Talking Heads, Southampton
California zany punksters Zebrahead are back in the UK once again and tonight is the 1st date of a lengthy tour which takes them all over the UK and into Europe. Local Southampton act “The City Calls” open the nights proceedings with an energetic 25 minute romp through some well crafted songs that benefit from the twin telecaster guitar backed sound that is complimented by Lucas Hardy’s well delivered vocals.
Is not easy an easy job opening up here for a headline band as the majority of the audience seem to turn up later, but those of us here were treated a very entertaining set from a band the shows great promise.
When a cocktail bar and inflatable palm trees were put on the stage before the band arrived everyone just knew it is going to be an interesting night. The band arrived on stage all decked out in Hawaiian shirts to the theme tune of “Hawaii Five O”, the now packed out venue reacted in a very positive manner with an extremely excitable warm welcome. The band come over as complete alcoholics as every opportunity the barman in the on stage bar delivers pints of vodka cocktails as regular intervals to their drinks holders on the microphone stands which the whole band drink heartily Despite their inebriated states the fun filled set included a great selection of tracks from the bands huge back catalogue including material from their latest album “Get Nice” such as the great chance for a sing-a-long “Rick Bobby” and the new single “She Don’t Wanna Rock”.
Zebrahead themselves could be described as a cocktail, if you put Sum 41, The Offspring, and The Beastie Boys in a blender what would come out would be something very close to the band’s style. Top marks go to the band encouragement of audience participation, with mass sit down, circle pits, and even someone crowd surfing in a blow up dingy dressed in divers mask with a snorkel. Ok, so this is the 1st night of the tour and the band show no obvious signs of jetlag, in fact they are on fire performing to a packed house where everyone in the room gets maximum entertainment from a band that obviously enjoyed delivering it. There are so many bands that come over from the USA thinking that breaking the UK is fairly easy, in this saturated market it is not, these guys though certainly stand out and thoroughly deserve any success they achieve.
Set-List
Zebrahead
Hawaii Five O (intro)
Blackout
Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right….
Jag Off
Rick Bobby
Postcards From hell
Truck Stops & Tail Lights
Hell Yeah
Hello Tomorrow
Rescue Me
Mike Dexter…
Nudist Priest
Girlfriend/Hit Me Baby One More Time/
Wannabe-Medley
Mental Health
Just The Tip
Playmate Of The Year
Set Up
Get Nice
Falling Apart
She Don’t Wanna Rock
Anthem
HMP
The City Calls
Intro
Heroics
Get Away
Kings
Take Me Home
Meet In The Middle
Truth Or Dare
Videos
Zebrahead
The City Calls
http://thecitycalls.co.uk/
http://www.zebrahead.com/
Videos and Review By Dave Chinery(Chinners).
Pictures and Crowd Surfing by Alex Cook
