It’s no secret to anyone here that I love The New Roses. I’ve reviewed both recent albums, done a handful of live reviews and interviews. So of course when they announced a tour, y’all had to be expecting this review. And sure enough, the moment tickets went out, we got them for Birmingham and finally headed down to see them the other night. But what were they like? Read on to find out!
Firstly, I feel like this was the most intimate setting I’d seen the band in. Last year at Milton Keynes was small too, but this felt even more intimate. However, it was packed full of huge fans of the band, be it older or those recruited on the Massive Wagons tour last year, and they hung on the band’s every note.
However, before we get to them, we have to talk about how utterly incredible the support act was. The German-born old-school rock singer-songwriter had a solo set to open the tour instead of her usual full-band setup, but it worked fantastically. It almost gave Leonie a folk edge to her sound, something that I was not expecting heading into her set. However, it was a really interesting take on a lot of her otherwise rockier tracks, like ‘Bedroom Eyes’ and ‘Run Towards the Edge’. However, the highlight for me was the beautiful ‘Walk to West Berlin’; the already stripped-back, folky track translating so well to the set. And we even got a couple of awesome covers thrown into the mix too, her performing Whitesnake and Journey incredible well. It was a great set, and one hell of a way to open the evening!
Then, after a brief gap, the headliners took to the stage. Opening on a slew of new music off their recent album, it was great to hear something I hadn’t before! The likes of the album’s title track, ‘Bring the Thunder’ and later ‘When You Fall in Love’, ‘Natural Born Vagabonds’, ‘This Heart’ and ‘Whiskey in the Backseat’ all came across incredibly live, and were performed amazingly. Then you have some of the tracks that have stuck around from the last touring cycle like ‘Lion in You’, ‘The Usual Suspects’ and ‘1st Time for Everything’ coupled with the old classics like ‘Every Wild Heart’, ‘It’s a Long Way’, ‘Down by the River’ and ‘Thirsty’ and it was a pretty stacked setlist, to say the least! However, I do think that I’ve sadly seen them that much now that some live favourites have had to be dropped in favour of the new stuff. I know that it was inevitable, but I very much missed the likes of ‘Life Ain’t Easy’, ‘One More For the Road’ and even ‘Warpaint’. Clearly the band just need to play three hour sets like Foo Fighters or GnR, so if you could get on that next time guys that would be great…! We didn’t even get a cover, which is very shocking given how many I’ve seen them do over the years!
The band played just as well as ever, though. The stage was a little smaller than I think they’re used to at this point but Timmy and Norman ran around like the owned the place, putting on one hell of a show. Meanwhile the rhythm three held it down perfectly and played their asses off throughout. They are one of the most professional bands around in terms of sheer playing, and Timmy is one of the most underrated vocalists and frontmen around today. He had the crowd in the palm of his hand from beginning to end!
And there we have it, folks. An awesome night from two incredible artists in the semi-underground rock scene! Both Leonie and The New Roses were amazing and rocked the packed house in Birmingham! If you get the chance to see either live I cannot recommend it enough, and in the meantime you’ve GOTTA listen to them on track! We’re catching The New Roses again in February at Winters End, and will hopefully be seeing Leonie again ASAP, so expect more content on both soon!