Rescue Rooms, Nottingham, UK – Powerplay Magazine [uk]
This was nearly the gig that never was. With the Thunderground Festival that was due to take place in the main room of Rock City, on the same day, being cancelled at the eleventh hour. It was down to headliners Wig Wam (alongside Rock city, Rock-It Management and most importantly, Dante Fox who supplied all the backline) to save the day. Having moved the gig to the more compact Rescue Rooms section of Rock City, it made it an intimate experience for the 300 people that bothered to turn up, and they were treated to a gig that would have to rate as one of my favourites of the last few years.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Dante Fox are fast turning into one of this country’s finest melodic rock bands. If any proof was required, then tonight’s show contained all the evidence that you’d need. Playing a selection of material from three albums, but with the emphasis on latest release “Under The Seven Skies”, they looked assured, commanded the stage and made it their own.
This was 45 minutes of hard rock perfection. From the opening strains of “The Last Goodbye” through to “Remember”, the momentum never let up and the band looked like they were having fun. Tim Manford was even seen running around the stage (careful son, that nearly counts as exercise). With a cohesive, tight line up (special mention must go to Mick Hales for his powerhouse drumming) Dante Fox have never sounded so good. Sue Willets is, at long last, realising her great potential and transferring it to the live arena. She was unsure about her performance, but I thought that it was the best I’d seen the band in over ten years of watching them, and one of the best performances I’d seen this year.
The same could be said of Wig Wam. Having stormed last years Firefest show, making it their own by putting on a performance that was equal parts quality and showmanship, they were all set to do the same tonight. Paying their own air fairs to play this gig (they’d flown to Glasgow to get the best deal, then drove down to Nottingham during the day) so as not to let down the fans was a gracious effort on the part of Wig Wam.
They may have only played to about three hundred people but such was their performance that it could have been three thousand. Playing pretty much the same set as their recent “Made In Japan” DVD (with the exception of “Out Of Time”, “No More Living On Lies” and “At The End Of The Day”, which were replaced by “Car-Lyle”). Wig Wam gave the UK a taste of their stadium sized gigs, in a shoe-box!
As the “Wig Wamania” intro led into a storming “Rock My Ride”, they were off and running, literally, as Glam left the stage, stormed the balcony and proceeded to cajole the audience into joining in (trust me they didn’t need any encouragement). Going straight into “Daredevil heat” and then “Bless The Night” was a masterstroke, and following it with “Kill My Rock N Roll” and “Mine All Mine” was pure genius.
Teeny showed us his guitar virtuosity on “Erection/The Riddle” (he should have chucked in a few of those Van Halen riffs he was throwing around in sound check) and “Bygone Zone” and “Car-Lyle” were probably the two best moments of the night for me. The likes of “Crazy Things”, “Flying High” (with Flash on vocals) and “Breaking All The Rules” all flew by in a blur of rock ’n’ roll madness, whilst “Hard To Be A Rock ‘N’ Roller” saw Glam chastise Teeny for playing a reggae solo and then exercise those reggae demons from his soul by covering him in rock ‘n’ roll holy water, which was pure theater.
With encores of “Gonna Get You Some Day” and “In My Dreams”, the fans left the Rescue Rooms in no doubt that they had just witnessed one of the finest melodic rock bands to grace a UK stage this year.
Powerpoints 10, Rob Evans - Powerplay Magazine
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Dante Fox are fast turning into one of this country’s finest melodic rock bands. If any proof was required, then tonight’s show contained all the evidence that you’d need. Playing a selection of material from three albums, but with the emphasis on latest release “Under The Seven Skies”, they looked assured, commanded the stage and made it their own.
This was 45 minutes of hard rock perfection. From the opening strains of “The Last Goodbye” through to “Remember”, the momentum never let up and the band looked like they were having fun. Tim Manford was even seen running around the stage (careful son, that nearly counts as exercise). With a cohesive, tight line up (special mention must go to Mick Hales for his powerhouse drumming) Dante Fox have never sounded so good. Sue Willets is, at long last, realising her great potential and transferring it to the live arena. She was unsure about her performance, but I thought that it was the best I’d seen the band in over ten years of watching them, and one of the best performances I’d seen this year.
The same could be said of Wig Wam. Having stormed last years Firefest show, making it their own by putting on a performance that was equal parts quality and showmanship, they were all set to do the same tonight. Paying their own air fairs to play this gig (they’d flown to Glasgow to get the best deal, then drove down to Nottingham during the day) so as not to let down the fans was a gracious effort on the part of Wig Wam.
They may have only played to about three hundred people but such was their performance that it could have been three thousand. Playing pretty much the same set as their recent “Made In Japan” DVD (with the exception of “Out Of Time”, “No More Living On Lies” and “At The End Of The Day”, which were replaced by “Car-Lyle”). Wig Wam gave the UK a taste of their stadium sized gigs, in a shoe-box!
As the “Wig Wamania” intro led into a storming “Rock My Ride”, they were off and running, literally, as Glam left the stage, stormed the balcony and proceeded to cajole the audience into joining in (trust me they didn’t need any encouragement). Going straight into “Daredevil heat” and then “Bless The Night” was a masterstroke, and following it with “Kill My Rock N Roll” and “Mine All Mine” was pure genius.
Teeny showed us his guitar virtuosity on “Erection/The Riddle” (he should have chucked in a few of those Van Halen riffs he was throwing around in sound check) and “Bygone Zone” and “Car-Lyle” were probably the two best moments of the night for me. The likes of “Crazy Things”, “Flying High” (with Flash on vocals) and “Breaking All The Rules” all flew by in a blur of rock ’n’ roll madness, whilst “Hard To Be A Rock ‘N’ Roller” saw Glam chastise Teeny for playing a reggae solo and then exercise those reggae demons from his soul by covering him in rock ‘n’ roll holy water, which was pure theater.
With encores of “Gonna Get You Some Day” and “In My Dreams”, the fans left the Rescue Rooms in no doubt that they had just witnessed one of the finest melodic rock bands to grace a UK stage this year.
Powerpoints 10, Rob Evans - Powerplay Magazine
