L.A. Guns @ The Carling Academy, Angel

Amidst incredibly bad sound from the Carling Academy, there is a massive turn-out to witness yet another return of L.A Guns and Love/Hate sold out show. Don’t call it this a comeback, its just the return of the Masters.
New Generation Superstars take to the stage and the banter begins from the get go with Davey blaming AJ for leaving their intro music behind ……. These 4 boys clearly need no intro though!  They have supported both L.A. Guns and Love/Hate on their previous tours and since then, they have grown in many more ways than just AJ’s height.  



These boys know how to have fun and if the crowd wants to join in, all the better!  They had about as much fun as any rock band with a baying crowd could have whilst working with the kind of sound that the Carling Academy dictates us to have – down right bad quality!! There were parts where both Chris’ drums and AJ’s vocals disappeared for moments, NO fault of the bands.  There was, however a very endearing moment during “Do it cus I can” where AJ finally spotted some childhood mates in the crowd and he forgot both his lyrics and riffs but came back bigger and better to finish off with “Overload”, a song of anthemic proportions!  



If you know these Northern Lads, you would’ve realised that the boys are on fire and the shit sound was the only thing stopping them having a top notch gig, but if you’re a new fan, find out where the boys are going to be next and make it your sole mission to see them live, you will not be disappointed.



Love/Hate rockingly arrive on stage with Skid bearing the Bud Cross (how did they smuggle it into the UK?) which he smacks the shit out of before telling the effigy that he loves it and then punches it repeatedly ….. how else would you take to the stage if you were Skid?



The set starts crackingly with Black Out in the Red Room and the excitement in the venue is palpable – amidst Jizzy’s manic dancing and Skids notoriously mad-assed bass bashing moves, the crowd are singing louder than the legend himself – or is this once again due to the quality of the sound which made the entire set sound very “bassy”.  It has to be mentioned though, that with all complaints aside, I maintain that this is one of the best Love/Hate gigs that I have witnessed and its great to realise that after 20 odd years, these boys still have quality fans that are willing to support them and take the highs and the lows of rock n roll and share in the sweat, drama and kick-ass tracks and make the most of it.  



Playing incredible tracks like “Miss America”, “Don’t be Afraid”, “Fuel to Run”, which has the most incredible vocal ranges from the enigmatic frontman, and my favourite, “One More Round” thorough-out their set,and without a set list showed a band of 4 very talented men that was clear to see that whatever issues they had when they disbanded in 1996 have totally been resolved and they are once again, on top of their game.



Phil Lewis is back and he made his presence known to every single rocker in the venue in a split second.  After not being on stage in London for a few years, these glam-metallers took to stage and literally blew the place to pieces.  They played all the classics like “Sex Action”, “Never Enough” and “Electric Gypsy” which literally whipped the crowd into a frenzy.



Of special mention should be the dedication to Paul Black and Tracii Guns, which Phil claimed were the Impostors in L.A. Guns, they kicked it up to a notch and had every fan belting out the lyrics along with them.  Who the “Real L.A. Guns” is, after such a solid crowd response is difficult to decide but perhaps once the Tracii Guns version of L.A. Guns has been on tour, it will be a lot clearer!



Scotty who out did his own bass skills in “Ballad of Jayne” and for that matter his own perfect snarl – man, ive never seen someone perfect a sexier snarl than Griffins!



The endurance of this phenomenal group was incredible when straight after their stage performance, they were at the merch stand interacting with the people that love them the most – their fans.  A massive applaud to Steve Riley for smoking and blowing smoke into the security guards face when being berated for smoking in a non-smoking venue …. The crowd might not have been aware as to what was happening but Steve knew he had that backing of a sold out gig of supporters standing right in front of him and in his mind, he had won already!



All in all, I am still on a high as I sit here and reminisce about a night that will be hard to outdo in my mind for a long time.  Hopefully it wont be too long until these boys adorn our stage once again but until then, every time you’re at a gig at the Carling Academy, make it your business to complain to management about there super shit sound and make sure they know that we will not be sold short for their lack of sound quality!!!