Massive Wagons, The Forum, Tunbridge Wells
9th September 2021
Live review by; Myk
The opening night of the tour and a bit of a warm up for the following dates. Surprisingly it’s not a sold out event but it’s close and the venue is packed.
The Wagons hit the stage with Baz Mills arriving like the force of nature that he is as they kick off with ‘In It Together’ the opening track from the chart bothering House Of Noise album, this is quickly followed by ‘China Plates’ from the brilliant 2018 Full Nelson album. Every song is an anthemic banger, none more so than the next tune ‘Pressure’ with the crowd singing their hearts out as Baz twirled the mic stand around like a whirling dervish, Adam Thistlethwaite and Stevie Holl on guitars doing their best to avoid taking a knock on the head.
There is no time to catch my breath as they launch into ’Bangin’ In Your Stereo’ before they finally slow down a little bit as Baz reads an extract from Moby Dick as a pre-cursor to a personal favourite of mine ‘The Day We Fell’ from 2016’s Welcome To The World album, then continuing at pace we get another track from the latest album ‘Hero’. Adam ‘Bowz’ Bouskill on bass and Alex Thistlethwaite on drums wisely remain at the back keeping out of harm’s way as Baz covers every inch of the small stage twirling mic stand in hand.
The packed Forum is hot and sweaty, the energised crowd bouncing along to every tune enthused by the infectious energy on stage. ‘Sad Sad Song’, crowd pleaser ‘Ratio’ are reeled off before ‘Hellascrewya’ slows things down slightly before we are treated to the aural assault that is the glorious ‘Nails’. Back to 2016 for ‘Fee Fi Fo Fum’ before they finish with the title track of the new album ‘House Of Noise’, but of course they return for an encore starting with the ridiculous but brilliant sing along ‘Curry Song’ and finally close out the stellar performance with the ode to Quo’s Rick Parfitt ‘Back To The Stack’.
There is a plethora of great live bands currently and Massive Wagons are certainly one of the best.
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