Young Heart Attack: the gig to save rock-lives

What a-rocking! What a release! What power! Young Heart Attack show how it is done, few days after the release of their debut album ‘Mouthful of Love’, by callint at the London garage for a show that turns into a rocktastic night by embracing an incredible scope of ‘old skool’ rock. This Austin quintet is inspired by some great bands of the past but have managed, what many others have failed, to add to the genre, not only clone it.

From MC5 - the album and set contain a version of the punk-legend’s ‘Over and Over’ - to Led Zeppelin, from Deep Purple to Thin Lizzy, from Motorhead to AC/DC… The classic rock that doesn’t let up for an hour, rolling out like a carpet in Rock haven. With vocalist/guitarist Chris Hodge’s looks of a young Robert Plant and the matching vocal ability, there is such a huge dialogue going on here.

The template has been taken apart and reshaped with current sensibility, the present sound thinking, the riffs of this century and not the Kings Of Leon‘s ‘stuck-in-retro’. Great part of this brew is second singer, Jennifer Stephens, who provides soulful counterpart and lower pitched parts to the Hodge’s. And, it was more than exciting to actually see the band have fun on stage, appearing to enjoy making the music as much as us consuming it!

Even when they slow it down, on ‘(Take Me Back) Mary Jane’, it is a mid-tempo, a sort of Bad Company-esque blues-rocker. But, the firing of chords to cause you heart tremors never ceases and only when a cow-girl turns up on stage to pour some Tequila - that’s what they drink a lot down Texas-way - as an intro to ‘Tommy Shots’, that we get a moment to regain composure.

Mental, it’s like a party in Hell - no-one’s got anything to lose! Strings are exploding, drumskins are imploding, the vibe is - happy to lose my hearing at this pace! ‘Starlite’ burns, ‘Over And Over’ erupts with Dr. Feelgood fury, ‘In Luck’ is punk-up AC/DC with Janis Joplin on backing vox!? That’s another thing, there is a plan to make Janis Joplin biopic with Pink considered for the part; no, here is your Janis, to a Joplin!

The slight problem may be that, with Jen’s young Olivia Newton-John looks, she’d need to be prettied-down for the part. ‘Misty Rowe’ displays more of YHA’s complex side, some sort of psyche-prog trip, that is directly opposed to the usual short-sharp-strike. This blitz ends in one hour, after a two-song encore.

‘Mouthful of Love’? More like a body-full! If entertainment is just a foreplay to the only activity that matters - yep, sex - then orgasm is guaranteed by YHA!