The Dead Daisies In Full Bloom at Jannus Live

The Dead Daisies brought their ‘Like No Other – US Tour 2021’ to Janus Live in St. Petersburg, FL on Saturday, September 25^thin support of their latest studio release ‘Holy Ground’ from earlier this year.  Also on the bill was The Black Moods and metal comedian extraordinaire Don Jamieson.

I had purposefully gone into this show ‘deaf and blind’ to the music of The Black Moods. A friend had told me of how much he liked their music and their strong song writing abilities. As he and I have similar musical tastes, I was excited at the prospect. While this does not exactly help from a photography preparation perspective, I am well familiar with the stage setup at Janus Live as it has been my favorite outdoor venue since I first went to a show there back in the late 80’s.

The lights go out, the band takes the stage and instantly I am taken by the crowd’s reaction to hearing the first few notes, it was as if a hunger to rock from the collective group was being satisfied.

The Black Moods from Phoenix, AZ certainly had the sound where I can see why my friend had said I would like them for sure.

The trio consists of Singer and guitarist Josh Kennedy, drummer Chico Diaz and bassist Jordan Hoffman. They put on a spirited and high energetic set with some great sounding rock and for sure left us both satisfied and ready for the rest of the show. Kennedy is a great front man and guitar player and did a great solo sitting on the front of the stage at Jannus Live. Other highlights of their set were the title track from their latest release in Sunshine, “Never Been Any Reason” which is a cover of the old Head East hit and my friend’s personal favorite of theirs in “Bad News.” “Bad News” should be all over the radio. Super catchy and a ton of meaning for those who can relate to it.

As I am writing this the next day, I am digging deeper into their music, and can say they solidly have a new fan in me.

While I highly enjoy discovering bands I am not familiar with (usually) as opening acts it was sort of refreshing to have a comedian between the bands and get the crowd ready the headliner. Being well familiar with Mr. Jamieson’s musical knowledge, his comedic theme and his time on “That Metal Show” I knew nothing was off limits to his rhetoric.

Laughs ahead were a certainty. While he only had maybe fifteen minutes of time his routine garnered both continual laughs and groans at certain times when he pushed the content to the dark side of the rock and life force. I admit even I said to myself at one point how what I had just heard was ‘so wrong’ but yet there I was laughing alongside the crowd.

Not being a fan of the term ‘super group’, I find it hard to not label The Dead Daisies as anything but a super group. The rock n roll musical history in this band with its current lineup together on stage is almost unfathomable in its breadth and influence.

With David Lowy on rhythm guitar, Doug Aldrich as lead guitar and backing vocals, Glenn Hughes handling lead vocals and bass and Tommy Clufetos on drums these rockers reach across the entire rock genre as former band members of the titans of rock and heavy metal. Put these guys together to make music and especially in a live setting the band is just a fantastic blend of solid and straight out rock n roll. I was familiar with some, but not all of their music going into the show and their seventeen song set list touched upon all five of their studio releases, expectantly favoring the new release, and included covers of the aforementioned titans of rock.

While the show was not sold out (there was three other high profile shows in the area on the same night) the crowd on hand certainly enjoyed this rock n roll display and we were treated to an evening of passionate, soulful and straight out rock in your face. Glenn Hughes just has this amazing delivery to his vocals, and the scintillating solos of Doug Aldrich is where and why I use the term passionate to describe the band’s music and their live performance.

As always happens, my three song limit in the photo pit went by in the blink of an eye and then I settled into the crowd to enjoy the rest of the show. Once the camera gets put away I can really settle in and take in the sights and sounds in front of me. Being a people watcher, I like to also take in the fan reaction to different parts of songs and it was obvious with every lead guitar solo by Doug he is a fan favorite as he so effortlessly slings across that axe of his to elevate the musical intensity and bring the tunes home to a resounding roar from the crowd after each song.

I highly enjoyed their heavier version of the classic ‘Fortunate Son’ by Creedence Clearwater Revival and can certainly add that to my list of favorite covers. In addition to their kick ass original music and at least a five minute crushing drum solo, the band covered and paid homage to their and rock’s roots playing Deep Purple twice, first with “Mistreater” and again by closing out the show with “Burn”.

One thing I must mention is how phenomenal the band sounded musically, incredibly clean and extremely tight. A shout out is well in order to whoever was running the sound board. In all of my concert going days at that venue I have never heard a band acoustically sound so good and so clear.

This is one band I will for sure get my ears upon the music of theirs I have not heard yet. Their tour continues in the United States until mid-October and the moves to the UK and Europe starting in late October. I highly recommend making it out to this show if the tour is coming anywhere near your location.

I got lucky. The show was at my favorite venue, the venue is eight minutes from my house and we got rocked, then got some laughs, and then some serious kick ass rock n roll on a Saturday night alongside a couple of my friends and my like-minded rock n roll brethren. Fun times and a great show. \m/      

For additional Information and tour dates near you: https://thedeaddaisies.com/