Review: Y&T, O2 Academy

Oakland’s Y&T have been around so long that their name is taken from a Beatles album (the US-only Yesterday and Today with that notorious ‘butcher’ cover, fact fans). Many of their former support acts went on to eclipse them, notably Motley Crue and Metallica. They’ve been aptly described as “one of the hardest working blue collar touring bands in hard rock history” and this show is the last date on yet another European jaunt so epic that two people close to them carked it while they’ve been on the road (original drummer Leonard Haze and their veteran sound engineer Tom Size) and are suitably memorialised during the intro to Winds of Change.

It’s reasonably safe to assume that the punters who turn out for them tonight are the same people who were here in 2014 and 2012. And the set remains more or less the same, with a few tweaks and additions here and there. You might be forgiven for expecting a solid, workmanlike performance. But you’d be wrong. Dave Meniketti, who’s fronted Y&T since 1973, is a man who clearly loves his work. “Do I get sick of playing this stuff?” he asks rhetorically. “Hell, no. This is the best job in the world.”

It helps that unlike some of his peers who shall remain nameless (oh, OK, David Coverdale, for example), his powerful voice is remarkably unravaged by the passage of time. Not a single note is missed or ducked and no songs are repurposed to accommodate a contracting vocal range. He’s also one hell of a guitarist, ably abetted by long-term sidekick John Nymann on those magnificent twin lead harmonies. And right from the off, new recruit Aaron Leigh makes his mark with a big fat – and, quite possibly, ‘phat’ – bass sound during On with the Show.

That Y&T have never actually enjoyed a bona fide hit works to their advantage, because they’re not defined by it. Instead, they’ve got an extensive catalogue of rock radio staples to draw on. As they run through them – from the glam metal-era Lipstick and Leather with its huge chorus to the power ballad I Believe in You, which ends with a superb Meniketti solo – we’re reminded of just how many of these are tucked away in their catalogue. There are also a handful of real gems. Born of that old saw ‘write about what you know’, Midnight in Tokyo is one of the best songs written about life as a conflicted, homesick touring musician. And even on a cold November evening in Bristol, the glorious, upbeat Summertime Girls, with its irresistible four-part harmony, whisks us to a sun-drenched July road trip on the, erm, M5, with all the windows wound down.

Of course, they’ve never shied away from a lyrical cliché and there’s some mediocre meat’n’potatoes stuff along the way, including Down and Dirty and the oddly revived I’ll Keep on Believin’ (Do You Know). An extended Mike Vanderhule drum solo during Contagious also sucks momentum from the latter half of the set.

But there are no complaints in the value for money department. Far from being eager to depart after more than two hours on stage, having already shattered the venue’s curfew, Y&T are coaxed back for a rousing encore of Rescue Me and Forever, with Meniketti apologising profusely to the Academy staff. Same time in 2018, then? 

 Read more: Metal & Prog picks: November 2016