Collateral, City of Thieves, Pearler, Circus 66, Holloway Strip, Nambucca April 2022

Due to a signal failure of the tube I missed first band Trouble County, but managed to see most of Circus 66. Their singer is a striking brunette with long hair and a strong voice. Their set is pretty decent hard rock bordering on metal. She has good charisma engaging with the crowd including getting into the audience and mock pole dancing on the club’s vertical columns. With 80s guitar solos their influences are clearly vintage and a glittery black scarf on the mike stand suggests a penchant for the glamorous kind, but with an image that could comfortably fit with a darker modern aesthetic which is likely to stand them in good stead.

Pearler are a harder band with influences including Bay Area Thrash and 90s stoner stuff like Stone Temple Pilates. Their songs are melodic and old school enough to carry them with this lighter hard rock crowd. White high tops, denim cut off vests, patches, curly long hair, big beards and a guitarist reminding me of Ron Thal give them a biker thrash image. They hail from Swan Lake Bay in West Wales and its taken them 5 hours drive to get here. Finishing with a bit of Black Sabbath they get an appreciative reaction from the crowd.

City of Thieves were clearly known to the audience and it seems more than a few people were there to see them as well as the headliner. They were previously known as Four Wheel Drive and have been working with former Little Angel Toby Jepson. Singer Jaime Lailey reminds me a little visually of Tom Keifer of Cinderella, although he sounds more like Taime Downe of Faster Pussycat on the sleazier tracks and overall they are straightforward catchy punky hard rock like The Wildhearts. The guitars remind a little of Airbourne or AC/DC at times and the fast solos ending in crescendos at the end of tracks shows a devoted history of study of vintage rock and metal. Apart from ‘Young Broken Hearts’ reminding me of UFO’s ‘Rock Bottom’ the songs are original if derivative. I would definitely be happy to see them again.

Collateral have made quite a name for themselves being championed by a number of radio stations and supporting Bon Jovi on his cruise. They are definitely a slick stage act now with all the moves, great crowd engagement and the chops to deliver their mix of rock and country more than a little inspired by New Jersey’s favourite rock sons. Kicking off with singles ‘Lullaby’ and ‘Midnight Queen’ they now have a roster of records known by the crowd who frequently sing along. They play a couple of new tracks unknown to the crowd which get a decent reaction for totally new material. One is a bit Joviesque, the other had a solo that reminded me of John Norum of Europe, not too shabby! Charismatic singer Angelo Tristan does a couple of acoustic solo turns providing a bit of a contrast before they end with big rockers Big Shot and Merry Go Round. They provide a big show for a very small stage and a relatively small venue with Angelo reaching out frequently to fill all available space with his longer than average limbs as befits a bidding rockstar. They are always good value and one can see them doing much bigger venues than this when the world gets going again. It was good to see good numbers turn out for this event, a good barometer that classic rock is alive and well in Landan town.

Dawn Osborne