Concert Review: Nazareth, August 4, Danforth Music Hall

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Nazareth’s most recent release, 2014’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Telephone, marked the last time that the band’s original lead vocalist Dan McCafferty would work with the band, leaving bassist Pete Agnew as the only remaining original member. Despite having only one founding member left, the band still puts on a credible, hard rocking show and current singer Carl Sentance definitely knows how to work a crowd. And while Sentance doesn’t quite capture McCafferty’s signature rasp, he comes pretty close while also adding a hint of Bruce Dickinson in his delivery.

Though the band is technically touring in support of that 2014 release, they didn’t play anything off of it, sticking instead to the older songs from their back catalogue, which is a pretty realistic move – nobody really wants to hear the new stuff from a classic rock band anyways. At best, they politely tolerate it.

Towards the end of the show, Agnew made an announcement from onstage about a couple who were celebrating their 32nd anniversary that night and who met at a Nazareth show all those years ago (or at least danced to a Nazareth song when they met … I’m not 100% clear on this). The band then played probably their best known song, “Love Hurts,” though I’m not sure that a song with lyrics such as “Love is just a lie made to make you blue” is really the best song to dedicate to a couple on their anniversary. But hey they’ve stuck with it this long so maybe it’s their mutual love of Nazareth that’s kept them together through the years.

While “Love Hurts” was the big highlight of the set, curiously it came in as the second last song before the encore. Most bands save at least one big song for the encore, so I’m not sure what the deal was here. Perhaps they are giving some of the fans a chance to leave early and get home at a reasonable hour. If so, that’s pretty considerate of them, because not only does love hurt, but so do your feet or your back if you’ve been standing awhile.

Posted on by Paul in Concerts