Artist: Cassidy Pasis, Wicked Smile
Venue: Cardiff: Fuel Rock Club
Date: 22 November 2023
"Danny has a perfect Metal voice and hair down to his ankles, whilst the guitar solos from Steve and Dave Graham are wonderfully widdly."
Technically, tonight is a Dead Man’s Whiskey gig, as their name’s at the top of the bill, but I’m just here to see the two Australian acts that are making their way around the UK at the moment. Both bands get a nice forty-minute set, with Cassidy Paris taking the stage first.
Just about to release her debut album, ‘New Sensation’, on Frontiers, Cassidy is a confident and talented twenty-one-year-old who seems right at home on the stage. Though fighting against a poor vocal mix she gives it her all, making eye contact with the audience and giving no quarter. Unsurprisingly, most of her tracks come from the album, but there’s a few surprises thrown in, like a blistering cover of Joan Jett’s ‘I Hate Myself For Loving You’, or the non-album track ‘Wannabe’, thankfully NOT a Spice Girls cover. A few songs from the end she is joined by Wicked Smile vocalist Danny Cecati for a short but sweet run through of ‘Close My Eyes Forever’, and it’s nice to hear the vocals clearly. Closing with her first single ‘Danger’, Cassidy completes what has been a gorgeous set that has absolutely flown by, my favourite part being ‘Song For The Broken Hearted’ (it has a “whoah whoah” bit and I’m a sucker for those). It’s great to see a strong female role model owning the stage like a veteran, and if things go her way I think we’ll see a lot more of Cassidy Paris in the future. It’s worth noting that Dad Steve Janevski is on guitar looking like the proudest parent ever, and God damn it he’s got every right to be.
Steve returns for Wicked Smile’s set, as do a few other band members, but now its Danny Cecati’s show and he lets us know it. A short guy who looks like he lives and breathes Metal, Danny does have a hint of Dio about him, a fact that doesn’t hurt when the band play an excellent version of ‘Rainbow In The Dark’ near the end of their set. Before then, though, there’s a lot of Metal to get through, as Wicked Smile are very definitely from the classic school of Heavy Metal. It’s almost like being back in the eighties as they blast through ‘Killer At Large’, ‘Date With the Devil’ and the ever brilliant ‘Night Time Riders’, each song containing something for the audience to latch onto, be it a catchy and easy chorus, a fist in the air section or a “whoah whoah”, and I think I made my stance of those VERY clear. This sort of thing could be pretty dull if not done with the right passion and talent, and I’m sure we’ve all seen a few bands who try and fail to pull of the eighties sound. Wicked Smile, however, do a fantastic job. The songs aren’t deep but they’re fun. Danny has a perfect Metal voice and hair down to his ankles, whilst the guitar solos from Steve and Dave Graham are wonderfully widdly. They have a few fans in, which is nice to see, and by the end of the set they’ve made another one. Wicked.
Review: Alan Holloway
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