Concert Review: The Struts At The Truman In KC, November 13, 2023 – Old School, Fun, Rawk Show!!

*Photo of singer Luke Spiller of the Struts taken by your intrepid blogger

There’s nothing better than that “day after the concert” feeling when you’ve seen a great show. There’s a buzz – psychological, not bourbon related – that comes over you when you’ve seen a band come out and blow the doors off a place. All day long the Rock Chick has been blaring the Struts because last night at the Truman they put on an old fashion, super fun, rock n roll show. I felt like it was 1974. I always know when she’s really dug a show when I hear last night’s band on the stereo during her workout.

First and foremost, I should admit I’d never been to the Truman and I really like it as a venue. It’s all G.A. so be prepared to stand for your evening of rock n roll should you see somebody there… not that sitting is ever really an option. As I stood in a crowd of about 600 people for last night’s relatively intimate show, I realized there would be an opener. I’ve reached that stage in life where I typically want to skip the opener and get to the main event… well, at concerts anyway. But I’m certainly glad I saw Detroit Rock City’s own, Mac Saturn open last night’s show. They were a perfect opener for the Struts. Their music is a mixture of blues and soul and rock that harkens back to… well, 1974. They were a blast to watch. Songs like “Mr. Cadillac,” “Mint Julep,” and “Get On The Phone,” – during which Carson Macc wielded an old school wall phone, complete with a cord long enough it could have been from my mother’s kitchen – are all going to end up in high rotation around here. It was great to see a band this young rock out that way! It was a really fun opening set. I kept laughing in a good, joyful way.

After a 45 minute wait between bands, the lights dropped and out came the Struts: Luke Spiller (pictured above on vocals), Adam Slack (guitar), Jed Elliott (bass) and Gethin Davies (drums) and launched into the tune “Dirty Sexy Money” and it was on, baby! Spiller had on a purple shirt with ruffles and giant collar and cuffs and leather pants. This was no serious evening of shoe gazing tunes. This was going to be a night of rock n roll… one might describe it as a celebration of rock n roll. It’s probably as close as I’ll ever come to seeing Queen.

Spiller was all over the stage. I tried to get a picture with the Rock Chick’s phone, which is much better than mine, but the guy wouldn’t stand still. Spiller has that old school, rock singer charisma that was entirely engaging… I was surprised I knew as many songs as I did. The audience which was a real wide spectrum of ages was really into it. The Struts played last night’s show for 600 as if they were playing for 6000. Let me say, the ladies (of all ages) love this band.

After “Dirty Sexy Money,” they launched into crowd favorite “Body Talks.” Their songs rock a lot more live than they do in the studio, not that they don’t rock the studio as well. It was early in the set they played my two favorite tracks, “Fallin’ With Me,” and “Too Good At Raising Hell.” I’ve been singing that latter lyric all day, “Think I’m getting too good, too good at raising hell…” Indeed. I also love the line, “Sex so good, make the neighbors smoke a cigarette.” I am who I am. They really came out swinging with those first three tracks. They followed up those songs with more great tracks, “Kiss This,” another fan favorite and “Rock Star.” The Struts really do wear the title of Rock Star well. Every track has an arena ready chorus that the crowd could not help from singing along with while Spiller stood at the lip of the stage with his arms wide open, leading us like a human orchestra.

There were of course a few tracks I wasn’t familiar with. “Mary Go Round” had everybody going nuts. “Wild Child” was borderline heavy  metal. I really liked the title track of their new album, “Pretty Vicious.” These guys have the songs. The last track of the main set, “Put Your Money On Me” was complete with a drum solo. And yes, there had been a guitar solo earlier in the evening.

The encore began with Spiller sitting at a small white piano by the drum riser – very Freddie Mercury – and singing “Strange Days” a song about how fucked up the world is these days… It was a great moment like Tommy Lee sitting down to play “Home Sweet Home.” The whole band rocked “Could Have Been Me” to end the show. Spiller commented that the Struts have been around for 11 or 12 years and he passionately promised the crowd that they’d be back to rock us again.

All I could say was, wow…what a hard rocking, balls out, almost two hour performance! the Struts do not disappoint. These guys played like they were trying to take over the world one small hall at a time. Some folks are turned off a little that their music is, like Big Star or Cheap Trick before them, pop-rock, but not me, baby. I gained a ton of respect for these very hard working musicians. This ranks up there with some of the other great shows I’ve seen this year by U2, Billy Idol and Bush. If I may echo Spiller’s comments last night, if the Struts come back I’ll be there, baby!

Cheers, baby!