We were having a discussion at ROCKFLESH Towers the other day, wondering which band we have reviewed the most since we started. General consensus was that as we are a local website for local people, it would probably be a local band. In the end we decided it was likely to be Massive Wagons, who seem to have stayed true to their local roots too despite achieving not just national but international success in recent years. Tonight we are just up the road from their hometown, so I settle in my usual position lurking at the back to see how they are doing these days.

First though, a trip to Frankfurt Germany which is home to The New Roses. This is a band who have been on my personal radar for a good few years now, and I like them very much. The thing with The New Roses is, if you go just go out on their albums they are an OK band. Not bad, but not especially great either, a little vanilla perhaps. Don’t let that fool you though, because in a live setting they are a musical tour-de-force. They come on to one of their standards, ‘The Usual Suspects’, and it’s all uphill from there really. They are happy and harmonious, with catchy singalong choruses and smiley faces. I still think their main influence is probably Bon Jovi, but early Bon Jovi. You know, when they were still good! We get to sing along during ‘It’s A Long Way’, and our hearts melt with the power ballad ‘All I Ever Needed’. We wave our arms, we sigh, we marvel as singer Timmy showcases a pretty impressive scream and the two guitarists indulge in a little shredding. There’s a little something for everyone here, most of it tends towards the lightweight but then you have the odd song which really rocks out. This is tempered by a series of party choruses and we all yell along about a 6-pack and the radio as we go ‘Down By The River’. They finish with a proper drinking song, appropriately called ‘Thirsty’, and leave the stage after the obligatory photo to a rousing reception from the crowd.

Massive Wagons begin their set with a heartbeat. Bdum. Bdum. Which gets faster and faster, helping with a sense of rising excitement as we wait for the fun to start. They start with the rousing tribute to Rick Parfitt ‘Back To The Stack’ with its Quo-heavy references and riffs, and to my surprise they follow this with some fairly deep cuts from the last couple of albums. The bloke standing next to me was complaining to his missus that they weren’t playing any of the good songs. Nah mate, pretty much all of Wagons’ songs are good, it’s just that you don’t know these ones so well. The set, certainly the first half of it, is not a “greatest hits” type of affair. Instead we get ‘Pressure’, and even ‘The Day We Fell’ which is so old even I don’t remember it! The crowd are onside from note one, with a hardcore down at the front who don’t care what is being played, they are just glad to be here and part of the show.

Things warm up a bit here at the back too, with ‘Aeroplane’, a song about Ibiza and lurve. They move on to a sequence of songs from most recent release “Triggered” and we all get to yell ‘Fuck The Haters’ at the top of our lungs. My favourite Massive Wagons song at the moment is ‘Please Stay Calm’ (which I am convinced is about Ginger Wildheart, fight me!) and that duly gets an airing too. It’s a perfect blend of rock and ballad, of anger and party, and the crowd obviously agree as things are really bounding in here now.

The rhythm section of Alex and Bowz are strong and implacable, while guitarists Ad & Steve career about the stage like a pair of spinning tops. All eyes though tend to remain on Baz as he jumps and struts. He is a taciturn man of few words between songs (despite a dry sense of humour) but once those tunes start so does the mayhem. ‘Generation Prime’ has a funky, modern feel that tips a hat to reggae and allows the crowd to really dance. Plus it has a trademark Wagons time-change just where you least expect one. Did I say a nod to Reggae? The song seques into ‘Mysterious Girl’ and ‘No Woman No Cry’ before it reaches its own crescendo so it's more of a headbutt than a nod I think! Old favourite ‘Ratio’ has the whole place jumping, ‘China Plates’ makes them jump even higher and ‘Banging In Your Stereo’ gives Baz the opportunity to crowd surf to the back of the room in an inflatable dinghy that just happens to be handy. He makes it back to the stage unscathed, just in time to finish the set with another oldie ‘Nails’. The encore consists of ‘The Curry Song’ followed by the Covid song (‘In It Together’) and suddenly it’s all over.

It was definitely a set of two halves; the first half was a little more restrained, a little more experimental, a little more outside of the ordinary whereas the second half was the usual happy party one expects from a Massive Wagons gig. Brave of them to not rely on all the well-known songs, and overall I think it worked well for them. Massive Wagons have built a solid fanbase through sheer hard graft, and now have a respectable back catalogue to draw on so I fully expect them to remain ROCKFLESH’s most reviewed band for some time to come yet.