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Review: Skid Row/The Treatment/Enuff Z’Nuff, O2 Academy
Back in the day, Chicago’s Enuff Z’Nuff were lumped in with hair metal, although their brand of classy, Beatlesy hard rock had more in common with the likes of Cheap Trick, Jellyfish and Redd Kross than with Britney Fox or Black ‘n Blue. A very welcome late replacement for Winger on tonight’s bill (possibly because they were already due to tour the UK), they’re playing their first Bristol gig in 12 years.
Frontman Donnie Vie is long gone, leaving bassist Chip Z’Nuff to take lead vocals in the current line-up, which also includes former Ultravox guitarist Tony Fennell. As if to underline their key influence, they open their all-too-brief 30 minute set with the first of two songs from their recent Fabs covers album, Hard Rock Nite: Magical Mystery Tour. After a swift Kiss the Clown from their debut, Enuff Z’Nuff tackle Eleanor Rigby (because what McCartney’s masterpiece manifestly lacks is chugging riffage and a big guitar solo). Nice to hear them nailing those harmonies though.
is needed now More than ever
Chip, who still dresses like an explosion in a psychedelia factory, then announces “the songs we’re all here for”, namely the band’s earliest MTV-era hits: Fly High Michelle and New Thing. He sings these in a lower register than Donnie did, but they still sound great.
Such is the enduring popularity of what’s termed, occasionally pejoratively, ‘classic rock’, that there’s never been any shortage of young British acts eager to grab a slice of the action by channelling the greats, although few make it out of the clubs. Masterminded by NWOBHM survivor Laurie Mansworth and providing gainful employment for his drummer son Dhani, Cambridge’s The Treatment are one of the hardest working.
Previously seen in town supporting everyone from Alice Cooper at the Hall Formerly Known as Colston to Airbourne and The Dead Daisies at this venue, they were initially hampered by an ever-changing image and musical style.
But their best move was to recruit rabble-rousing vocalist Tom Rampton five years ago. As ever, there’s plenty of meat and potatoes on the menu, but some of these songs, like Let It Begin and Shake the Mountain, are starting to feel like old friends.
The only major American rock band to play Bristol with four different singers, Skid Row made their local debut at the Hippodrome with Sebastian Bach back in 1989. A downturn in fortunes led to them playing the Bierkeller fronted by a fella named Johnny Solinger in 2014. Former DragonForce singer ZP Theart then bagged the vocalist gig, which he described as his dream job, and fronted the reinvigorated band at this very venue in 2018 and 2019.
But who’s that angry little kid singing with Skid Row today? OK, so he looks about 12 years old from a distance, but closer inspection reveals a familiar figure: Erik Grönwall, formerly of Swedish rockers H.E.A.T., who supported Skid Row last time they played here. He may have a touch of the Bart Simpsons about him, thanks in part to that decidedly non-metal haircut, but Grönwall has plenty of experience to draw on (not least as the 2009 winner of the Swedish Idol TV contest, for which he performed songs by Iron Maiden, Queen, Kiss and, oh yes, Skid Row). It later transpires that he was just two years old when the band was founded.
As before, the set is dominated by their 1989 debut and 1991’s breakthrough Slave to the Grind album, which, for a short period until Pantera came along, was the heaviest album ever to top the US Billboard chart. Grönwall gets to demonstrate his vocal abilities on that first big hit, 18 and Life, while bassist Rachel Bolan takes over as usual for that rather jarring cover of the Ramones’ Psycho Therapy (still chasing punk rock cred after all these years). Bolan and co-founding guitarist Dave Sabo – once Jon Bon Jovi’s best mate and the first guitarist in Bon Jovi – also each deliver little speeches of gratitude to us for all turning up once again. Indeed, while there’s no shortage of Cassandras prophesying a collapse in ticket sales as the cost of living crisis starts to bite, the Academy is packed tonight as punters are clearly not prepared to do without such essentials to wellbeing as heavy metal.
There’s a well-received new album to plug too, though Skid Row elect to play just three songs from it. Slave… classic Riot Act is the filling in a sandwich of newies The Gang’s All Here and the ‘motherfucker’-laden Tear It Down (yep, they’ve lost none of the sweariness that once got them banned from Wembley Stadium after supporting Guns n’ Roses). These three songs certainly sound all of a piece, as the band successfully recapture the spirit that made them so popular in the first place.
A storming Monkey Business ends the set, but the appearance of an acoustic guitar for the encore signals a big singalong with the cheesetastic I Remember You. Although Sabo, Bolan and under-appreciated guitarist Scotti Hill are all pushing 60 now, they feel no shame in concluding as usual with their debut single, Youth Gone Wild, prompting riotous scenes of middle-aged over-excitement in the seething mosh pit.
All pix by Mike Evans
Read more: Metal & Prog Picks: October 2022
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