Gig 20010609 Review

Source: Shihad.com (circa 01)

Date Published: Unsure

Who: Shihad.

Where: The Ocean - Hackney, London, England

When: Saturday 9 June 2001.

Reviewed by: Sol Khan.

Are Shihad truly the best rock'n'roll band in the world?? In my opinion, YES! On Saturday night I went down to see the boys play at The Ocean in Hackney (a suburb in the east of London, England).

Things got off to a disappointing start when I couldn't take my camera in, but I quickly got over that.

It was no surprise that a huge Kiwi and Aussie contingent turned out for The 'Had's single UK appearance. Two very cool things about the crowd were the number of first time punters from Down-under and the large number of non-ANZAC accents that I spoke to. Jon, Karl, Phil, and Tom left some VERY impressed locals in the wake of their full steam ahead power rock.

The songlist will be largely familiar to anyone who has seen the band recently. Old faves "La La Land", "Deb's Night Out", "Interconnector", and "Derail" were mixed in with most of the content of "The General Electric" (The General Electric, My Mind's Sedate, Wait And See, Pacifier, Sport And Religion, Brightest Star) and three new tracks (one was called Nothing, I don't remember the others). They even threw in a cover of Acker Dacker's "Back in Black" which drove the crowd into a complete frenzy and took me back to the first time I saw them - opening for ACDC at Athletic Park in 1991!

What was the exact order?? what were the other songs? I'm not too sure to be honest. Jon opened the show doing "Brightest Star" solo. Then the others came out and they launched into "My Mind's Sedate" after that I was too busy jumping around like a lunatic to stop and write anything down. How good was the pit? how high the level of energy?? Well, at the ripe old age of 28, it has been about five years since I've crowd surfed. I got up four times on Saturday!!

The new songs were good. First impressions were they're returning to the old school. A slightly harder edge with the vocals not as dominant.

A couple of weekends ago I went and saw Black Sabbath, Slipknot, Tool, Papa Roach, and others play at Ozfest. This was better, much better. I also saw Tool play at Brixton Academy on Tuesday. A great band, but their live show doesn't have half as much raw, mad, energy as Shihad's.

Big thanks to The Ocean staff for being so nice and organised, particularly the security crew working the pit who provided a safe landing without getting all upset about it.