Four days, three stages, and some of the best classic and hard rock bands the world has to offer. From some of local Lincolnshire’s best and brightest young bands to some of the biggest foreign and British names in the scene, it was one hell of a bill. And somehow we were lucky enough to be asked to come along! So, just like we usually do, we wanted to bring you our review of the whole event. So let’s get going with our review of Call of the Wild 2022!
It’s a tough task to open a festival, but the young lads in Mad Haven do a fantastic job! Their blend of melody and blues was great and their song writing prowess was on full display with their big, catchy choruses. All three of them were fantastic, but I found myself being drawn towards the frontman. His energy on stage was electric and his lead guitar playing was unreal for someone so young these days! The Forge Ahead Music Group (a collective that will appear more than once in this review), have a great band on their hands here, and they’re going to be big!
Next up were the ever-fantastic City Kids. Bringing their punk swagger with them as always, the band ripped through a set that easily could have rivalled Social Distortion or Rancid back in their heydays. Rock’n’roll is in their blood. They look, sound and act the part and have the crowd firmly in the palm of their hands throughout. This is my second time seeing them and I’d say they were just as good as they were at Rockin’ the Bowl!
A tough act to follow, our good friends Daxx & Roxane bring their own style of classic rock all the way from Switzerland. And with it came a whole lot of energy. They bounced around the place yet still maintaining a good level of 80s swagger and attitude. Their music is a perfect fit for the festival, as well as being awesome in general. And their new track that’s soon to be featured on their upcoming album was 🔥🔥
Next up were more friends of ours, the awesome Revival Black! Much like Daxx before them, they brought plenty of fire and passion to their set, proving why they belong on a stage of this size. Dan Byrne has plenty of charisma and stage presence. The rest of the band have enough energy to keep up with him, too. The fans ate it up and it was a great set from start to finish!
We unfortunately missed Gin Annie due to interview commitments, but thankfully made it back for the awesome South of Salem. It was at this point that clearly the alcohol was getting to my head. My notes include the likes of ‘2Edgy4U’ and ‘too goth for glam but too glam for goth’. But, they also praised the living hell out of this band. They put their all into the set and as a result the crowd gave them everything they had back.
Joey Draper was constantly thanking the crowd for being there at their first big festival headline slot. The happiness in his face really said it all. Between that and the band splashing out on pyro, you could tell they really cared, and put on one hell of a show to prove it. Tracks like ‘Hate in Me’, ‘Pretty Little Nightmare’ and of course ‘Cold Day in Hell’ were all massive crowd favourites. In my honest opinion they should have closed out the night.
And That unfortunately leads us to…
The Treatment. Now please don’t hate me, but I never quite ‘got’ them. Don’t get me wrong, massive props to them for being one of the forerunners of the classic rock revival in the country and practically paving the way for NWOCR and a lot of the bands on the bill over the weekend. However, outside of a couple of tracks by them I never really got into them, and after sharing a line-up with them a few years ago it kind of soured me to them. However, to their credit, they put on a high energy show and did sound good live. And I’m always going to love ‘The Doctor’!