Live Review: The Night Flight Orchestra – London

On a Saturday night in London, it is safe to say you find a good party easily but the liveliest party took place at The Garage in Islington as Swedish AOR party animals The Night Flight Orchestra had rolled into town for a sold out show bringing along the glitter and glam of New York’s and the world's finest metal tribute to The Bee Gees, Tragedy, along for the ride.

If you were looking for high brow and sophisticated entertainment, then you would have been at the wrong show and this evening was all about that party feeling which Tragedy well and truly got started. Bridging that gap between disco and heavy metal, Tragedy performs songs by The Bee Gees and beyond in a hair metal and classic heavy metal style. Made up of five members (plus Lance the towel boy) and wearing more glitter and sparkly outfits than should be allowed, Tragedy unleashed a ten song set with staples by The Bee Gees including the band’s namesake ‘Tragedy’ as well as ‘How Deep Is Your Love?’ and ‘Stayin’ Alive’ but there were also heavy metal renditions of songs from the Grease soundtrack, ABBA, a ridiculously entertaining mashup of The Weather Girls ‘It’s Raining Men’ and Slayer’s ‘Raining Blood’ and a tribute to ‘King’ Neil Diamond with ‘Sweet Caroline’. There were plenty of falsetto vocals, ridiculous stage antics and tongue in cheek humour. Tragedy may be a covers band with a ridiculous gimmick but it was a highly entertaining 45 minute set with some great musicianship and the majority of the boozed up crowd definitely enjoyed it. It was a great way to set up for the AOR party to come.

Fresh off the release of their seventh album “Give Us The Moon” the previous day, the Swedish AOR party train that is The Night Flight Orchestra hit the stage and ensured that everyone was moving for their seventy five minute set. The band features members of Swedish metal stalwarts such as Soilwork and Arch Enemy and were formed whilst Soilwork were on tour from a love of 70’s and 80’s AOR music. The band is an ode to that era and bands such as Journey, Toto and Foreigner but with a big dollop of Swedish pop music and an added in air travel aesthetic. It may sound like an odd formula but my god it works and The Night Flight Orchestra are easily one of my favourite bands to see live with this being my third time. The band has an incredible energy on stage with eight members in total with Bjorn “Speed” Strid on main vocals, Anna Brygård and Åsa Lundman on backing vocals, Rasmus Ehrnborn on guitars, Sharlee D’Angelo on bass, Jonas Källsbäck on the drums and Sebastian Forslund on guitars and percussion. It was especially nice to see Sharlee on bass this evening as previous times I have seen The Night Flight Orchestra perform, Sharlee has been busy with Arch Enemy and there has been a stand-in bassist.