{"id":9327,"date":"2019-11-09T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-09T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=9327"},"modified":"2019-11-05T09:28:41","modified_gmt":"2019-11-05T09:28:41","slug":"michael-monroe-electric-eel-shock-chemia-leeds-brudenell-social-club-1st-november-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=9327","title":{"rendered":"Michael Monroe\/Electric Eel Shock\/Chemia \u2013 Leeds, Brudenell Social Club \u2013 1st November 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s been four long years since \u2018Blackout States\u2019 was released and four long years since Michael Monroe toured the UK. But The Monroes are back on the road promoting the newly released \u2018One Man Gang\u2019 opus, and joining them on this long overdue UK jaunt are Japan\u2019s finest exponents of shock rock \u2018n\u2019 roll, Electric Eel Shock. With a date at my favourite venue The Brudenell Social Club on a Friday night, tickets were in the bag quick sharpish. This is a good job as it sold out a few days later.<\/p>\n

Polish rockers Chemia are a bluesy-based, classic rock sort of affair. I only caught the last couple of songs of their set, but what I heard was fairly decent. I\u2019m very wary of any band that has a bass player with 5 strings on his instrument and Chemia fit that bill. While they are not really my cup of tea, closer \u2018I Love You So Much\u2019 is a decent slice of 80\u2019s rock with a cool catchy chorus and they seem to go down well with the growing crowd.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019ve witnessed the Electric Eel Shock show before. Many here haven\u2019t, and one of the best moments of this evening\u2019s gig was seeing the reaction to their set around me. As Black Sabbath\u2019s \u2018Iron Man\u2019 blasts from the PA, drummer Tomoharu stands on his kit and matches the beat. He is naked apart from a sock dangling from his cock. Either side of him, guitarist Akihito and bassist Kazuto incite the gobsmacked crowd to rock and bow down to the glorious event they are about to behold.
\n\u201cWe are Electric Eel Shock from Japaaan!\u201d shouts Akihito after taking his flying V out of his mouth! Kazuto\u2019s bass is above his head and the drummer is bashing out beats with four sticks. No one knows where to look, there is so much going on.
\nElectric Eel Shock have been doing this for 25 years and they have it off to a fine art. They sound like Dave Mustaine singing for Quiet Riot and I mean that in a good way. \u201cWe love 80\u2019s heavy metaaal!\u201d shouts the diminutive singer before blasting into \u2018So Much 80\u2019s\u201d. He pulls off Eddie Van Halen style solos, sticks plectrums to his forehead and tells one liners that match any stand up comedian.
\nThey have some kick ass tunes as well. \u2018Bastard\u2019 is one hell of a song live. As the singer points to his bassist and shouts the refrain, then at the crowd and at himself, we all sing along to that gratifying chorus, smiling and laughing in unison.
\nThey played to a full house tonight and I don\u2019t recall ever seeing such a positive response to a support band before. Electric Eel Shock came, they saw and they conquered.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There are not many bands that could follow that performance, and tonight\u2019s headliners happen to be one of the few. As the lights drop and that familiar tribal intro blasts from the PA, the warmed up and sold out Brudenell crowd let out great cheers for Michael Monroe\u2019s long awaited return to Leeds. Dressed all in black with matching \u2018One Man Gang\u2019 jackets, the Monroe cohorts face their drummer, as the legendary frontman bounds towards the microphone and leads them into the high energy tongue twister of a title track.
\nIt\u2019s no surprise that the band are on fire from the off. Rich Jones and Steve Conte play riffs off each other, Sami Yaffa brings the trademark low end rumble and Karl Rockfist pummels the hell out of his kit, as Finland\u2019s very own Iggy Pop bounds about the stage like a 25 year old rock star with something to prove. This band is high energy rock \u2018n\u2019 roll personified and they sound magnificent.\"\"<\/a>
\nOpening a set with 5 songs from your new album is a brave move, especially with the back catalogue Michael Monroe has. I guess it goes to show how strongly the band believes in the new material. And while \u2018Last Train to Tokyo\u2019 and \u2018Junk Planet\u2019 sound mighty live and get plenty of crowd reaction, no one down the front is moving. In fact it\u2019s not until the familiar vocal drawl of \u2018Ballad Of The Lower East Side\u2019 that things really get cooking and the front erupts into a frenzy. So good, it sounds so good! The band have hit the level and the crowd are with them , then just after Conte pulls of a killer solo…boom! They blow the power!
\nInstant comedown…the show stops abruptly. But the livewire frontman is not going to let a simple thing like electricity stop his show, on no. So while the band shrug their shoulders and head to the bar while stage guys frantically try to fix the problem, the singer takes to the kit and does a 10 minute drum solo, entertains the front row with his spinning glowsticks and even gets his sax out for a solo, before power is thankfully restored.
\n\"\"<\/a>The band strap on their instruments, have a quick discussion and blast back right where they left off mid-song, like nothing ever happened. Rock \u2018n\u2019 fuckin\u2019 roll! \u2018Old King\u2019s Road\u2019 and a punky \u201878\u2019 follow, with Rich and Sami joining Michael with the high kick action. The band seem in their element, Rich Jones especially is animated and at the font mouthing the words to the songs.
\nThe room erupts once more as Sami plays the classic bass riff that introduces \u2018Motorvatin\u2019. I will never tire of hearing those old Hanoi songs and neither will the majority here, judging by the response. Classic follows classic, an extended and emotive \u2018Don\u2019t You Ever Leave Me\u2019, a killer \u2018Malibu Beach\u2019 and a frantic \u2018Up Around The Bend\u2019. The band play with the energy and attitude needed to deliver these classics to an audience that laps up every note and every melody.
\n\"\"<\/a>A Demolition 23 double bill encore follows the dark and dramatic newbie \u2018Low Life In High Places\u2019. \u2018Nothin\u2019s Alright\u2019 and \u2018Hammersmith Palais\u2019 are like an injection of adrenaline straight to the heart. Closing with The Stooges classic \u2018I Feel Alright\u2019 is the icing on the cake. Raw, sweaty, high energy rock \u2018n\u2019 roll, it doesn\u2019t get any better than this.<\/p>\n

Michael Monroe and his band are a well-oiled machine with an arsenal of some of the best rock \u2018n\u2019 roll songs you could wish for. And the legendary frontman is a performer who gives his all every show. Tonight they truly had to work for it, but technical issue were never going to halt a band of this calibre and in the live arena, they are simply untouchable. Probably the best gig I have seen at this venue.<\/p>\n

Author: Ben Hughes<\/p>\n

‘One Man Gang’ Album Review Here<\/a><\/p>\n

Picture from the exceptionally talented Neil Vary Gig Photography<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been four long years since \u2018Blackout States\u2019 was released and four long years since Michael Monroe toured the UK. But The Monroes are back on the road promoting the newly released \u2018One Man Gang\u2019 opus, and joining them on this long overdue UK jaunt are Japan\u2019s finest exponents of shock rock \u2018n\u2019 roll, Electric […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9328,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[2398,3916,165,265,309,824],"class_list":["post-9327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-review","tag-karl-rockfist","tag-leeds-brudenell","tag-michael-monroe","tag-rich-jones","tag-sami-yaffa","tag-steve-conte","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9327"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9337,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9327\/revisions\/9337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}