Vain // Waterfront, 06.07.14
Shameless rock 'n' roll the old fashioned way.
Back in 1989 my exclusively metal loving self walked (no – strutted) into Newcastle City Hall to buy me and my buddy tickets to see Skid Row (never a fan) supported by the hottest new glam/hair metal band in the world…the mighty Vain. Moments later I limped out digesting the news that the gig had sold out. Damn. That was that then, and within a year my musical horizons were broadening, tastes were changing, and although every now and then over the following decades I would give their classic debut ‘No Respect’ a spin, I never really considered the possibility that Vain would somehow end up playing live in my adopted home town.
25 years down the line and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw they were indeed playing, but I also had to wonder about the wisdom of booking them, because clearly there would be no sold out signs up tonight. Sure enough the audience was double digits small and after enduring 45 minutes of Russian ‘melodic rock’ band Red’s Cool as support I was starting to question my sanity. Obviously no-one was there by chance so when it was time for Vain to come on everyone was right in front of the stage and suddenly there they were! Main man Davy Vain looked in pretty good shape, the band appeared to be a bunch of hired hands, but sounded fantastic and to my relief Davy’s voice was perfect. He sounded exactly as he had on record all those years ago. They even waited until the fourth track before hitting us with a song from ‘No Respect’…and it didn’t matter. I had given their most recent album ‘Enough Rope’ a few spins in the week of the gig and it sounded surprisingly good, almost like it had come out in 1990.
Davy was under no illusions about the size of the crowd or the band fortunes, but still gave us an hour of shameless rock and roll, the old fashioned way. They played all the songs we wanted them to, the audience was word perfect on all the classic tracks and as an exercise in shameless nostalgia it was better than I dared hope. It could have easily been a disaster but in the end it was a fun night and finally I can lay those 1989 demons to rest.
