Caught Live: Hot Leg - Barfly Liverpool 21 October 2008

During the encore of this set, frontman Justin Hawkins could not stand the heat any longer... and ditched his top. Not that remarkable, maybe, but last time I saw him live in this city (July 2006, with The Darkness) he was far less willing to lose his shirt!

The reason for that of course, is that he is now back in shape after his well-publicised stint in rehab. That night in July, he was noticeably tubby and the shirt remained buttoned up. Now looking trim once again, he has lost several pounds, lightened his hair, ditched the catsuits in favour of 1980s style ripped T-shirts and headbands, and gained more tattoos. All I know about the new band is that he sings for it, so I attended this gig having heard none of their music before.



I arrived at The Barfly (a small converted theatre) to find around 200 there and the band had just started playing. Despite the different setting to the old Darkness days, it soon became clear Justin had lost none of his showmanship, and none of his humour. He had little trouble getting the small crowd to roar and shout when required, and a really bizarre moment came when they began to play a power ballad (I don't know ANY of their song titles yet!) - he stopped it one verse in, having spotted a few people at the front linking arms and swaying. Sure enough he got the whole audience to do the same, and the band even tried it themselves!
Justin and fellow guitarist Pete 'Liquid Guitar Hands' Rinaldi were climbing all over each other and attempting to play each other's guitars, while performing the song! This soon caused another stoppage since it made their axes go out of tune, but nobody minded! The gig was appealingly ramshackle throughout; they often drew out the endings to songs, one even ended up with an impromptu bass solo from Sam 'SJ' Stokes!

The material was exactly the kind of Glam Rock suggested by the outfits, the falsetto is present and correct, as are the squiggly lead solos. I thought it was a lot harder-hitting than the later Darkness days; there were no keyboards, precious little effects, just straightforward rock 'n' roll.
Even shorn of the big stage set, the stuffed white tigers on which he used to sit and play guitar, and without seven different sparkly Les Pauls, Justin Hawkins remains a star. Fingers crossed that this time around, he keeps himself together for the success that beckons for his new band.

Hot Leg will be supporting Alter Bridge on their October UK tour, and will return the next month with Extreme. If you're going to see either band, get there early and catch Hot Leg, they'll put a smile on your face!