Live Review : Steelhouse Festival on July 31st 2022

It’s Steelhouse Sunday and the weather has cheered up which in turn cheers the crowd up too. We start with Merseysiders Ashen Reach and I know who they are this time (in joke!). They are not bad at all, I like them quite a lot. They do melodic alt rock  and remind me a bit of Papa Roach. There's lots of bouncing energy, lots of deep riffs and although they get a bit shouty in places they chuck in some harmony vocals to offset it. They get a thumbs up from me, their kind of energetic doom grows on me. 

I know exactly who These Wicked Rivers are too, as they are another band that I always enjoy. The stage set still involves lamp shades and a lot of tassels and reminds me of a Wild West bordello but their sleazy blues rock has a great energy and great beat. There are good harmonies and their set gets a great reaction from the crowd. Everyone's grooving but then unfortunately the rain arrived again and saw some of the crowd disperse quite quickly and damply. Quick mention for their cover version of Neil Young's ‘Hey Hey My My’ which is gritty and done really well.  

King Herd are next and they play melodic doom. They're okay but missing the little spark that would light a fire. They remind me of Linkin Park but with less people on stage! I didn't mind them but didn’t spot anything standout either. 

For Green Lung, unfortunately I didn't get pictures as I managed to miss the first three songs. That was a bit of a shame as they were classic power metal and I liked the vocals. There's a definite Maiden influence but without being too derivative. They go on my “one to watch” list. 

Next it’s back to the nostalgia trip with Diamond Head. Now I'm back to 1981 and following them all over the northwest! It's not the same band now of course but it's still the same songs but performed better than ever. There is new material too which is just what you expect but it's the oldies that grab me and it appears most of the rest of the crowd.  ‘Lightning to the Nations’, ‘The Prince’ and of course ‘Am I Evil’ are all here. ‘Sweet & Innocent’, ‘In The Heat of the Night’ also pop by to ruffle my memories and make me wonder how I can remember the words after all these years when some days I forget what I’ve gone into the kitchen for? It’s not just me either, the crowd are singing with gusto too. Diamond Head were such a huge influence on the whole rock genre. The singer that they have now has a power and range that Sean never really managed so no, it's not the same band but it's certainly a worthy successor. There isn't a single person on this field today who isn’t evil. Yes I Am! 

Next up is another highlight of my weekend with the Michael Schenker Group set to tear the stage. Michael has long been a musical hero of mine and I'm so glad to see that he finally seems to have overcome his demons and got himself together. It's wonderful to see him looking healthy and playing better than ever. He smiles and poses for the crowd. What a performer! I'm absolutely ecstatic. Robin McCauley is a grand vocalist and Michael is such a great player. Modern rock owes him so much! His set this weekend is in celebration of it being 50 years since he came over to the UK to join UFO so of course their songs feature heavily in the set, as do many of MSG’s own songs from his long and varied career. The only thing missing is The Scorpions songs that he used to do, but for me at least the amount of classic UFO on offer more than makes up for them. There is a new album called “Universal” which is due to be released anytime soon, and the songs that they play off that sound pretty good too. It’s all just a big party and it’s wonderful. 

Finally it’s time for headliners Europe. Of course they're known for That Song but there's so much more to this band, they are so much deeper than that. They can do frothy pop-rock through to riffy blues and deliver the goods right across genres They are hard and soft at the same time and they give us a whole range of emotions. They rock out with the best of them but also sing a ballad to break your heart. Joey Tempest is a super vocalist and he's also a good frontman, sometimes you can get one of those without the other but in Joey’s case he combines them both to just the right degree. He's in his element and the crowd are in the palm of his hand after the first few minutes. There have been sound issues on and off throughout the weekend and even Europe don’t escape them but someone switches the pa off and back on again and it all comes good. Surprisingly there is little banter between songs because this band is all about the music. They just go boom boom ,one song after another and the music does the talking. John Norum is a vastly underrated guitarist and I urge anyone who dismisses them as just another poodle-haired pop rock band to give them a proper listen. I'm not their biggest fan and I honestly thought they would struggle to follow Michael Schenker but no, they actually owned it. There was no Bernie this year so Europe sneaked in a crowd version of ‘Here I Go Again’ just so we had something to sing along to. Finally we get to That Song and the sound of 5,000 kazoos doing the parpy bit at the beginning is truly something to behold! We all sing and dance because this is what live music is all about. It's community, it's a tribe. it's somewhere to belong and it’s a joyous thing to be part of. The night ends with fireworks to light us home and the whole weekend couldn't have been better.