The Answer: Academy 3, Manchester, England 10/13/06

Thank you The Answer,
You’ve made me feel young tonight…

In fact, I think I’m the youngest person in attendance tonight, and at 26 years of age, that’s no mean deed!  Most of the audience looks like they’ve dusted down their leathers and dug out their rock boots for the show here.  And there are no surprises why – The Answer are all about classic rock‘n’roll anthems.  Led Zeppelin, AC/DC & Thin Lizzy are all glaring apparent influences in their music. With the sudden influx of copyist artists around these days, it would be easy just to dismiss the band as another here today gone tomorrow fad, like our British friends The Darkness.

The fact that Kerrang magazine have hailed this band as one of the most exciting new prospects to emerge on the rock scene should tell you otherwise.

The quartet from Northern Ireland entered the fray to loud cheers, in this compact but capacity filled venue. As Cormac Neeson (vocals) and Paul Mahon (guitar) get into their stride, a little glimmer of the star quality that their aforementioned influences had, starts to shine through.  Tracks like “Under The Sky” & “Come Follow Me” delivered slices of rock that the crowd absolutely lapped up, mixed with the blues rock of “Memphis Water” and the odd rock ballad thrown in for good measure.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that people will suddenly be converted to classic rock on the strength of their compositions, but hell, there’s some very anthemic leanings to their style.  As a unit on stage, The Answer quite easily hold their own, and are musically tight.

As they finished up, the crowd demanded more… and more!

Maybe these pretenders have managed to spread their gospel further than they thought, and that stadium might not be too far in the future. 

They had me playing air guitar anyway!