Motorhead, Saxon, Danko Jones - Hammersmith Apollo, London 11/22/08

From Aural Innovations January 2009 update)

This was my first time ever to see a show at the classic Hammersmith Odeon. They changed the name but nothing else. It is quite similar to the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco and the Orpheum in Boston but it has a nice slanted floor giving everyone a good view if the people in front of you are not too tall. Anyway, Motorhead and Saxon together in 2008? Wow. Danko Jones started early and the place slowly filled up while they played their 30 minute set. They rocked pretty hard but it was not very memorable stuff, except Danko, he is quite a character and clearly having a great time. Saxon were on pretty fast, perhaps 20 minutes and opened with Motorcycle Man... wow. This really took me back to 1980. I remember when my friend John brought home the Wheels of Steel LP from Merlin’s record workshop and we cranked it up! Anyway, they stuck with a lot of classics including my favourite Saxon song, And the Bands Played On. They have a new CD out in January called Let it Rock and they played this track, which is very AC/DC inspired as well as one called Hellcat, that was really fast and heavy. The singer for Fastway joined the band to sing dual vocals with Biff on 747 Strangers in the night. They also played Wheels of Steel, Never Surrender, Denim and Leather and ended the set with Princess of the Night. Great set and the crowd was totally into it.

Saxon

This was the gig on the UK tour for Motorhead and they were really into it. The set was a little shorter than other gigs on the tour but still a great one and it was fucking loud. We were standing in the center on the floor and the sound was great as well. They opened with Iron Fist into Stay Clean into Rock me Baby from the new record. Metropolis, Over the Top, Killed by Death and I got Mine were played. The terrible song, Rock out, from the new record was also in there. The big surprise for me was they played Another Perfect Day. This has not been played since 1983. Great song. Micky Dee got a drum solo during in the name of Tragedy. Phil got his guitar solo that lead into Just cuz you got the Power don’t me you got the Right. Great song. Lemmy clearly had fun doing God Save the Queen. The show ended with Bomber, Ace of Spades (with Wurzel guesting) and Overkill. It was a great show. I still think they need to change the set though as this was almost all the same songs as 2 years ago. Sue and I had a great time. Cool venue. One of the best.

Reviewed by Scott Heller