H.E.A.T. @ The Fleece, Bristol, 28 January 2025

2 February 2025

If you go to a gig and can’t stop smiling all night (or grinning, more like), that’s probably a fairly good sign it was a good one. This is what H.E.A.T.’s concert at The Fleece, Bristol, felt like on Tuesday evening, kicking off the UK leg of their European tour.

As regular visitors to the UK with a substantial following here and ongoing support from Planet Rock, H.E.A.T. have a close link with their fans in this country. You could tell how comfortable they feel on stage here, with singer and frontman Kenny Leckremo having the crowd wrapped around his finger. He does like to chat and keep the banter going with the audience, showing off his immaculate British accent, and letting us know just how much he misses the UK (apparently, he used to live here: who knew!). There was also a brief emotional moment when he expressed sincere gratitude towards Erik Grönwall, his predecessor, for what a fantastic band he left behind with his departure from H.E.A.T. five years ago when he went on to join Skid Row.

While smaller venues like The Fleece are great for building up a close relationship with the fans, bands like this belong to large arenas. This was a hurricane in action which really needs a proper big stage to unravel. We had a taste of that a couple of years ago at the Steelhouse Festival when H.E.A.T. absolutely ruled the stage.

The entire concert was pure adrenaline, immaculate from start to finish. It kicked off with “Disaster”, the bombastic first single from the upcoming album Welcome To The Future (due out in April). As soon as the new track was released, it got A-listed by Planet Rock, and it’s no surprise it is heading the European charts already, taking the No 5 spot over here. This single is a typical track for the band, in their energetic, high speed melodic hard rock style.

The experience H.E.A.T. deliver is always one to remember. The setlist was a journey throughout their entire career, not specifically focusing on their newer work. As they did with their previous album, the tour precedes the new release (while most bands typically tend to tour just after their new album comes out), building up anticipation on a larger scale. In addition to ‘Disaster’, they presented one more song from the upcoming album, “Bad Time For Love”. The rest of the setlist was distributed fairly equally between ‘Force Majeure’ 2022 (4 tracks), ‘Address The Nation’ 2012 (2 songs), ‘H.E.A.T. II’ 2020 (3), and 2 from ‘Tearing Down The Walls’ 2014. Tribute was paid to their earliest works, too, by playing their very first single, “1000 Miles”. Disappointingly, though, they did not perform my personal favourites “A Shot At Redemption” and “Come Clean”, but hey ho, that’s what streaming services are for!

Instrumentally, the performance was impeccable, with a good light and pyro show that was well balanced for a small venue like the Fleece. The sound engineers did a fantastic job, too, which felt lucky, given the fact that the support art preceding H.E.A.T., Art Nation, had no mic at all during their first track, and the rest of their half an hour performance was painful to listen to, due to the poor audio quality. They were a great match to H.E.A.T., however, so it’s a shame that the sound spoilt the experience. They are just as enthusiastic as the main act, and with music of a similar genre and their enviable young energy, it would be great to see more of them under better circumstances.

The rest of the tour is seeing H.E.A.T. playing in Nottingham, Manchester, London and Wolverhampton.

Tracklist: