FOZZY –
HIGHBURY GARAGE - 15/05/2010
I’ve met some people who let fame go to their head, and whilst I admire their work, as people, I’ve not enjoyed meeting them. A notable exception to this has been Rich Ward, axeman par excellence for Fozzy and Stuck Mojo who I’ve seen on stage many times, and had the privilege of interviewing in the past. Sadly, with two shows on the one day and a strained voice to preserve for the stage, he put off interview duties, and whilst support acts were playing I had the great pleasure of interviewing returning guitarist Billy Grey. It seems somewhere in the world there is a machine designed to pump out friendly, polite, affable, and incredibly skilled guitarists to play alongside The Duke, and Mr Grey, also of Sick Speed and Dangerous New Machine was no exception. It’s only a shame that the interview was in a changing room right next to the stage, and all my newly purchased digital dictaphone picked up with any clarity was the bass reverberating through the walls! With luck and electronic tinkering, that interview may be retrieved in time for another update, but the time spent interviewing meant I missed the support acts.
On this particular flying visit, the first UK shows for some 5 years, Fozzy were playing four shows in three days, the two pre London gigs being upgraded and sold out, always a good sign for a London show, and a friend who attended the evening performance tells me it was rammed to the rafters. This matinee, sadly, was less then packed, a fact that in no way stopped Fozzy providing their trademark stellar performance. Coming onstage to a massive roar, front man and multi-time world wrestling champion Chris Jericho, doubtlessly used to playing at packed enormo-domes all over the US did not let the small size of the crowd in any way lessen the energy with which he performed. Blasting into the opening track of the new CD, the massively hook laden ‘Under Blackened Skies’, he showed that as well as being able to summersault around a ring he has a very good rock vocal range, singing cleanly and with an admirable sustain, all the time bounding around the stage, working the audience, giving off that unquantifiable quality of charisma that some performers just seem to pull from nowhere. His crowd pleasing performance was more then matched by the rest of the band: Rich Ward flew around stage, somehow managing to fire off solo after solo despite leaping around like a thing possessed; rejoining drummer Frank Fontsere blasted out solid, complex beats; bassist Sean Delson danced and gurned his way around stage like the veteran he is whilst pumping out a groovy bass line; and Billy Grey showed he was able to trade shred for shred with The Duke. Amazingly, despite being a professional athlete by trade, Chris Jericho was often the most static presence on stage; that’s not that he wasn’t moving, far from it, it’s just that the rest of the band blasted around with an energy even he couldn’t keep up with!
With four albums under their belts, the band has a growing back catalogue to choose from, and of the eleven songs at the matinee, only four were from ‘Chasing the Grail’. Single release, ‘Martyr No More’ followed swiftly on from the first track, before Jericho and The Duke traded vocals on Happenstance’s ‘Crucify Yourself’, before a barnstorming performance of ‘God Pounds His Nails’, the audience being willingly co-opted into chant along duties. On this track, faster and heavier live then it is on CD, Billy Grey took over solo duties, proving his credentials as a shredder, allowing Rich Ward to concentrate on his riffs, the whole time whirling like a Dervish! It constantly amazes that he can play as well as he does, let alone when he’s leaping around, looking as if at any second he’s going to kick himself in the head.
As well as their undoubted musicianship, what sets Fozzy apart from many other acts is their interaction with the audience and charisma. The intimate nature of the venue made me feel like I was there at the invite of friends, a warmth shared by the rest of the audience as jokes were cracked between songs, all with an assured ease of a band that despite many changes of personnel gelled on stage at every level. The appearance of an inflatable sheep had Jericho leading a chant of “sheep, sheep, sheep”, Rich Ward promising Jericho would play the evening show naked except for the said sheep, whilst a particularly high sustained scream that finished off ‘Friday the 13th’ by Jericho was repeated at the insistence of the rest of the band and a howling audience.
This was not a gig for shoe gazing and serious musos, but a celebration of the joy of well played rock and metal by a band with nothing to prove. A nod from an insider tells me that Fozzy will be around in Europe and the UK this autumn; if you weren’t at this limited run of shows, treat yourself and get to a forthcoming show. You won’t regret it.
Spenny Bullen
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