Not for the first time, an early start caught me out. Arriving at Manchester University for Mr Big, a band I'd never seen before, I got there to find the group already on, and it was so packed I could hardly get through the door! The band were playing at the Academy 2, also known as the Debating Hall, and it was completely rammed. It could justifiably have been upgraded to the main Academy 1 venue in my view, but there we are.
Mr Big are a band packed with so much musical talent that it must be hard making room for everyone - there's a virtuoso guitar shredder in Paul Gilbert on one side, ANOTHER one on the other side in Billy Sheehan, who matches everything Gilbert does - only an octave lower and with two less strings, Pat Torpey keeping everything together at the back (and showing himself to be a good bassist too, more of which later), and to top it all, there's Eric Martin. A 50-year old who looks about 30, and still in possession of a fine singing voice. Nowadays, with his hair shorter, he looks a lot like comic actor Mike Myers!
For all that, the crowd reaction every time Sheehan was namechecked made it clear who the fan favourite was. I don't think I've ever seen a band where the bass player outshreds the lead guitarist before! While Gilbert was taking solos during songs, Sheehan was finger-tapping his way through them. It shouldn't work, but it does; he manages to avoid stepping on the guitarist's toes while still showing off. Gilbert is himself a highly-respected virtuoso, and would need to be, to keep up with the phenomenon across the stage.
When they put everything together, they're untouchable. Unbelievably tight, and still able to express themselves. The only thing I wasn't too keen on was some of the attempts at crowd participation; Martin's attempts to get the crowd to holler back at him fell flat at times. British crowds tend to like it kept simple and trying to get them to do a convoluted chant just isn't going to work, Martin was met with bemusement! When he stuck to singing however, he was excellent.
Both Gilbert and Sheehan got extended solos, something I could live without but both were well received by the crowd. Sheehan's solo, coming late in the set, segued into 'Addicted To That Rush'. For the encores, inevitably 'To Be With You' was aired (their only genuine chart hit in this country) and a bizarre rendition of Deep Purple's 'Smoke On The Water' followed. The whole band swapped places; Martin took over the guitar, Gilbert took to the drumkit and Torpey was entrusted with Sheehan's bass. Sheehan himself took lead vocals, at least for the first two verses (and he flubbed the first!) before they paused mid-song to change over. Sheehan took the guitar off Martin, who then took over the bass, while Sheehan played a near-perfect rendition of Blackmore's solo. If he's that good on a six-string, perhaps he should take it up full-time! The song continued with Pat Torpey now taking lead vocal for the last verse, showing himself as both a capable bassist and a pretty good lead singer.
They ended proceedings with the players back on their own instruments, for a cover of The Who's 'Baba O'Riley' - no synthesisers, all effects done on guitar or bass!
In summary, this is an excellent live band, one of the very best you'll see - sometimes they do over-egg the pudding and if like me, you're not a musician, occasionally you wonder whether some of what you're witnessing is going over your head, but it is easy to see why they were one of the few classic rock bands to survive the Grunge thing when they just rock out.
Hopefully they'll be back before too long and in a bigger venue (I know a good one at this end of the M62 that needs more good rock bands to play it, fellas!)
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