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Live Review from Underground 92:
Setlist:
1. Sweet Revenge
2. Jedi on the Run
3. Heart on Fire
4. Endless Shame
5. Back in Black (AC/DC cover)
6. Sweet Child of Mine
Looking very much like seasoned vets of rock, Revenge began their set with some major tremolo from guitarist Andy Cheng. Not wasting any time, they launched into the pacy, punchy Sweet Revenge. There was one minor detractor that surfaced during the song, though – singer Donny’s voice was somewhat buried by the thick bass; a real pity in light of that fact that he has the classic rock vocalist pipes, in the vein of Ronnie James Dio and Bon Scott (very fittingly, he had on an AC/DC tee.) Their next song saw some remarkable displays of left-hand shred-sterity by Andy, replete with fretting from both sides of the neck and some cool pentatonic licks, making him reminiscent (musically and visually) of the great Paul Gilbert. The crowd’s reaction was enthusiastic, and there was quite some rockin’ and tappin’ along in time.
Unlike most bands of their ilk, however, these guys did not fall into the trap of being one-trick ponies by displaying impressive versatility in their following songs, with some jazzy bass runs, walking basslines and spider picking thrown in. Following this minor departure, though, they went back to flaunt their chops at pure hard rock, with two of the most accurate versions of two of the most hackneyed rock standards. To their immense credit, they made the songs still seem fresh, and the changed-up solos were admirable (and the fact that both the aforementioned bands had twin-guitars!). They finished up with bassist Mark’s parting shot about the Sleeves being “a bunch of loonies”, and the Dirty Deed was Done (but not quite Dirt Cheap).
Shashwati
