Kip James - Tries to wing it and falls flat on his face!!!

April 7th 2013

Rotherham, HRH AOR Festival, UK

Winger mainman self indulges in a rare acoustic performance...

Kip James ** is famous for being the singer of American Rock band Winger, today he graces the Rotherham stage with a rare acoustic performance. In this performance he plays solo songs and a collection of Winger songs. In this strip downed performance you see Kip with his electro acoustic guitar stripped down to basics.

The only thing is the auditorium is so large and he is coming on before one of the most Rockin' bands on the face of the planet Skid Row so is it really the place for a one man show. I think not, it kind of brings the adrenaline set by acts like H.E.A.Tdown and you can see surges of people walking out through the set. It's not that it is bad music, it's good music but their is a time and a place for everything and Kip's growley husky voice sounds very Huey Morgan (Fun lovin' Criminals) Esq. and Huey being brave. I don't think would even try to tame this crowd. This is a totally wrong billing for this legend in Rock.

Opening with solo song 'Cross' he tries his best to make the most of the huge stage before bringing out the Winger arsenal with songs like 'Easy Come, Easy Go' and 'Seventeen'. Even some of these don't sound the way they should and at first you don't quite make them out and at times, actually most of the time his guitar is really out of tune and it just sounds like he is strumming it and not actually playing the songs.

If you are a die hard Winger fan you probably be enjoying yourself any ways, but if you just like the band or wanted to check them out I think this just falls flat. So by the time he breaks into 'Drown Incognito' and 'Madalaine' everyone has had far too much of Kip James so one of the biggest hits 'Seventeen' doesn't even register. This is just self indulgent and not really for the festival circuit, but I can see it working in a small club. So if your a fan check it out their.