It is very rare that a gig comes along that you feel you cannot miss under any circumstances, however the Brides Of Destruction at Camden Electric Ballroom was one of those gigs.. The two main protagonists in the Brides, Messer's Sixx & Guns played such a huge part in my life with their parent bands (Motley Crue & LA Guns respectively) that I just had t be there. The only question being was would it live up to the huge expectations I had? The answer to this is a definite YES and then some. Openers Viking Skull were solid enough, if slightly unispiring. Given the chance to see them closer to where I live I would go, however they aren't a band as of yet that I would go out of my way to see, but the potential is there.

The Brides on the other hand were everything that you want in a rock band. From set opener 'Shut The Fuck Up' the whole venue was a sea of sweating, moving, singing bodies. Frontman London is a 'dude with attitude' sneering and snarling his way through the set, flipping off and looking impossibly thin. He definitely holds his own against most other vocalists in this genre both in terms of delivery and presentation. The main body of the set was devoted to songs from the Brides' debut album 'Here Comes The Brides' . Songs such as 'Revolution', '2xDead', 'Natural Born Killer' and 'Here Comes The Summer' were served up and welcomed like all time favourites . Sixx & Guns stalked the stage left and right, leaning out over the edge to tease the punters and throwing all of the necessary rock star shapes whilst London admirably held the stage centre. However if the main portion of the set was good the encores were way up on another level altogether. I guess most people were expecting some LA Guns and Crue tunes thrown in and nobody was disappointed. The first encore was two true LA Guns classics in the shape of 'One More Reason' and 'Never Enough' and after a short break the band returned to plunder the Crue legacy and offer up 'Live Wire', 'Bastard', 'Shout At The Devil' and 'Looks That Kill'  By this time the whole venue was on fire, with every hand in the air and every voice screaming along in unison. As the final chord rang out I was literally beaten into submission. But this wasn't the end... to the surprise of most people the band reappeared to deliver the final knock out blow. 'Piece of Your Action' and 'Rip N' Tear' finally brought night to a close and brought the house down with it.

Hopefully the audience reaction to the Brides tonight will persuade Sixx to bring the Crue back over to the UK if, and when, they get it back together in the meantime I only have one word only for this show 'AWESOME'

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