Tyketto
Official Website: www.tyketto.de/
MySpace Website: www.myspace.com/tykettomusic

On a very cold night in New Jersey, a longtime local favorite returned to the stage to heat things up and throw a little additional spice onto the Mexicali Live stage in Teaneck, NJ.

TYKETTO is that band and these guys go way back to 1991 with their debut “Don’t Come Easy” on Geffen Records. Some of the faces have recently changed but the band put on a solid (as always) set as they played their 2nd of three US warm-up shows before heading to Europe for their “Around The World In Eighteen Days-2009” Tour.

TYKETTO is fresh off their performance at Firefest V in Nottingham, England back in late October. A show which the band introduced a few new members to the lineup and so now the US audiences finally got a little sneak peek of the new guys and got to hear some of the classic TYKETTO songs again. Songs that simply aren’t heard enough on US soil these days. Their last US show was November 2004 at Dingbatz in Clifton, NJ.

One name that hasn’t changed these days is lead singer Danny Vaughn. Danny looks and sounds just as he did back in the day as his powerful voice took center stage and ripped through a 90 minute set of songs from the first two TYKETTO releases and a couple from the groups most recent release “The Last Sunset” from 2007. That release is a collection of older songs that never made the early albums and so to hear them in concert was a treat.

The other names in the band these days are founding members Michael Clayton Arbeeny (drums) and Jimi Kennedy (bass) along with newcomers PJ Zitarosa (guitar) and Bobby Lynch (keyboards). Zitarosa previously played with both Vaughn and Arbeeny in the post-TYKETTO band simply named VAUGHN a few years back.

The band hit the Mexicali stage just after 11:30pm with the semi-a capella intro to “Lay Your Body Down”, a song from their “Don’t Come Easy” debut album. After that they went into a double adrenalin-shot of “Rescue Me” (from the 1994 “Strength In Numbers” CD) and “Wings” (from the debut). They are two great songs that worked really well back to back.

Vaughn half-joked how because he had some problems before the show with his acoustic guitar that he didn’t have time to warm-up his voice and “that it usually takes about 20 minutes or so to do it”. It certainly wasn’t noticeable as he really hasn’t seemed to lose a step in all these years!

Next was the track “Seasons” and then a special treat with the song “Big Wheels”, which is from the aforementioned “The Last Sunset” release.

After that was a triple shot from the “Strength” album with title track “Strength In Numbers”, “Catch My Fall” and “End Of The Summer Days”, a song Vaughn told the crowd was actually written on a winter night just like the one outside on this evening.

Vaughn told the crowd about how it’s always special to play these hometown shows as they get to see a lot of old friends. I think he described it something to the effect like “most of you people out there we owe money too and we’ve definitely eaten at most of your houses.” After that, they played “Burning Down Inside” from the debut which included a nice keyboard intro from Lynch who also supplied a fair amount of backing vocals on the night. He definitely seems to be a nice addition to the lineup as his keyboards aren’t too prominent in the mix but are just supplied very tastefully.

The bands quintessential ballad “Standing Alone” was up next and it’s always great to hear that track. After that, another “new” song was played with the rocker “Till The Summer Comes” from the “Sunset” release.

“Nothing But Love” and the song which Vaughn described as the bands “cursed song”, “Walk On Fire”, were featured next.

They finished up the set with “The Last Sunset” and of course, their biggest hit “Forever Young” which is always a crowd favorite.

The band chose not to do a traditional encore but to just play their set straight through until the end. No rockstar attitude from these guys, just a good old-fashioned rock show from a talented bunch of musicians. It was great to hear the TYKETTO songs again and I hope it’s not another four plus years until they play another US show.