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With touring costs spiraling out of control, co-headlining tours are becoming more and more widespread as bands struggle to keep costs down. It’s almost a daily occurrence now that the dreaded “tour cancelled” notice gets posted on social media, so it’s an achievement in itself when a tour goes ahead, and even more of an achievement when said tour draws a crowd. With Massive Wagons on an unstoppable ascendancy, and firing on all cylinders with the National Album chart-bothering new album ‘TRIGGERED!’, and Ugly Kid Joe following up on an acclaimed UK arena tour with Thunder with the recently released killer new album ‘Rad Wings Of Destiny’, a Massive Wagons/Ugly Kid Joe co-headliner was always going to be a hot ticket and this six-date jaunt around England and Scotland was just what the Doctor ordered to nullify the daily shitstorm that life in 2022 brings.
Regular gig-goers at The Garage know that a triple bill means early doors to accommodate the early curfew in place to clear the rabble out before the kids come in to quaff copious amounts of jello shots when the venue turns into a club. So it is quite heartening that there is a healthy amount of punters in front of the barriers when opening act Chris Catalyst takes to the stage with just his guitar for company (wearing a flat cap, naturally, because he is from Yorkshire after all) and proceeds to prove once and for all that a solo artist with a guitar doesn’t need to be dull and make you want to re-enact that scene from National Lampoon’s Animal House where John Belushi grabs the guitar out of the hands of a hipster playing at a party, and proceeds to smash it against a wall.
Nope, no need to go full-on Belushi with Chris Catalyst (aka one of the Nameless Ghouls in Ghost) for although this is indeed a guy with a guitar, he is not in ‘Kum Ba Yah’-mode. With thirty minutes or so to keep the crowd entertained, Catalyst darts through the last few years with material from 2021’s stunning solo album ‘Kaleidoscopes’ (‘King of Everything’, and ‘The Ride’) and goes further back with ‘Brainwaves’ from his other band Eureka Machines. Throw in a rousing cover of The Proclaimers classic ‘Sunshine In Leith’, and a roof-raising singalong of AHA’s ‘Take On Me’ (Catalyst opting to change things up with the setlist and replace his version of Bowie’s ‘Ashes To Ashes’ with a pop classic that seemingly everyone in attendance knows the words to), and you have the perfect warm-up. Catalyst takes his bows, thanks the crowd, and goes off to prepare himself for his second set of the night; playing bass with Ugly Kid Joe. Job done.
If the career-to-date of Lancaster noise merchants Massive Wagons can be split into material released before signing with Earache Records and material released since signing with the label, then the new album ‘TRIGGERED!’ is arguably the best of the three albums bearing the highly-respected Earache name. Spat out with middle fingers raised in defiance, 2018’s ‘Full Nelson’, the 2020 follow-up ‘House of Noise’, and now ‘TRIGGERED!’ have all seen The Wagons gatecrash the National Album charts and make a commotion not seen since The Young Ones representing Scumbag College gatecrashed University Challenge on BBC2. So it’s understandable that the 15-strong setlist will lean heavily toward material lifted from these three albums with ‘TRIGGERED!’ naturally having the lion’s share.
Once the funky intro tape fades out and the four outfield Wagons are in position, the shy and retiring Baz Mills ambles onstage in a low-key way to give any self-respecting shoegazers a run for their money in the standing-still department; and if you believe that, then where have you been these last ten years or so? Mills is Mills. Out to cover every inch of the stage in the first few seconds of opening track ‘Pressure’, and make eye contact with everyone in the front few rows; all the while headbanging and leaping like a loon…it must take hours for him to come down after a show. Guitarists Adam Thistlethwaite and Stevie Holl are at either end of the stage, Thistlethwaite with trusty Flying V in tow, and the ever-smiling Holl still looking like a 13-year-old taken to Hooters for the first time. Behind them on raised platforms are the backbone of the band: Alex Thistlethwaite on drums, and Bowz on bass, and while it’s hard to take your eyes off Baz Mills, this is more than just the Baz Mills Show and when Thistlethwaite and Holl lock-in a wall of riffage, then close your eyes and it’s not a club in Glasgow on a Tuesday night; it’s Friday night at a capacity Hammersmith Odeon back when it was still called that.
The set flies past in the blink of an eye; stops are made at older Earache albums for the likes of ‘Bangin In Your Stereo’, the poignant Rick Parfitt tribute ‘Back To The Stack’, the wry observation of social media ‘China Plates’ (oh, and before I forget…BLACKOUT!) and set-closer ‘In It Together’. “Old-school Wagons fans” are rewarded with ‘Fee Fi Fo Fum’, a hard-as-nails version of ‘Nails’ (sorry, had to be done), and the roof-raiser that is ‘Ratio’. Of the brand new material aired, then ‘Fuck the Haters’, ‘A.S.S.H.O.L.E.’, and ‘Germ’ go down the best with the crowd, but what is quite extraordinary is that the moment that lingers on the most is Wagons at their most restrained on perhaps the standout track on ‘TRIGGERED!’ – ‘Please Stay Calm’. “Restrained” – not a word that you might normally associate with Massive Wagons, but in this case very apt, and top marks to Holl for an utterly gorgeous guitar solo. The Wagons go from strength to strength with each album, and are pretty much unstoppable, which begs the question: “How do you follow that?”
Not many bands could follow “that”, but not many bands are as laid-back as these Californians (with two Englishmen along for the ride) and within the opening seconds of gnarly new track ‘That Ain’t Livin” (primo ‘Powerage’/’Let There Be Rock’ AC/DC), fists are pumping in the air, necks are getting a workout, drinks are flying skyward, and it is ON. What follows over the next 70-minutes or so is a true lesson in how to take your audience along on a ride spanning decades, and make it all look effortless.
Ugly Kid Joe’s OG’s; vocalist Whitfield Crane, and guitarist Klaus Eichstadt, are joined by Mike Squires who replaced long-stay guitarist Dave Fortman, new drummer Cam Greenwood (also thumping the tubs for Terrorvision), and some geezer called Chris Catalyst who has swapped six-strings and the flat cap and Adidas tracksuit top for four-strings and loud shirt, shorts, and plastic sunglasses. So in tune with each other, you would be forgiven for thinking that these five guys have been playing together for decades rather than the mere months that they have. Greenwood slots in perfectly, Squires has formed a fantastic understanding with Eichstadt, and Chris…is Chris. A perfect onstage partner for Crane, he is happy to mug it up with Crane for the assembled photographers in the pit, and when Crane is introducing the band he asks Chris if he could play something local, and he duly obliges with a few verses of ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)’ by The Proclaimers and proceeds to split the crowd into two for a good old-fashioned sing-off on the ‘Da da da (da da da)’ parts. Great fun, and a timely reminder of how important it is to keep it loose onstage and give the audience a reason to smile.
There is a heart-warming moment when Crane addresses the crowd before a goosebump-inducing version of ‘Cat’s In The Cradle’, and points out how unbelievable it is that since reforming in 2010, Ugly Kid Joe has been a band for longer than they had been since inception in 1989 and subsequent break-up in 1997. His beaming smile says it all but given the strength of their last few studio albums, and how good they are onstage, then it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they are still an ongoing entity. And nestling in alongside UKJ nuggets such as ‘Neighbor’, ‘Panhandlin’ Prince’, ‘Goddam Devil’ (which sees the stage cloaked in red light), ‘So Damn Cool’, and ‘Milkman’s Son’, is the highlight of new album ‘Rad Wings of Destiny’ – ‘Failure’. One of the strongest tracks that UKJ have produced in a long time, this Cult-like beauty is a total banger that deserves to be played on the hour, every hour on drivetime radio. The closing twenty minutes or so of the set is like one massive singalong; first of all the band breaks out a rousing version of ‘Lola’ from The Kinks (which you can find on the new album), then Baz from Massive Wagons joins Crane and company for a blast through ‘DC’s ‘Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap’ that is one of the highlights of the year, and then rounding the evening off with what else but a floor-shaking version of the monster-hit ‘Everything About You’.
This was without a shadow of a doubt the feel-good tour of the year. Two bands, decades apart, born to tour together – let’s do it all again next year, shall we?
Review – Dave S
All images – Dave Jamieson
