Ricky Warwick & The Fighting Hearts – The Fire & Vengenance Tour // Trucker Diablo // Live Review // The Limelight // Belfast
Sunday nights are the best nights for rock in Belfast! Especially when Northern Ireland’s prodigal son Ricky Warwick returns to play the hallowed ground of The Limelight, Belfast’s top live venue in the city centre.
Sundays ain’t for nothing on a Belfast crowd; some might say that, with it being a work day tomorrow, partying on a Sunday might mean I’ll regret this tomorrow morning! Well, let me tell you … I am a problem solver; I’ll sleep into lunchtime!
Tonight, though, is a tasty exploration of all this musicality and Northern Ireland with the fantabulous Ricky Warwick back in Belfast after his heroic return with The Almighty at The Ulster Hall just last year; tonight we also have local rockers Trucker Diablo in tow, laying down a thick, gnarly support for Ricky at a venue they are no strangers to.
Trucker Diablo hit the stage at 7:45 and kicked off with a blistering set well worth the ticket price alone, with a collection of easy-on-the-ear rock numbers you can sing along to, rightly! This four-piece has been laying down riffs for quite a few years and has a healthy reputation and fan base here in N. Ireland, and Ricky himself is a great admirer of the band, having used them before on various shows over the years. Tonight the guys have stepped up a gear to really bring all those years of experience to the fore with a cracking set that more than whets the appetite for Ricky and co later on. These guys truly deserve their spot up here tonight and, to be honest, a following well beyond our shores, as their sound is so refined, locked in, and it hits hard. A killer band bringing all those years of experience to the Limelight once again, reminding Belfast just what they have on their doorstep. By the time the set has wrapped up, the roars of approval let you know just how loved these cats are, and rightly so, reaffirming their spot as one of Northern Ireland’s top rocking bands.
Photography: Mark McGrogan
After a brief interlude, the stage is prepped for Ricky Warwick’s return to the live stage in Belfast. Ricky and his band have been held up at The DRC (Diamond Rock Club) for this run of tour dates, fine-tuning their setlist. But this is it: Belfast is ready, and as the band make their way in the side door and onto the stage, the room erupts! The lads immediately rip into ‘Hellbent & Heaven Sent’ and right away you know that time up at the DRC was well spent!
The lads are on fire! The energy in the room is electric, and Ricky is planted front and centre on stage as he lays down those glorious vocals the only way he can. He has a kinetic energy, a relentless workaholic forever striving to better himself even after all these years on stage, as frontman of The Almighty, Thin Lizzy, Black Star Riders and tonight’s band of brothers, The Fighting Hearts. Ricky is, as ever, high-octane, sweat-drenched and as charismatic a frontman as you’ll see in Rock. The guys lay waste to their opening two tracks, and as I am in the pit taking photos, I can see trouble brewing: guitarist Brendon Riley (Magnum) has called his tech up to look at his Marshall, and after a few tweaks we seem to be back in business, but as we are midway through the third song, ‘Are You Ready?’ … Houston, we have a problem! The lads finish off the track, then take another look at the amp situation and, after a quick discussion, decide it’s best to take a 10-minute breather to sort the issue out rather than keep the punters wondering what is going on. Good call! This is the way. Life as a musician is never straightforward, and you gotta roll with the punches. They come at you every day, multiple times a day, but we as punters see a polished live performance and think that’s the whole story. Behind the scenes, fires are being fought on and off the stage. Ricky and Co. are old-school; they love those big ass amps behind them pushing the air, and they love the visuals on stage, but man, they can be temperamental. After a quick fix, the lads come back and get stuck right into ‘Free & Easy ’, which was originally meant to be the set closer as it is a fan favourite, but now the setlist needs reshuffling, and sacrifices need to be made! But not this one!
Like water off a duck’s back, the lads just get on with the job at hand: Matty James Cassidy on Bass lays down a thick backline, while Jack Taylor on drums, smile beaming far and wide, seems to be loving every second of the night, creating a racket back there underneath Ricky’s gargantuan graphics. Ricky’s busting out all the moves, using years of experience to push and pull his audience through a tasty setlist packed with fan faves and new tracks from Fire & Vengeance. The perfectly curated setlist has the room rocking from start to finish; Ricky always brings his A-Game, but even more so when he is back on home soil. The smile tells the whole story: just how much he loves being on stage, how much he loves standing here on home soil, delivering music to his closest people. This is what it is all about. He has played all over the world, delivered these songs far and wide, but when his feet are planted on a stage in North or South in Ireland, this is home.
The fans get treated to everything across the board from Rick’s sizeable back catalogue, ‘Jonestown Mind’, ‘All Hell Breaks Loose’, and ‘Celebrating Sinking ’, written with the mighty Andy Cairns of Therapy?, to name but a few tracks. A reshuffle we may have had, but this night delivered from the very first note to the very last, and as the last notes rang out of ‘Finest Hour ’, Belfast had witnessed yet another truly memorable performance by one of their favourite sons. A true gent and old-school work ethic, widely considered one of the hardest-working men in rock today, Ricky Warwick is a monster live; his band pack a serious punch, he demands nothing less, and always delivers, and Belfast got the full force tonight, just how we like it!
No doubt more of the same is on the horizon; keep your ears to the ground as Ricky’s relentless drive for world domination continues!
Till next time!
Find it on colour vinyl, signed editions, special bundles and more at earache.com/rickywarwick / https://linktr.ee/ricky_warwick
