Cats in Space - Tavistock Review

It would appear that, like Mostly Autumn, the British rock six-piece Cats in Space have become one of those bands that I will take every opportunity possible to see live. Last night I headed to the regular haunt of The Wharf in Tavistock to see the band for the third time this year, and it is safe to say that they put on an excellent performance - as always. I first saw the band back in 2017 when they opened for Deep Purple, but I did not start getting into them until 2019 - seeing them headline for the first time in December of that year, also in Tavistock. Since then I have seen them three more times - with the best of the bunch coming last October when I saw them deliver a stunning set at The Garage in Islington. 2022 has really been the year of Cats in Space for me, though, having seen the band deliver again at the Cambridge Rock Festival back in June and shine on a bill with King King at Chepstow Castle in August. Between those two shows, the band also released their fifth album Kickstart the Sun - which may, in time, become my favourite that they have put out to date. It is an album that saw the band pushing their throwback 1970s glam/melodic rock sound further than they have previously - showcasing a somewhat progressive side at times, alongside their core sound. The band played a couple of songs from the album at both the Cambridge and Chepstow shows, but it was the album's tour proper that I was really looking forward to - as the band would likely include a number of the excellent new songs in the setlist, alongside some older favourites. The Tavistock show fell about a third of the way into a pretty extensive tour that takes the band up to the end of the year. It is great to see a band like Cats in Space putting themselves out there and playing a pretty significant amount of dates. Taking this into account, as well their love of putting out new product, the band have a very old-school work ethic -  which is great to see. Cats in Space are a band that really deserve to succeed, and in truth I am really surprised that their catchy and well-written songs have not reached more people. I think that it is fair to say that none of the band's headline shows that I have attended have been packed. The London crowd last year was a reasonable size, but it should have been better considering that it fell on a Saturday night. The 2019 Tavistock show was not exactly rammed, either, as was also the case yesterday. I have seen worse crowds at The Wharf, but considering that, again, the show fell on a Saturday I expected to see more people in the venue. Sadly, it just seems to be a fact that many newer bands struggle to find an audience. The irony is that the older generation of rock fans who continuously and loudly state that there is no good new music out there would probably love Cats in Space - but bands like them are always going to struggle to break through, despite all the hard work they put in. Still, those that turned up were certainly in for a treat - as the band's performance was as good as ever.

As was the case when the band played in Tavistock in 2019, support came from Matt Mitchell & The Coldhearts. I remember somewhat enjoying the band's set last time, and I felt much the same this time. Mitchell has previously been part of the harder rock bands Furyon and Colour of Noise, but his solo work generally seems to be a bit more organic in nature - with a bit of a singer-songwriter vibe mixing with more traditional hard rock. I have not really kept up with Mitchell's career of late, but I enjoyed a good chunk of his set - even if the overall mix did not allow him to really shine as a singer. I read my 2019 review before writing this, and many of my complaints from three years ago remained yesterday. The drums were quite high in the mix, and the lack of a keyboard player removed any depth that his recorded material has. The relatively small crowd never really seemed to warm to Mitchell and his band either, which always makes things a bit awkward - especially as Mitchell seemed to insist on treating the show like he was playing to legions of the devoted. That being said, though, some of the newer songs sounded pretty good. Surprisingly for me, it was actually the slower-paced tracks that perhaps stood out the most. The harder rocking tracks were somewhat typical-sounding, but the ballads allowed Mitchell's voice to shine - and the slower songs seemed to suit his current vibe and overall style the best. Perhaps the overall highlight of the band's set, though, was the lead guitar playing. I have tried to find the name of the guitarist online, but I am not sure who he is as he did not seem to the be the Coldhearts' regular guitarist looking at pictures of the band online. His playing was excellent, though, and the solos that he included throughout the set were incendiary - even if they sometimes seemed a bit too explosive for the song that they were a part of! Despite my lingering issues with the band, I still enjoyed their set. I feel like the band could be so much better, though - with more subtlety in the drumming department and the inclusion of a keyboard player. The powerful Black Diamonds, from the band's debut album, brought the set to a close and it showed how the band can rock out when they want to - and it brought things to a powerful close.

It was Cats in Space that everyone was there to see, though, and when the lights went down the crowd woke up - and managed to create a pretty strong atmosphere throughout the night. With seven songs from the excellent Kickstart the Sun in the set, the night was a pretty forward-looking one - although there were still plenty of old favourites included. The band walked on stage to the intro from the new album, before launching into the epic and lengthy King of Stars. The song is one of the highlights from the new album, and it came across really well live. The chorus, which featured the band's trademark vocal harmonies of frontman Damien Edwards, guitarist and bandleader Greg Hart, and bassist Jeff Brown, grabbed hold of the crowd from the off and everyone was whisked along for the ride. The song is quite dynamic, with lots of changes in pace and tone. Much of it is quite hard rocking, but a few slower sections allowed Edwards to inject a more emotional vocal - which would resurface later on a couple of ballads. The hard-hitting Too Many Gods followed, and this took the audience back to the band's debut. The song has always been a live favourite, and it went down a storm as always - with the big chorus seeing plenty of singing from the crowd. Three new tracks were then rolled out. Poke the Witch and Teenage Millionaires have been fixtures of the band's recent shows, but it was great to hear the soaring title track of the new album live for the first time. Like many of new songs, it builds from a piano intro from keyboardist Andy Stewart - before expanding into a cinematic rocker with layers of vocal harmonies and multiple guitar solos from Hart and fellow guitarist Dean Howard. A couple more newer numbers were played soon after, too, with the poppy Charlie's Ego showcasing the band's love of a good melody before the delicate Hero left Edwards alone with Stewart to deliver the heartfelt piano ballad. Cats in Space's sound is usually big and bombastic, but Hero showed that they can operate in a more low key manner, too, and it provided a nice change of pace before the upbeat oldie Timebomb that followed. The ELO-esque 1,000,000 Miles was then the last new cut played, before the band treaded some familiar ground with a handful of favourites from their other albums. A highlight for me, as always, was the cinematic Atlantis, which is song that sounds much better live than on the album of the same name - before Brown's funky bass playing heralded the arrival of the groovy Thunder in the Night - which always goes down well. The piano-driven The Mad Hatter's Tea Party and the dramatic I Fell Out of Love with Rock 'n' Roll then brought the main set to a close - with the latter acting as a vehicle for some extended soloing from Hart and Howard. A two-song encore followed, though, and following a brief snippet of Queen's Under Pressure the band launched into the Boston-esque Listen to the Radio - another song which prompted quite a bit of singing. It was left to the band's signature piece Greatest Story Never Told to round the evening out, with Edwards and Brown duetting perfectly as always, and the song brought the curtain down on what was another excellent evening of music. The setlist was:

Kickstart the Sun - Intro

King of Stars

Too Many Gods

Poke the Witch

Teenage Millionaires

Kickstart the Sun

Mr. Heartache

Charlie's Ego

Hero

Timebomb

1,000,000 Miles

Marionettes

Atlantis

Thunder in the Night

The Mad Hatter's Tea Party

I Fell Out of Love with Rock 'n' Roll

-

Under Pressure [Queen cover]/Listen to the Radio

Greatest Story Never Told

The show ended on a strange note, though, as for some reason all of the lights went out as the band were getting ready to take their bows. I am not sure what happened, as it was not a power cut as other things on the stage still had power, but it left the band just standing there not sure what to do. I assume that someone pressed the wrong button somewhere, but it never seemed to get fixed - so the band just ended up leaving the stage after waving to everyone in the dark. They still received a strong reaction from the crowd, though, and I am sure that everyone in attendance enjoyed their evening with Cats in Space. It is a shame that there were not more people at the show, but those that showed up were certainly appreciative of the excellent show that they were given - and I have to hope that the band's constant hard work is rewarded over time. I will certainly be seeing the band again next time that they tour - and I look forward to whenever that is.