Drink Drank Drunk
Hellyeah's history on record, it's fair to say, has been a bit shaky - that is until they released their latest album Blood For Blood which whilst not reinventing the wheel did have a heightened focus and drive which shone throughout. On the evidence of tonight at The Underworld, this greater focus has leaked into their live performances as this was a solid performance. A few tracks in, front man Chad Grey gave a passionate speech about Metal fans in the UK, whilst cynically viewed as a bit of a 'cheap pop', he did deliver it with sincerity, and looking out on the sold out floor at the venue he wasn't wrong.
The clear driving force in this band is the legendary Vinnie Paul on the drums. The sound mix certainly makes this the case, but his relentless command of the drum kit is as ever brilliant. Despite having two members who are still relatively new this is probably the tightest Hellyeah have sounded live and Chad had bounds of energy leading the line with his left boot firmly placed on the barrier throughout. It's not usual to see a barrier set up as The Underworld - and it did taint the intimacy with the crowd quite a lot actually - they're big names but it felt like a silly addition. As far as the whole performance is concerned, 'solid' is perhaps the right term for it - it wasn't bad, but it wasn't exactly groundbreaking. It was basically your standard heavy metal sound performed solidly.
Other than that their set list did have quite a lot of a focus around the latest record, but to good results. A few 'oldish' tracks were thrown in like Drink Drank Drunk which did also trigger some big reactions, but the band will be delighted at how well the new tracks were received.