Whisky A Go Go – 10/10/20
OK, so picture the scene. Its 9pm Saturday night, I’m sat in my living room with a nice bottle of cider and I’m setting myself up to “Go to a Gig”! Well, a livestream gig at least. I was so excited! Having interviewed Armored Saint bassist Joey Vera a few weeks before, I was all set up to watch the ‘Punching The Sky’ album launch show. This was to be a professionally shot gig and promised all the bells and whistles that you would expect from a live Armored Saint show. I had even wired my studio monitors up to get the best quality sound!
The 500 or so capacity Whisky would normally be rammed for a gig like this, but the lack of audience didn’t dampen the bands spirits. The band exploded onto the stage and although there was no noise from the crowd, frontman John Bush conducted himself as if he was playing Wembley! He had all the energy and vigour that you would expect, thanking the crowd and darting all over the stage throughout the gig, even shouting ‘is everyone alright?’ at numerous points throughout the show.
This was to be an album launch unlike any other. Yes, they were pushing the new songs, but only four of the twelve song set was new material. They opened up with Never You Fret, the closing song on the record. The band well and truly hit the ground running. I was amazed at just how good the performance was.
My one gripe and this continued throughout the gig and it in fact it surprised me, given the amount of preparation that was obviously done on the production side of things, the BVs were quite a lot of the time far too quiet. And some of the guitar solos were a little low down in the mix too. OK, so not hearing a backing vocal is excusable, we don’t go to gigs to hear the backing vocals do we, but to have some of the guitar solos almost inaudible, well that is let down.
That being said, John Bush’s energy well and truly made up for it. In fact, the whole band were on fire. They continued to involve the audience too, thanking the ‘crowd’ after each song. I really felt I was there with them. The setlist was great too, like I said, for an album launch, they only played four new songs, the rest were all the classics.
I particularly enjoyed their rendition of ‘Isolation’, a very fitting song for this year. The song hadn’t been played live since the eighties and it was a real treat. John and the band were firing on all cylinders. ‘Standing on The Shoulders of Giants’ and ‘Missile to the Gun’ both deserve special mentions, both feeling like classic Armored Saint songs, perhaps they just had that vintage sound, but whatever it was, it was epic.
The band drew the show to a close telling the audience to ‘get themselves a pizza and when you’re on the phone, ask them, Can You Deliver’ – the final song of the set and despite the band playing a full show and John screaming at the top of his voice all the way through, they were showing no signs of slowing down. John’s voice is in tip top condition, which is amazing considering the beating it has over the years. He has still got it! It is every bit as good now as it ever was. Definitely the show highlight.
After the gig, we were treated to a Q&A with the band, the band told some tales involving some of their on and off stage antics, including a great tale involving some rock and roll escapades in a hotel with Metallica! It was a great end to a brilliant night and until we can all get back out to live gigs it was a fitting replacement and certainly quenched my thirst for live music!
