Review & Photography by Andy Payne for MPM
A full moon shines down on the streets of Camden on a chilly October evening. It is spooky season, and The Black Heart is in full Halloween mode, bedecked with skeletons, cobwebs and corpse-filled cocoons.
The upstairs tonight, however, tells a different story as German rockers The New Roses are here tonight to spread nothing but good vibes and some rock’n’roll cheer.
Rock fans being rock fans, the venue is still filled with black t-shirts, but everything else in the room is bright and colourful.
The stage is decorated with a beautiful selection of guitars, and a wonderfully shiny drum kit sits in the centre; behind, the band’s large yellow backdrop just about fits on the wall and then right at the front of the stage is a small Lightbox highlighting the name of tonight’s support.
Tonight’s show hasn’t sold out, but you would be forgiven for thinking so judging by the queue to get inside and to the front of the stage as early as possible. Beside me is a group of women who have flown from Germany for this show, and to the other side is someone who claims to have seen tonight’s headliners eight times already as support for Massive Wagons, and he is desperate to see them again.
First though is Leonie Jakobi. Born in Germany but living in Liverpool, Jakobi’s recorded output is with a full band and blends Americana and Blues genres together, but tonight, we are treated to a fully stripped-back show as Jakobi is performing solo with just a microphone and a white Stratocaster. Unaided by any accessories, such as a loop pedal or a drum machine and standing just a few feet away from a rapidly growing audience, Jakobi shows no signs of nerves and gives a flawless performance.
With just the right amount of distortion added to her guitar, the opening song, Bedroom Eyes, takes on a new life and has a much stronger Brit-Rock and Punk sound.
By the time she introduces a new song Don’t Mind Me, the audience is captivated and fully on board when we are then treated to a huge crowd singalong to Whitesnake’s anthem Here I Go Again.
Once she knows that she has everyone’s undivided attention, Jakobi takes a short break to introduce herself properly and delve further back into her family history with some entertaining yet sobering anecdotes of her family living in Berlin during the East-West divide.
It is a story that resonates with more than a few people in the crowd tonight and is a perfect segue for Jakobi to play her heart-wrenching ballad Walk to West Berlin. The intimate setting of the venue and Jakobi’s wonderful solo performance brings an added personal sentiment to this song in particular and it is without a doubt my highlight of the show.
It is a testament to Jakobi’s skills as a performer that she is so capable of switching the mood and atmosphere of the room at the flick of a switch (or, in her case, the strum of a string).
Immediately following up with two new songs, Sunshine and Car Crash With Fireworks which both ramp up the distortion another notch for an up-beat rock’n’roll vibe. The latter of the two being a particular standout that had a lot of people nodding their heads in time to the beat. I would be really keen to see Jakobi perform with her full backing band and as she draws her set to a close she lets us know that she will be returning at the end of November.
The set ends with another raucous crowd singalong, this time to Any Way You Want It by Journey which unsurprisingly has everybody singing along from start to end.
There is little movement in the room during the break between acts as nobody wants to lose their spot, and the room is practically full by the time the lights go down, and some hip-hop intro music plays out the PA. It is quite a striking contrast from the stripped-back performance we have just seen as the German quintet take their places on the small stage and launch straight into the title track of their new album Attracted to Danger.
Whilst The New Roses are still relatively unknown in the UK, they have played some huge shows in Europe and toured with some of the biggest names in Rock, and it shows. The band play with an energy as though they were in a venue twice the size with vocalist Timmy Rough leaning out into the crowd and commanding them to match their enthusiasm and it’s impossible not to. Attracted to Danger has everything that you want in a classic rock banger; an infectious chorus, a dazzling guitar solo and a key change finale to boot.
Following into the groove-heavy Bring The Thunder, the cramped stage is a compact yet explosive platform threatening to overflow at any moment. Lead guitarist Norman Bites and bassist Hardy W-Heart take control of one side, head-banging and playfully jumping around whilst rhythm guitarist Dizzy Presley is a little further back in partnership with drummer Urban Berz who takes centre stage behind Rough. Sat directly in the spotlight, we get a great view of Berz as he pounds away at the kit with a ruthless vitality; all the while playing up to the audience and throwing his sticks in the air.
When You Fall In Love is hair metal at its finest, echoing the likes of Bon Jovi and Aerosmith. Timmy Rough channels Steve Tyler in his vocal delivery and he is in fantastic form displaying a phenomenal range whilst barely breaking a sweat. It’s an outrageously upbeat song that seems purpose-built for large festivals and arenas.
This sentiment is reinforced when as the band starts to play ballad For A While, some of the fans at the front begin to distribute glow stick wristbands to everybody in the crowd and there is a tender moment when the whole room waves them in the air.
This is the first night of this tour and the band is clearly overjoyed to be receiving such a heartwarming welcome. After a few words of thanks to everybody, the band then dedicate their next song The Lion In You to Leonie Jakobi; a super fast-paced rager with a chorus that Def Leppard would dream of and another fantastic guitar solo from Bites who’s fingers glide up and down his low slung fretboard without even needing to look.
The band are such a joy to watch that at one moment during a brief break between songs, a fan in the crowd simply screams out the words “Stage Presence” to a rousing cheer of approval.
The New Roses have the Black Heart in the palm of their hand and they savour each and every moment. As this is the first show of the new tour, it is the first time that they have played any of their new material and the band play a whopping six songs out of the ten on their new album, making up about a third of the setlist. Whiskey In The Backseat is a particular highlight, bringing in a more modern US radio rock influence, especially in the monumental chorus that calls to mind the likes of Nickelback and Shinedown. The US influence is ramped up even further when Timmy Rough is then handed an acoustic for the Americana-style ballad Natural Born Vagabonds.
Back to the older material, the whole room is singing and clapping along to the chorus of Nothing But Wild with Rough once again displaying his vocal prowess, hitting some extremely high notes and attacking the verses with a staccato delivery that dials up the rock’n’roll sleaze.
Following up with “a song for the newbies” It’s A Long Way from their debut album keeps the momentum flowing with a hip-swinging groove and some thunderous hair metal guitar riffs. This is Bites real time to shine as he takes centre stage for a guitar solo that ends with him playing behind his head. “I can’t believe it’s a Wednesday night, it feels like a Saturday night” The singer beams to the crowd with a restrained cheer from everyone trying to ignore that they have work tomorrow.
Playing a 90-minute set, The New Roses are able to cram an impressive eighteen songs into their setlist covering their whole back catalogue. Glory Road is a sensational power ballad that has everyone singing along with Rough over another sumptuous solo from Bites and by the time they close their set with party song Thirsty everyone is jumping and dancing.
There is then a very short break before the band returns for an inevitable encore. As Rough once again dons his acoustic guitar he tells the tale of how they recently recorded their first guest feature with an English band, but in a cruel twist of irony that band are currently on tour in Germany so he will have to sing both parts.
Regardless Hold Me Up is still a beautiful and uplifting song that encapsulates the whole evenings feeling of unity and support. It is Rough’s greatest performance of the night as his voice stuns the room into silence followed by rapturous applause. Before the rest of the band come out for the final two songs, Rough takes a moment to shout out a band they played with when they very first came to London eight years ago and have always stayed in touch with and then its off to the races with a hugely energetic send-off of The Usual Suspects and Down By The River.
If The New Roses maintain the momentum from this show for the rest of their tour, then they will undoubtedly leave the UK with a lot more fans and surely it is only a matter of time before they return for a bigger stage.
