26 February 2010 (gig)
13 March 2010
Its Friday night at the 100 club and a near full house is here to witness one of the greatest bands this country has ever produced, and a band that spawned thousands of garage rock bands stateside. The Yardbirds!
But first up it's Some Velvet Morning with some fine indie rock stylings. For a three piece they make a huge sound, with the interplay between guitar and bass particularly fine. Songs such as 'How to start a revolution' with its fuzz bass line and soaring chorus point to a band who really know what they are doing and indeed could be sitting on a minor hit. The song is going to be used on the trailer for the the new Nic Cage film "kick ass", so that should get things moving in the right direction. Keep a beady eye out for these boys as they could be going all the way!
Next up its the main attraction, England's finest, The Yardbirds. Five boys who changed the course of musical history.
They open the set with the proto metal that is "Train kept a rolling" (the first heavy metal riff?). With original members Jim Mcarty and Chris Dreja driving the thing along the sound is big. Areosmith used to open their live set with this which says it all really.
Next up we get a couple of tracks from the last studio album from about 3 years ago, 'Birdland', whilst not as good as their 60s classics, its a damm fine offering with the likes of Brian May, Jeff Beck, and Slash guesting on lead guitars.
Following these tracks it's now classics all the way, so we get cranked up versions 'Heart full of Soul', 'I'm not talking', 'Still i'm sad', 'The Nazz are Blue', and 'Over Under Sideways Down'. Being lead guitar in The Yardbirds is always going to be tricky after all you have to live up to the holy trinity that is Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page! 'Over Under Sideways Down' is a case in point with its almost Indian sounding riff, The new man carries it off with aplomb. A Young Duane Allman on hearing this riff for the first time shouted "Jesus christ Jeff Beck must have metal thimbles for fingers!"
The highlight of the show is the encore, 'Dazed and Confused', although famous as a Zeppelin track Jimmy page had been doing it with The Yardbirds for some months (it appears on the 'Live at the Anderson Theatre' album which was subsequently withdrawn)
Although only two original members remain they still sound relevant and very fine indeed, Overall a great gig at a great venue.
