Massive Wagons Annual Patreon Bash @ KK’s Steel Mill, Wolverhampton – Saturday 30th September 2023

Tonight was not a regular tour stop at KK’s Steel Mill for the mighty Massive Wagons but rather a celebration for the die-hards prepared to stump up hard earned cash on a regular basis, aka the bands Patreon supporters. This annual bash includes not just a live set but awards and a fancy-dress competition, with this evening’s horror movie theme seeing all sorts of costumes from It, Beetlejuice, Halloween and more. And as you might expect the band members – Baz, Adam, Alex, Stevie and Bowzer – were very much out and about to mingle with the audience both before and after the show.

MW are a band that built their audience from the ground up, their reputation fuelled by powerful and raucous live shows. Their hard work and dedication has been rewarded with consecutive Top 10 albums in recent years (2020’s House of Noise and last years Triggered!), and an arena tour with Lynyrd Skynyrd and Status Quo back in 2019. They have thankfully come out of the other side of the pandemic in good shape and, as Baz acknowledged, this is in no small part to the bands loyal fan base who support them on a regular basis, buying the merchandise and turning up at the shows time after time. The audience had a hand in deciding tonight’s set list which meant this was not just a standard show; rarely played deep cuts such as ‘Sixteen’ were dusted off along with songs that have dropped out of the regular show to make way for newer material. What this resulted in was a selection from all of the bands six studio albums to date, going all the way back to 2012’s debut album Fire It Up for ‘Buck’ and 2014’s Fight the System for ‘Look Around’, ‘Black Witch’ and ‘Red Dress’.

The live music was interspersed with a couple of interludes for Baz to hand out the awards – the categories including King and Queen of the barrier, spirit of the Wagons and miles most travelled (the winner having come all the way from Texas!). And although he wasn’t eligible to win the fancy dress contest it has to be said that Baz looked very glamorous in his cheerleader costume, bouncing all around the stage with his usual enthusiasm. Another nice touch was when a member of the crowd was invited on stage to take the place of a band member, with Adam making way for ‘Back to the Stack’ and Alex leaving the drum stool for ‘Fuck the Haters’. Both replacements did an excellent job in nailing their respective parts. There is no denying that Massive Wagons are a terrific live act, and are all about having a great time from the moment they take the stage. Tonight was a well deserved victory lap for band and audience alike.