This gig took me back. It took me back a long time. To a time and place I miss. I really thought such nostalgic entities would be resigned to the fondest, if a little misted, corners of my memory. Oh how wrong I was.

It all came flooding back. The venue was different, but you could still be forgiven for thinking the Intake Club was The Rig underneath Rock City. The attire for most was long gone, but hey we all grow up sometime. Don't we?

Well for this night we didn't. If the resurgence of glam and the sleaze rock scene was your particular bag and you weren't at this gig, then you missed out. Big time!

Three bands up close and personal, all with their own place within this genre. First up were Spit Like This. "Like what?" I thought. Well I soon found out. Attitude was the ruling line. Oozing confidence and, as with most of the glam/sleaze offerings of old, the mandatory flip of the finger to anything authoritarian.

The band arrived with a massive dose of alter ego mixed with more than sprinkling of the Rocky Horror Show. Their website clarifies this without a shadow of any doubt. In fact anything with a shadow probably wouldn't have been given the time of day. I mean were they really christened Lord Zion, Vikki Spit, Cyndi Rott and Vile GileZ? I fear not but then if they were christened at all it would be an eyebrow raiser.

Spit Like This are musically raw which suits their needs. They're not the most polished band out there but then I've plenty in my record collection who sound the same and were played to death so such things can be a bonus.

Next up were Crazy Lixx from Sweden. A more polished affair and certainly more melodic. Considerably less sleazy than SLT with a bit of glam, but more 80s hard rock than anything. A typical European offering where the lyrics are a little bit too cheesy at times, but the melody more than makes up for it. A band where you come away singing the chorus or at least humming it.

If pushed to compare then think early Skid Row, Danger Danger with a harder voice than Ted Poley. Maybe the latter mixed with Ratt wouldn't be a bad comparison, but there's also hints of Rockhead and the simply brilliant Black N Blue.

Where SLT hit you with attitude, Crazy Lixx have the melody. Sometimes it's hard to hear a band for the first time and have to judge them on a live performance. If this set was typical then they've no problems as I can see it. A polished set of excellent hard melodic rock.

And finally the headline act. The one the majority of people were there to see. Hardcore Superstar. Well the name says it all. You've got the hard edge melody of Skid Row and to a degree the vocals of Sebastian Bach, but with more Stephen Pearcy grind. They're tight throughout akin to the most hardened live act and with an excellent set to boot it's all good.

With six full CDs under their belt they're obviously doing something right. Ok so until now they've been left to play to a small corner of the rock scene which on their live presence really cannot be a good thing. It looks like that will hopefully change with HCSS venturing out of Sweden and into the rest of Europe more.

Such bands seemed to be long gone, but Scandinavia looks to be having a revival and if this is the quality of what's being produced then I, for one, will be a happy little headbanger.

Overall an excellent night of a genre blast from the past. Three bands who brought their own style to a welcoming audience.

It's just a shame the venue suffers too many power outages. Apart from that it's an excellent place to see live acts.

The Hipster

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