Live Review: Skid Row, Matterhorn, Fyre Byrd

Late-‘80s hair metal giants Skid Row descended on Adelaide for the last gig of their 2018 Australian tour, not only performing with new vocalist ZP Theart (former lead singer of DragonForce) but also performing in Adelaide for the first time since 1990!

The Tuesday night bill included two support bands. Fyre Byrd, a guitar and drums, brother and sister duo from Adelaide were a wonderful surprise, bringing a fresh, youthful rock sound to an otherwise more mature lineup. With a smashed guitar, broken drumsticks and a bunch of new fans, Fyre Byrd’s set felt like it was over just as it was getting started. Next up was another Adelaide band, Matterhorn. With a polished, LA metal sound, Matterhorn were a seasoned act who knew what the crowd wanted and stepped up to deliver it.

Despite Sebastian Bach having played The Gov a couple of times, seeing Skid Row was a new experience for many in the audience and the band worked hard at bringing the full Skid Row sound to those who had waited for so long. They kickstarted their set with Slave To The Grind and it was clear straight away that Theart was a perfect fit for the lineup, thanks to both his powerful vocals as well as his energetic and charismatic stage presence.

Piece Of Me was a crowd favourite, and after discussing their love for Australia, and their gratitude to the fans that allow them to continue touring the world, they launched into a cover of the Sex Pistols' God Save The Queen sung by bassist Rachel Bolan. 

The main set was closed out with an extended version of Monkey Business that saw Dave “The Snake” Sabo and Scotti Hill delivering call and response guitar solos from the front of the stage for at least five minutes, while the crowd cheered them on.

When the band returned for an encore it was time for some real audience participation with two epic sing-a-long numbers in I Remember You, followed by Get The Fuck Out (a small change from the onstage set lists which indicated We Are The Damned would come next). The band wrapped the whole set up nicely with the 1989 classic, Youth Gone Wild and the crowd were loving every moment of it, proving that while years may have passed since those on stage, and many in the audience, could call themselves youths, it’s good to go a little wild sometimes.