Sons Of Apollo Notthingham Rescue Rooms 8-7-18

First up was Jay Wud a 4 piece from Dubai led by guitarist and lead vocalist Jay and their 30 minute set consisted of material from their 3 album career.

With hint's of Alice In Chains in the vocal's and Metallica heaviness in the guitar riffs along with progressive time changes a plenty.Heads nodded to songs as good as Empire and Killing My Own and one to watch out for sure.

The Rescue Rooms were sold out for a real super group with cv's to blow minds.
In fact the only musician I hadn't seen in the last 18 months or so was Ron Bumblefoot Thal on guitar who is ex Guns N'Roses.
I had seen Jeff Scott Soto on vocals in his own band Soto(previously Journey too),Billy Sheehan on bass in Mr Big,Derek Sherinian on keyboards with Black Country Communion and Mike Portnoy on drums with Neal Morse band and his Shattered Fortress project.

As the band take their places Billy and Bumblefoot behind huge double neck guitars,Derek and Mike take their places behind banks of keys and the biggest drum kit I have seen in many a year.Jeff Scott Soto comes on and with a dropped fist we are off for a 2 hour set that is jaw dropping in execution and musicianship that 10 pairs of eyes would not be enough to watch all that is going on.

Here is what they played.

God Of The Sun
Signs Of The Time
Divine Addiction
Just Let Me Breathe (Dream Theater cover)
Labyrinth
Billy Sheehan bass solo
Lost In Oblivion
The Prophet's Song/Save Me (Queen cover)
The Pink Panther theme
Opus Maximus
Figaro's Whore
Derek Sherinian keyboard solo
Lines In The Sand (Dream Theater cover)
Encore of 
Bumblefoot guitar solo
And The Cradle Will Rock (Van Halen cover)
Coming Home

Jeff has a grin from ear to ear at his luck in fronting band this good.Kudo's to the sound man who managed to make everyone audible which was an incredible feat.

They rattle through God Of The Sun,Signs Of The Time and Divine Addiction with out missing a beat with an interaction that is god given and a sense of fun and tightness that should be borne of year's together not this being their first tour albeit a lengthy one.

Mike and Derek go back to their Dream Theater days with the epic Just Let Me Breathe before Billy had his solo spot during Labyrinth.Really no one on the planet is close to this man and his fingers dance over the double neck and we all gawp in amazement.

Jeff get's his solo moment with The Prophet's Song before he is joined by Ron for an emotional Save Me dedicated to his former band mate Dave Z who we so sadly lost nearly a year ago. 

Ron is a revelation with his guitar playing quite amazing and he has a voice to match with his back up vocals stellar.When he joins Billy centre stage as they solo together with matching fingers at the dozen you don't know who to watch!!

Derek's lengthy keyboard solo show's his class and I have never see him smiling so much and love The Pink Panther Theme too.

Mike is Mike one of the best drummer's on the planet.In face he didn't have a solo spot probably because each song he show's a degree of complexity and technique that is equal part's genius and a master class every single time.

Lines In The Sand is one of my favourite Dream Theater song's so it's great to see that played and Ron nearly matches John Petrucci's original solo!!But not quite.

The first encore of Van Halen's And The Cradle Will Rock sees Jeff in the crowd and not a song I ever expected to see live and Ron's guitar solo is perfect in tone.

Coming Home was re named and sang back as It's Coming Home which we thought it was at the time!!

Sons Of Apollo are with out doubt one of the finest 10 legged juke boxes on the planet with
Psychotic Symphony being a debut cd to admire.

Hearing it all played live shows that the organic jamming feel only masters of their instruments can have and we await album number 2 with bated breath.

Stunning.