Let’s be honest: most reunions suck. All too often thrown together through desperation, minus key personnel, regroupings usually fail to recapture the spirit and quality of the original incarnations. When San Francisco hard rockers Y&T, on the other hand, toured the UK in the summer of 2005 – the first time in 22 years they’d played these shores – their powerhouse live shows easily matching the performances of yesteryear.
The quartet must still seal the deal by returning to the studio, and rhythm guitarist Joey Alves is sadly absent from their ranks, but guitarist Dave Meniketti’s lungpower has diminished virtually nil, bassist Phil Kennemore must have been cryogenically frozen back in the late 80s and, despite slimming down drastically, Leonard Haze slams the skins with all the same fervour and finesse. Besides their skills as musicians, Y&T also have the luxury of an expansive repertoire. “Most nights we don’t bother with what you’d call a real set list,” says Dave Meniketti, a couple of hours before a Mean Fiddler show that will surely bring back good memories for both band and audience.
“We go out and play maybe half an hour of planned material, then throw the rest of the show open to requests – and we’re on stage for two hours. It’s up to the fans let us know what they want to hear.” Formed in California’s Bay Area at the turn of the 70s, Yesterday & Today (as they were originally known) joined on the roster of London Records, releasing two .