GIG: Rage (Sheffield)

 

Five years ago, we went to the Corporation to see RAGE support Firewind, with Crimes of Passion opening. It was the middle of winter and Peavy and Lucky (drummer) were very ill and barely able to play. Fortunately the guitarist at the time was a pretty decent singer and so they managed to play a 20 minute set, which was better than nothing given we weren't interested in seeing Firewind! We also only caught the last song of Crimes of Passion's set (not that we knew who they were at the time).

Fast forward to 2023 and here we are again, downstairs in the big room this time, with Rage headlining over ... Crimes of Passion UK. We arrived part way through the C.O.P. UK set, but we still saw about 5 or 6 songs. They were surprisingly good actually, very professional and with an excellent singer. It's not really my kind of music, being a bit too melodic and not quite heavy enough, but it was enjoyable to watch and listen to and they did a spot on cover of Journey's 'Separate Ways' which I enjoyed a lot. For some reason Jean Bormann (Rage's guitarist) was playing guitar for them, though I don't think he's actually a member of the band as far as I can tell. To be honest I didn't actually realise (not being quite up to date on who is in Rage these days) so it was a bit of a surprise to see him strap on a more metallic guitar for the Rage set.

Oddly, I think his guitar playing is perhaps more suited to playing AOR since despite the change of guitar he still sounded rather 'hard rock' even on the thrashiest of Rage songs. To be honest, they probably need a second guitarist because a lot of the time Jean was playing the melodic jangly parts leaving a gap where there needed to be a beefy rhythm guitar to back it up. He should also stop hitting the wah pedal on every solo, nobody needs another Kirk Hammet. But anyway, overall Rage were great. Peavy commented on their disastrous last visit (though he said it was a couple of years ago) and his voice sounded excellent tonight. 

With 25 albums to choose from, compiling a setlist must be a nightmare but we got a good mixture tonight. Oldest song of the night was '(Don't You) Fear the Winter' from 1988's 'Perfect Man' album, alongside tracks from the 90s (End of All Days, Higher than the Sky, Black in Mind, Nevermore, Refuge and Solitary Man) and recent songs like 'A New Land' and 'Resurrection Day' from the new album. Nothing from the Victor Smolski era, which is perhaps no bad thing as I'm not to sure how Jean would have handled Victor's 'John Petrucciesque' solos.

It's a pity there weren't a few more people in attendance; in some ways perhaps it would have been better if the show had been in the smaller upstairs room, but both bands played like they were playing to a full house anyway. Unfortunately during the last song 'Higher than the Sky' the guitar cut out and after a valiant effort to continue by Peavy the song eventually ground to a halt. While the guitar techs struggled with the pedal board, Peavy led the crowd in an acapella refrain of 'Higher than the Sky' until, eventually Jean's guitar finally came back to life. 

So then we got another verse and chorus or so and that was that. A pretty good note to end a long year of gigs on, and a way better finale than the fairly rubbishy 'Dressed to Kill' gig of a few weeks ago. Thankfully the journey home was uneventful and we got home just after midnight, a far cry from the debacle that was coming home from Manchester after seeing Solar Fake a couple of months back!

VIDEO: A NEW LAND - Live at Corporation 2023