Enuff Z'Nuff - Are just too stuck in the past to up their game!

**

They look the part, but have lost the live bug!

Hard Rock Hell 

Enuff Z'Nuff ** are a legendary band and, sadly, quite boring today even though they have a great body of work to pull from. Chip looks as good as he always does sporting wicked pink sunglasses and a full Glam outfit. Jonny Monaco makes you feel you’re at an Elvis Costello concert and that everything is just middle of the road.

Jonny gives a very different impression to the band than the ever more popular Donnie Vie and is not to every ones tastes. The sound though is not very good for them; just not loud enough. They run through a set including classic material for the delight of a lot of diehard fans. This is who the set is for: the diehard fans, people who wanted to remember when they saw them twenty years previous. 

They open the set with 'Heaven or Hell' a track I have to say I don't know so well... as a kid I had the self titled record that was released in 1989 and a whole heap of singles. I did play these quite a lot they had a cool vibe to them and the covers always looked great. The opening track is ok and does have a nice bass line to it, but for an opening number it didn't have enough grip to it.

'Hollywood Ya' has a real Beatles / Rembrandts feel to it and is a real sing-a-long vibe to it, I remember hearing back in 1991 and liking it. I think CJ (The Wildhearts / Honeycrack / The Jellys) must have been influenced by this band, I know Ginger (The Wildhearts / Mutation / Silver Ginger 5 / The Quireboys ext...) was. The reason I say this is because on the Honeycrack album 'Prozaic' they definitely had a similar vibe on some of the tracks. 

I think Enuff Z'nuff have had a big influence on a lot of bands and are a very important band so it's very hard to see them in this incarnation. I quite like the track 'One step closer to You' which comes off the album 'Animals with human Intellegance' which was released in 1993, on this song you can hear a vibe of The Wildhearts. It's a very similar sound and way of writing a good Pop Rock song. This is probably my favourite song in the bands set and it goes down really well with the audience to.

'There goes my Heart' as a nice middle of the road Beatles feel to it and is very strange that it comes of later album '10' that was only released in 2000 this clogs along and is a little bit of a set filler along with 'We're all Alright' so they just past the time. They build the set up with another classic from 1993 'The Love Train' which shows this was a great period for Enuff Z'nuff where their songwriting was at a high standard, or is it just they are more catchy and chart friendly.  This catchiness continues on 'My baby loves You' a track the band really get into live. 

Johnny blasts us with a guitar solo before we are delighted with the Hair Metal slow classic that is 'Fly high Michelle' which you probably can hear any night in a seedy Glam club at 3am. This song really takes me back and I start to wonder how many snogs I have got while this song has been on, then I look around and see that everyone in the crowd is a lot older than me and probably remembering the same things. 

If you watch the video for 'New Thing' at the bottom of the page you will get what I am going on about! they had some life and the bands brightly coloured outfits were a big thing about the band. Other than Chip today they all just look a little dull and their is no life in them, which is a real shame. I loved this band as a kid and don't want their memory ruined and it was a little tarnished today, but nothing the band could not fix with a little effort. I do think that Enuff Z'nuff have an appeal for the Hard Rock Hell crowd so they were a good band to have on the bill but I can't imagine them playing the main stage at Download next year

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Enuff Z'Nuff - Setlist
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Heaven or Hell
Hollywood Ya
One step closer to You
There goes my Heart
We're all Alright
Fingertips
The love Train
Baby loves You
Jet
Johnny's Guitar Solo
Fly high Michelle
New Thing

Review and Photo's by Dan Devour 

Check Out! the classic Video for 'New Thing' Below...