Massive Wagons, Wolf Jaw & Tequila Mockingbyrd

Massive Wagons - Last month they were playing Wembley Arena (with Lynyrd Skynyrd) but tonight the road to Tokyo leads through The Live Rooms in Chester for Massive Wagons. They open with ‘Fee Fi Fo Fum’ but you could change the lyric to ‘I Smell the Sweat of a Rock n’ Roll Band’ as it is absolutely sweltering in the venue. At times you fear for singer Baz (tonight rocking the Derek Smalls in a Marti Pellow tartan suit look) as he hurtles through his full hyper-active dynamo act but, as always, he keeps it going all night.

‘Tokyo’, ‘Billy Balloon Head’ and ‘Under No Illusion’ make up a strong opening salvo and the boisterous crowd are into it from the start. Restored to headliner status, The Wagons get the time to do their full set so they rattle through most of Full Nelson and some older favourites. Some of the less well hydrated folks in the audience are in danger of fading in the heat later in the set but the band pick it up with a partisan ‘Northern Boy’, featuring some epic guitar work from Adam Thistlethwaite, and then close the main set with ‘Red Dress’ and a triumphant ‘Ratio’.
Their next move is probably crucial but it’s easy to root for this hard working band and if there’s any justice the journey will take them to The Budokan one day. Fingers crossed.

Wolf Jaw - Power trio Wolf Jaw (formerly known as The Bad Flowers) are a new band for me so I did not know what to expect as they assembled on the stage with ‘Every Breath You Take’ by The Police playing on the PA.
They certainly are a visually diverse band; Karl Selicki (Drums) has an old school metal look while Dale Tonks (Bass) goes for it ‘Deliverance’ style in dungarees and mutton chops. They certainly do deliver though and both rock up a storm with Tonks adding energetic stage presence and strong backing vocals to what the band call their ‘heavy fuzzy groove train’. That’s as good a description as any and there’s plenty going on musically and lyrically.
Inevitably, all eyes are on guitarist/singer Tom Leighton and he’s loving it. From a (very long) distance, he slightly resembles Spike (from the film Notting Hill not The Quireboys legend) but his charismatic and committed performance soon puts you more in mind of a West Midlands Josh Homme and there is a touch of QOTSA / EODM in the sound for acronym fans.
Despite the recent name change, the set sensibly features The Bad Flowers favourites such as ‘Hurricane’ and ‘City Lights’ but there’s good new material too, like recent singles ‘Hear Me’ and ‘I Lose My Mind’. There’s an album on the way in October.
It’s a quality performance and they should go down a storm supporting Crobot later this Summer.

Tequila Mockingbyrd - This was my first look at the unprecedented Amorettes / Mockingbyrds one-band-two-identities experiment with Laurie Buchanan in to fatten up the sound on guitar. Tonight it’s a T’Byrds gig so the set is drawn primarily from their album, but with a twist.
Before the third song, Gill tentatively introduces ‘something new’ which turned out to be Amo’s favourite ‘Let the Neighbours Call the Cops’. There’s no need to worry though as the audience seem to know it and happily join in with the singalong section.
From where I was standing the sound was a bit muddy and even the between songs chat wasn’t clear but it appeared the band then played a brand new song. I must admit, I didn’t fully get into it on first listen although there seemed to be a little bit of a Kirsty / Pogues ‘Fairytale of New York’ going on in parts but also a lot of la-la-las; fine for an audience sing a long but maybe the song is not quite finished yet? It’s good news that the ladies are writing though.
There’s still time for 3 more ‘Byrds songs. Apparently the band have bonded through drinking (as you do) so it’s ‘Somebody Put Something in my Drink’ and ‘Jagerbomb’ before a rousing ‘I Smell Rock’n’ Roll’ to wrap it up.
The next time I’m scheduled to see the band is an Amorettes’ show at Winterstorm in November so it will be interesting to see where this goes but with two back catalogues and some new songs there’s a chance the girls can take it to the next level. Hope so.
IM