Crashdiet Concert Review
CRASHDIET: GENERATION ‘VERY WILD’
Show Date: October 14, 2010
Location: London, England, UK
Venue: The Underworld
Reviewer: Tommy Sprague
Band Websites: www.crashdiet.org – www.kinglizard.co.uk – www.myspace.com/peepshowonline
Having been a Crashdiet fan since 2003/04 I was more than excited to see a band with whom I have closely followed for many years. Making their first UK appearance with current singer Simon Cruz (the band played the Download Festival in 2005 with original frontman Dave Lepard), the band certainly delivered and gave the British crowd a show to celebrate.
The openers for the night were Scottish rockers Peep Show. The band debuted mainly new songs, playing only one track from their first album ‘Out For Blood’. The Scots worked the crowd into an excited state and sounded superb — the vocal talents of Johnny Gunn, and the axe abilities of Rusty Gill, are enough to work any rock fan into a frenzy.
Next up were local veterans King Lizard. Now don’t get me wrong, the band was good, but after ten minutes or so I found them to be a bit ‘samey’ and the crowd seemed more responsive to the first band of the night.
After what seemed like a break of an eternity — in reality it was more like twenty minutes — the headliners, Crashdiet, hit the stage. From the opening number to the end, the band was on fire. I have to be honest, I have always been a big Dave Lepard fan, and have been somewhat reluctant to accept the most recent vocalists, however new frontman Simon Cruz has to be one of the best live performers currently playing gigs. Cruz is energetic, unique, charismatic and most of all his voice can stand up to even the most testing of notes. The rest of the band were just as I expected, frantic and skillful, and the classic songs such as “Riot In Everyone” were worth the admission fee alone. Cruz even managed to perform a sing-along tribute to Steel Panthers‘ “Community Property”.
After the expected chant of ‘encore’ the band came out to the excellent “Breakin’ The Chainz”. I cannot think of a better encore song — I was impressed, as it became hard to hear the band over the crowd singing along at a deafening decibel level.
Overall, it was a fantastic night with everything you would expect from a great rock and roll show. Why Crashdiet have never played a headlining show in the UK before is completely beyond me, as the support for them is obviously strong. Whatever the case, I hope it’s not too long before they visit this shore again.