Buckcherry + Dear Superstar
Glasgow Garage, 24th July 2009
Despite arriving a scant fifty minutes after the doors open, we still somehow manage to miss two and a half of the four bands on the bill tonight, including the lovely Heaven's Basement. The two tracks we do catch from black-haired, tattooed Manchester rockers Dear Superstar suggest a band of post Green Day angry young punky metallers – not entirely my bag, but certainly not bad either.
But really, tonight is all about LA hard rock sleaze gods Buckcherry. After a prolonged soundcheck worthy of Iron Maiden, they burst onto the stage with 'Tired of You', a high octane track from new album Black Butterfly (which you can check out on the band's official site here). Lead vocalist Josh Todd is a lean, mean, sneering, tattooed love god, channelling Jagger and Iggy by way of Willem Dafoe, whipping the crowd into a frenzy and definitely making it onto my laminated SILF list (he's a singer – think about it), while an ass-kicking cover of Deep Purple's 'Highway Star' gives guitarists Stevie D and Keith Nelson a welcome chance to shine.
But despite the well-received new material that peppers the short, sharp, sexy set (modern bands really have no stamina – Bruce Springsteen played for three hours at Hampden, don'tcha know?), the night can't help but be dominated by tracks from the band's breakthrough album, 15, and, in particular, the power trio of 'Everything', 'Sorry' and 'Crazy Bitch' which ends the show, prior to the obligatory encore. I really hope they like playing 'Crazy Bitch' because it's destined to become their 'School's Out', trotted out endlessly 'til they retire rich as KISS or implode in a cloud of cocaine and hairspray.
Which I hope they don't do too soon, because Buckcherry are a superbly entertaining band, the current reigning champions of tight, melodic, driving rock'n'roll that's both gloriously uplifting and rebelliously down'n'dirty. Long may they continue to rock…
