to distract you from your work on Monday here is my review of day 1 of Firefest Five 5.
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As someone sang today “If I this is the end , why don’t I wanna go”...
Melodic Rock is supposed to be dead, with a dwindling listening base and level of enthusiasm which only waves at is past glory. Saturday, Firefest Day one was to be part of another goodbye. Its seemed however, the fans and the bands had other ideas.
Talon slammed the day into drive with its hard melodic rock, greeting arriving fans with a mixture of songs, some from the new Fallen Angels CD. Loud and Clear followed, presenting songs like Ghosts of Summer, which are as you read most certainly being added to the IPOD playlist of the concert attendees. Lead singer Jess Harnell also gets this years “cool dude” award. The whole weekend -seemingly every time you dived out of Rock City for air – Jess was there on the front steps, meeting people, cracking jokes, thanking fans.
Accompanied by former Danger Danger colleagues Rob Marcello and Bruno Ravel Paul Laine took the stage, accompanied by his trade mark shots of Jose Cuervo. Paul brought the day’s first real exclamation point with his final anthemic offering. With hundreds of fans sticking their hands in the air and screaming “Dorriana! I will always love you!” any lingering doubt that Rock City was the place to be was quickly blown to pieces.
Going into their set, Valentine's biggest challenge was perhaps themselves, having delivered what many say was the best performance of Firefest IV . Could they live up to expectations and do it again? The Verdict was yes. The band were clearly enjoying themselves and tight. Hugo absolutely “left it all out there”. Overcoming a minor vocal glitch or two in the first two numbers, Hugo was a ball of intense emotion and sensitivity, which flowed quickly into the audience, who, for their part had clearly done their homework over the past year, proving that they knew all the words by heart.
Valentine performed several favourites such as “No Way”, and “Never Said it was Gonna be Easy.”. In presenting one of their new songs, Soul Salvation, the band wins the “creative special guest award” by brinGing in members of a local church choir.
Enter JSS. The set started with recorded clips of Yngwie and Talisman songs and voice over proclaiming, “That was then, this is now.” JSS then burst in delivering 21st century and grabbing the crowd’s attention with an “I am who I am”gutsiness. Of course “I am who I am gustiness” is useless with out the talent to deliver. JSS has no such problem and delivered songs such as “Gin and Tonic Sky”, “Testify”, and Mountain, with brilliance. He also presented songs from the Prism and Lost in the Translation Album, and he also gave us a well received reminder of the classic Soto sound with “Crazy” and “I’ll be waiting”. The show ended with the amusing and entertaining 70’s funk n disco medley.
I figured if Jeff were doing his job properly he’d have made some fans of the classic melodic rock sound unhappy so I went looking for the comments. Nothing negative delivered in that all important post gig- rock in roll jury - the long steel crowded urinals of the men’s room . Nothing negative in the street. Nothing in the night club after the gig. I finally find someone out the street Sunday morning who said “I just don’t know about this new Soto” , but that person struck me as someone who last had fun (and maybe last had sex) sometime when Callahan was prime minister (that’s the Carter years for us Americans). Seemingly the Firefest crowd aren’t afraid of change. On the other hand I heard much praise - The new regime passes with flying colors!
JSS surrendered the stage to Pink Crème 69 with an aggressive rocking performance. Highlights - a cover song of the Police's "So Lonely" and a well received presentation of their song “Shame”
Then the house came down. Big time. Tyketto took the stage. Those of us in the UK get treated to Danny Vaughn performances a number of times a year in various guises. They are always excellent and entertaining. Tonight’s offering of Tyketto went beyond that. Vaughn was at his best. The rest of the band was strong, and the addition of Tony Marshall’s guitar added a welcome richness to the sound.
You can’t always see how a crowd reacts when you stand front row so I stood in the back. The sight was truly amazing and moving as people sang along to Tyketto’s favorites. Both hands up in the air to “Wings”. Tears streaming down peoples faces to “Standing Alone”. Bartenders asking customers to please just wait a second whilst I listen to the chorus of “Sail Away”. Everyone’s attention was front and center and everyone’s emotion on their sleeve. It was undescribable.
And ending or not, Firefest V day one provided an answer to why this music genre will never die. Because its creators, like its fans, are Forever Young, and not afraid to celebrate it. Amen.
j/k
