On a typical dreary evening in Manchester (Mr Corabi’s words not mine! Well he said the weathers always shit in the UK and he is not wrong is he) but that’s ok because tonight we have a sold out show at the Academy to brighten up our night.
A great double-header in fact, as the excellent girls from The Amorettes are opening proceedings.. and what an excellent set they put on to warm the crowd up, playing some older tracks and some off their new album Born To Break which lead singer/guitarist Gill lets us know its charted at no 31 no less. A great achievement from what some people may call everyone’s perennial support band. You know what though that’s totally fine, as the exposure the girls get from these bigger crowds I’m sure had a lot to do with that chart position. Well Done and well deserved.
Now on to the main attraction The Dead Daisies, hearing that the whole UK tour had sold out did not surprise me, I’ve seen them a few times before, and with a few different band members, but no matter who rotates back into this seemingly rolling line up they just seem to get better and better, David Lowy seems to put together a band of legends where the chemistry plays on stage like they have been a band since the 70s & 80s where a lot of their influences obviously stem from.. with Marco Mendoza, Doug Aldrich, John Corabi and now Dean Castronovo alongside Lowy, it’s a line up where if you put their previous bands on a festival together, now that would be a line up! Whitesnake, Dio, Thin Lizzy, Motley Crue, Journey, Bad English, Revolution Saints, The Dead Daisies. Not bad eh?
On to tonight, with 4 studio albums (and a live album) under their belts now they have an extensive back catalogue to dip into, Opening with the latest single Resurrected and belting out what are already classics like Mexico (Corabi’s cue to tell us the weathers shit and to get some sun, sea and sand down in Mexico), Make Some Noise, Long Way To Go ….to drop a few, Along with, as Corabi put it, “The new Daisy” Dean Castronovo giving us a rousing drum solo. With the new album Burn It Down doing so well the new tracks were well received, I particularly liked the title track infused with the Zeppelin classic Whole Lotta Love. Mentioning covers, along with each band member getting a snippet of all time classics during their introductions we get a few absolute bangers during the night, fan participation fave Midnight Moses is outstanding live and with the show ending on Helter Skelter the crowd were baying for more! Even though, I reckon in that sweaty room everyone in there must have lost at least 100 lbs.
A nothing short of brilliant show, go see these legends gel together if you get a chance. I promise you wont regret it.
All photography Copyright: Darren Thompson 2018
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