26/11/2010

The Earlybirds, The Checks and Luger Boa. Rock n Roll Riot. The Earlybirds have a Rock sound but still very pop influenced reminding me at times of Pluto and Evermore. The Checks have almost a bluesy Rock feel and Luger Boa tend to have a slightly more Punk edge to their Rock n roll so three different variations of Rock. I was very excited when I entered The Royal looking forward to a great night of Rock n Roll fun and that’s exactly what I got.

The crowd was just starting to pick up when The Earlybirds opened up their set and very quickly they had the crowd moving. It’s definitely Pop Indie with a Rock edge and they were a perfect opening act to start the blood pumping and passions build. ‘Runaway’, ‘Low’ and ‘I Killed The DJ’ drove the crowd to a frenzy and by the end of the set the crowd was eating out of their hands. They reminded me a lot of another awesome Indie band from Auckland Pluto. The Earlybirds put on a great show and I am really looking forward to seeing them again sometime soon.

The Checks then turned it up a notch. Their flavour of Rock n roll is a little more Blues orientated Rock but with the swagger of Modern British Rock. Their shows with Oasis shine through especially with Ed their singer.  Ed very much comes across like Liam Gallagher but with a little more soul and a little less anger. ‘Take Me There’ from ‘Hunting Whales’ their 2007 album probably got the best response but by the end of their set they had worked the crowd into a Rock n roll frenzy getting us ready for the final assault by Luger Boa.

I’ve been waiting to see Luger Boa for quite some time. I had seen Jimmy Christmas with his previous band The D4 but hadn’t quite gotten the chance to see Luger Boa. The last 2 singles ‘Lazy’ and ‘Paralysed’ had got my attention and to me seemed a bit rockier than the previous album ‘Mutate and Die’ so I was very keen to see them. From the start you knew it was going to get crazy as he stood on the speaker stack drinking a beer and gazing across the crowd before he leapt down and brought the final act of the Rock n Roll Riot. What a front man and what a band. He played ‘Lazy’ and ‘Paralysed’ early on in the set and the crowd loved it. Everybody sang along to ‘On My Mind’, ‘I Wanna Girlfriend’ and ‘What Is Real?’  And in true Rock n Roll style we even got an encore. Luger Boa brought the Rock n Roll Riot to a close to great applause.

My ears were left ringing as I left The Royal, but what a great night of Rock n roll from some awesome Kiwi Rock bands each bringing on the Rock n roll Riot.