brought visualisations of these songs being a stage play or musical, much like Rocky Horror. It took me back to the feeling I got from Meatloaf’s “Bat Out Of Hell” when I first heard it. Evoking feelings and connectivity like that to music is rare. Again, the band took me by surprise and pulled me in, this time finding me make comparisons to Rush and a lesser Queen influence on songs like ‘Dreamscape 2000’ with it’s theatrical feels. The output of Foxy Shazam in the 2020’s has been so much fun and it has been consistent and evolving.
Live the band was somewhat of an unknown for me, I had a basic idea of what to expect, but my question was could they deliver this body of work live in a way that would captivate me the way the records have? Let me tell you they certainly can and live they actually blew any idea I had of what to expect out of the water. Within the first sixty seconds of ‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’ My jaw hit the floor and my eyes opened so wide just trying to take it all in. Where do you look, what do you focus on when there is so much going on in front of you. It was a total sensory overload for the ears and eyes.
The stage is Foxy Shazam’s playground, musically they delivered a tight set that engaged you, the performance energy never wavered and the momentum just kept building. Frontman Eric Nally is just a high voltage ball of energy, jumping, leaping, rolling, creating movements that made you ooh and ahh all the while giving us a vocal performance that was near perfect.
Schuyler “Sky” White, Foxy Shazam’s keyboard player is simply on another level. Not only is he damn good at what he does he makes it fun. From taking his keyboard to the crowd where they held it above their heads as he reached across the barrier to play to pretty much treating his keyboard like a gymnastic partner. For an instrument that is generally tucked onto a rear platform, he owned his spot front and left of centre. Despite his keyboard acrobatics and antics he like Nally is a master at what he does.
Horns player, backing vocalist Alex Nauth again becomes mesmerising as he adds that little bit of ska and soul to the bands sound. His voice is incredible and again his stage presence is on par with White & Nally’s, frantic, chaotic and unpredictable.
The rhythm section of Teddy Adkins on drums and bass player Misster Universe just have this pocket they create and sit in Adkins solid as a locomotive, Universe frantic and chaotic but incredibly locked in. Guitarist Devin Williams seemed the most restrained, still super energetic but looked to be constrained by the length of his guitar lead.
What works so well for this band is their energy. It is simply relentless. Tonight’s set took us through the entire Foxy Shazam catalogue merging old with new material to deliver an incredible set.
A Foxy Shazam show is this manic, brilliant, psychotic, artistic, free spirited, energetic fun journey and experience that everyone need to see at least once in their lives. I honestly have not seen a performance like this before and unless I see Foxy Shazam again am likely to never see anything like it again. Pure mad brilliance.
If I had any critiques of the night I would have to lay comment towards the visual production, in all honesty it was average, it lacked the basics of decent front of stage lighting and this was applied to all the bands giving this show the feeling that corners were cut along the way, it just seemed to miss the mark and not match the dynamics of the show. The only other thing that kind of felt off was that Foxy Shazam’s set was or seemed way too short, no encore and a very dry exit from the stage just didn’t wrap the night up the way it should have. The crowd absolutely engaged and stood in awe of them; their chants were loud but didn’t get a reaction from the band which is a shame.
Setlist : Yes! Yes! Yes!, Killin It, Oh Lord, Temple, Holy Touch, Dreamer, Only Love, Love Like This, Seagulls, Ghost Animals, The Rocketeer, Axe.
With thanks to Birds Robe for the media access.
Foxy Shazam GALLERY
