[Concert Review] Adam & the Ants, Live at The Danforth Music Hall

Who: Adam & the Ants
What: Kings of the Wild Frontier tour
When: Jan. 29, 2017
Where: The Danforth Music Hall, Toronto ON

Long-time readers know I was born and grew up, until my very early teenage years, in the UK (we are not the self-described “Trill OG Blog” for nothing!) One of the first music acts I got into back then was Adam & the Ants, a new wave/punk band that drew influences from glam, British musical theatre and history, African Burundi drumming and other elements, some of which might be considered dubious or a tad non-PC in today’s era, to create a singular persona and sound that dominated the UK pop charts around the turn of the 80’s.

Truth be told though, my sister, staff photog for The Kitchen, and the auteur behind the shot above, was the true fan. We were both excited though when we heard we’d be given an opportunity to go see Adam at the Toronto date in his Kings of the Wild Frontier tour where he was set to play his hit 1980 album the tour was named for in full including some songs that had never been performed live on stage before.

Upon arriving at DMH we learned the show was seated, not my preference as, even though we were there in a professional capacity, we fully intended on jumping around and dancing like loons in anticipation of hearing part of the soundtrack to our youth being recreated live on stage. Openers, Glam Skanks, an all-female, 70s-inspired, ‘glitter-rock’ band were fine if you are young or uncool enough that you have never heard of The Runaways (an iconic proto punk/glam, female rock band if either of those things apply to you), but what can I say, we were really there for the main attraction.

And luckily, when he finally hit the stage, Adam did not fail to (stand and) deliver! (Well other than I was holding out, hope upon hope, that his legendary band mate and songwriting partner, Marco Pirroni would be in the house on stage too, but alas it was not to be…) Besides that minor quibble though, Adam looked fantastic. He’s still rocking his trademark period costuming which, in hindsight, has been an obvious influence on the look for Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow Pirates of the Caribbean character and he’s in amazing shape, maybe even better than during his 80’s prime. He didn’t move a ton on stage but he also looked far from being a tired old man which some of these punk/new wave era heritage acts on the nostalgia circuit can often come across as. He also didn’t do much in the way of in-between song banter (other than in the middle of the show when he poignantly dedicated the performance to his guitarist and musical director, Tom Edwards, who had passed away just a few days before the date in Toronto)

Hearing Kings of the Wild Frontier live in sequence in this setting (still with two drummers, yes!) was amazing. The best songs from the album have lost none of their kick, freshness or urgency and Adam performs them like they’re brand new songs and not almost 40 years old. He also blessed fans with a few other musical highlights from his career post-Kings plus a cool cover of T-Rex/Marc Bolan‘s “Get It On” although sue me if I wanted to hear “Ant Rap” and “Deutscher Girls” too! All in all though, it was a great show and I can’t imagine many true fans left at the end of the show unsatisfied.

Set List:

Dog Eat Dog
Antmusic
Feed Me To The Lions
Los Rancheros
Ants Invasion
Killer In The Home
Kings Of The Wild Frontier
The Magnificent Five
Don’t Be Square
Jolly Roger
Making History
The Human Beings
Beat My Guest
Christian Dior
Stand And Deliver
Vive Le Rock
Cartrouble
Desperate But Not Serious
Zerox
Never Trust A Man (With Egg On His Face)

Encore:
Lady/fall In
Goody Two Shoes
Prince Charming
Red Scab
Get It On
Physical

Bonus:
Spotify listeners, check out the Kings of the Wild Frontier album below. Tidal listeners, go HERE.

[Album Premiere] Different Kitchen presents This One Goes To Eleven…

Well it’s finally here: the This One Goes To Eleven… 11th Anniversary compilation album for Different Kitchen! It’s been a three to four month journey putting this project together but it came together in a really great way and I’m super happy & proud of the sound of it and how it turned out in the end.

I’ve spent 11 years doing this blog, at some points spending more time on it than others but this is one of the things in my life that I get to do that really reflects who I am, my musical & aesthetic tastes and how I see the world without regard for what is cool, will sell or drive online traffic or what I should be doing from a career or personal life point of view.

All of the artists on the album are ones I really dig, personally and I have backed that up by supporting their music and careers on the blog. I’m glad that they all came through and supported this project with their art. Props go out to The Names Are Known, King Reign & Saukrates, Keita Juma, Brendan Philip, Noah Vinson & Isis Ash, Joel. & Arthur Lewis, J.Nolan, Jai Nitai Lotus & Sam I Am Montolla, Audego, Emay, Third Mind, 416 Band and Mickey Factz.

Also a big thanks goes out to Exclaim! magazine, the top music media outlet in Canada, who came on board as a media partner and co-premiered the album on their site HERE.

Tired of streaming the album and want to play it in iTunes, on your mp3 player or go ‘old school’ and burn a CD copy for the whip? Download the entire This One Goes To Eleven… album complete with art HERE: mediafire (zip file)

Album Credits:
Marketing by CoolerBuzz
Audio mastering by Neil McDonald and Paul Kehayas for Echosound Studiolab
Art by Tiffany Pilgrim for Tiffany Pilgrim Art Direction & Graphic Design
Promo Art by Shehab Tariq for Implant Media
Viral video production by Ian Jones for the ear2much collective
Media Partner: Exclaim!

(For songwriting & production credits, click/see the back cover art above or to the album link on Soundcloud HERE to check each song’s credits individually)