A wet Tuesday night with Champions League Footy on the TV – not a recipe for a big audience for a night of live rock ‘n roll action. So it proved as a minimal crowd gathered to catch former WARRIOR SOUL frontman Kory Clarke, and his new band DIRTY RIG performing their very first show in the UK. In fact only 30-40 punters bothered to turn up, but anyone who did decide to stay at home duly missed out on what was a great evening of grass roots rock
music.

The night’s entertainment started with a double header of local rock acts, HEADRUSH and SWEET SEDUCTION, and both were very impressive in their own ways.

HEADRUSH had great songs, in fact, their material was first class. New single (out January) ‘Living in a Fantasy’ had the crowd singing along, where rockers like ‘A Thousand Pictures’ and ‘Bring It On’ had just about everyone in the room head banging. Think the very best of SKID ROW, GUNS’ N’ ROSES and MOTLEY CRUE and you won’t be far away from the style and quality of the material HEADRUSH have to offer.

The only problem with this band is their image. Their on stage appearance seems a mish-mash of personalities with a short-haired front man resembling
Graham Bonnet and an emo looking bass player mixed with 3 long haired rockers! Still, I hope this doesn’t hold back a band who are full of raw talent and a definite ‘one to watch’.

So on to SWEET SEDUCTION, a band who are quite the reverse to HEADRUSH. This band’s image is exactly what you’d expect from a bunch of young rockers hoping to make the grade. Long hair, tattoos galore and most of all, attitude! Unfortunately though, the material is not quite as good as the band before them.

In the live arena, songs like ‘One Helluva Night’ and ‘Crazy Blues‘ work wonders and their front row army of young female followers enjoyed every minute.
However, the material is a little one-dimensional, and their vocalist has a very average voice that failed to cut through the band’s sound. – If only
the SWEET SEDUCTION frontman had the HEADRUSH vocalist’s voice (or if HEADRUSH’s vocalist had is looks and image!), jee would you have one
potential rockstar on your hands! Still, if you get chance to see either of these bands live then they are certainly worth making room in your diary for.

The act that followed are the band who will be on the whole DIRTY RIG tour. They go by the name of DISARM, a young, modern day punk act, and a band tonight who truly failed to capture the imagination of the audience. DISARM were the most dissapointing performers of the whole evening. Weak songs and a drowsey on stage display meant that one or two locals headed for the exit after being satisfied by the other 2 supports. The only passable effort in their set was ‘Kill Today, Die Tomorrow’.

Now on to DIRTY RIG. For those of you unfamiliar with this band here is some info, DIRTY RIG, are a new band fronted by the multi talented and resilient Kory Clarke of ex 90’s legendary USA act WARRIOR SOUL. The band also includes the excellent Chas Banellis on guitar, Buckshot on bass & the mohawked Dave Ardolina on drums.

DIRTY RIG hail as Kory described tonight as from New York Shity, the home of some of the rock’s all time greats. Tonight was the opening night of the tour, and having seen the paltry number of paying punters in front of them the band had two options, one to give up before even starting, or two go for broke and prove what a mighty fine outfit they really are!

Not surprisingly they chose the latter, and what a treat was in store for the audience made up of support band members/fans, and a dozen or so WARRIOR SOUL fans.

The band switched on their gear and it was show time, they kicked in with the first track of the evening the very punchy ‘Drunk Again’. Within a minute of the intro Kory Clarke sauntered onto the small stage, this was the very first time I had witnessed the man in the flesh, he just oozed star quality, he looked like a young version of Robert Plant. Slim, lithe, rugged looking with long fair hair, but thats where the similarities with the legendary LED ZEPPELIN front man ended, as vocally speaking there was a chasm in range and power!

What Kory lacks in vocal dexterity he makes up with gritty determination and attitude, he launched into the lyrics and complimented by a truly awesome sounding band who duly got the set off to a flyer.

‘Suck It’, the opening and standout track to the bands current cd release was up next, this track despite the simple but catchy lyrics proved what a really tight unit the band are, with a wonderful clear and crisp sound from the boys in the band. I couldn’t help but gaze in amazement at guitarist Chas Banelli’s guitar prowess and dexterity, instantly recognisable as a talented guitarist, with facial similarities with fellow New Yorker Richie
Sambora of BON JOVI fame but a whole lot meaner.

More songs quickly followed, ‘Throwing (Getting High)’, the splendid ‘Just A Star’, with the superb chorus of “take off, take off your T shirt” echoing in
my head, all delivered simply, Punk rock metal with attitude of the finest order!

Kory then explained that the band had just flown in from the US that day, and with a brief mention that the next song to be performed would appear very soon on MTV, the band kicked in with their riveting first single, the heavy track Dawgs, sorry I mean ‘Dogs’, showing the bands true power. ‘Pennsyltucky’ saw the band visit Heavy Metal territory with the great marching lyrics of “Left Right, Left Right”, followed by the very psychotic sounding ‘Hitch Hiker’.

‘Rock Did It’, the title album track follows and sees vocalist Kory again spitting out the anti establishment lyrics in classic punk fashion. With this, the band leave the stage only for Kory to be persuaded to remain and do an encore.

The night ends on a high note with Kory recalling only guitarist Chas Banellis back onto the stage for a hypnotic rendition of album ballad ‘Cities‘, a song about Lost Angels and Freedom, this song sees Kory passionately evoking out the lyrics of deceit and pain a wonderful way to end the short but impressive set.

Kory leaves the stage to a heroes welcome, followed by fans shouting “Respect“, shaking hands, signing autographs and posing for pictures, a real
professional!

Rating 4.0/5.0Cos Cimino + James Allman

DIRTY RIG : www.dirtyrig.com