SAVING ABEL – BIRMINGHAM ASYLUM 2, 01 SEPTEMBER 2018

BY SHARI BLACK VELVET

“We are Saving Abel,” yells frontman Scotty Austin, shortly before he and his cohorts Scott Bartlett, Jason Null, Scott Wilson and Steven Pulley kick into ‘New Tattoo’, the first song in their set and the opening song of the band’s renowned, self-titled debut album released a decade ago. It’s taken the band that long to get over to the UK. While they’ve created a name for themselves in the States and other countries, the UK has so far not been privileged to this imposing unit.

Saving Abel have been through all sorts of trials and tribulations, not least member changes, but the five men in front of us are all devoted to real rock ‘n’ roll, even telling the soundman before doors that there are no tracks, everything is played live – and are now more solid than ever. And tonight, despite the smaller than usual crowd, they play with every ounce of passion and conviction that you expect a top band to play with. They are hungry to win new fans and eager to show what they can do and what the UK has been missing out on – which is a lot.

The one-hour setlist includes their successful hits – ‘The Sex Is Good’, ‘Drowning (Face Down)’, which Scotty says means a lot to him, ’18 Days’ – one of the slower, more emotional and stirring singles (“We don’t play slow songs live a lot, frankly because we don’t want to put people to sleep,” says Scotty), as well as ‘Blood Stained Revolution’ track ‘Let It All Out’, where we’re told that if we don’t know the words to ‘make shit up’.

“We are a Southern rock band,” Scotty says before ‘You Make Me Sick’, a song that really embodies what Saving Abel are about. It’s good, honest rock ‘n’ roll, with dirty riffs and smokey blues. ‘Mississippi Moonshine’ brings a bit of sexy funk, while ‘Contagious’ includes a fun couple of lines of Billy Idol’s ‘White Wedding’. They wrap up the set with ‘Addicted’, the band’s platinum hit single, which still sounds as good today as it did back when it was released a decade ago.

With the guys now eager to head over to the UK more frequently, we definitely can’t wait for their return, hopefully to bigger crowds, and hopefully with a new album soon under their belts.

Read our interview with Saving Abel in issue 99 of Black Velvet (Nov 2018).