 |
 |
 |
› Warrior Soul - JB’s, Dudley – 13/4/08
Eight years ago I attended the best gig I’ve ever been to. New York Acid Punks Warrior Soul reformed with the classic Clarke/Ricco/Evans/McClanahan line up to celebrate their 10th anniversary, and they did it in style to a packed Astoria 2 in London. Since then Warrior Soul main man Kory Clarke has taken on the name for himself and has played several times in the UK, but until now I have always stayed away, almost in fear of having my memories of that night ruined by a new band. The question is were my fears warranted?
With no support act due to Kory Clarke’s’ other band The Stoned being deported, it was left to Warrior Soul themselves to warm up the crowd in a chilli JB’s. The new band strolled onto the stage with most of the crowd not realising who it actually was, but as soon as the double whammy of Intro/Interzone kicked in the place knew exactly who was up there. Kory Clarke strolled out onto the stage looking like a deranged Jim Morrison before the immortal ‘We are the Government, We are the Government, We are the Government……..And we Rock n Roll’ lines are bellowed out and the faithful respond with raised fists.
My fears had already been thrown out the door, as Kory himself is still up to his best, looking angrier than ever as he spits out the words to Love Destruction, and with songs like this you can’t go too far wrong. A reasonably poor sound mix is the only problem, as the guitars of Johnny H and Rille Lundell have slightly gone AWOL and their solo’s don’t quite cut through the mix like you’d expect, however that doesn’t distract from the awesome display unfolding in front of me.
After warming up, the band dip right back to the very start of their career and we get the complete first side of the Warrior Soul masterpiece Last Decade Dead Century, and the thing is, it sounds just as relevant today as it did back in 1990. With Warrior Soul now playing as a five piece the songs take on a new heaviness, with Downtown sounding particularly crushing following on from the heartfelt The Losers. After the mind altering Trippin’ on Ecstasy a cry for the spoken word Four more Years is laughed off by Kory, but I’m sure even if he had gone through with it, it would have gone down a storm, as it was just one of those nights.
Once side one was done with, Last Decade Dead Century was only dipped back into once later on in the evening and that was for my personal highlight of the night, the beautiful Lullaby, and luckily by that point the sound had cleared, and Rille Lundel’s guitaring was given chance to shine at last, as he did a fine job of replicating Johnny Ricco’s simple and effective work. Winding up the evening with a furious rendition of Wastelands, Kory thanked the crowd and wandered off looking exhausted and triumphant and I could see exactly why. While not being the classic Warrior Soul that I hold so dear to me, this line up more than does the name, and more importantly the songs justice, and I will certainly not think twice about repeating the 450 mile round trip to see them again next time!
9/10.
Nige
|
|
|