Spontaneity and Rock ‘n’ Roll: Wheatus’ Epic No Set List gig at Nottingham Rescue Rooms. Gig review

September 20, 2023 rocknews

I had the pleasure of photographing Wheatus at the Nottingham Rescue Rooms on the 19th September 2023. This was my first visit to the Rescue Rooms and I wasn’t disappointed. The venue is located in the centre of Nottingham and is a venue that hosts many well known bands. Its quite small which make the performances particularly immersive and allows great interaction with the band and their audience, creating a great atmosphere. The staff couldn’t be more welcoming and there was a friendly vibe around the venue for the entire evening. Certainly a venue I will be visiting frequently.

MC Frontalot

The evening started with support act MC Frontalot. Aka Damian Alexander Hess and the “Godfather of Nerdcore”. MC Frontalot is an American rapper and web designer who started releasing music in 1999. One could be forgiven for mistaking him for the much loved Harry Hill at first sight. His early music releases featured music from famous artists such as Paul Simon and James Brown. Since then he has released several studio albums including Nercore Rising in 2005, Final Boss in 2008 and Question Bedtime in 2014. His performance at last nights gig was very entertaining indeed. Im not an expert on rap music but I did have Eminem high on my playlist and the sound from MC Frontline was not dissimilar. In fact I would go as far as to say better in some ways due to the comical side and
its lack of aggressive undertones. This one man act, dressed in his white shirt and tie, certainly got the audience engaged from the start. I particularly enjoyed Nerdcore Rising, Charity Case The Rappist and Goth Girls. Armed with only a laptop and a microphone his act was seamless and was great fun to photograph with his comical movements and facial expressions. Albums include Nerdcore Rising, Secrets of the Future, Zero Day and Final Boss.

Wheatus

The main act Wheatus rose to world wide fame very quickly in June 2000 with their smash hit Teenage Dirtbag which went viral over social media with over 2 Billion views in less than 1 month!!. The song , written by the bands frontman Brendan B Brown in 1984 came about following a satanic murder by 17 year old killer Ricky Kasso. Kasso was wearing an AC/DC T-shirt. After that if you were seen to be into AC/DC, Metallica or Iron Maiden by parents, teachers and the police you were deemed to be some sort of Satanist. The song isn’t about Rick Kasso but is about defiance. When the song was released by the label Columbia in 2020 it went viral.
Their performance at the Rescue Rooms was brilliant from start to finish. Prior to the band coming on stage, Brendan came out and randomly picked three people to choose a song to open the show. This is how the whole evening went – No Set List, and the audience choosing which songs they wanted to hear – inspired!
Brendon B Brown is the bands frontman and lead singer. A talented guitarist with a distinctive voice and a great personality. He immediately had the audience involved and the act was perfect for the small venue. I won’t list all of the songs the band performed but among my own personal favourites are A little
Respect, Wannabe Gangster, Truffles, Hump em n Dump em, and Teenage Dirtbag, Leroy which was saved to the final song.

Bass Player Matthew Milligan was flamboyant and talented. A skilful musician who interacted well with the audience.

As a photographer it was nice to see the Drummer placed at the front of the stage. All too often they are right at the back and hard to get a good photograph of. KC Marotta started playing the drums at 11 years old. Extremely talented, and great to photograph. Although he is fairly new to the Wheatus line up, he was front and centre when it comes to stage presence

The remaining band members were all a bit in the dark in terms of being able to get a good photograph but not in terms of their contribution to the performance. Keyboard player Brandon Ticer was impeccable, as were the 2 ladies performing backing vocals – Gabrielle Sterbenz and Joey Slater. If you thought this band was a one hit wonder then think again – Extremely entertaining and well worth seeing live. For more of my images of last nights performance Click here