SAZ + Voltz - Town Hall, Kirriemuir 06-05-06
The day-long festival began with the unveiling, in the town where he was born, of a plaque to the late Bon Scott, former lead singer with AC/DC.
The afternoon saw the SAZ crew - or part of it - moving over to the Town Hall to watch an exceedingly young band play a set of covers and originals, and we all agreed that they were pretty hot stuff, complete with a rather fine lead guitarist. Didn't get the name of the band, sadly, but one definitely heading for better times - any band that young who can get away with a rather ace cover of Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World" has gotta be good.
Forward to the evening and SAZ get a soundcheck. There are four bands on and SAZ are on second. Soundcheck goes fine - it's a much larger stage than I've seen them play on before, so there's plenty of room to move around - and, boy, is it loud! The whole SAZ experience at high volume - perfect!
Forward to the event. As it's an AC/DC tribute day, the headline act is a tribute band called Voltz, who turned out to be very kind souls and a good bunch. The first act on was a band who mixed thrash, ska and other things in a mix that I didn't really go for, so not for me. Now, the Town Hall had a bar going in a side room, with a rule - the rule being that you couldn't take your drink into the hall itself, which meant if you wanted to drink, you could hear the band, but you couldn't see them! Yeh, that's what I thought, too! Anyway, with about 100+ people in the place for the first band, most opted for drinking.
So, time for SAZ to appear. They set up on stage then, without any announcing, thr first notes of the guitar riff introduction to "Gotta Get A Grip" ring out, the bass and drums hammer in while Nikki belts out the lead vocal and co-vocalist Nicola backs it all up and drives the vocal on and upwards. I look round - 'coz I think I know what's gonna happen. Sure enough, at the sound of some real heavy rock, the bar suddenly empties as people spill out into the Town Hall main floor to watch the band. The even better part was that, nearly to a man (and woman, they stayed there for the duration of the set!
That they witnessed what was , visually and musically, one of the hottest SAZ concerts yet, was a testament to the band's potential sucess as they got a rapturous reception and even bunch of people right at the front of the stage watching their every move - and move, they most certainly did. With drummer Richie powering it all forward from behind, guitarist Kev was moving back and forth to front of stage and back, hair shaking all over the place as he riffed his way to heaven, while bassist Marina and lead vocalist Nikki had the stage as their world and walked it. Through all of this, co-lead and harmony vocalist Nicola, the "spirit of SAZ" (as christened by Electra), would stay close to the mic or just a foot or two away as always, dancing her ass off to visual delight. As a live concert treat, this porved more than ever that, in terms of image, visual entertainment and eye-catching qualities, SAZ have got what it takes to win over any rock audience you put in front of them.
Musically, they turned out a blistering set of SAZ classics, from the roar of "Metal Attack", through the fiery "Scavenger" to the brand new number (whose title I still keep forgetting) that is the essence of SAZ in one song, with both vocalists having the hairs standing up on the back of your neck.
Overall, a superb and commanding performance - and definitely on the road to bigger and better things.