Artists: Cassidy Paris / The Heavy Souls / Bad Actress
Venue: Sheffield, The Hallamshire Hotel
Date: 13th July 2024
"Most twenty-one-year-olds are still at college or just starting training in their chosen careers, whilst Cassidy Paris is halfway round the world embarking on a club tour with her band"
Unbelievably, after nearly eighteen years living in the Steel City, this was my first ever visit to the Hallamshire Hotel. The upstairs has a purpose-built room for live music with a raised stage and standing for one hundred punters. Although my primary reason for my attendance this evening was Cassidy Paris, the two support bands proved to be a real bonus.
By the time I arrived at the venue, Bad Actress were already into their set. I was surprised to see the room relatively full, and the band were going down a storm. The sound for a small room was relatively good. The band, Toby Michaels (lead vocals) Mark “Mork” Hudson (bass), Tommy B (guitar) and brothers Chick McFarlane (guitar) and Lui Q (drums) had travelled twelve hours down from the Northeast of Scotland to South Yorkshire, and were determined to have a party, and that’s exactly what they did. Michaels, the amiable frontman was whipping up a frenzy both on stage and amongst the crowd as they tore through their set. I thought I recognised the lyrics to ‘Does Your Mother Know’, and of course I did, it being a cover of the ABBA classic; however, a truly Glammed up Rock version. Other songs of note I could remember were ‘Hellbound’ and ‘Dynamite Lover’, complete with crowd singalong. It was both a fantastic set and crowd reaction for the first band of the evening.
Set List
I managed to have a chat with Cassidy’s father, Steve Janevski (Wicked Smile) who I’d met a few times before when he played with The Radio Sun at the HRH AOR Festivals in North Wales, pre-COVID.
A quick changeover saw local band The Heavy Souls put on an enjoyable set of hard rockin’ Blues. I’d spotted guitarist Ben Boswell, with his large Fedora pre-show and thought, knowing my luck, he was going to be stood right in front of me! Fortunately, he was up on stage with his band mates, Clark Vaughan (vocals), Ryan Jones (bass) and Charlie Morris (drums). They opened with ‘Have You Got Soul’, but it was the outro to second song ‘She Devil’ that really grabbed my attention, being a snippet of the Black Sabbath classic ‘War Pigs’. Boswell further highlighted his guitar playing with a notable solo to the intro to ‘Pressure And Time’. An enthusiastic singalong ensued with ‘Sleepwalking’, assisted by a lady I presume was Vaughan’s girlfriend, ensuring everyone was singing and clapping!
Their impressive ten-song set concluded with ‘The River’, which is another song which will feature on their debut album, being released next month. If you’re a fan of Heavy Blues Rock, then I definitely recommend you check them out.
Set List
This was my first-time seeing Cassidy Paris perform live. Ms. Paris took to the stage in a long, blue dress coat, welcomed the audience and launched into ‘Midnight Desire’, the title of her UK tour. The removal of her coat revealed the young lady dressed in fishnet stockings covered by a long Ratt ‘Reach For The Sky’ t-shirt. Cassidy was ably supported by her band mates, young brothers Tom and Alex Rogowski on guitars and drums respectively, plus her Dad, Steve Janevski on bass. All the songs were performed to high standard and Cassidy had a confidence belying her tender age, whilst never coming across as arrogant. Indeed, she frequently thanked the fans for coming out on a Saturday night and buying her album and other merchandise.
As with the previous two bands there was a great atmosphere and the crowd needed little encouragement to singalong during the cover of the Joan Jett & The Blackhearts classic ‘I Hate Myself For Loving You’. That was followed by ‘Danger’, one of my personal highlights and my favourite track from her impressive debut album ‘New Sensation’, from which the majority of the set was garnered from. Janevski told a story about being mugged by a seagull in Wales; unbelievable, coming from Australia, the country with the most dangerous animals, he gets attacked by a seagull in North Wales who steals his croissant!
‘Walking On Fire’ looked to be the last track of the evening, but Cassidy wowed us with one final song, a cover of Paramore’s ‘Misery Business’.
Most twenty-one-year-olds are still at college or just starting training in their chosen careers, whilst Cassidy Paris is halfway round the world embarking on a club tour with her band, including her dad. That’s what I call good parenting! Arguably, the most important thing, is she appears to be having the time of her life.
Set List
Review by Mark Donnelly
Location
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