The music industry can be a very fickle beast when it comes to building bands up and subsequently knocking them down double quick and you suspect that former Towers of London (pre-shark jump version) guitarist the Rev knows this all too well as he sets out on his second attempt at rock ‘n’ roll world domination with The Howling. Joined by the presumably similarly-chastened former Red Star Rebels frontman, the first thing that surprises you about this band is that they don’t sound anything like you expect them to.
This is definitely to the Howling’s credit – it would’ve been very easy for them to simply go for a TOL/RSR Mk 2 sound but instead they’ve opted for a more techno-rock direction - think a much sleazier Stereo Juggernaut and you wouldn’t be a million miles off. It’s not a bad idea but the fact that this band is very much finding its feet (as evidenced by them only playing a 20 minute set when they’re booked for 45) and is still prone to the odd bit of ill-advised cock rock posturing stops me from giving them too heavy a recommendation. Instead, I’d advise you to give them a few months to iron the kinks out and check them out then – if they play their cards right they could yet make something of this.
I always seem to start every review of a Quireboys gig that I do by mentioning that I’ve yet to see a bad performance by this group in the last eight years and, happily, that record remains very much intact tonight. Blasting the Garage into life with “I Love This Dirty Town” and “Misled”, Spike and co remain pretty much the ultimate band to get your Christmas party started and the classics flow out one after the other – “Tramps And Thieves”, “There She Goes Again”, “Mona Lisa Smiled”, all present and correct. However, there’s a few much-welcomed surprises in there as we get the mysteriously seldom-played Kinksian bar-room stomp of “Can’t Park Here”, surely one of the best tunes off their under-rated second album and, even better, the classic “Take Me Home Tonight” (surely one of the best Britrock album closers ever and a tune I’ve not heard the QB’s play live since the very first time I saw ‘em back in about 2003 – hopefully the warm reception it gets will lead to ‘em playing it a bit more often).
Surprisingly we don’t get the customary closer of “Sex Party” (the only slight downer tonight) but a storming main set closer of (what else?) “7 O’Clock” and an encore of “This Is Rock ‘n’ Roll” and the group’s very first single “Mayfair” makes up for it. There’s also a couple of new songs in tonight’s set in the form of the soaring ballad “Mother Mary” and another more mid-tempo rockier one (the name of which sadly escapes me due to the amount of alcohol that’s passed through my system since this gig). Both are proof that the new album (next year, we’re promised) should hopefully be worthy follow-up to the excellent “Homewreckers and Heartbreakers”.
Rest assured this lot are still as good as ever. Bring on the new album!
