Live Review : The Mercury Riots + Black Water Fiend @ The Freebird, Newcastle-Under-Lyme on May 14th 2022

Another day another rock gig, but also a new venue to explore. I liked it. It’s easy to get to, plenty of parking, staff were lovely, the room is small but has seating for us old codgers and the sound was spot-on. Even the lights, which looked ominously purple at first, turned out to be not so bad and I think Ryan managed to do both bands justice with the photos. 

That said, let’s get to the bands. Support Black Water Fiends kicked the night off with a blend of alt rock and stomping. There were touches of blues, and they definitely love their time changes. Most of the songs started slow and doomy then kind of blew up into fast and more thrashy. I heard shades of Linkin Park, Nirvana and other 90s grunge in there, and I even got a bit of an Ian Curtis vibe from the singer. I think it was his ears! There are a lot of riffs, big riffs, some decent soloing, and I spotted the drum bit from the intro of Diamond Head’s ‘Am I Evil?’ sneak into their nearly-self-titled song “Black Water’. A bouncy bass player always helps things to chug along nicely, and this one was no exception. There was a song that involved the crowd in some fingering (don’t ask) and although their chosen genre is a bit’outside my comfort zone they performed it well and kept my interest throughout the set. 

I first encountered headliners The Mercury Riots a few years back under another name. They hail from California, and first appeared on these shores as a 4-piece outfit called Bullets & Octane. The previous singer departed to other stuff, leaving drummer Jonny, guitarist Felipe and bassist Zach as a 3-piece with a new name but the same take-no-prisoners attitude. Kudos for them as they have been bobbing back and to from the US to the UK and Europe whenever possible throughout the last couple of years of covid restrictions, which has resulted in them gaining a pretty solid fan base over here. This meant that the somewhat small room for tonight’s gig was pleasantly full, giving an intimate atmos and making us the crowd feel like part of the show.

So that’s who this band are, what do they actually do? Well they rock. They rock hard. The set kicks off with an AC/DC vibe, hard rock in 4/4. None of yer blues in this room tonight, thank you very much! The band members are a blur of movement, owning the stage and coming down to mingle with the crowd sometimes too. The songs are upbeat and catchy, the banter is funny, the band smile a lot. They prowl and pose, making use of every space inch of space available, and it doesn’t take long for the crowd to be on their feet and dancing. This is the kind of music that gets inside you and makes you move. There’s a nod to funk and my notes say they are a bit like a modern-day ZZ Top. I feel uplifted by the music, it’s making my head nod and my toes and fingers tap. The vocals are clean, and they do some pretty good harmonies between them too. A left field cover emerges in the form of a rocked-out funked-up version of Hot Chocolate’s ‘Every One’s A Winner’ – who knew a slice of 70s pop could be transformed into a kosher rock song so easily? They debut a new song that will be on their next album which is harder, heavier, faster, and I muse that every 3-pice band has a Motörhead moment so this must be theirs. There are hints of influences in their songs, the DC is strong in this band but there are also some Zep-like moments and at one point, according to my notes, they sound a bit like current-day Europe. That one might have been down to the rum though…….

The Mercury Riots are here for a good time, and they want you to have one too. We sing Happy Birthday to a friend in the crowd, and the band live up to their name. They are a riot of noise and fun. Final song of the set is a song about drinking in bars, which is something I think we can all relate to. I love this, I love a band that can effortlessly make you feel like you are part of something, that you belong to them. Technically the encore isn’t actually an encore as they never actually leave the stage, in fact as they ask us if we want another song and we enthusiastically assert that we do, I wonder if they will ever leave the stage? Who knows, who cares, there is a cover especially for the birthday girl of Def Leppard’s ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’ which she makes me dance to, and I realise I am very much “Too Old For This Shit” but I’m going to do it anyway. The Beatles’s ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ sees the support band doing the twist, and from my seat behind them I envy their youth, stamina and flexibility. I have a told you so moment as they rip through ZZ Top’s ‘La Grange’, which features a bit of soloing from all 3 band members. Then Jonny is standing up behind the kit, Zach is in the crowd, Felipe is on the bar (mind your head!) and surely this has to be the end? No. We still need to ‘Fight For The Right (To Party)’ and party we do, although nobody is fighting very hard here. So there we go. A great night of great tunes performed by a great band. Can we do it again soon please?