It’s 18 months since MV last saw Muddibrooke — which is weird, considering I must’ve seen them at least six times in the six months prior.
They’ve moved on — literally, given how much new material they play — but also figuratively, in that they just sound better. Which, considering how good they were in the first place, is quite a feat.
“Straight Jacket” and “ADHD” take you straight to the heart of the catharsis that lies at the core of the band’s music.
The older stuff, like “Devil”, just sounds better than before — perhaps thanks to constant touring — and the new work (from a new album being produced by Luke Morley) includes “Get Away”, which sees drummer Morgan singing for the first time.
“Cocaine” sees fists in the air, but their cover of “You Don’t Own Me” is delivered like the anthem it is.
Such is their belief in the new material that they end with one, and “Inside” is surely going to finish their set for years to come.
Still innovative. Still superb. And getting better. That is Muddibrooke.
“We’re the redneck filling in the metal sandwich,” says Steve Harris (a man with a metal name if ever there was), but any time you see Hillbilly Vegas is a time to savour.
“Let It Ride” might be the most southern rock thing MV has seen this week — and given that we’ve seen Skynyrd, that’s a big call.
They are a brilliant proposition. “Steady at the Wheel” takes on a Shooter Jennings track and wins, while “High Time for a Good Time” could well be their mission statement.
Their 40 minutes is just fun. “Let’s Do Something Crazy” boogies, new single “Feels Good” belongs to summer. Elsewhere, “Shake It Like Hillbilly” casts them as a biker gang, while “Hell to Pay” almost dares you to take them on.
Frequent visitors to these shores, Oklahoma’s finest are right here — and when it comes to Hillbilly Vegas, what happens in Wolverhampton stays in Wolverhampton.
Wolfsbane are one of those bands, I guess. A band that matters to people — and to those packing out KK’s tonight, they’re here to indulge their own nostalgia.
That means that after “Limo”, they’re straight into their new old album, as it were.
You see, the boys have done a Taylor Swift and re-recorded their first album, now called “Live Faster”.
What that means is that one of the greatest debut records ever made is played in full.
These songs are sensational, still. “Manhunt”, “Shakin’” and the others are wonderful, and everywhere you look there’s a cracker — “Money to Burn”, “I Like It Hot”, and the last one, “Pretty Baby”. They’ve all stood up far better than the songs played at that dire Guns N’ Roses gig recently.
As Blaze Bayley points out, “Most bands would go now,” but not these lads. They stay on for eight more. And they’re all just as good. “Steel” is a high point, but the way they play their brilliant origin story “Smoke and Red Light” is impossible to hear without smiling.
It’d be easy to fall back on a cliché like “You forget how many good songs they have,” but with Wolfsbane, it’s just not true.
When you’ve got “Loco”, “Ezy” and “Paint the Town Red”, I’m probably speaking for most here when I say: these songs have soundtracked our lives.
They don’t encore. It just wouldn’t suit them. What they do instead is stay on for “Temple of Rock” — and they’ve wanted it hardcore for as long as I can remember.
There’s something magical about Wolfsbane. The same four guys for almost 40 years. The same sound. Just utterly glorious hard rock and metal, delivered with a smile and the vibe that there’s nowhere else they’d rather be.
There’s no band quite like them.
