overlap

Every once in a while something comes up that has me wondering how I missed it for so long. Thinking about it on the way home, I'm sure the video for Summertime Girls was shown on No Limits twenty-odd years ago, but that never really grabbed my attention. But I did listen a bit harder when Bruce Dicko played Forever on his Radio2 show a few weeks ago, partly because I was aware this gig was scheduled. Other than that, I've no recollection of ever knowingly listening to Y&T except that in my archives I have a tape of them live at Reading in 1982, which I must have listened to at the time and not got desperately enthused by. Last week I turned the tracks on that tape to mp3s, listened to them a few times, and having missed out on the Firefest tickets, plumped for the Y&T gig instead. This afternoon I had a good scout around youtube to see what else I could find, but still set off to the gig in the fairly novel position of not really knowing what I was expecting. Half an hour of Tigertailz' support slot was about right, and for various reasons I'm unsure where they go from here. I've always enjoyed their humour, and the fact they come from somewhere that isn't London, California or New York but somewhere all their own. I'll leave it at saying that I wish them well. When a band comes on stage and the bass player looks like an Easter Island statue in Steve Harris' haircut, with nothing above the waist but a velvet waistcoat and jewellery, you know exactly where you stand. And it's possibly not somewhere especially fashionable, but it's also somewhere that fashionable doesn't really matter. They open fire with, er, Open Fire, move on to Hungry For Rock and it's all roaring vocal and shred heaven from there on. Dave Meniketti combines lead guitar and lead vocal, which is something you really don't see very often, and it's great to watch the seamless way he switches between both without the need for hot and cold running vocal coaches anointing his vocal cords with soothing honey concoctions. I take that to be a sign of someone who's more than paid his dues, and knows exactly what he's doing. The bit where the audience get to choose a couple of songs brings us Go For The Throat and This Time, and there's something both unpredictable and reassuring about how Dave drags the band through stuff that hadn't been rehearsed and wasn't on the setlist. Of the six tracks from 1982 on that tape, Y&T played all six. And more or less everything else you could ever want. Ninety minutes in and we still hadn't had Rescue Me, I Believe In You or Forever - that's value for money, and then some. Top night out, and I've got some shopping to do! But if they're passing your way, I can heartily recommend checking it out.

Labels: gigs, Meniketti, rock, Y and T