Camden Underworld, London, UK18th October 2019
Kissin’ Dynamite - Support: Black Rain & Serpentyne
Friday night’s musical shenanigans had me down in the bowels of the Camden Underworld to see Folk Symphonic Metal band SERPENTYNE supporting BLACK RAIN and KISSIN DYNAMITE. Their support slot was an early one, starting at 6:30pm so I was surprised to see that a good crowd had arrived early to see SERPENTYNE play.
By the time they had finished their 30 minute set the venue was starting to fill up in readiness for the second support. SERPENTYNE’s set was a tighter one than usual, what I mean by that is the linking between songs had been truncated and this gave the whole 30 minutes a more flowing and connected feel. I have said in other reviews that I do not really like too much chatting between songs because unless you have choreographed your banter or are confident with chatting then the flow gets broken up and I don’t want to stand in the crowd thinking to myself ‘’yeah, yeah got that, just play the next song please’’. Apart from that and a lighting issue, which I will get to, the setlist was as tight and punchy as ever, a new song called ‘Bring On The Storm’ from the new album ‘Angels Of The Night’ was road tested live for the first time.
This Ragnarok battle chant went down well with the crowd but alas the bagpipe led tracks were missing tonight due to the lord of wind Vaughn Grandin being otherwise indisposed. Regarding the lighting, not well at all. The spotlights were virtually non-existent and when they did appear it was over the drummer more than Maggiebeth Sand. Any photo I took with a 1/160th to 1/200th sec shutter was too dark. Anything below was blurry. But surprise, surprise, the light issue resolved from BLACK RAIN onwards. France’s BLACK RAIN and Germany’s KISSIN’ DYNAMITE are two new bands to enter my field of view and both bands tonight were curiosity enablers. For BLACK RAIN think MOTLEY CRÜE / WASP. They played a fast, high octane set that had the collective juices of the crowd seeping out of every pore and evaporating in the air so that it rose and wafted around the venue infecting everyone with rock frenzy!
That frenzy was maintained for when KISSIN’ DYNAMITE came onstage. Think SKID ROW or HANOI ROCKS and again the dirty sexy groove of MOTLEY CRÜE topped with a sprinkling of BON JOVI. If you can imagine infectious stadium energy confined to an underground space in the middle of Camden then that is what you got. Arm pumping anthems and head banging riffs that had some crowd members on the verge of orgasm. I’ve no idea what tracks the bands played and from what albums they came from, that didn’t matter, what mattered was energy! It was invigorating! Oh, I do remember one track from KISSIN’ DYNAMITE, I think it was called ‘DNA’. It was the musical equivalent of donuts! And sometimes you just gotta have a bag of donuts! DEF LEPPARD! That’s it, that satisfying rush you get after listening to DEF LEPPARD! I think I’ll end there…
...To sum up, SERPENTYNE are getting better and better. They have been paying their dues by supporting some of the world’s biggest Rock and Metal acts over the past eighteen months and the hard work is paying off. There are still some rough edges to smooth down but all is good on that front. In regards to BLACK RAIN and KISSIN’ DYNAMITE, if you yearn for raucous, energetic stadium rock that nods its head back towards the mid-eighties then you can’t go wrong with these two bands!
Setlist
01. I’ve Got The Fire
02. Somebody’s Gotta Do It
03. Love me Hate Me
04. DNA
05. Sex Is War
06. Ecstasy
07. Sleaze Deluxe
08. Breaking The Silence
09. Heart Of Stone
10. Waging War
11. Six Feet Under
12. I will Be King
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13. You’re Not Alone
14. Flying Colours
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