“Manchester are you ready?” scream Those Damn Crows as they hit the stage. “Yes we are!” scream back the crowd! They are open with their now standard ‘Who Did It?’ and the crowd are there with them from note one. They are engaged, involved and of course the band make full use of the little pose boxes at the front of the stage. It’s hard to describe how great the crowd reaction is here tonight, especially when singer Shane does his party piece and runs upstairs to stand precariously on a small wooden shelf at the edge of the balcony. All their songs combine power and melody with a beat to nod along to. I really think that this band epitomise the future of British hard rock. Throughout the set the whole band really do give it their all and they also get it all back from the crowd reaction. Shane is in very fine voice, the band are on great form and it’s all good fun. There's a new song from the upcoming new album and then they go back to their classic sound. ‘Blink Of An Eye’ always reminds me a little bit of the Foo Fighters, it has that accessible pop rock feel. Don’t write this band off as wishy-washy lightweights based on that though, they really can rock out with the best of them and there’s a moment with a lovely bit of twin soloing. They finish of course with ‘Rock And Roll Ain't Dead’, which is a perfect sing along anthem. This band have great songs and great personality all wrapped up in a five-headed rock beast. Who said rock and roll is dead? Well based on tonight’s performance it certainly wasn't me!

On to headliners Monster Truck then. Although they've been around for a while they are actually a new band to my eyes and ears and I'm not familiar with their body of work. Hailing from Canada, their style and look is rather more US Southern rock, so I’m curious to see if my preconceptions of their sound based on that are borne out. The first song reminds me very much of The Doors, it's kind of dirty blues with added Hammond organ which is an interesting mix! They do a nice line in woah-woah chorus but already we have a problem – on checking my watch I see we are 8 minutes into the song as it ends and I wonder if that was (as I thought) all the same song, or if in fact it was two and I didn’t see the join! To be honest I find that a bit of a theme throughout. I like a woah woah chorus in a song as much as the next man, it’s easy to sing along to and can lift the song. The issue I have with Monster Truck is that they seem to be using the same chorus throughout, no matter what the rest of the song is like. Hmmm.   

The sound is crystal clear and the musicianship is superb, but as the set progresses I find that I am missing their oof factor. It's a clean sound and I do like the catchy choruses but there's an awful lot of similarity to their writing and performing. They play a new song off their latest album, and I find it’s very like the older ones I have already heard. There is some variation, but overall they do seem to have chosen a style and stuck to it. For the first half of the set I find myself looking for and not finding some variety, and it seems I may not be alone. What started as an enthusiastic and packed balcony is gradually thinning out until eventually there are even gaps right at the front. I don't know whether they've gone downstairs to get closer to the action or just left to be honest. There is a ballad that starts like ‘House.of.the.Rising.Sun’ with a rather nice piano bit and then goes all blues and a bit more gritty. This is a bit more like it! I do like his voice, he has soul and passion and is very much in tune. The whole sound is very retro and has a very 70s vibe - I think this track is called ‘Black Forest’ so I make a note of that as it’s been a standout track so far. There's a song called ‘Fuzz Mountain’ which is a bit more upbeat but still merges into all the others a bit. They can certainly play, but any interaction with the crowd seems a bit lacking and what they have to offer isn’t really to my personal taste. There's no banter between songs, there's not even any chat between the band while they're on stage; it's just heads down get on with it rock. They then prove my theory of what a band sound like according to how they dress and move onto a bit of Southern Rock. It all goes a bit Blackfoot-y but this is a good thing and I’m finally warming to them. Next they go full-on blues with a bit of a freeform jam in the middle though and I cool down again, the 70s vibe is back and in my head I compare them to Free. Back to the Southern thing and now they sound like early ZZ Top, again in a good way. The crowd also seem to have warmed up a bit and I can see some arms waving and foot-to-foot shuffling going on.  I like another of their new songs, ‘Warriors’, but at the same time I could swear they just played this one a couple of minutes ago and there's that chorus again! The encore starts with a drum fill and goes a bit Zeppelin on our asses, which seems to be going down well at the front.

So a bit of a mixed bag for me overall, there were definitely some bits I enjoyed, the whole set was performed really well, but at the same time I found some of it a bit too samey and would have liked to see them maybe use their obvious talent to be a bit less cautious in style.