Live Review : Call Of The Wild Festival on May 28th 2023

Sunday is another bright and sunny morning, but as I already have a nose that’s bright red enough to see from space, the first thing I do today is make sure I’m wearing A Hat. And sunscreen. That was a crap song but a great message! Anyhow, over in the arena……..

The day starts with LaVire who are good, loud and powerful thrashy rock with a female vocalist. I find them quite similar to Ukrainian outfit Jinjer so if that's your thing check them out, I think you'll be impressed. 

They're followed by a complete contrast in Dead Writers. This band have been promoted as they played the third stage/tent last year. The sound is indie-pop with a hard edge and great vocals. The sound is a bit iffy but that could be due to the rather strong winds today. The frontman is like the bastard offspring of Marc Bolan and Freddie Mercury and every now and again he sits down to play the piano. When he's not doing that he’s rattling around the stage with maracas or a tambourine. I really like this - it's different, it's hard to describe, it's not necessarily what you expect from a hard rock festival and that's a good thing. Viva la difference!

Sweet Electric though are not just what you expect but what you need at a hard rock festival. This is the new project of Brad Marr who we all know from Aussie maniacs Massive, but he’s now teamed up with a bunch of musicians from Cologne in Germany to make some more rock noise. They start with a sort of cowboy rock rap with a woohoo chorus and it's different! It's catchy and upbeat, it's music to dance and move to. There's a standout track ‘Monster’ with its AC/DC riff and sing-along chorus, and there's a funky one about a party and again we're having fun here. They do good crowd participation and really get the day going properly. There's a drinking song because of course there's a drinking song, Brad's an Australian so I would expect no less. It’s pure entertainment and great fun. 

This House We Built do southern blues. They start with a talk box and use it a lot during the set. This is Southern Rock played by Northern Boys by the accents and at first I am quite enjoying it. At about the 3rd song in though, we hit a minor problem. It starts to sound a bit like Rush. Gulp. Then it starts to sound a LOT like Rush. I know I'm in a minority of one here but I'm not a big fan of Rush and I find the rest of the set a little too geddy-ish for my personal taste. Good band, but not really for me.  

A relief then to get to the surprise find of the weekend. I knew pretty much exactly what Tailgunner were going to sound like before they played a note. They had curly perms or swishy hair, ball-crushingly tight jeans (even on the female stand-in guitarist!) tucked into dinky white boots. The guitars were pointy. It was like a time machine. Every band I saw in 1981 looked like this. Hell, every guy I dated in 1981 looked like this (again even the girl!) Sure enough the sound didn’t disappoint either, it started off as early Iron Maiden and morphed into a powerful NWOBHM-inspired aural feast. There were shades of Hellloween, shades of Metallica, the influences were strong but the sound was still somehow original. The guitars wailed, the riffs punched, the beat was insistent. It was bloody marvellous. The lyrics were brutal, fighty, hard. They all have a bad case of Harris foot (one on the monitor son, one on the monitor) and it felt like that was the only place for a foot to be in a band like this. Yes it was a little derivative but it just sounded so good and they did it so well. Band of the day for sure, and they only missed band of the weekend because they weren’t as pretty as the Finns. If there's any justice (for all) in the world they're going to be massive so take my advice, get in there and go and see them now while you can still get up close and personal. It’ll be worth it. 

Blackpool's A’Priori have also moved up from the tent to the main stage and when I get there guitarist Tony is down on the barrier playing away for his people. I've reviewed these guys so many times that I don't really have anything new to say about them, suffice to say their classic slightly blues-tinged rock goes down a treat and despite being music to nod along to it’s a bit restful after the madness that was Tailgunner. I still love the fact that Mark plays bass on keyboards, and the standout song for me is the sing-along nananana song which I believe is actually called ‘NaNaNa’ It's all hard and heavy and bluesy and cool. 

After them I catch a bit of We Three Kings who also play blues again but in a bit more of a bouncy manner. They are another band who seem very influenced by Clutch’s ‘Electric Worry’. I don't know if they also look like Clutch as I have no idea what Clutch look like, but I came away with the impression that they would be good people to have a beer with so that’s a point in their favour.  

The return of Fury has been much anticipated in some of the circles I sometimes hang out in, and despite a couple of changes from the old Fury who folded a few years ago, they didn’t disappoint. I recalled them as being quite fast, quite loud, a bit angsty and a lot angry. Today’s Fury though are a pleasant surprise. They now have Tom Atkinson from Vice on guitar and they have gained a sort of female Bez, she dances a lot and does some backing vocals and I do at times wonder what the point of her is. Thing is, she works. It works. The band works. They churn out clean classic heavy rock with nice harmonies and it's not hard to listen to. Tom can get a bit over enthusiastic with the widdly bits but why not, that's what he does after all. The vocals are shared and it all gels well. It's enjoyable - not in a party way more in a sort of toe tapping head nodding kind of way. There's one song they do which is just voices which was nice, but it’s soon back to the full on rock. It’s not the assault on your ears that I remember of old, and it’s more stroking your face than punching you in it, but that's ok. Like I said, it just kind of works. 

Pryma are another band with female vocals that to my ears seem to be a little bit lost in the mix. Again they are competent but I don't see anything special. It's almost like background music, I’m waiting for it to grip me but it never does. Good effort, but not really doing it for me today.

Baronovich give us a set of fairly generic 80s-inspired AOR and hair metal. It’s punchy and fun, the songs are catchy and riffy but also fairly forgettable. Nothing leapt out at me except some flying teabags (don’t ask!) It's inoffensive and I enjoy it, a bit of bopping in the afternoon always goes down well.  

The Karma Effect are next. I really like this band, they play up tempo retro rock and the bass player looks like my mate Pete. They remind me a lot of The Answer from Ireland and I love the lead singer’s voice, it’s really soulful and powerful. There's a bit of funky guitar and a lot of sing along choruses. The standout track to me is ‘The River’ but I still don't understand why all bands go down to the river, they never go up to the river! The guitar sound is good though and I like the keyboardy bits too. Good times.  

I only caught the end of King Kraken. I noticed that they had an inflatable kraken on the stage, and there were kilts. I'm all for kraken rum but these guys are speed moshers and a little too thrashy for my taste. They are crowd pleasers though and are going down well. There's a lot of wailing guitar and the vocals are a bit Lemmy-like. They appear to be Welsh and I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing - judging by the crowd reaction I'm edging towards good though.

Sister (from Sweden) are one of those bands that cross genres. Are they goth? Are they glam? Are they thrash? Well yes to all of those, but also no. They have corpse paint, and hoods, and fake blood, and all sorts of shenanigans of that ilk. Musically they're a little bit of everything. Singer Jamie is an absolute powerhouse of a frontman, he screams and capers (and also spits, yuck, WHY do they do that?) and brings the crowd in with his charisma. Despite the white face paint and black-ringed eyes they're brash and shouty but just when it’s all getting a bit much they switch, and we get a gentle powerful ballad like ‘Creature’ which gives me goosebumps. Destination Dust is the place to be today, and we screamed oh we screamed for them. Sister (from Sweden) always bring their A-game to their live shows, and today was no exception I’m looking for a word to describe them, and it’s satisfying. They satisfied a part of me that I didn’t even realise was missing something.  

Black Spiders have no trouble picking a genre. They are straight ahead, heads down no nonsense mindless rock and roll. Kiss tried to kill them but I really didn't think they were that bad! We needed warming up by now because the weather was starting to turn and they did that nicely. Their set was uncomplicated and fun boogie-woogie, and the crowd responded in spades. There were singbacks, singalongs and interactions galore, and it was a cheerful experience and a chance to dance.  

Finally the sun has set, it’s turned bitterly cold compared to the warmth of the day and it’s time for the final headliners to close the show. Those Damn Crows - who'd have thought it? From tiny clubs just a couple of years ago to festival headliners in the ‘Blink of an Eye’ (did you see what I did there?!) The stage set is stark with just their backdrop and amps and some harsh white and blue lights. The sound is crystal clear and of course they have their little pose boxes at the front to stand on so it's all good. They've mixed the set around since last time I saw them with ‘Rock and Roll Ain’t Dead’ coming up quite near the start of it rather than the end like it used to be. Shane singing alone at the piano for ‘Blink of an Eye’ is a shivers down the spine moment. Their most recent album hit number three in the charts and that was thoroughly deserved. There are several songs off it in tonight’s set and I notice something that was mentioned to me last time they were on tour that I had never really spotted. For a guitar-based rock band the Crows don’t have any guitar solos. I didn't believe it, but you know what? It's true! They trade licks, the twin guitars duet and complement each other well but no-one takes the spotlight, no-one gets an ego trip. They are a band in every sense of the word, you might even say a gang. All for one and one for all – they should probably write a song called that. They're a club and you too can join the club; all you have to do is raise your hands and join in. They close the set with new song ‘We'll See You Again’ and to be honest it's a little bit of an anti-climax. I was expecting some special effects, something to close the show with a bang but no. No fireworks, no pyro, no confetti cannons. No stage set, no complicated light sequences. Just good old rock and roll and although the strength of the performance carried it for them it did feel just a little bit lacking. It was a great show but was it a headline set? Maybe. Maybe I just expect too much from my headliners. They managed to send us all home satisfied with just the power of their music but I couldn’t help thinking that a couple of sparklers would have been nice.

So there we go, Call Of The Wild is over for another year and already I’m counting the days until I can come back next year. There are some festivals that are small enough to feel like family but large enough to showcase some fantastic bands, and I think the guys at Upstagd have got it spot on with this one. 365, 364, 363……..

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!