The Answer - Wednesday 29th July - Borderline

The Answer - what to make of them? If you look back at the entries I've made over the years of this blog, you'll get the impression I don't know if they are a great band who are on my essential "to see" list each tour or frustrating in that I can take or leave them. This show unfortunately veered towards the latter for me.

The band have "downsized" for this show to the intimate Borderline - usually one of my favourite venues, but unpleasantly crowded on the floor here. Predictably loud, this could have been a great show - with the ingredients of great vocalist, excellent lead guitar and fine musicianship all round. So why wasn't it? Setlist and songs.

I'm the first to admit I am a casual fan - owning most of their albums, but not all. I also don't know all the songs. However, I would have expected to know at least a few of these. In fact it wasn't until the very end that we got something even close to what would be on anything I'd call their "best of". And the reason for that is the songs. They are almost all forgettable to my ears. I probably have many on CD, but couldn't tell you without looking up the titles. I've said it before, it's a real shame for a band this talented.

Sadly an excellent "Under The Sky" and Cormacs's earlier efforts to rouse the crowd with a bit of wandering could not salvage the evening for me.

Setlist
I Am What I Am
Spectacular
Red
Demon Eyes
Gone Too Long
Aristocrat
Long Live the Renegades
Preachin'
Last Days of Summer
Strange Kinda' Nothing
New Horizon
Raise a Little Hell
Nowhere Freeway
Under the Sky

The Union / The Answer – Thursday 15th March – Camden Electric Ballroom

Luke & Peter from The Union

Regular readers (if there are any!) will know that I like both of these bands. After watching Man Utd’s particularly poor display against Bilbao on TV, we trundled in to fairly busy venue and got our normal “spot” to watch the first band of this “double header”. I’m pleased to report that The Union were on top form, concentrating on the heavier elements of their 2 albums so far. It struck me for the first time about their “glam” influences, during Glitter-esq drum and bass on “Obsession” and Slade like chorus on “Black Monday” – “Hell Fire Fury, Stomping Your Feet”. Brilliant stuff.

The Answer

As you know my views on the Answer sway from them being an excellent band (they are), but not quite having the songs to go with the talent. This appears partially mitigated against by their new album “Revival” which is a step up from the disappointing “Everyday Demons” in my view. Much new material was played here and it sounded good. We did laugh though at singer Cormack’s crowd surfing – he didn’t get as far as he had done in the tiny Borderline. We (somewhat unkindly!) speculated that he seems to have put on few pounds since then.

So all in all an excellent double bill. Only slight disappointment was that none of the local pubs were serving at 11pm on a Thursday – what is going on with our City?

Oh, and there was an unconfirmed "Ling Alert" !

Setlist: The Union
Watch The River Flow
Black Gold
Blame It On Tupelo
Saviour
Step Up To The Plate
Obsession
The Remedy
Cut The Line
Easy Street
Black Monday
Siren's Song

Setlist: The Answer
New Day Rising
Under The Sky
Vida (I Want You)
Faith Gone Down
Come Follow Me
Trouble
Nowhere Freeway
Preachin'
Tornado
Too Far Gone
One More Revival
+
Evil Man
Waste Your Tears

AC/DC - Thursday 16th April - O2 Arena

Identical to Tuesday - except saw all the the Answer's set. Oh, and the fact we were "several miles away" in the seats up near the roof. Allowed us to see just what a good spot we had 2 days earlier.

AC/DC - Tuesday 14th April - O2 Arena

An evening of Classic Rock at the O2. A couple of pleasant beers in the garden of The Pilot was followed by catching the end of The Answer's set. They sounded OK and were debuting a few tracks from their new album, "Demon Eyes". We had got to a pretty good spot - front left - about 10-15 yds from the front. I described to a colleague that you get the following at an AC/DC gig.

• A 54 year old man in a schoolboy outfit who duckwalks, appears to suffer convulsions and performs a striptease
• A 61 year old man in a flat cap with a heavy Georgie accent
• A 50ft inflatable prostitute
• A massive steam train which catches fire
• A number of cannons firing at the audience

Rightly, they were alarmed. What can't be explained is how all of the above works - except the answer surely lies in the music. Everyone recognises an AC/DC tune and here they were performed faultlessly. Excellent stuff!

Setlist: Rock n Roll Train Hell Ain't a Bad Place To be Back In Black Big Jack Dirty deeds done dirt cheap Shot Down in Flames Thunderstruck Black Ice The Jack Hells Bells Shoot to thrill War Machine Anything Goes You Shook Me all night long TNT Whole lotta Rosie Let There Be Rock + Highway To Hell For Those About To Rock

The Answer - Bloomsbury Ballroom - Friday 9th March

Friday night and it's a bumper group of us for the Answer with Paul, Chris and Mark joining Richard and myself for a trip to the grand sounding "Bloomsbury Ballroom". Dave had double-booked, so we had a spare ticket and took the chance to wind him up by saying "Jimmy Page" was bound to be special guest !! (not true, unfortunately). 

Anyway, after discovering it was a late start, there was far too much time for a few too many beers at various venues, including the Polish bar behind Holborn Station. Managed to sell Dave's ticket for pretty much face value and get in with lots of time to spare. 

Didn't care for the venue (nowhere near as grand as it sounds) and the sound was muffled. The "newbies" in our group enjoyed it, but Richard and I didn't feel it was as good as the times we've seen them previously. Still quite enjoyable and the band should be destined for bigger things.

The Answer - Mean Fiddler (Astoria 2) - Wednesday 1st November

Went with Paul for his first viewing of this Irish band. I'd sold it to him on the promise of a mix of Led Zep, Free, Bad Company with a bit of AC/DC thrown in. Thankfully he agreed and we both enjoyed the show.

Setlist

Come Follow Me

No Questions Asked

Doctor

Never Too Late

Keep Believin'

Sometimes Your Love

Under the Sky

Preachin'

Into the Gutter

+

Leavin' Today

Memphis Water

Be What You Want

Moment

Jam

The Answer - Barfly, Camden - Wednesday 5th April

I saw the Answer support Deep Purple a few months back and thought they were good. I was sure Richard would like them too, so it was off to a new venue for me (after our office pub quiz where Richard was our "ringer"). 

The Barfly is a small dark room above a pub near Chalk Farm. As it happened we had plenty of time and I even got to have a brief chat with the singer outside on the stairs before they went on. He seemed a decent guy and was obviously pleased that they were attracting punters who hadn't seen their own shows before. Anyway, I thought they were really good - shame they were only on for about an hour, but it is a real mix of classic Free / Led Zepp etc in their sound, but with the individuality of their own songs. Impressed enough to buy both CD EPs, we headed home quite early. I'm sure I will see them again.