I have been a huge and faithful Angel fan since the 1970’s. I never had a chance to see them back then in their full stage show glory, the one chance I had in Albuquerque was cancelled.
I have since seen Angel and Frank and Punky perform anytime that they are in the Los Angeles area, starting in the 1990’s. I’m always blown away by Punky Meadows guitar playing and Frank Dimino’s vocals, which has help up nicely.
This show was the 40th anniversary of the release of the debut Angel record on Casablanca Records in the early 1970’s. There is a new version released on an independent label you can find at their website, and Timmy Yasui at Cleopatra Records reports a new release from Angel is in the works in the near future.
The group still sports their trademark all white image and classic logo. Frank’s vocals remain as strong as on the the original recordings and Punky’s guitar playing is on fire, aided by his frustration with his malfunctioning pedal board. The other members are all vets with the band and are solid players who stay true to the original recordings.
The setlist included all the classic Angel hits, the Tower, Wild and Hot, Can You Feel It, The Fortune, Don’t Leave Me Lonely, Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart, Got Love If You Want It, Rock N Rollers, etc. They also played some other songs not usually in the set, which had the crowd pumped up.
The thing I love about legacy acts that are still touring is that the musicianship is always top notch, with all live playing and no reliance on technology. Punky still uses a cream Stratocaster and is all glammed up to the max, all old school showbiz, and his playing is still inspired and fluid. He uses a couple of finger picking techniques that I can’t figure out while trilling some lead lines. Franks has his trademark vocal screams like it’s 1978! The Angel live Without A Net record remains my favorite release by them, followed by Sinful. I always preferred the more straightforward rock and pop songs over their progressive tunes from the early records.
I was hoping to get by old school Punky Meadows pre Angel band records signed, Bux and Cherry People, but was unable due to paid meet and greets only. The cool thing is I have all my collection signed by Frank as I used to see his cover band in Las Vegas and a couple of Punky things signed and up on our rehearsal room wall. Overall, another great night of rock n roll at the Whiskey with Angel. Looking forward to the next one and thanks to Tim Yasui fro Cleopatra Records for the hook up to the show.
Veglam 
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