Review: Tyketto, Thekla

Every genre has them: bands that should have been much bigger than they are but mystifyingly never got the breaks. Each song in Tyketto’s repertoire is better than anything Jon Bon Jovi has written since 1988, but the massive potential audience for the New Yorkers’ winning brand of catchy, muscular melodic rock has always eluded them. The upside of their commercial woe is that those of us in the know get to enjoy a stadium-quality band in club venues. Fairly regular visitors to the Bristol Bierkeller back in the 1990s (“It’s where I got this fuckin’ scar,” quips genial frontman Danny Vaughn, pointing to an old war wound), they’ve been away far too long. But the loyal audience clearly hasn’t deserted them. The Thekla is packed for this penultimate date on their longest tour in years, which, needless to say, had to be rescheduled as a consequence of personal misfortune.

The current line-up sees founders Vaughn and drummer Michael Clayton (so talented they named a film after him) joined by Thunder bassist Chris Childs, keyboard player Ged Rylands and rock god guitarist Chris Green. These guys know just how good they are – not in an arrogant, cocky way, but in delivering a performance that brims with a confidence and enthusiasm that belies the band’s 26 year history of hard slog for meagre returns. It helps that new album Reach is their best collection in decades. Vaughn, whose vocal power remains impressively undiminished, tells us that Tyketto’s original plan was simply to write songs that caused audiences to punch the air with joy. The title track from Reach certainly fulfils that humble ambition in spades, standing tall alongside crowd favourites drawn mostly from the band’s first two albums Don’t Come Easy (a refreshingly cheery blast of upbeat, defiantly unfashionable melodic rock joy that stood out like a sore thumb in the glum Year of Grunge) and Strength in Numbers. Rescue Me, Meet Me in the Night, big power ballad Standing Alone and the absurdly catchy singalong Lay Your Body Down are all greeted like old chums. All but written out of Tyketto history, however, is Shine, the album on which future Journey singer Steve Augeri stepped in temporarily, though they take a token stab at Let It Go.

Unusually for the genre, they’re a politically engaged bunch. Vaughn rues the fact that his fellow countrymen have chosen to elect an “orange freak motherfucker” as their president, while reminding us not to be too smug because we have Boris Johnson. And as he’s quick to observe, Big Money from Reach (“There’s a world that’s up for auction/Make your peace, prepare for war”) seems even more apposite in the current depressing and nasty political climate.

He also makes light of his band’s recalibration of expectations, remarking that when they formed he planned to buy a Lamborghini. Two years later, he’d set his sights on an Audi. “Today, I drive a Yaris,” he deadpans. Joking aside, however, it’s difficult to interpret I Need It Now from Reach as anything other than a howl of frustration. These days, versatile Vaughn and Childs have a rent-paying gig with the Ultimate Eagles tribute act, who, as if to add insult to injury, play conspicuously larger venues than Tyketto. (Listen carefully to Reach, however, and it’s fascinating to hear a few Eagles-esque melodies dotted around, so there have been some creative payoffs.)

As usual, they’re not permitted to leave the venue without playing a rousing encore of Forever Young, which has everyone bellowing along with gusto and leaves the band sporting huge grins. Just don’t leave it so long next time, perennially undervalued chaps.