A co-headlining tour is a strange beast. Financially it can often make sense – you get two fanbases, two lots of bums on seats (or boots in pits if you prefer) but sometimes the combinations can leave you scratching your head a bit. Not so this one however. On the one hand you have a basic AC/DC-inspired rock band that regularly flirts with a more glam look and sound; on the other you have the legendary Michael Monroe, king of the glitter punks, musical survivor, and an inspiration to most of today’s bands who try to don the mantle glam rock. With all that in mind, the Ritz is surprisingly quiet tonight. Turns out that in Manchester Wednesday is the new Saturday and there are rock gigs galore happening in the city. This is a shame, because tonight we are set to witness a veritable explosion of colour, sound and fun.

The night starts with Rubikon, who are not (as we were secretly hoping) the reliable old NWOBHM band with a slightly different spelling. No, this Rubikon is a bunch of overgrown frat boys from Boston, MA and much to everyone’s surprise their sound is alarmingly brit-pop influenced. They are very dynamic with a fine line in jerky dance moves, and they strut through a set that melds blues, rock and funk pretty seamlessly. They have an aura of Reef about them, both in sound and to a degree looks, and occasionally they touch on the garage rock purveyed by the likes of Crazyhead back in the day. There’s a new album due out imminently, so we get treated to the never played before track ‘Stack & Jack’ which is about, you guessed it…. That’s quite enough of that thank you!

I don’t know if the headliners are swapping on this tour but tonight Buckcherry are last up so Michael Monroe and his band are on next. Now the other thing about a co-headlining tour of course is that both bands get an equal amount of set time so even though there is a new album out recently tonight’s set from Michael and his band is mostly a greatest hits extravaganza. There are no less than six Hanoi Rocks songs, the ever-present ‘Hammersmith Palais’ which he recorded with Demolition 23, and seven Michael Monroe band tracks before we reach the epic climax of ‘Up Around The Bend’ with its do-do-doo-dah singalong bit. Before that though we are treated to the usual Monroe shenanigans. The harmonica and sax both make regular appearances, as Michael prances and dances to his own beat.

Poor roadie Toshi is on stage nearly as much as the band members tonight, trying to keep track of Mike’s mile lead as he heads down into the pit, prowls all corners of the stage as is in occasional danger of strangulation as he twirls the lead around his arms, neck and body! Sami Jaffa on bass rolls his eyes and remains effortlessly cool throughout all this, barely even breaking a sweat when he does the occasional coordinated kick. In the meantime, Steve Conte and Rich Jones trade licks and smiles like the pros that they are. There were highlights of course, but to be fair when you are watching Michael the whole show is a highlight. His energy and enthusiasm for what he does know no bounds, and even though he doesn’t climb up anything or treat us to his famous splits on this occasion he never stops moving from the opening notes of ‘Dead, Jail or Rock n Roll’ to the last do-do-do-dah of ‘Up Around The Bend’.

In between he sparkles and effervesces – his is not a frontman who talks much between songs, preferring to let the music do the talking. It’s nice to see that Rich Jones has now made the spoken word part of ‘Don’t You Ever Leave Me’ his own; it will never be the same as the Razzle version on the album but it keeps the song real somehow and allows the memories to live on. The new songs, particularly most recent single ‘Shinola’, sit nicely alongside the old favourites and the whole set is a riot of movement and smiles from start to finish.

Buckcherry is one of those bizarre phenomenon bands where you mention the name and people go “huh?” and then you hum one of their songs (especially That Song) and they immediately go “aaah, yeah, them!” Rising from the ashes of the California glam scene as it died in the fire of the grunge phenomenon, Josh Todd has led an assorted rabble of bandmates through all kinds of shenanigans in order to end up here on the Ritz stage. He’s been the only staple in what was a shifting lineup, but it all seems to have settled down now and the release of “Roar Like Thunder”, their 11th album, shows a band that have matured into their own sound.

Unlike Michael’s set this release is the most heavily featured, with 4 of the 12-song set being lifted from it for our listening pleasure. They start at the beginning though, first song up is ‘Lit Up’ from their very first album and the rest of the set runs up and down their timeline with no apparent logic but plenty of opportunity for them to pump out some banging tunes. The bass player has a great line in gurning as well as helping to keeping everything more or less controlled timewise. That’s kind of the thing about Buckcherry actually, they are like an undetonated bomb. They buzz and fizz like a lit fuse, taking the crowd to the edge of explosion but somehow managing to hold it in, keep it going right up to the end.

They too have highlights – The raucous bounce-along of ‘Say Fuck It’ (an adaptation of a song by Icona Pop, and eclectic Swedish electronica duo) has the crowd bouncing in unison, and the immensity of power ballad ‘Sorry’ sees us breaking out the hankies as we feel the pathos of the lyrics. But of course everyone is really here for the end, for That Song. The whole room erupts as they go into ‘Crazy Bitch’ and they play on the adulation by extending it to nearly 15 minutes, wringing every drop of emotion out of both the crowd and the song itself. The bridge features snippets of motown classics, a bit of James Brown and Donna Summer to keep the adrenaline flowing.

The band are introduced one by one, each taking the spotlight while the others do a sort of co-ordinated dance behind them which was really cute. Personable Josh really knows how to play his crowd and as they throw in a bit of ‘Proud Mary’ before bringing everything to a crashing crescendo it’s easy to see why the band has survived 27 years in the business. Buckcherry are still here, and you’d have to be a Crazy Bitch yourself to think they are going anywhere else.