It has often been said that the Newcastle crowd is a hard one to win over. You have to prove yourself on stage before the crowd really begin to appreciate what you are trying to do.

For the Five Horse Johnson gig however, the crowd didn't even give the band a chance to prove themselves. After the dreadful support acts (two horrendous death metal bands) had packed up and taken their mates with them, there were not very many people left to witness the headlining act.

Melody

Which was a shame, because Five Horse Johnson put a bit of melody back into the evening. Theirs is a style which began with ZZ Top's Texan boogie, took a sprinkling of early Aerosmith's rock 'n' roll, added together several shots of bourbon, and ended up on stage in Newcastle playing to a crowd of 36 people. Yes, I counted them.

While the sound system of the Student Union's Global Cafe did the band little justice, you could still get an idea of what Five Horse Johnson were all about.

And ultimately, the band do have some excellent songs, while there are not that many modern bands who can boast such beefy riffs as the ones chugged out by Brad Coffin on guitar.

Cherry Red is one such track, Soul Digger is another. Great rock tracks backed up by a tight rhythm section. Steve Smith, a double of Iron Maiden's Steve Harris in his younger days, played a mean bass while Mike Alonso provided able backup on the drums.

Concert highlight

And Eric Oblander on vocals did his best to excite the small crowd, but while his in between song chatter appeared to go over the heads of everyone in the audience, his harmonica playing was a concert highlight, holding its own alongside the heavy guitar, rather than getting buried beneath it.

This was especially evident in the track Lightning When I Need, which closed the show. Brad's solo was exceptional, and Eric's energy was boundless while his harmonica was pressed to his face, rosy cheeks blowing out some excellent blues sounds.

The band had a lot going against them during this gig, but they overcame it to put on a good show to those who had endured the support bands and hung around. For that alone, they deserve praise. But Five Horse Johnson sure know how to boogie too.