Caught Live : Nico Tamburella, Under The Bridge, London – Saturday 21st April

Nico Tamburella : Under The Bridge, London

Saturday 21^st April was time for Nico Tamburella to take centre stage at the launch party for his new album ‘Mind Cage’ which was released on through the Adixtion Music label the same day.

Liquid Fuse provided energetic support and warmed the crowd up nicely for the main event. 

The set opened with Nico taking centre stage showing off his virtuoso guitar skills to the full, and it was quite spectacular to see such guitar work so up close and personal.  Before long vocalist Geoff had taken the stage and the show was in full flow.

‘Shine On’ was taken from Nico’s previous album ‘Fundamental Darkness’ but ‘Shes A Killer’ and ‘Rock On Riot’ are a fantastic advertisement for the new ‘Mind Cage’ album.  ‘Dawnies Blues’ shows off some spectacular guitar work which reminded me of the late great Gary Moore in his prime.  That was followed by a bouncy version of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Superstition’ which got the crowd singing and dancing.

The albums title track ‘Mind Cage’ was one of the highlights for me and that lead into a guest appearance from the legendary Pete Way.  He was most famously (and still is) bass player with UFO but has also featured with Fastway, Waysted, The Plot and Ozzy Osbourne.  He joined Nico for a cover of the Hendrix classic ‘Hey Joe’ which saw the two guitarists going head to head with their boxes of tricks including playing their guitars behind their heads!

‘Fading Away’ and ‘Sleeping With The Devil’ again featured on ‘Fundamental Darkness’ but I really enjoyed the cover of ‘Highway Star’ which reminded me of seeing the legendary Deep Purple at Wembley Arena. ‘Live Until We Die’ was a real crowd pleaser and is arguably their best song while their cover of ‘Highway To Hell’ got the crowd singing in full voice.

There was time for an encore featuring a fantastic version of ‘Miss Sensation’ which really rounded the night off. For the rock n roll fan this gig had everything from full on singalong covers through amazing guitar work to some real classic songs.  Even if you weren’t there I recommend buying ‘Mind Cage’ – it doesn’t disappoint and covers so many aspects of rock music.  I’m really looking forward to catching Nico and the guys in live action again very soon.