Tax The Heat

09.12.2014

It has been a momentous year for Tax The Heat with appearances at Download, Calling Festival and for a second year in a row Planet RockStock as well as support slots for Black Star Riders, The Virginmarys and The Graveltones, a special headline show in Bristol and named as support for the Thunder tour next year, all this from a band that has yet to release a debut album. Such is the strength of their live performances that many rock fans go to see them play and last night the band were on excellent form for their final gig of the year.

Taking to the stage of an already packed out venue to support The Cadillac Three, it was straight into ‘Millionaire’, one of their newer songs with its hard hitting riffs and immediately went down well with the crowd. ‘Devil’s Daughter’ followed with its addictive chorus, the guitars and rhythm section resonating around the venue and the melodic vocals of singer Alex Veale sounding on top form. With it all being about the songs it was straight into ‘Hatred Not The Enemy’ and with Tax The Heat producing quality songs you couldn’t help but get excited that this could be a bit of a teaser of just how outstanding a much anticipated debut could sound from them.

‘Highway Home’ was a song born to be played live. As soon as the bass, guitar and drums started it sounded just awesome, before those soaring vocals and harmonies all combined to make it a firm favourite with the crowd. It could have been hard to follow such an infectious sounding song but Tax The Heat did just that with ‘Some Sympathy’, more of that brilliant sound this band excel at. With the delicate guitar intro of ‘Caroline’ which leads up to a crescendo of sound played next, this was a set packed full of great songs. A cover of the Yardbirds classic song ‘Lost Woman’ sounded even better in the hands of Tax The Heat than the original.

Alex had said during the set “that it had been and amazing year”, that the crowd ”were in for a bit of party” and the band certainly didn’t disappoint with thunderous cheering from those in the venue after every song. It was left to the final song of the set ‘Fed To The Lions’ to sum up why this is one of the best bands to see live and why there is such a buzz about Tax The Heat. With the delicious riffs thumping through the speakers, this was a perfect way to end their final live song of 2014. As the crowd cheered as soon as the singing finished, many who knew the song waited with baited breath to see if that epic guitar finale would be played, and it was monster riffs that ended an amazing set from them.

If you haven’t been fortunate enough to catch Tax The Heat on one of their live dates, then give them a listen below as this is a band that is going to become huge in 2015 and with a band this talented it won’t be long until they are playing headline shows in far bigger venues.