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Wednesday 13 + Hanoi Rocks + The Haze

London Astoria, 31st October 2008

What better way to spend Hallowe'en than in the company of the Hammer Horror poster boy for B-movie shock rock, Wednesday 13? And what could make this spooktacular All Hallow's Eve even better? Why, a shared bill (support my eye) from the great, soon to be late (again), Hanoi Rocks.

First on the bill, however, are Scottish band the Haze. Somehow I've managed to avoid encountering this bluesy bunch of 70s-style rockers, but I won't miss them again in the future, as they're really pretty good, even if they do want to be the Doors a little too much.

'Without Hanoi Rocks there would be no Wednesday 13,' our corpse-white post-glam hero announces during his set. How very true, for while they may not lay claim to being the godfathers of glam (I'll leave that title to Alice and the New York Dolls) they're certainly its cocky older cousin. And although they may have decided to call it a day and reel off down separate paths, Mike and Andy still strut their stuff with the panache and abandon of rockers half their age. (That'll be the rest of the band then…)

Any sadness at the group's forthcoming demise is tempered by the fact that I'm seeing them again next week (hooray!), which means I could enjoy the usual set list (the new stuff, plus 'Back To Mystery City', 'Malibu Beach', 'Tragedy', etc) to the full.

Tonight you'd never know the Rocks weren't headlining from the exuberant way Mike works the crowd of bloody-nosed, wedding dress wearing spooky kids (well, it is Hallowe'en). And it pays tribute to the strength of their 21st century comeback that this baby-faced audience seems to know tracks like 'Fashion' and 'Street Poetry' better than they know the old classics. Quit while you're a head? Maybe. At least, unlike the last time, they'll finish on a high.

Follow that if you can, Wednesday. Well of course he does, treating the assembled ghouls and goths, skeletons and devils, witches and, um, old people to a frenzied race through our favourite tracks, including sneeringly jubilant versions of '197666', 'Die My Bride', 'Haunt Me' and the sinister title track to current album Skeletons, and a spellbinding acoustic rendition of 'The Curse of Me' that makes the blood run cold.

A final romp through 'I Walked With A Zombie', 'Rambo' and 'I Want Bad Things To Happen To You' and then it's time for the inevitable 'I Like To Say F*ck', now morphed into High School Musical recast by Marilyn Manson, complete with a squad of black-clad cheerleaders so cheerfully disorganised they make Kid Ego's Glitter Kittens look as if they're choreographed by Arlene Phillips, and, of course, that umbrella, the most rubbish prop in rock.

Still, good ol' Wednesday, you gotta love him: he's in his thirties, happily married, loves his horror movies and loves his rock. Hey, what's not to love?!

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