I guess rock stars are somewhat like buses, having been a fan of Jeff Scott Soto for many years I finally got to see him live fronting Soul Sirkus at the recent Firefest show in Bradford and now here he is, complete with his solo band, playing my very own local rock venue.

Why did it take me so long to catch Mr. Soto live I hear you all ask, well unlike our esteemed webmaster/David Bailey wannabe, I have a family and have been unable to travel for this and previous tours and thus had to wait for the mountain to come to Mohammed. This was especially galling given the fact that I missed his inaugural solo show at the Gods in 2002 but, after years of badgering both Trillians and Mr. Soto's Promoter to include Newcastle on his touring itinerary, somebody  with a bigger voice than mine must have been heard and here he is. 

Anyway Trillians is famous for two things when it comes to live bands, one being the incredibly small stage and the second that is that the in-house sound system is shite. Now the stage may be small, but somehow they  managed to squeeze two back lines and two drum kits onto it thus enabling local band The Divide Issue to open up proceedings. Consisting of guitarist/vocalist Darren Myers, bassist Mark Douglas and drummer Gordon Keegan, The Divide Issue peddle a brand of modern, heavy rock and having never seen them before I was pleasantly surprised at just how good they were.  For a three piece outfit they sure as hell made a lot of noise, that was both were heavy and tuneful with a good mix of tracks.

Singer /guitarist Myers was particularly impressive playing his none more metal Gibson Explorer and handling vocals with equal ease, sounding at times akin to Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder  without resorting to the clichéd shouting or death metal grunts prevalent in many of the more modern rock bands doing the rounds. All in all  pretty impressive and a band I would go out of my to see them again especially when their new EP is complete. The Divide Issue certainly fulfilled their purpose and got the crowd nicely warmed up for the entrance of the main attraction and as an aside I now know what happened to Animal from the Muppets, he taught the Divide Issue drummer how to play. All over the place but in perfect time! 

Opening up with 'Living The Life'  featuring the strange site of  Jeff Scott Soto playing bass, as normal four stringer Chris McCarvill handled  rhythm guitar duties the JSS band hit the stage running and quickly followed up with a heavy yet melodic version of 'Eyes Of  Love'  from his second solo album. A short break then ensued as bass duties were handed over and Soto discussed the vagaries of Newcastle nightlife - unique! - and then it was into 'New Position' from the debut Soul Sirkus album which allowed guitarist Howie Simon to cut loose showcasing the licks, more attributed to Neal Schon, big style and then followed this with two tracks culled from Soto's most recent solo outing 'Lost In The Translation'. First up was 'On My Own' and then 'Drowning' sounding even more Van Halenesque than it did on the album cut. Rounding out this song with a drum solo courtesy this morphed into the first major highlight of the set, the outstanding 'Stand Up And Shout' Written by Sammy Hagar and culled from the Rock Star soundtrack this is a song designed to get any crowd on its feet and elicited the first real roar of the night from those in attendance.

Next up was Talisman's Red Hot Chilli Pepper's sounding  'Colour My XTC' and then Soul Divine , once again from the 'Lost In The Translation' opus. Dripping sweat by this time Soto handed over lead vocal duties to Howie Simon for a run through the Doobie Brothers classic 'Long Train Running' and this man has a seriously  GOOD voice, ably backed by Soto  from the side of the stage providing back ground vocals. Delving deeper into the JSS repertoire the main man returned to centre stage for a run through of the Humanimal track 'Again 2 B Found' before launching into his famous version of Seal's Crazy. The set up to this point has been simply stunning, with level of musicianship and stagecraft on display being beyond belief for so small a venue, but if it was good up to this point then things would only get better with the inclusion of the acoustic medley as featured on Jeff's 'Live At The Gods DVD'.

With Soto sat down at the keyboard, Simon handling acoustic guitar duties the medley kicked off  with 'If This In The End' which morphed into  'Soul Goes On' but this opening was overshadowed by the inclusion of Cheyenne, a track from Soto's stint with 'Eyes' a track this reviewer can't compliment enough. Rounding out the acoustic spot with Purple Rain (yep the Prince number), Queen's Love of My Life ( and yes there was the whole audience participation piece) and finally the opening verse of 'I'll Be Waiting' the band then returned to electric mode to complete the Talisman signature tune.

Now you may be thinking that things couldn't get any better, WRONG...., after the sing along of 'I’ll Be Waiting'  Simon launched into the guitar intro to Malmsteen's  'I’ll See The Light Tonight' - how does do it the bastard, sounds like Neal Schon one minute and Yngwie J Malmsteen the next. 'I Wanna Take You Higher' was as funky as a funky thing that just past its exams in being funky, with Howie and Chris handling the Glen Hughes vocal parts with ease and at this point the band start jamming on several different tracks with Jeff and the boys  having fun playing in a kind of the stump the audience vein snippets on show included 'Enter Sandman and 'Rock You Like A Hurricane' amongst others, then something strange happened. Howie started playing the riff to Journey's 'Stone In Love' and the rest of the band joined in before morphing into 'Wheel In The Sky' and 'Anyway You Want It.'  

With time running short before the curfew the band decide to ditch the normal set closer which is the 'Boogie Knights' medley in favour of a track that the band had only played live once before. JSS pressed some buttons on his foot controller and a very familiar keyboard riff came blasting out of the PA, the opening track to Journey’s Frontiers album, 'Separate Ways'  My jaw hit the floor I ‘v seen this track performed many times by many different bands, but this version was the heaviest and rockiest ever, with JSS showing that he could sing for Journey as easily as Steve Augeri does now! I know our webmaster would have rather heard the Boogie Knights medley (editors note - bloody too right I would) but as I love Journey this choice of closing song left me more than happy - ecstatic in fact. 

In short this gig proved to be as good as it gets and one of the best I have ever had the pleasure of attending and given that over the years I must have attended  the thick end of 700 gigs/concerts this was some feat. 

Lets hope it's not to soon before JSS returns to Geordie land and if you get the chance go and see his band, they are stunning!

Return To Gig Reviews Main Menu