Drunk Horse - Metro, London, 24/4/2005

by Philip Vincent

published: 15 / 4 / 2004

At the Metro Club in London, Philip Vincent sees 70's retro rockers Drunk Horse put on only a mediocre performance, but is blwon away by their support, the Tokyo Dragons

Article

Once again I found myself on a train going very slowly through stations I had never seen before due to engineering works. This time, however, I found out there was a reason. The train was a magical time travelling one and it was taking me back to the dawn of hard rock and the 70’s! I got off the tube, walked through a decidedly busy Tottenham Court road and into the Metro Club. I was a bit late so the Tokyo Dragons had already started playing. The sweat and heat hit me like I had walked into a jungle. This band were rocking the packed out crowd (one thing that is great about the Metro Club is that its always nearly full!). I went to the bar, bought a beer, lit a cigarette, leant back and got totally sucked in by the band on stage kicking out the Jams. These guys looked like they were from the 70’s and, not the polished jump suit toting pomp of the Darkness, but Led Zep and AC/DC downright dirty blues RAWK ! They had it all, the flares, the moustaches, the hair, even the huge kick drum. By the end of their set I was sweaty, happy and wanting to buy a big motorbike and drive across the USA. I thought to myself that, if these guys made me feel like that, the headliners would be incredible. After a short interval, in which the venue got even busier, Drunk Horse took to the stage sporting the same retro gear as the Tokyo Dragons. Frontman John Niles’ moustache was even cooler than the moustaches of the previous band. Unfortunately that was all that was cooler. The band were in the same style as the last, but took themselves a little too seriously. If you want to play music like this, you just can’t do that. They had some up points with quite a distinct Prog rock element in their music, but, after the Tokyo Dragons, I lost interest quite quickly so decided to ensure an earlyish arrival home taking into account the awful trains. Typically the trains home were all running fine so I was back through my front door before 11, but still feeling the rock from The Tokyo Dragons!