HARSH & MEDUSA TOUCH DreadnoughtRock Bathgate, 7th October 2022

With the working week drawing to a close, what could be more appealing to kickstart the weekend than a trip to Scotland’s longest running Rock Club for an evening of live music and a welcome return call to Bathgate by French Glamsters HARSH for a night of Big Hair, Loud Guitars and reams of solid ear bashing Rock n Roll from our Parisian visitors...along for the ride and to open up proceedings are Medusa Touch from ‘Doon The Road’ in Edinburgh, expect Crunching Riffs a plenty from these NWOBHM barons.

Supping sparingly on my alcohol free beverage and catching up with some ol’ muckers, acquaintances and fellow Fiends about passed gigs, future gigs and some general immature chat about the state of the economy, it was time for some live music with Medusa Touch kicking off on a twin guitar assault ,the ‘New Wave’ vibe boiling over the edge with some down n’ dirty, good old honest unadulterated rock, having served their NWOBHM apprenticeship back in the 80’s the band are true to that era on this outing, kicking off with ‘Twice as Nice’ & ‘Street Legal’ those Riffs had this reviewers’ toes-a-tapping, a new album is about to drop ‘Insaniteyes’ with a few being performed at the ‘Dread’ tonight, latest Single ‘Asylum’ along with ‘Dancing Angels’ & ‘When the Poison flows’ to name drop a couple, who doesn’t like a cover thrown in for good measure and a trip to the LA Metal Scene for a thumping cover of W.A.S.Ps ‘Wild Child’ before rounding off a solid show with ‘Terror Eyes’ and ‘Get Ready Baby’,what a fantastic start to the evening.

Resisting the temptation to continue with another alcohol free refreshment it was down to soft drinks for the rest of the evening, a quick turnover of all things stage related and we are ready for our headliners tonight. Having heard the HARSH guys were treated to an afternoon of Scottish hospitality - Bacon Rolls, Brown Sauce and a Beverage or two.... what more encouragement does one need to put on a stellar show.

Looking like the Grandeur Rockers of our Yester-year Hair & Glam Metal bands, for the 60 minutes these young lads packed everything and more into a well polished, energetic romp of hard n’ fast foot stompers and fist punching banging tunes, the set would be mainly stacked by tracks from their recent album ‘Out of Control’ released earlier this year, the sleaze/swagger feel of ‘The Sound She Does’ , ‘Make The Law’ and current video single ‘Never Let Go’. Some mighty fine dual guitar trickery on show this evening with both Singer Albert and Lead Guitarist Séverin exchanging six string shenanigans with each other, Séverin taking over on lead chanting for a stunning cover of ‘Born to be Wild’, further offerings from the recent release with the grit driven riff monsters of ‘Never Let Go’ and ‘Fire at Will’, the band were well in their stride by this point and a somewhat welcomed breather in ‘Believe Me I’m Alive’ would slow the pace down just a touch before pulling the trigger for a final barrage down the home stretch, the thumping vibe of ‘Tease Me’ leading nicely into that Michael Sembello classic ‘Maniac’ spawning yet another trip back to the 80’s, before long, time was being called but not before some ‘Good Lovin’ was being spread around the good folks at the Dreadnought.... where had that hour gone, a cracking show by HARSH.

With a few high profile tours coming up for HARSH over Europe, its easy to see why they have been snapped up to open for Anvil, Loudness and The New Roses for the remainder of 22 and into 2023, a youthful, well-oiled live act, with style and the ‘chops’ to match.....

A great night of Live Music, 2 bands with differing styles but the package complimented the genres on show tonight... all this for the less than the price of a couple of beers.

MG