It was a Sunday night show when we returned to the Arcada Theater in St. Charles which is fast becoming my favorite venue for live shows since the House of Blues in Chicago hasn’t been hosting concerts that appeal to my tastes for years. This was scheduled as an early show and truth be told I actually preferred the headliner, this time being the legendary ANGEL, going onstage at 8 PM.
The audience who travel far and wide to see the rejuvenated sextet are as enthusiastic as they are loyal. When the lights were dimmed all focus was on the stage as the screen brought up the face/symbol “George,” a talking and blinking hologram in the shape of ANGEL’s logo, followed by ANGEL’s logo which is ambigrammatic; it reads the same when turned upside-down as when viewed normally. Then out walked the men in white and they ripped into “On the Rocks” with the lyrics ‘The sky was blue and the night was young, we were havin’ just a bit of fun.’ And a lot of fun was what the audience would enjoy for the 90 minute 13 song set full of our favorite rockers.
Having seen the band every tour since founders Frank Dimino the lead vocalist and Punky Meadows the lead guitarist and guitar hero reunited and In 2018 toured together under the moniker ‘Punky Meadows and Frank DiMino of Angel. Backed by a band featuring Danny Farrow on rhythm guitar, Charlie Calv on keyboards, Steve Ojane on bass and Billy Orrico on drums. In 2019, with the same lineup the band reformed back to the name “Angel” returning to wearing all white and released a new album “Risen”. Ever since they have always been tight but there was more to it this outing in support of their most recent offering “Once Upon a Time” their second from this writers favorite label Cleopatra. During the set when it was time for Punky to play his signature solos he was out front alone or from time to time up next to vocalist DiMino. It was as noticeable as important to those of us who for years have considered Meadows as an overlooked guitar god. As with ANGEL the old saying is, “you’ve either never heard of them or you love them.”
The backing band display a raw energy and you could tell they were having fun and they were all smiles, especially the bassist Steve E. Ojane. The six performers never stopped moving at all throughout the set. As far as musicianship they were tight and sonically perfect not missing a note or a beat. This was the perfect reenactment of their 70’s sound much like the 2019 release “Risen” which picks up where the band left off in 1979. I often say that if they could have made it just until August 1, 1981 when MTV was officially launched, they would have received the success they always deserved. They would have been poster boys for the “hair band” movement, a tag I despise but as Eddie Trunk stated they were pretty much the pioneers of the trend.
The set was sprinkled with a couple of new tunes but were easily overshadowed by the standard classics. Much like their live platter ‘Live Without A Net”, favorites like “Don’t Leave Me Lonely”, “I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore” and “Feelin’ Right” featuring the duel guitar/keyboard solo, kept the old arena feel very much alive. Surely missed is co-founder Gregg Giuffria, but Charlie Calv on keyboards holds his own and I got chills every time he’d open a song such as “The Fortune ” or “The Tower”. This line up and their live show is truly a force to be reckoned with. It’s early into a new year with a lot of live shows on the calendar but it’s going to be very hard to top the finesse we witnessed at the Arcada theater Sunday March 19th. ANGEL will release a new studio album, “Once Upon A Time”, on April 21 via Cleopatra Records. The LP features 11 brand new songs, plus three bonus tracks on the CD version, all written by Punky Meadows, Frank DiMino and Danny Farrow.
Angel are:
Punky Meadows: lead guitar
Frank DiMino: lead vocal
Danny Farrow: guitar
Steve E. Ojane: bass
Billy Orrico: drums
Charlie Calv: keyboards
SET LIST:
On The Rocks
Can You Feel It
Mirrors
Wild and Hot
Bad Time
The Fortune
We Were the Wild
Don’t Leave Me Lonely
It’s Alright
Pressure Point
I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore
Feelin’ Right
Rock & Rollers
ENCORE:
Tower
for more photos from this and other live ANGEL shows see our Photo Gallery
