The Dead Daisies have been out on the road on an epic world tour to promote their brand new album, ‘Light ‘Em Up’. We caught the famously hard-working, hard-touring rockers close to the end of UK leg of the tour along with two excellent support bands.
First on the bill tonight were The Bites from Hollywood, California. Formed in 2019, The Bites have recently signed to Earache Records based in Nottingham and have had a lot of airplay from Planet Rock, so they have quite a UK following already. These feel-good glam rockers brought the energy and fun as they powered through ‘Knockin’ On the Door’ and ‘Pretty Boys’ from their debut album ‘Squeeze’. Vocalist Jordan Tyler (who has amassed a huge amount of TikTok followers by covering classic rock songs) asked the crowd if they liked heavy metal, and the band launched into a rather unexpected cover of Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’ which sounded great and was very well received. As the final song, the AC/DC-esque, solo-laden ‘Do Me a Favour’, kicked in, Jordan said that he was coming to say hello, and then proceeded to make his way up onto the balcony and over to the other side, then casually made his way back to the stage through the crowd. This is a frontman with bags of talent and charisma who is clearly made for the rock ‘n roll lifestyle, and the band as a whole were clearly having a blast as they ran around the stage charming the audience. Jordan encouraged everyone to go to merch after the set and suggestively pulled down his t-shirt while cheekily declaring the band would sign “anything”. I didn’t take them up on that offer, but I will definitely be checking out the album as The Bites are reminiscent of the hair metal/glam bands I loved in the ‘90s and I get the feeling that ‘Squeeze’ will be great to blast out on repeat.
Talking of talent and charisma, next up were UK hard rock band The Treatment. I love this band and last saw them at Firevolt Festival just over five weeks ago. It was an absolute pleasure to see them again tonight. They have the stage presence and songs of a stadium band with great crowd interaction. Opening song was, quite aptly, ‘Let’s Wake Up This Town’ from their latest release ‘Wake Up the Neighbourhood’, followed by the insanely catchy ‘Let It Begin’ which got everyone jumping on The Ritz’s bouncy floor.
Tom Rampton’s powerful vocals and crowd engagement combined with Tao and Tagore Grey’s riffs and solos created an electric atmosphere and I noticed the venue filling up as more people came in from the lobby and moved away from the bars to get involved in the action. Stomping anthem ‘Eyes On You’ was followed by the newer song ‘When Thunder and Lightning Strike’ which involved more enthusiastic crowd interaction, with Tom getting everyone singing along. The set ended all too soon on the classic ‘Running With the Dogs’ from the 2014 album of the same name. These guys really should be huge, and I look forward to seeing them again in the near future, hopefully headlining festivals and large venues!
The crowd were definitely amped as tonight’s headliners The Dead Daisies burst onto the stage. The Dead Daisies have had many lineup changes since their formation in 2012, including some huge names, and tonight saw John Corabi back with the band following Glenn Hughes’ departure, alongside former Whitesnake guitar legend Doug Aldrich. John said how happy he was to be back with his friends, and the onstage chemistry was evident throughout the set.
KIcking things off was ‘Light ‘em Up’, the title track off their latest album, followed by a trip back in time with ‘Burn it Down’ and ‘Dead and Gone’. This is proper rock n’ roll done right and the crowd were lapping it up. Doug wowed the crowd with his solos and energy and the whole band had us completely engaged. Very sadly, I had to leave early (blame public transport!) and the last song I caught was ‘Lock ‘n Load’, the band’s first ever single which was co-written by Slash and featured the great man on guitar on the original recording.
John introduced this song by announcing ‘This is the song that started it all’ and the haunting intro was joined by his soulful vocals. A great song to exit to, even though I wish I could have caught the whole set. Overall, this was an excellent night of hard rock with some throwback moments and we loved every minute.
Review: Rachel McMurdo
