I had been trying to see these guys for about 6 months and I haven’t’ been able to be in the same place at the same times so I was delighted they were going to be at The Wild Man – my local, I could eat too!
Ace (singer), Dog (drums), Spider (bass) and Snake (guitar) opened with Born to be Wild. Reasonably standard you might say for a pub rock band? STYG are not a standard pub rock band – they have way too much energy and character for that label.
There was a lot of sound coming from these guys, I don’t mean messy rock noise that make your ears bleed, I mean rocking sounds from talented musicians who make it look easy. They oozed confidence, style and experience. The audience were captured and at ease from the start.
They played a good set of classic rock tracks and a few underplayed tracks and there was good variety. Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Sweet, Deep Purple, Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, Black Sabbath, UFO……plenty to please everyone. We even had a rendition of ABBA.
The sound was pretty spot on, okay so you can’t have the guitar harmonies of Thin Lizzy tracks, but there is only Snake but what a guitarist he is – he lives and breathes rock……you can feel his talent coming from his Snake skinned cowboy boots. Proper, wonderful rock guitar sounds he could get out of those 6 strings. He can play that guitar like he sleeps with it. Snake was also doing the backing rock screams and wails perfectly too.
Dog’s drumming was head-noddingly spot on and the tone of drums hit you in the chest. Spider is a female bassist with experience. Guitars always look big on a girl but she commanded it, she was in total control.
Ace totally comes alive when he’s on the stage and he has a great tone to his voice that well and truly suits the rock genre – he can power out and still be in tune. No need to scream and shout when you can sing properly. Ace thought he was a rock star, but that’s okay we believed he was.
They all managed to engage with the crowd – Ace was enigmatic and energetic during his performance although he does need to talk a bit more to the audience to connect deeper, but he was engaging. They all were, not only just looking like they were enjoying themselves, they were rocking and moving about with the instruments – seen so many players fixed like statues at front and not doing anything expect play the notes at the right time. These guys were feeling it and breathing it. Loved the fact Snake and Spider came right out front and played to the crowd and then they walked through the crowd playing – loved it. And of course who doesn’t love a Status bass with the red lights? Very cool.
They loved it, we loved it.
What’s more impressive with this group is that they have only been together for a year and they are that tight! They already have nearly 30 bookings for 2019, so you need to be quick if you want them at your venue.
They have the rhythm of rock in their bones a big repertoire – how can 4 people make such an amazing sound?
Photo Credit Barry Hughes.
This review first appeared on GrapevineLIVE.
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