Europe / Voodoo Johnson
19 February 2011
Shepherds Bush Empire
Joey Tempest had specifically wanted an upcoming British rock band to open on this tour.Having bagged the slot, late last year Voodoo Johnson parted ways with frontman Kev Bayliss, but rather than cancel their participation, the band acted quickly in appointing former Vallenbrosa singer Nik Taylor-Stoakes.
Taylor-Stoakes’ deeper, richer tone has subtly changed the overall sound of Voodoo Johnson to something darker and even grungy.In fact, had I not had my contact lenses in, with his shoulder length curls and plaid shirt I could have been confused into thinking Eddie Vedder was fronting the band.The grunge connection is quite ironic given what that genre’s explosion did to melodic rock.
Headstone kicked things off in fine style and the four tracks aired from debut album 10,000 Horses increasingly caught the crowd’s attention, with an ever warming response. The band’s new single Black Skies Mist followed, with Taylor-Stoakes pointing out that it was co-written with Brian Tatler of Diamond Head. In fact it turned out to be the weakest song of the set, with Seven Years getting things back on track and closing Voodoo Johnson’s short set.
Voodoo Johnson setlist:
Headstone / Feel Karma / SIN! / Nowhere Inbetween / Black Skies Mist / Seven Years
Amusingly, Voodoo Six’s frontman’s confidence in Europe stretched to offering to let us punch him in the face if we didn’t enjoy the rest of the evening!I severely doubt anyone in the packed Shepherds Bush Empire would have even contemplated such actions based on the superb performance by the Swedes this evening.
Aside from some possible festival appearances, this Balls ‘n’ Banners UK Tour was set to round off Europe’s touring on the back of the excellent Last Look At Eden album and once again London had been selected to be filmed for a new DVD. Shockingly it’s over 6 years since the last DVD was filmed in Hammersmith and some tweaking of the setlist appeared to have consciously tried to vary the song selection from that previous DVD.
Europe don’t mess around tonight and the opening salvo of Last Look Of Eden and The Beast flash by before a steady drum beat indicated it was time to Rock The Night. Put this early in the set, Europe’s second biggest single in the UK had the crowd bouncing and a genuine party atmosphere ensued. Joey Tempest took time to observe that “This place is packed to the rafters” and cheekily noted, “We have to stop meeting like this, the music business will wonder what we’re up to.”
Tonight’s oldest song, Scream Of Anger, took us all the way back to 1984’s Wings Of Tomorrow album and in fact it was interesting to note that over half the set was material since the band’s reformation. It’s often a hard job to convince a fanbase to recognise your new material, however Europe’s has been of such strength that they have managed to avoid relying on nostalgia. Of course there’s bound to be moments of reminiscence such as the mass sing along to Carrie.
John Norum took on Gary Moore’s instrumental The Loner in tribute to the recently deceased guitarist, though in complete contrast Ian Haugland’s drum solo was plain wacky, playing along to the William Tell Overture.
More Than Meets the eye was a pleasant surprise, with Tempest noting Europe hadn’t played it in a long time, well aside from the previous two dates of the tour. He also recalled how Start From The Dark was one of the first songs written since the reformation and as the song was played I couldn’t help but cast my mind back to the band’s comeback headline performance at Sweden Rock in 2004, where it was presented as the sole new song at the start of the band’s encore.Interestingly, Europe repeated that trick tonight by presenting us with Doghouse, a brand new song built on a Brian May style riff.
There was one song left to wrap things up and no prizes for guessing what that was! Europe seem to be getting better and better each time I’ve seen them and tonight was no exception.
Europe setlist:
Last Look At Eden / The Beast / Rock The Night / Scream of Anger / No Stone Unturned / Carrie / The Getaway Plan / The Loner (Gary Moore tribute) / Seventh Sign / New Love In Town / Love Is Not The Enemy / More Than Meets The Eye / Drum solo (William Tell Overture) / Always The Pretenders / Start From The Dark / Superstitious / Doghouse / The Final Countdown
  
LINKS:
http://www.europetheband.com
http://www.myspace.com/voodoojohnson
|
