Molly Hatchet

This was definitely a gig which I took a punt on. Molly Hatchet’s peak years were in the early 80s, when I’d regularly read about them in Kerrang and marvelled at their awesome album covers, but I never really checked out their music other than one song – Boogie No More. What a song though! I picked up a copy of their Beatin’ The Odds album at a boot sale last year and that’s the sum of my Hatchet knowledge, but their Southern Rock sound, much like the work of bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Allman Brothers, Blackfoot and 70s ZZ Top, felt like just the sort of thing that would work well live, so off to the Waterfront I headed to find out.
Support band were Manchester’s Federal Charm. Their earnest Americanised rock left me pretty cold I have to say, but I did gradually warm to them simply because they worked extremely hard to get a response from the crowd, and guitarist Paul Bowe was key to achieving that. It must be odd being a relatively young band yet only ever playing to an older audience, but they definitely seemed to have enjoyed playing and certainly made themselves a few new friends.
It was pretty quiet at the Waterfront, not altogether surprising it has to be said – Molly Hatchet always felt like they were an American thing, they never toured over here enough to really build a fanbase, and with zero original members in the band I genuinely had no clue as what to expect. As they began their set I couldn’t help but chuckle at Bobby Ingram’s impressive mane – no-one looks like Bobby in 2018; bleached, lustrous and enormous, this is not a man who is going to let the changing face of fashion affect his look one iota. The band were rock solid of course, and pretty soon into opening track Whiskey Man I began to loosen up, I’d got the memo about Thursday being the official start of the weekend after all. Keyboardist John Galvin is the longest serving member, having joined in 1984, but regardless of who is in the band it felt authentically Hatchet. Lead singer Phil McCormack was something of a star. Phil had clearly been drinking, not drunk, but loose, and it was hard not to warm to his charms.
Somewhat surprisingly they chose to cover Skynyrd’s Free Bird during their set, a bit of a bold move, but they utterly smashed it, and everyone went pretty crazy for it. Did I get to hear Boogie No More? Thankfully yes, I did, and by that point in the evening I think I may have even taken my air guitar out of its (air) case. Beatin’ The Odds, Fall Of The Peacemakers and Flirtin’ With Disaster were also played and by the time the show ended, although relatively small in number we all made a hell of a noise of appreciation for the group.
Whatever the validity of a band playing in 2018 with no founder members and however much I disagree with their predictably Republican politics, it would be disingenuous of me to be anything other than positive about the Molly Hatchet live experience. They came, they kicked ass, we drank, we partied and I could not have asked for any more to get the weekend started.