Soul SirkUS
Shepherd's Bush Empire
9 May 2005

Marty: First a few criticisms; the opening band were horrid. Fleet were trying to ape the trendy indy-like rubbish filling the charts and were completely the wrong band to open for SS. The venue was rather too big making the crowd look rather sad for such an impressive headliner. The Mean Fiddler would have been far more appropriate for a band that is not that well known in the UK. The venue closing the bar just as we all showed up for the post-gig meet & greet was idiotic and mean-spirited. Not giving us a chance for last orders was frankly stupid on their part from a financial point of view.

Jason: Not a huge crowd it has to be said to see the new hard rock "supergroup" Soul Sirkus of Jeff Scott Soto, Journey's Neal Schon, drummer Vigil Donati and ex-Whitesnake/Thin Lizzy bassist Marco Mendoza. Young rock band Fleet were the support whom played a short and at times rocking set. Hard to draw a comparison but fellow young upstarts Tokyo Dragons would be a good starting point. Certainly they possess a few good tunes and good luck to them!

Marty: On to the music; Soul SirkUS put on a very skilled performance that while at times a bit tedious and prententious overall came close to justifiying the exorbitant £25 ticket price. Their extended jam got so tedious that one wag shouted "Get on With It!" very loudly. Bizarrely, Marco Mendoza's bass & scat solo was not as horrid as it sounds. He played a latin number using his six-string bass as a lead guitar which was most impressive; if a bit long.

SS played many tracks from their debut as well as a cover of "Voodoo Child" by Hendrix. Rather than play a few Journey tunes, the band let Jeff Scott Soto do a few keyboard-only snippets of various tunes including "Whose Crying Now" and "Faithfully."

Jason: Soul Sirkus played most of their debut album including the awesome 'Friends 2 Lovers' and a blistering "My Sanctuary" (in which JSS dedicated the song to all perverts and peeping toms!). They bought it down a notch with "Soul Goes On" with JSS playing piano (although it was hard to hear this above Marco Mendoza's throbbing bass lines). All the band played well and it was great to see Neal Schon on a UK stage! JSS was his usual self working the crowd and being a general ball of energy. easily one of the best frontmen around today in rock.