Don't Fuck With The Truck
Tonight's closing band Monster Truck have recently seen their name and reputation grow and grow. After a brilliant set of support slots on the recent Vista Chino tour, it felt only right for this band to be headlining their own show in the UK so soon. The band are in the midst of the promotion of their release of last year's Furiosity, so much of the set list came from this record.
Monster Truck opened with the absolutely huge Old Train which is perhaps the bands most well known number, the crowd from the off right into it, chanting and clapping along. The sheer energy on stage is a sight to behold, especially that of lead guitarist Brandon Bliss who was running around the (very small) stage at the Underworld like a young Angus. If you see this band live, one thing for sure is that your gaze will at some point in the night just be constantly drawn towards this energetic character. At times with band's there is this over willingness towards bombast and energy and it can affect the performance, but not with Monster Truck. They were absolutely on point, every riff sounded huge, each sing along moment special. Other key highlights in the set included Righteous Smoke and The Lion, each again getting huge reactions. The excellent thing about Monster Truck live is their overwhelming desire to just have everyone involved in the crowd. Front man Jeremy Widerman gets the crowd in the palm of his hands from the off and doesn't let go and considering the band are still very much within the "up and coming" bracket of heavy music that is an excellent attribute to have.
Looking at the whole landscape of this tour, it was brilliant to see Monster Truck and Scorpion Child sell out a venue like the Underworld, showing there is real and genuine following still for Heavy Rock Music. Scorpion Child were great tonight, but Monster Truck raised the bar slightly more. But these were two bands who were able to put on a great show, leaving the crowd going home happy, can't really ask for much more.