Written By: JULIET HURWITT
Photos By: NEIL JACKSON
I arrived at Leo’s wondering if this was worth the 90 minutes’ drive around the M25. I left Leo’s four hours later thinking, yes, it was worth every minute!
This was the much anticipated, sold-out show, on the current Bad Touch tour promoting their latest album release Bittersweet Satisfaction.
Not wasting any time, the evening’s opening act Hunted By Elephants took to the stage and launched straight into their set with songs from their brand new EP Sestertius – Hazy Eyes, Change, and then Down to the Wire. A classic, hard rock sound, this five-piece knew how to get our attention. Stopping to chat to us, Apostolos (singer) introduced the newest member Danny on keyboards. Meanwhile, proceedings paused whilst Roman tuned his guitar, and an innocent comment about the G-string which, as you can imagine, prompted laughter and whoops from the audience. Slowing down the tempo for Ghost Song, I really liked the use of backing vocals “nowhere to hide, nowhere to go” as felt they complimented the main vocals by just the right amount. The next five songs were a mixture of high energy, fast and slow tempos, with distinct vocals, demonstrating the talent within the band. Unexpectedly, to me at least, we were treated to a flute interlude at the beginning and during one of the songs! What a great way to start the evening.
The room was already packed, and as The Rock Cooperative host, and ERB presenter, Wardy commented, it was great to see so many people watching the support bands. Is that a rock thing, always seeing the support acts? I hope so, and long may it continue as they need us.
Next on was Electric Black, a band full of characters who have grown in confidence even since the last time I saw them, less than six months ago. Whether or not it’s due to riding high on the release of their second album Late Night Lightning, it’s good to see them doing so well. Opening their set with intro music Eddy Grant and Electric Avenue, they kicked off with the tracks from said new album – Put it Down on Me and World Ain’t so Heavy, then straight into Come on Over.
Next it was time for band introductions, who each seemed to have a nickname. The Vampire on drums, The White Knight on lead guitar and The Dark Knight on bass, which prompted the tease from the bass player “are you allowed to say that!”
Homecoming from their first album started slow and bluesy, increasing in intensity as it laments life on road travelling from gig to gig via service stations. Apologising (not) for the second request for audience participation, we were required to follow the beat by clapping, and keeping it going throughout the song. I think we succeeded. It was great to see these musicians lose themselves in their playing, while still maintaining audience connection. Asking for the lights to go up for the obligatory photo, Ali quipped that we were ‘even prettier than he thought’ and proclaimed this was the best night of the tour so far. Aw, I bet they say that to all the audiences!
Intro’ music consisting of a mash-up between AC/DC’s Back in Black with Bee Gees’ Stayin’ Alive (I’m sure there’s a reason for these two songs?), Bad Touch took to the Leo’s stage with the order to “Let’s see you move” and commenced with the title track from their new album Bittersweet Satisfaction. Our next instructions were to Strut and then clap our hands during Dressed to Kill, being advised, “It’s not hard just do it”. So, we clapped along not just because Stevie told us to, but because we wanted to. We danced as well but didn’t need any prompting for that. The energy was high as the band treated us to a mixture of tracks from all their brilliant albums “Available from all good merch’ stands.” There was a wonderful rendition of Alanis Morissette’s Hand in Pocket about being who you want to be, that got everyone giving high fives.
There was also lots of banter with The Captain who is the newest member of the band and replaced George, who sadly decided to leave. Many of us know The Captain aka Brad Newlands as the drummer from now defunct Piston, who toured with Bad Touch a few years ago. It’s always sad when a band member leaves, but to be honest, there couldn’t be a better replacement.
Reaching the end of the set, it was announced there was only one more song to play [wink wink], but they could come back on for a surprise encore. The ‘one more/last’ song was This Life, rightly from the new album, and then it was goodnight from them. Rapturous applause and cheering ensued, but they’d hardly left the stage when they returned. Actually, they hadn’t left the stage at all as “they had nowhere else to go!” Now armed with an acoustic guitar that’s “probably as out of tune as my voice” the last song, also from the new album, Nothing Wrong With That was a slow singalong to round off the evening. But of course, there’s always one anthem track that bands leave to the very end. For Bad Touch this is the humorous 99% highlighting that one can’t be too careful with commitment. And that was a musical wrap for this evening, but all the bands stayed around for chatting, photographing, and merch’ signing.
So, I took my newly signed CD to the car, popped it in the player, and made by way back round the relatively deserted M25, singing along to the tracks of Bittersweet Satisfaction. Yes, that was definitely worth the journey!