Classic Rock Show
Theatre Severn,
Monday 29th-Tuesday 30th January
Well if you’re after a hi octane, hi power, hi energy performance, then this is the show for you. The Classic Rock Show arrived mid tour, they are touring England, Europe and America and it is a 52-week gig. It’s to be hopes the crew all get along as 52 weeks in a gig bus is probably something that will leave the hardest rocker praying for home and hating the road. Anyway, they all seemed to get on and that in a show like this is incredible.
Amidst the noise and drumming it is hard for performers not to grab the limelight and keep a hold. But although clearly egos are prevalent when there is so much talent around, it was hard to spot it in this show as the band worked hard together to ensure the final product, the music; was as excellent as it possibly could be.
And excellent it was. Although this band is a cover band it isn’t a tribute band, and although the tracks sounded exactly like the originals it still wasn’t a tribute show. Rather, it was a talented bunch of guys playing the songs they loved as best as they could and how the audience loved it. One rarely sees a standing ovation during an act, merely at the end but this audience was alive, heavily charged, and ready to rock and up and down they were like appreciative yo-yo’s.
The show is big not just in sound but in technicality too. One entered the auditorium to see the stage lit and enticing the audience in. Six video screens at the back hung like church windows, only the stained glass was constructed of classic rock album covers. The screens were cleverly worked in sync with the songs too. Stage usage was cleverly done apart from space for the drum riser, the backing singers riser, the keys too on risers, they had left a big open space at the front where the axe men would wield their instruments and dart around, as guitarist have a want to do.
The lighting was good and perfectly synced. One is always a little concerned when the lights shine directly into the audience’s eyes, back lighting can lead to this and there was a danger of overusing that one lighting run, it really has the power to dazzle. That’s fine if it doesn’t happen too much because when it does one is temporarily blinded (only very slightly) and it puts the player it is lighting, into dark silhouette; and it takes a quick fraction to readjust sight to get back into seeing what one should. There were instances when the guitarist completely vanished, he was there, we heard him but sadly for that number we didn’t see too much of his lit face. However, lighting is crucial in a big show like this and overall, the engineers did themselves proud, the synced flashes added so much to the overall picture.
The back-line was big, there were guitars, lead, rhythm, bass, and acoustic, drums, a primary set of keys, but a secondary one too which was used to great effect in adding another layer, another dimension to the overall sound which was good.
The guys really had it all going on they could all sing, all move well, and all play brilliantly. As a consequence tonight saw some tremendous guitar work on that stage and Shrewsbury loved it. I was trying to get a rough audience average age, I thought 60 and then thought about how the new pensioners of today will be so different from the days of my Grandma and Grandad, with tin specs and braces on the trouser and always a grey mac. That image, as fashions change, has changed incredibly. Probably thanks to explosion of youth culture after the oppression of World War Two. The kids were suddenly important and not just imitations of their parents. Things had changed and now we can proudly say that our new pensioners had David Bowie in the charts and along with all the great rockers celebrated tonight. No wonder people have changed and rightly so.
Tonight, regardless of age everyone was there to rock, in their minds reliving the biker do’s at Upton Magna or the Piston Broke Festival at Marshbrook or thinking of parking the Norton and having a pint in the Benbow. They were there to relive all of that and more. Not just in a nostalgic way as one can get with 60’s tributes but in a celebratory way. Saying this is what we grew up with and this is what we want. It was there in spades.
In summary this was a great return for The Classic Rock Show and Shrewsbury theatre folk wanted to rock and rock they did. It’s a great show, a talented band, wonderful musicians, and more rock than Blackpool.
This is a Four-Star Review
Sofia Lewis
Sofia is a successful playwright living in Shrewsbury. After graduating from Wolverhampton University in theatre. Sofia went on to become an actor and film maker. Her first play was published in 2015 and her plays have been seen all around the world. She is also the instigator of the popular concerts, The Sound Of Shrewsbury Folk. She has been writing with loveshrewsbury for 13 years and loves Theatre Severn and all she sees there.
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