Tonight, is all about the redemptive and restorative power of rock n’ roll. You see, initially the signs aren’t good. This is the first major rock tour to hit the highways and byways of this fair country since we exited lockdown. The trepidation and uncertainty of the “mature” crowd is evident, for many this is the first post pause experience of an indoor crowd and there is an uneasy feeling in the room. The hall is never more than half full, with many of The Wildhearts faithful deciding that they are not quite ready to go back into battle. In fact, to start with, the crowd is so sparse that there are more members of openers The Middlenight Men on stage than there are people watching them which to be honest is a crying shame as they are as about good time rock n’roll as you can get.

They are the brainchild of britrock journey man, former member of Danny’s Yo-Yo’s and long-time Terrorvison collaborator Nick Hughes. There is probably not a huge amount of originality about what they are doing (in many ways it is the Ginger Wildheart band if you removed Ginger) but god, do they do what they do well. It is proper bottom wiggling, brass-infused boogie and those intrepid souls that did wander in early make tentative attempts at shaking their money makers. The Middlenight Men are primarily a dance band and in this uncertain world we quite simply need more opportunities to dance.

In every welsh town there is a rock bar and in everyone of those rock bars there is a band that look exactly like Those damn Crows playing Bon Jovi and Bad Company covers. In the main, they are damned to stay there forever, living out their Rockstar dreams for beer money; Those Damn Crows are the ones that got out. They achieved escape velocity because of two things; they have songs that are as good as any cover version they could play, and they have Shane Greenhall. He is the type of frontman that they don’t make anymore, engaging, energetic and intent on making direct eye contact with everyone in the room. He understands that rock n’ roll is about connection and it is about the shared experience, consequently he spends as much time in the photographer’s pit as he does on stage.

There is a more than a healthy amount of Those Damn Crows t-shirts on show and if the world was back in kilter, they would be filling this room by themselves. But we are all still gradually emerging from hibernation and the band seem content to work with what they have. The set is short, but during its half hour duration they crowd visibly begin to loosen up and relax. By the time we get to closer ‘Rock N Roll Ain't Dead’ the fears and anxieties are beginning to reside and as one we are rediscovering the ecstasy, adulation, and sheer joy of screaming along with a rock n’ roll band.   

Overnight tweets from Ginger had shown that his depression has returned big time and he marches on stage with a massive cob on and an obvious snoopy-esque black cloud over his head. They dive into ‘Diagnosis’ and the crowd reaction start to do its trick. The aforementioned audience apprehension has been soothed by Those Damn Crows and disappears completely during The Wildhearts opening number. A crowd that had seemed disquiet and unsure, now wants nothing more to party like its 2021 and Ginger leeches onto that with all he’s got. By the second chorus his veneer is cracking, and a grin has appeared. Our in house Wildhearts aficionado catches my eye and mouths “I think we are going to be ok”.

From the moment that Ginger’s mood dissipates, they are on incendiary form. On a good night they can be the greatest rock n’roll band in the world and against all the odds this has turned into one of those nights. One of the beautiful things about The Wildhearts is the vocal harmonies, it’s like the Beach Boys but with raucous guitars. Tonight, they are synchronised to a tie, whatever tensions had existed pre-show have completely evaporated and they operate as a tight, taut unit expertly playing off each other. They are obviously proud of their new record (and in Ginger’s case chuffed with the fact that Jake Burns of Stiff Little Fingers likes it), however they are also highly conscious of the damage that the words “here is a new track” can do to a party vibe. We therefore get just two visits to the new album (the vicious ‘Splitter’ and the reflective almost prog like ‘Remember those Days’). The latter is peppered with musical snippets from rarities such as ‘Girlfriend’s Clothes’ and ‘Turning American’.

Tonight, however is really all about the utter exulted bliss of being back in a sweaty room with a band at full throttle. Before ‘Dislocated’ Ginger talks about the bags of anxiety that he had brought on stage and how he really needed this gig tonight. That feeling that this has been the perfect tonic is shared by the increasingly rowdy crowd. The fact the room is under-populated is gleeful utilised by those present to dance to their hearts content. ‘Caprice’ makes a welcome return to the set and also signals the end of the main section. We all know how this goes, but the elongated nature of the encore break does lead to some nervousness that they had legged it.

We needn’t have worried, as they bound back on to stage for a rousing ‘Inglorious’. A beautiful mix of spiky punk and melodic breaks, that has everyone in the room bellowing along like we never worried about spreading droplets and airborne particles. Ginger tackles that bizarre mix of emotions head-on, stating philosophically that we are at some point going to have to get back to crowds, so better one to re-join than a Wildhearts one? The fevered emotion is dialled up even further the closing salvo of ‘Suckerpunch’ and ’I Wanna Go Where the People Go’. The transformation within the audience is remarkable. The apprehension has been replaced by utter abandonment and that is the replenishing power of rock n’roll that I spoke of at the start. There is no force like it. It can mend a broken heart, it can lift the deepest of moods and, in the case of tonight, it can turn a room of middle-aged angst into a cauldron of pure elation. The Wildhearts work is done.