Review: Santa Cruz feat. Niki Rock

It's almost a year ago that Trash&Riot has visited a live show of Santa Cruz and came to the conclusion that it's absolutely worth seeing. Basically it's a sin that we are attending their concerts so rarely although they are playing a lot of gigs in their hometown Helsinki. If there is a good show, you have to go there! Even Tommi Niemi, the new owner of "On The Rocks", has seen the potential of the quartet - and created a whole events series for them!
Due to our always-busy schedule, we missed the first three editions of the "Santa Cruz Rock Nights" whose various special guests were amongst others Hybrid Children frontman Jasse Salonen so far.
But when we heard that none other than Barbe-Q-Barbies' front babe Niki Rock would perform with the "Cruz Boys" on this Wednesday evening, we ignored our busy schedule just for one night, to attended our first "Santa Cruz Rock Night" ever...

The show was opened by "Sweet Sensation" from their first EP "Another Rush Of Adrenaline". Later on they also played "Screamin' For Adrenaline" and "We're Aiming High" from that disc.
And talking about disks: We can hardly wait for the release of a new one! Especially when they whet our appetite by songs like "Let's Get The Party Started", "Hostile Shakedown", "For The Sin", "Over The Limit" and "Let Me Lay My Love On You". Thanks to the beautiful semi-ballad "Don't Run Away From Me" (formerly "Don't Get Away From Me"), the next EP should be sold like hot cakes, even to girls who are not into Hard Rock (yet). Already now, there are couples dancing arm in arm to that song.
After a small acoustic set it was time to rock again - with a lady who is definitely into Hard Rock, even has the word "Rock" in her name and made it impossible for us to miss tonight's concert: Niki Rock, leader of the Barbe-Q-Barbies!
It seemed that 2/4 of Santa Cruz took off their shirts beforehand to avoid working up a sweat. That's wise. After a birthday serenade to the singer of Finland's hottest girl rock band, the performance for "Wig-Wam Bam" - a song from the Barbe-Q-Barbies - followed. Well, to be precise, it's a cover version by The Sweet.
Actually there were plenty of cover versions played tonight, for example "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns'n'Roses, and before Niki appeared on stage, they guys had already played "Nightrain" by the same combo. Fittingly, Niki was wearing a Guns'n'Roses t-shirt as well but there were not only tributes to the band of Axl Rose but also to AC/DC ("Highway To Hell"), Billy Idol ("Rebel Yell") and some other artists...

A real "Rock Night", consisting of everything: Familiar sounds, new songs, an acoustic set, an illustrious guest star, some reinterpretations - and, of course, a lot of Rock'n'Roll. Tonight we were reminded of one of the biggest advantages you have when you are living in the Finnish capital.
We probably should benefit more from that and start again to visit more shows of Archie (Vocals and Guitar), Johnny (Guitar), Middy (Bass) and Taz (Drums), regardless of our jam-packed schedule. That's a promise!

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