Tokyo Dragons - Give Me The Fear Tour 2006,
Glasgow Barfly, Scotland, 30/1/06,
With Catbuster and Crevis.

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The music scene seems to be deprived of great rock 'n' roll bands at the moment; what's 'in' is the emo and indie mob of bands.
But we all know they're shit. Tokyo Dragons are out there to destroy and show everyone how rock music should be played, and even on a freezing cold Monday night in Glasgow city centre, they pull it off very well indeed.

The first support band tonight are local band, Catbuster. This is their last gig ever, and fortunately, all seems to go well. They show real attitude and rock 'n' roll swagger, which would greatly contrast with all the indie bands standing like statues in one area. Rather than succumb to this, Catbuster strut the stage confidently, hair swinging and solos busting in all directions. Highlights of their set include the wah-drenched 'Getaway' and closer 'Black Widow'. If their future projects are anything like Catbuster are tonight, the music scene is set for a kick up the arse very soon.

Second onstage are the second support, mighty local band Crevis (okay, stop sniggering at the name). To put it quite simply, Crevis are simply frigging astounding. Mixing elements of just about every metal band you can think of - Iron Maiden, Pantera, Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer, Judas Priest, Metallica, Dream Theater - Crevis squeeze them into a collective ball, yet still manage to sound unique and refreshing, particularly with their closer and highlight 'Judgement Day'. A few punters are even singing along by the end of it, and tonight, Crevis come very close to blowing Tokyo Dragons offstage. Keeping this up, Crevis will go far.

Eventually, the Tokyo Dragons hop onto the tiny venue's stage and blast into album opener 'What The Hell', frontman Steve Lomax screaming like a man posessed. No sooner is the first song over than Steve adopts a generic rockstar pose and sneaks out the opening notes of arguably the Dragons' biggest hit, 'Get 'Em Off!', which kickstarts the crowd for tonight.

And as the fans go crazier and get sweatier, Steve and his cohorts - Mal Bruk on guitar, Mat Stady on bass and Phil Martini on drums - rattle through their debut album with more swagger and charisma than a vagrant balancing a fish supper on his head. There's 'Come On Baby', 'Burn On', 'Teenage Screamers', new song 'Rock My Boat', 'Do You Wanna?' and the energetic 'Johnny Don't Wanna Ride'. The lights dim and all but Steve leave the stage. But this audience is out for blood, and after a few minutes' chant (started by yours truly), the Dragons hit the stage for a final encore of sweaty rock singalong 'Ready Or Not', before high-fiving the fans and signing some autographs, as all great musicians should.

And so for tonight, their work here is done. Hopefully, Tokyo Dragons and other defenders of the faith out there (Slunt, Roadstar, The*Ga*Ga*s etc.) will give the world what its been needing for a while - a good big cowboy-boot rock 'n' roll kick to the balls. Kaiser Chiefs, Hard-Fi, piss off - Tokyo Dragons have arrived.