Fozzy, The Hot Damn! & Pistols At Dawn, KK’s Steel Mill 23.02.24
Technically, it’s 25 years since the first incarnation of Fozzy was born, pretty much a covers band until their third album All That Remains was released in 2005. Since then they’ve been pretty consistent with touring and a steady stream of albums. Fast forward to today and they’re on a high touring and promoting their latest album Boombox and we catch up with them at KK’s in Wolverhampton.
We’ve been promised a Friday night party night here in Wolverhampton and first band up Pistols At Dawn (7) start the party with a bang. Guitarist Will James appears on stage with his neon lit guitar smoking as he introduces us to P.A.D. with an EVH style guitar solo, before the rest of the band join him on stage. Some may think this a bit precocious or self indulgent, especially as the opening band, but it certainly gets the early crowd in the party mood.
Technically, it’s 25 years since the first incarnation of Fozzy was born, pretty much a covers band until their third album All That Remains was released in 2005. Since then they’ve been pretty consistent with touring and a steady stream of albums. Fast forward to today and they’re on a high touring and promoting their latest album Boombox and we catch up with them at KK’s in Wolverhampton.
We’ve been promised a Friday night party night here in Wolverhampton and first band up Pistols At Dawn (7) start the party with a bang. Guitarist Will James appears on stage with his neon lit guitar smoking as he introduces us to P.A.D. with an EVH style guitar solo, before the rest of the band join him on stage. Some may think this a bit precocious or self indulgent, especially as the opening band, but it certainly gets the early crowd in the party mood.
Having gone through some recent personnel changes, this tour supporting Fozzy was going to be a massive test for the Atlanta quartet aiming to get back on track with their new release Ascension and they emphasis that by opening up the set proper with the first track from that album Under The Surface.
Pistols At Dawn are lively, hard hitting and certainly know how to get a crowd warmed up, their cover of Rage Against The Machine’s Bulls On Parade got the ever growing audience bouncing, but when you’ve only got half hour or so to make an impression, maybe a second guitar solo during the set is a bit much? Anyway a decent enough entrée to start the night.
There’s nothing that says Friday Night Party more than a pair of rainbow unicorns right? Well that’s what appeared on stage ahead of The Hot Damn! (8), two huge inflatable ones either side of the stage. This was going to be interesting!
Pistols At Dawn are lively, hard hitting and certainly know how to get a crowd warmed up, their cover of Rage Against The Machine’s Bulls On Parade got the ever growing audience bouncing, but when you’ve only got half hour or so to make an impression, maybe a second guitar solo during the set is a bit much? Anyway a decent enough entrée to start the night.
There’s nothing that says Friday Night Party more than a pair of rainbow unicorns right? Well that’s what appeared on stage ahead of The Hot Damn! (8), two huge inflatable ones either side of the stage. This was going to be interesting!
Formed from the ashes of The Amorettes and Tequila Mockingbird like some day-glo phoenix, The Hot Damn! Are unapologetically in your face rock and roll with heaps of attitude.
Opening up with Fizz Crash Bang it sets the tone for the rest of the set. High Energy pop rock that you can’t help but dance, bounce, clap or sing along to. The party is now in full swing!
But don’t let the rainbows and cute unicorns fool you. This band isn’t another “pretty band” wheeled out by record company execs as a gimmick band, no this band has talent in bucket loads and carry on that hard nosed all female ethos first envisioned by The Runaways and later taken up by the Riot Grrrl movement in the early ‘90s.
Opening up with Fizz Crash Bang it sets the tone for the rest of the set. High Energy pop rock that you can’t help but dance, bounce, clap or sing along to. The party is now in full swing!
But don’t let the rainbows and cute unicorns fool you. This band isn’t another “pretty band” wheeled out by record company execs as a gimmick band, no this band has talent in bucket loads and carry on that hard nosed all female ethos first envisioned by The Runaways and later taken up by the Riot Grrrl movement in the early ‘90s.
The songs may be poppy, but they are guitar driven and drummer Josie O’Toole can hit those skins! So The Hot Damn! are a rock band who play with a pop attitude and if you have a problem with that, then that’s your problem not theirs as they end the set with the catchy I Didn’t Like You Anyway
I’ve got to be honest here, up till a few years ago I’d only known Chris Jericho as a wrestler (having a young son mad on wrestling will do that), and finding out he had a rock band I thought it’s just another of these superstar wrestlers having a side project to play with, a gimmick. But boy was I wrong. Fozzy (10) is no gimmick or play thing for Jericho, they are a full on bona fide rock band and tonight they bring the party to Wolverhampton in bucketloads.
This tour is probably their biggest headline tour to date in the UK and Jericho says it’s like a second home to them, they’ve always received a warm welcome and have a great fan base here. They’re over here riding the crest of a wave following the accolades from their latest album Boombox which is probably their most accomplished album yet and they waste no time by getting straight into it by kicking off the gig with a new track Spotlight a dark, mysterious track that is heavy and foreboding.
The packed crowd at KK’s are lapping it up already, Jericho is a showman and knows how to play a crowd, but he’s got the voice to back that up. The rest of the band take Jericho's lead and they are all having the best time up up there bringing the bounce back to rock, at one point cries of “Fozzy Friday” reverberate around the hall.
I’ve got to be honest here, up till a few years ago I’d only known Chris Jericho as a wrestler (having a young son mad on wrestling will do that), and finding out he had a rock band I thought it’s just another of these superstar wrestlers having a side project to play with, a gimmick. But boy was I wrong. Fozzy (10) is no gimmick or play thing for Jericho, they are a full on bona fide rock band and tonight they bring the party to Wolverhampton in bucketloads.
This tour is probably their biggest headline tour to date in the UK and Jericho says it’s like a second home to them, they’ve always received a warm welcome and have a great fan base here. They’re over here riding the crest of a wave following the accolades from their latest album Boombox which is probably their most accomplished album yet and they waste no time by getting straight into it by kicking off the gig with a new track Spotlight a dark, mysterious track that is heavy and foreboding.
The packed crowd at KK’s are lapping it up already, Jericho is a showman and knows how to play a crowd, but he’s got the voice to back that up. The rest of the band take Jericho's lead and they are all having the best time up up there bringing the bounce back to rock, at one point cries of “Fozzy Friday” reverberate around the hall.
The set comprises of tracks from most of their long back catalogue, songs from the last four albums are included and even right back to 2005’s All That Remain with the crowd favourite Enemy
The middle section of the set though is reserved for tracks from Boombox including their brilliant cover of 80’s pop classic Relax (yes the Frankie goes To Hollywood hit!), they end the set with that crowd favourite Enemy before returning to the stage for an encore that featured probably their most popular recent song Judas (Jericho's AEW Theme) and a cover of the Ramones classic Blitzkrieg Bop, what a way to end a superb night. They promised to bring the party and they didn’t disappoint.
The middle section of the set though is reserved for tracks from Boombox including their brilliant cover of 80’s pop classic Relax (yes the Frankie goes To Hollywood hit!), they end the set with that crowd favourite Enemy before returning to the stage for an encore that featured probably their most popular recent song Judas (Jericho's AEW Theme) and a cover of the Ramones classic Blitzkrieg Bop, what a way to end a superb night. They promised to bring the party and they didn’t disappoint.
In this writers humble opinion, Fozzy should be playing arenas, they should be up there alongside the likes of Shinedown, Alter Bridge, and Stone Sour, but for the moment I’m glad they’re not, because we can still get to see an arena band in these smaller independent venues and soak up the atmosphere. A definite early contender for gig of the year!