The Bites - Bannerman’s, Edinburgh 6th December 2023

Once the band arrive on stage it’s pretty clear that they are, in fact, from Hollywood, CA not Egremont in Cumbria. They’re young lads so probably still too young to remember the first wave of LA Strip hair metal but let’s face it, other than Poison and the corporate stadium rocking entities that Crue and Guns N' Roses have become, the rest of that original movement has either died, flamed out or is doing just enough to keep their name alive and feed their habits. No fear though, the latest wave featuring great newish bands like Dirty Honey and Classless Act prove that all-new dirty, good-time LA rock n’ roll is in safe hands and The Bites fit right in there. They don’t bother with hairspray, make-up and glam clothes – T-shirts on band torsos celebrate Thin Lizzy, Nirvana, GnR and ELO – but they’re totally authentic and still strut about with sparkle and attitude but it’s all wrapped up in good natured Californian charm and hearty cheer.

They blast off with ‘Knockin’ on the Door’ and the lascivious ‘Squeeze’ (the title track from their excellent debut album) before delivering ‘Dirty City’. That song is about Hollywood not the freezing cold capital city of Scotland but full marks to Jordan Tyler for nailing the correct pronunciation of Edinburgh after he claimed he’d been up all-night practising to get it right. The gig hits an all-time high point with the riff-tastic ‘Good Love’ which interpolates a bit of ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’ then powers straight into ‘Cold Clean Lady’ before we are introduced to ‘Heather Leather’ (“she wants to love me, I’m gonna let her”). With a name like that, “the hottest girl in Hollywood” must have a bit of Scottish in her and you’d have to think that drummer Mark Hylander maybe has too, even if he’s not really an immortal warrior from Clan MacLeod.

‘Do Me a Favour’ was familiar to a few folks from the song’s video with the pretty ladies (all their videos feature pretty ladies) and the track has also featured on Planet Rock. The band then finish up their only Scottish date so far with the autobiographical ‘Pretty Boys’ and leave the easily won-over audience yelling for more, including my pal the It Bites fan who was seen leaving the venue with a vinyl copy of The Bites’ album under his arm.

That debut album was released by Nottingham-based label Earache so we should be seeing a lot more of The Bites over here. There are plenty of dates still left on this UK run and they’re already booked up to come back for Stonedead in 2024. These guys are all heroes – give them a call.