Today I want to do my best to review the Puddle of Mudd gig at the Hub on Saturday March 27th.
Despite the size of the venue - The Hub is pretty small but it is an impressive space nonetheless (and one I can't believe is under threat of demolition!) - [most of] the bands who played made the most of it.
First up were The Fallen State. It was difficult to pin down their particular sound, though I have learnt that their influences include Young Guns, Shinedown, and Daughtry (which came across along with Rise Against).
Mid-set, their singer wanted us to do something for him, which turned out to be nothing more than lending our voices, however one 'smart' fellow posed getting naked....erm, no thanks. My eyes were drawn again and again to both their lead guitarist who looked a little like a young James Hetfield, and their drummer who was occasionally spinning his drumsticks in his hands. Quite a charismatic bunch as I found out after the show when I went to collect my winnings. Oh yes, for simply tagging myself in a group shot on Facebook taken after their set, I won a free t-shirt and EP! A piece of luck I suppose, given that most of the attention that night went to two girls with pink hair who dominated the space beneath the stage almost all night.
In the interval, as with any show, there were some familiar tunes being banged out which included I Wanna Know What Love Is and to which most people began to sing along - until the second act began part-way through!
Enter Unzucht. I was already intrigued by the presence of a blood-stained scarf attached to the mic-stand, but their chest-pounding intro wasn't the only thing pounding because their lead singer had me spellbound with his looks and his
voice - sexy for a German guy. A German Ville Valo perhaps with his charisma, curly hair (and beanie), not to mention a cheeky smile. The unexpected crowd-surfing, however, was not something I could see Ville doing - or the permitting of a female fan to touch him....which our lead in this case allowed - just the face, mind. All the same, Unzucht had quite an eerie but heavy vibe going on, a more melodic Rammstein, I'd say, with raw and unnerving 'atmospheric' side-vocals. My hands were stinging a little from all the clapping by the end.
But finally came Puddle of Mudd. There was hype and it fell flatter than a failed souffle. Wes Scantlin, it seems, has been exhibiting less than perfect behaviour at a lot of their gigs on this tour (as evidenced in Doncaster), so it's no wonder he was looking bleary-eyed, tired, and drinking throughout the set. All the visual aesthetic of Kurt Cobain, with the impression that he had risen from the grave. A nearly-empty bottle of Southern Comfort ended up going round the audience (the rest of the contents most likely already in Wes's bloodstream). We were treated to the likes of Blurry, Psycho, She Hates Me, Nothing Left to Lose, and Away from Me (being the songs I knew) and even an anecdotal little story about how he dated a stripper (the details of which I shall spare you), but microphone issues (amongst other things) meant he kept disappearing off set and potentially never returning without audience enthusiasm. A mosh sprang up after Wes managed to stumble
back on stage halfway through, which I pointedly avoided at the risk of injury and a liberal dowsing in beer. The end of the set was still an uncertain one, but as I had my free merchandise to collect, I didn't stick around.
In the end, the main act were no better than a puddle of [actual] mud, or at least that is where I imagine I'd find Wes after such a night. But hey, I learnt the difference between a guitar and a bass, so that's another good thing!
Hopefully my next review will have a better view than this one, but then again, you can't tell or help how a musician will act.
P.s. I apologise for the picture quality - my phone, while great, doesn't deal well with low lighting or venues like this.
