LIVE REVIEW: Ugly Kid Joe @ Academy 2, Manchester
If you were to think back to the early 90s in terms of what became popular within the sphere of rock music, odds are you’d probably recall California’s UGLY KID JOE. Most famous here in the UK for their 1992 hit single Everything About You, the band went on to become a fairly defining band of their time, before splitting in 1997 and eventually going on to reform in 2010. They’ve been going strong ever since then, and are now back in the UK for a massive tour continuing to celebrate last year’s 25th anniversary of their beloved debut album America’s Least Wanted. We went down to Academy 2 in Manchester to catch the first show of the run and see how the much-loved act would get on.
Tonight’s openers YELLOWCAKE are an interesting prospect in more ways than one. Turning out to be a new side project of UGLY KID JOE frontman Whitfield Crane, the group have at this point just a single EP to their name (released exclusively on cassette thus far, he reveals mid-performance). With this knowledge in mind, it’s annoying then that YELLOWCAKE come out to the sight of what must be an almost empty room for pretty much their entire set. This doesn’t exactly seem to phase Whit and co. much though, and they quickly set about putting on a real treat of a performance for those few lucky enough to have bothered getting in early. Sounding far closer to the likes of BLACK SABBATH than the hard rock of his usual fare, with a scuzzy lo-fi sound, YELLOWCAKE are definitely a treat of a band that deserve far more attention than the small handful of people who actually see them tonight.
Rating: 7/10
PHIL CAMPBELL & THE BASTARD SONS, on the other hand, are a band who need significantly less introduction. The newest vehicle of longtime MOTÖRHEAD axeman Phil Campbell, the hard-rocking five-piece are rounded off by Campbell’s sons Todd (guitar), Tyla (bass) and Dane (drums), and fronted by former ATTACK! ATTACK! vocalist Neil Starr, making this a family affair of the very best kind. Unsurprisingly, their sound is a lot more of a classic-rock type affair than the rest of the bill, with huge crunching riffs and massively melodic vocals being about the order of the day here.
Opening with Big Mouth immediately endears the band to their now mostly-full audience as Starr’s powerful vocals perfectly complement the punchy riffing from both Phil and Todd. It’s promptly followed up by even more grade-A rock in the form of Welcome To Hell and Take Aim, before a surprise drop of MOTÖRHEAD’s Born To Raise Hell threatens to shake the venue to its very foundations, as the musicians onstage look out with apparent glee at the ensuing chaos. Get On Your Knees, meanwhile, brings some playful crowd interaction to the table, with Starr splitting the room in half and encouraging them to yell the song’s chorus line at each other with increasing power. It’s a fun little aside, and one that shows his capability as a frontman in a great light as the entire audience seems to erupt in laughter in doing so. The galloping Ringleader and swampy Dark Days quickly follow, before the band arguably hit their peak with a somewhat-expected yet still effective cover of MOTÖRHEAD’s bona-fide classic anthem Ace of Spades that sees a room-shaking level of jubilant bouncing and singing from the many MOTÖRHEAD shirt-clad fans dotted throughout the venue. Finishing up with the triumphant High Rule, the band cap things off with yet another powerful slab of riffing that proves, if anything, that Campbell and his bandmates look set to continue carrying the flag for hard rock for a long time more yet, and deservedly so.
Rating: 8/10
For UGLY KID JOE, tonight marks the first show of their UK run, and it’s genuinely hard to tell at times who’s more feverishly excited, the band or the audience. Of course, this still being an album anniversary tour, a great deal of tonight’s setlist is obviously pulled from America’s Least Wanted, which means plenty of scope for massive singalongs; and that goes for the very beginning too as the band launch into opener Neighbor with gusto. From there on out, it’s essentially a greatest hits set with a few deeper cuts from the California collective tonight, with not only almost every …Least Wanted track getting an airing tonight, but also picks from across their career, including debut EP As Ugly As They Wanna Be, sophomore album Menace To Society and even 2015’s Stairway To Hell making an appearance across the band’s mammoth 20 song setlist.
Whit Crane’s vocal performance across the entire night proves absolutely stellar, his powerful singing cutting straight through the mix and ensuring songs like Jesus Rode A Harley and Panhandlin’ Prince groove along with a strikingly anthemic grittiness that seems to resonate with just about everyone in the room. As time goes on, things only escalate further though, as the band begin to break out even more hits. So Damn Cool sees the band digging into a somewhat ALICE IN CHAINS-like vibe, whilst their fan-favourite cover of HARRY CHAPIN’s 1974 folk-rock classic Cat’s In The Cradle is sung by the crowd with such intensity that Crane at one point simply stops and points his microphone outward, laughing as several hundred sweaty rock fans bellow the ballad back in his face. That’s still by no means the end though, and UGLY KID JOE continue to delve through their catalogue of tracks, pulling out the likes of lighters-in-the-air anthem Milkman’s Son, acoustic ballad Mr. Recordman (sung by guitarist Klaus Eichstadt, and the slinky funk-rock of Same Side along the way, before climaxing with Crane’s best attempt at aping Rob Halford on Goddamn Devil (complete with evil-looking all-red lighting at his request). It’s around this point that the band then choose to completely eschew leaving the stage before their encore, and instead go for the much-appreciated approach of simply staying on-stage and blasting through one final run of songs that includes V.I.P., Funky Fresh Country Club and of course, the song that many people are probably here to see, Everything About You – which tonight ends up being dedicated to an audience member’s girlfriend on his behalf, much to everyone’s bemusement. Sounding as fun as ever, and still packing a chorus to die for, it’s a great way to cap off what’s undoubtedly been a very fun evening of rock
Rating: 8/10
Check out our photo gallery from the night’s action in Manchester from Sabrina Ramdoyal Photography below:
