Article and Photos by: Courtney Thomassen
The Struts embodied the classic saying ‘sex, love and rock and roll’ in Florida on their Remember the Name tour. Fans crowded the large floor of the Beacham and sold out the upper balcony sections, excited to catch the British rock band’s return to the Orlando venue.
A 40 minute set from Mac Saturn kicked off the evening an hour after doors opened at 7PM. Since releasing their debut EP “Until the Money Runs Out” last year, the Detroit rock band has been steadily gaining popularity for their classic blues-rock sound. While some of the audience had surely heard of the up-and-comers, with some even purchasing tickets specifically to see them, many had never seen them perform live. Tonight’s show was the first time Mac Saturn had performed in Florida, and they definitely left their mark. Each member walked out onto stage, taking their position, as the 2022 single “Diamonds” started to play. The entirety of their 5 song EP made an appearance with three other, unreleased originals. As their set continued on, the charisma of the band infected the audience and had everyone dancing along. Drummer Angelo Coppola’s cowboy hat, smiling solos from guitarist Mike Moody, and the undeniable stage presence of Macc all added to the charm. By the time their signature dual phone receiver mirror dice prop was pulled off the mic stand for “Get On the Phone” halfway through the set, the entire crowd was won over. The energy only continued to rise as Macc brought out a tambourine, multiple sets of maracas, and threw water into the crowd. “Mr. Cadillac,” one of the band’s most popular songs, took its place as the penultimate track on the setlist, followed by “Plain Clothes Gentleman.” A live performance of “Plain Clothes Gentleman” was recorded and released earlier this year and is the band’s most recent release. After Macc said the first goodbye, an extended 2 minute instrumental outro took over, making for an epic and memorable end to the set.
The lights dimmed to black until the now fully hyped crowd was lit only by the large Struts logo on the back LED screen. Large blinders lined up towards the back of the stage flicked on, illuminating the crowd as a silhouette of drummer Gethin Davies appeared behind the kit. Bassist Jed Elliot and guitarist Adam Slack followed soon thereafter, causing fans in the crowd to scream louder and louder until peaking when frontman Luke Spiller appeared. “Dirty Sexy Money” was an energetic start to the set, with the tone for the night being set early on when halfway through the track fans started throwing women’s lingerie onto stage. The reaction from the band showed that this was typical for them, as they smiled and laughed straight through to second track “Body Talks.” After playing a few of their newer songs including single “Too Good At Raising Hell,” released just a few days ago, and fan-favorite “Kiss This” a pattern became noticeable – not only was the whole crowd singing and dancing along, they were making a point to clap and cheer between songs for what felt like minutes at a time. Rarely do you see an audience as enthusiastic as this one. “Primadonna Like Me,” a tour debut of “The Ol’ Switcheroo” and a nine plus minute mashup of “In Love With a Camera,” “Cool,” “Something New,” and more made their appearances on the roughly hour and a half long set before the band ended with 2014 hit “Put Your Money on Me.” Chants for an encore started immediately and The Struts returned to the stage for a two song encore. An acoustic version of “Low Key in Love” was followed by arguably the band’s most popular song, “Could Have Been Me” off of the 2014 album Everybody Wants. With the purple stage lights, large orange blinders, disco balls and laser lights that shone over a sea of waving arms, from the back of the venue the scene looked like the stock image of a rock show in the best way. Most importantly, the performance from the band was stellar, with stand out vocals from Spiller that sounded straight off the recordings. Overall the Remember the Name tour delivers on everything a Struts fan could hope for.