RGG July 2016 - p.32
TREATMENT
THE
This gig was an absolute treat for
unreconstructed rock and metal heads, with
tastes forged and frozen with 70s hard rock and
the Maiden and Motorhead metal that followed.
Yet miraculously it had attracted a young
audience, who were rewarded with a go-berserk
in your bedroom energy rush, that they'd only
normally get If their PS4 controller shorted and
zapped some volts into their nuts.
Both bands, The Amorettes and The Treatment,
were so trad rock, yet had a real go-for-it
fervour, it all became fresh again and reminded
you why you fell in love with sticky floors and
ringing ears in the first place.
Headliners, The Treatment, were five lads in
leathers with boy band hair-do's, going
turbo-charged stage crazy delivering some
cracking catchy rockers such as opener 'Let it
Begin' and radio friendly anthem “Drink, Fuck,
Fight”. The latter followed new slow-y 'Backseat
Heartbeat', and vocalist and ex-Voice contestant
Mitch Emms, rightly gauged his audience saying
“enough of the ballad bollocks.”
Whether for good or bad, The Treatment look
like a rock boy band, and depending on your
frame of reference there's a Simon Le Bon/John
Taylor visual dynamic to the singer and lead
guitarist, or the whole band matched the full
original Take That one -to-one, with mohican
sporting Rick 'Swoggle' Newman as Robbie
Willams.
The Treatment's axemen had enthusiastically
absorbed Jack Black's wisdom from School of
Rock in adopting the ancient technique of
"power stance". They toasted those who'd come
to rock with lots of crazed smiling, head
nodding, and manic eyeball swivelling stares.
Great fun but they were outclassed by support
The Amorettes..
This Edinburgh three piece also had the
attitude, but outshone The Treatment on the
tunes. With track names from the AC/DC lexicon
such as “Bull by the Horns”, “Fire at Will” “Son
of a Gun” “Give em Hell”, these had meaty riffs,
big choruses', and thrilling guitar solos by singer
Gill Montgomery, that didn't outstay their
welcome. Because of the scarcity of all women
rock bands, its easy to name check and
reference The Donnas and The Runaways (and
I'm above making Fanny jokes), but the
Amorettes are a match for them, which is pretty
amazing. And though my glam tendencies
meant I fantasized about hearing a slightly
throat-hoarse Gill doing a full-throttle cover of
Suzi Quatro's 'Devil Gate Drive' or 'Can the
Can', their own songs stood up really strong.
THE
SLADE
ROOMS
Live review by
Bob Blincoe
