The O2 in Liverpool sees the 3 ages of the finest that British rock has
to offer. The Treatment in the early stages of their career, middle aged FM,
still producing quality after 25 years, and the grandfathers of rock, Thin
Lizzy with a back catalogue of songs that most would kill for.
It would be an absolute travesty if The Treatment were not to make it
big. 30 yrs ago these young gunslingers would be arena/stadium potential with
multi platinum selling albums. With the state of music today, the multi
platinum part could be difficult to achieve, but the likes of headlining
stadiums is not far off for them.
Give ‘em 5 years and I’m certain they will
prove me right. For a bunch of young lads, they have the swagger in
bucketloads.
Touring with the likes of Steel Panther and Kiss this year has
served them well. At this young age, The Treatment are more advanced in their
career than the likes of Leppard & Maiden were and that bodes well.
Anthemic 'in yer face' raw rock tracks like 'Drink, Fuck, Fight', 'Departed', ‘The
Doctor', and 'Shake the Mountain' are well received, and deservedly so. The
Treatment, both look and sound the part. Look out for these guys in 2013 as you
don’t wanna miss them
FM are a different proposition; smoother, polished and the current line
up is undoubtedly the finest live version of these melodic rock masters.
Essentially producing a 'best of' set list FM give it all up in the short and
sweet time slot they have. Perennial opener, ‘I Belong To The Night’ warms the
crowd up perfectly, with frontman Steve Overland sounding in the finest form of
his extinguished career.
The new 'Only Foolin' gets an airing, proving that FM
have lost none of the quality over the years, and are in fine fettle indeed.
Jupp seems slightly excited by the young girl at the front a few people away
from me. I think she’d have worked her way thru all 3 bands given the chance!
As short sets go, this one has all the greats old, and new – ‘That Girl’, ‘Over
You’, ‘Burning My Heart Down’, ‘Bad Luck’ and ‘Grapevine’ where Overland
produces vocal runs that would give divas a run for their money. The icing
would have been if they had finished with fan fave ‘Hot Legs’.
Thin Lizzy are on their 'farewell' tour. I caught the original farewell
in 82/83, and its fair to say that Lizzy have been steered with a honest pair
of hands in Ricky Warwick. Staying true to original versions, he handles the
vocals extremely well, at no point do you feel disappointed that Lizzy in their
current form.
I’ve always had reservations about bands in this situation, touring
without charismatic and in this case a talisman in Lynott, but you know that
Lizzy have a superb set of songs that still deserve to be heard today. They’ve
influenced many band, and have been often imitated, but never bettered.
The
legendary staples from Live and Dangerous era were present, ‘Jailbreak’, ‘Dont
Believe a Word’, ‘Massacre’, ‘Still In Love With You’ (with Wharton and Warwick
sharing vocal duties), and finishing with a last set of 8 songs that are all
modern era rock classics.
‘Whiskey’ goes down a treat, ‘Sha La La’ follows with
the same Downey solo from way back, builing
the tension with each passing song, ‘Suicide’, ‘Cowboy Song’ with shitloads of
crowd howling, before the last track of the show, the enigmatic anthem, ‘The
Boys Are Back In Town’. They even roll out a few songs that didn’t get much
live airing back in the day, the bombastic closer ‘Black Rose’, the underrated ‘Chinatown’
and ‘Angel of Death’. The twin guitar assault of Gorham and Johnson is
excellent, with Johnson playing his solos true to the originals with a sense of
legacy being played out from him. Mendoza just doesn’t stop playing to
the crowd all night, his energy levels are outstanding.
Whilst there’s been some reticence over a new Lizzy album, I suspect that
there’s some decent songs to be heard from these guys. Sure it’s almost sacrilege
to release under the Lizzy name, but they are a band that deserves to continue.
After Lynott, Warwick is a fine frontman indeed, and it’s been a delight to
witness this version carrying the Lynott legacy into the 21st Century
British rock is in fine shape indeed. Live gigs don’t get much better
than this!
