Satellite Party Carling Academy 4th July 2007

A late edition to the gig season this year was the welcome chance to see Satellite Party at the Academy in Birmingham. The chance to see the band at this years Download festival was short lived, as with the running order of the day meant they clashed with Marilyn Manson, who seemed to but the bigger crowd puller on the day. The band is the latest project by former Jane's Addiction front man Perry Farrell, and has former Extreme lead guitarist Nuno Bettencourt as his fellow superstar band member, along with Farrell's wife on backing vocals, Carl Restivo on bass and Kevin Figueiredo on drums.

Now due to a technical hitch (camera left in car), I was unable to get any pictures on the night, but as ever the perfectionist, I will give on this occasion a review of the band and the night as best I can. Satellite Party were formed in 2005, and made their debut performance at the Los Angeles Key Club on 18th July 2005 followed by a performance at Lollapolooza at Chicago's Grant Field on 24th July 2005. The band then took 2006 off to record their debut album ' Ultra Payload ' , which was released in May 2007.

Farrell was one of the pioneers of alternative rock and Jane's Addiction were at the forefront of the alternative movement, having huge success with such monster hits as 'Been Caught Stealing' and ' Just Because ' but were perhaps best know for Farrell's outlandish stage attire and extremely 'camp' ways. The band split in 2004, for the fourth and final time, and Farrell set about creating a band around his premise of a huge party up in space, and the band and music that would play there. He even has created a movement around the whole idea, called the Solutionist's, whose ideals include dames,booze and music. The whole band and its music is a concept thought up and brought together by Farrell, and borrows its roots from his alternative rock rooks to funk, disco, pop and classical, all brought together with Nuno Bettencourts mastery of the guitar.

This year has been non stop for the band with a huge tour of the States and Europe taking place, and so far this year they have made several U.K. festival appearances at Download, The Wireless Festival and T In The Park, where they have been receiving rave reviews mainly due to the fact that Farrell knows how to incite a crowd to party and have a good time. This year also include Farrell being invited to number 10 to meet one of his biggest fans, ex P.M. Tony Blair, who presented the band with a platinum disc for U.S. album sales.

On to tonight's gig at the Academy. The band came on stage at around 9.15, and for the next 65 minutes they had they whole crowd rocking from beginning to end. Of course they played most of the album, but they also threw in some great crowd pleaser's from Jane's Addiction and ended with a rendition of Led Zeppelin's ' Rock N' Roll '. Farrell had the crowd in the palm of his hand, often jumping off stage and mixing it up with the crowd in the way he only can. Nuno was amazing on guitar, you forget just how good this guy is at playing, although he must be good as he has his own signature style guitar, the N4. His timing and ability is as good as anyone I have ever seen, and when you get to see him up close like this, you wonder how come he is not so well known in the U.K. The set was as follows:

• Stop
• Hard Life Easy
• Mountain Song
• Mr Sunshine
• Kinky
• Been Caught Stealing
• Milky Ave
• Wish Upon A Dog Star
• Insanity Rains
• Ain't No Right
• Only Love, Let's Celebrate
• Ultra - Payloaded Satellite Party
• Encore
• Rock N' Roll

The night was over all to soon. Personally I think they more than lived up to my expectation's. Perry Farrell is a brilliant, if not strangely insane front man, and in Nuno Bettencourt the band has one of the best lead guitarists in the business. I'm very surprised they haven't had more radio airplay, as most of the songs on the album are very radio friendly. The band did one thing very rare for them tonight, an encore. It was brilliant to see them so close up, and it was unfortunate to forget my camera, but I'm sure they will be back in the country soon to promote the album further. All in all it was a brilliant night, and the fact they seemed to really enjoy themselves in such a smaller venue was obvious. It would be a shame not to get the chance to see them again, and I urge you all to take a listen to them if you get the chance, as it is rare in this day and age tho see a band that is so well polished up on stage that they exude cool!