Brilliant to finally see Swansea heavy rock band Zac And The New Men in Cardiff. Twice in one day as it turned out, because they did a busking set in Cardiff city centre by HMV at lunchtime, followed by their sold out headline gig at Fuel Rock in the city at night.
These boys are known for their epically energetic rock performances that really get the audience moving. And having the best fun while they’re at it. At Fuel Rock, the crowds piled in to see them deliver an intensely sweaty headline set featuring largely original material, alongside ambitious covers of Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Child and Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain; the latter was the encore which included James’s prominent bass line magnificently bellowing through the venue.
It’s abundantly clear that these guys want to create a performance which is visually appealing as well as sonically satisfying. Frontman Zac commanded the stage with an impressive bluesy rock vocal tone and decked out in a cool full length rock star jacket; he was soon too sweaty to wear this. Him and fellow axeman Ollie pretty much did guitar duelling for many of the songs, taking it in turn to lead with ferocious impact, including a section towards the end where they both jumped into the crowds to great applause.
Drummer Will had plenty of “bosh moments” too. He clearly loves to crank about the decibels of noise from behind the kit. While he didn’t get a proper drum solo this time, he certainly made his presence felt. He truly commanded the kit making full use of every part to lay down some tasty rhythms; some impressive impact from the toms especially. T
op tracks included Last Day and Getting Over It. He had certainly had a full workout when I caught up with him afterwards and was lathered in sweat.
While the emphasis of the Zac And The New Men headline set was on bold full on rock assault, these boys also know how to turn down the pace with some slower numbers for variety. Recent single Let Me Walk Way was a good example of a more sensitive side to their sound. Zac especially excelled on this with a poignant performance of heartfelt vocal and some stunning melodic guitar.
Overall an absolutely stellar performance with the hundred plus strong crowd baying for more. This is very much down to an exceptionally talented band who have built momentum in Cardiff for the past few Saturday lunchtimes by busking in the city as means of introduction to their style.
In this set, they played largely familiar tunes by The Police, Fleetwood Mac, Hendrix and others, while introducing a couple of their tunes in the mix. It’s a bold strategy especially in terms of their range of song choice, which in a saturated social media and streaming market other bands could make their own physical presence and human connection felt… preferably avoiding the trap of Wonderwall on loop.
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