Babylon A.D. at 229 London, Review and Photos by Dawn Osborne

229 is an old school club venue where there is literally no space between the band on stage and the crowd one step down on the floor. If you are a band that thrives on connection with its fans like Babylon A.D. it’s a chance for bonding with people and making memories that will not be forgotten soon.

Opener Crooked Shapes are a three piece alternative band from Reading with a Punky post Nirvana vibe, crossed with some metal, even occasionally prog, guitar solos with headbanging! They have a slightly anarchic Gen Z alienated feel, redolent of Kurt Cobain, not feeling comfortable in their skin in the world around them. They collaborated with Ricky Warwick of The Almighty who co-wrote the single ‘Can’t Win For Losing’ released earlier this year and I can hear Warwick’s influence in the big riffs of this song when they play it, it seeming more of a traditionally formed commercial rock song than some of their other material. They played a set with a lot of new songs due out on an album later this year and are quite switched on in terms of promotion, making sure the crowd gets all the information they need to follow the band.

Main support is  Bad Actress, a band I have fond memories of seeing a couple of years ago, who are unquestioningly a good time band, not thinking too hard about anything other than partying. They wear their influences such as Van Halen and Motley Crue literally on their sleeves and have pinched a few snippets from bands like Hanoi Rocks/Credence Clearwater Revival and Prince (I can definitely hear bits of Purple Rain in final song ‘Dynamite Lover’ for example), but which band hasn’t done that!

It’s a new line up since I last saw them. ‘Chick’ the guitarist with all the long blonde curls ad a good line in whammied up solos is still in place. Lui (who joined as the drummer after I saw them last) has become the frontman and is wearing a Van-Halen-like colourful outfit made up of bright tartan and painted white chains and, although very young, sings well in a helium-style way and looks the part. Like ‘Chick’ he has a rock star vibe and I think he will grow in confidence showin a lot of promise. It’s an overall much younger line up and they are full of youthful energy – the new drummer, who also sings harmonies, is a teenager in a Far Eastern headband and looks just like the Karate Kid! The band are actually from Scotland, Inverness and point out in a jokey, no doubt true, manner that they started travelling to this gig the night before. With songs like ‘Hot Stuff’ (not the Rod Stewart song), ‘Rockin’ With You’ and ‘Living in Paradise’ it’s an uplifting set, very much in the eighties Sunset Strip vein and a great intro for a band that were around back then…

..That band being Babylon A.D. Original frontman Derek Davis is an old hand at working a crowd and he is straight down the front, leaning into the crowd, amping them up. The band have a lot of great songs in their catalogue and they hit everyone with a big one to start ‘Back To Babylon’. Original guitarist Ron Freschi is still around, but it is a new line up otherwise, John Matthews sharing lead guitar duties, Craig Pepe on guitar and youngster Dylan Soto, still in his twenties as drummer. The band still sounds like it did though. Davis’ distinctive voice is the trade mark and an irreplaceable part of the sound (without Davis it wouldn’t be Babylon A.D. anymore) and together with Freschi has built another team of great musicians around them, so the sound is phat and juicy! The band sound amazing, especially considering they had a nightmare journey on American Airlines (an old lady had a medical emergency and the flight turned back the day before).  They had had an unplanned 4am start the same day as this gig, a landing at Heathrow that took 2 hours, and only just made the venue in time for the gig, but it didn’t affect their performance, they still smashed it out of the park! It is also very Babylon A.D. to come skidding into the venue just in time to hit the spot!

The band is very proud of their new albums released this year and last, and title track of  ‘When The World Stops’ and new track ‘Wrecking Machine’ from ‘Rome Wasn’t Built In A Day’ made an early appearance in the set and held up well to the much loved older material. Amazingly the front row of the crowd is full of young lads, barely twenty, that knew all the songs and fed off Davis’ tiger like energy, reaching back towards him and singing with all their might. It certainly helped take the gig from zero to seventy miles an hour from the off.

This was only boosted with epic ballad ‘So Savage The Heart’ and best known monster classics ‘Bang Go The Bells’ and ‘Maryanne’. When I first saw the set list I worried they would peak too soon playing these songs mid set. No such fear the audience went mad and it just served to ramp the action up further.

Davis gave the back story to ‘Come On Let’s Roll’ his trip with teenage friends to the last gig Led Zep would ever play in the USA at ‘The Day On The Green’, before rolling this new track out. It is highly accessible and so, even if people at the back were less familiar with it, they were soon singing along after the first chorus.

Davis went backstage while the rest of the band got to jam instrumental ‘Superbeast’. He is back for end of the main set for another enormous track from back in the day ‘Kid Goes Wild’. The band leave the stage to rousing cheers and such is the enthusiasm in the crowd chants of ‘one more song!’ becomes ‘two more songs’ and climbs to chants of ‘seven more songs’ before the band gets the hint and comes back for an encore. ‘Take The Dog Off The Chain’ another high energy number (from ‘Nothing Sacred’ in the nineties) is followed by ‘Warpigs’ and ‘Paranoid’ in tribute to Ozzy. Everyone joins in and even if the second and third verses are garbled a bit no one minds, the vibe is high and jovial! As Davis leaves he shouts ‘See You At HRH!’. (I did and stay tuned for my review and photos of HRH Sleaze coming up!)

Dawn Osborne