The Dust Coda and Bad Touch are currently wrapping up their October joint headline UK tour, and tonight sees the bands at Birmingham’s O2 Institute 3. It’s an early start and local grunge rock hounds When We’re Dead are already on stage and plying their trade as the rooms starts to fill up.
For this Birmingham leg of the tour, Bad Touch are first on and open with a gutsy ‘Come A Little Closer’. It appears that the band are currently self financing their next album and it’s not long before we get a taster with new song ‘Don’t Look Back’ and we can confirm that that rich seam of rock and roll they’ve been mining still continues to supply in abundance. ‘Good On Me’ has them channelling the Stones with Daniel Seekings and Pete Lance the perfect foil for one another on the guitars.
Most bands would die for a song half as good as ‘99%’, yet the fact that Bad Touch slip this gem into the middle of the set only helps to confirm the sheer quality of songwriting this quintet have given us over the years. In an alternate reality, Bad Touch would already have filled the void left by the likes of Whitesnake and Thunder and making the theatres and arenas their home. Until that happens, we have intimate nights like this to treasure.
With the tour having been rescheduled from March it has given plenty of time for new frontman Andrew Knightley to settle in to the new line up of The Dust Coda with John Drake having relocated back to his native Australia. He certainly cuts a striking figure with a mass of hair reminicent of Geezer Butler circa 1974 as they get things underway with hard hitter ‘Let Me Go’ before following with fan favourite ‘Jimmy 2 Times’.
It seems to me that post Covid time seems to be accelerating at an alarming rate. A point in case is when you’re reminded that their new album Loco Paradise is now well over two years old. What we don’t need reminding though, is how incredible that album is; ‘Call Out The Dogs’ sounds massive with monumental riffs and a huge chorus that Knightley gets the crowd singing along to.
An extended ‘Limbo’ sees Adam Mackie and Knightley lock together while Scott Miller & Tony Ho lay down the solid groove. It reaffirms just how tight and well honed The Dust Coda are. This is British hard rock at it’s finest, and if you need any more convincing, then final offering ‘Road To Hell’ is there to do the job. Mackie again delivering more tasty riffs and a blistering solo between the crowd loving chorus.
Those braving the cold, wet Tuesday night in Birmingham have been more than well rewarded with two superb sets from the cream of UK rising rock acts.
