Review by Dave Ling - Classic Rock
In the evening, Michael Katon – the boogie man from Hell,
Michigan – played a rare UK gig at the Half Moon in Herne Hill. Was it
worth the short bus-ride and the price of a few large vodka and Diet Cokes?
Of course it was. Although we've exchanged emails and the odd phone call, I
hadn't seen Katon on stage since he played the Marquee Club in Charing Cross
Road; it would've been around the time he released his 'Proud To Be Loud' album
in 1988. And yet with sunglasses perched on head, hair trailing way past the
shoulders and what looked like the exact same leather jacket he used to wear,
the guitarist/singer hadn't changed a bit. We nattered a little before the show
and Michael handed me a copy of his new iTunes download set 'Bootleg Boogie'.
Sticking to a three-piece format, Katon's band included Johnny 'Bee' Badanjek,
the drummer of Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels and veteran of tours with
Edgar Winter, Alice Cooper, Bob Seger, Ronnie Montrose and Nils Lofgren. Suffice
to say, they kicked extortionate amounts of ass.
Pulling together the likes of 'Get On The Boogie Train', 'Roadhouse 69', 'The
Devil's Daughter', 'Red Moon Rising', 'Rip It Hard', 'No More Whiskey', 'On
The Prowl For A Hoochie Mama', 'Bad Machine', 'Whiskey Hill', 'Motorcycle Blues',
the salsa-licious 'Barbeque On My Boogie' and a slide-infused cover of the John
Lee Hooker standard 'Crawling King Snake', the show ran for a finger-lickin'
two hours, including just about everything I hoped to hear except 'I Ain't Ready
To Go Steady' and the title cut of 'Proud To Be Loud'. Ah whatever… if
and when Katon and his group return, don't miss 'em.
Dave Ling - Classic Rock