The Struts by Ben Cope
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what era of rock ’n’ roll The Struts pay tribute to with their high-energy, cheeky stage show. Is it early-’70s Rolling Stones when Keith Richards was wearing eyeliner and the band flirted with glam? Is it early-’80s Queen when Freddy Mercury grew ever larger than life?
It’s probably better to put this British-born, L.A.-based four-piece into their own genre — like The Darkness before them, or erstwhile comedian Russell Brand — that deifies everything about rock music, but most especially its theatricality. The performers and the audiences in this unnamed genre are all in on the joke that nothing is more important than rock ’n’ roll and all its accompanying hedonism, but there is to be no laughter, only headbanging. The har-hars replaced with hell yeahs.
The Struts formed in 2012 with singer Luke Spiller, guitarist Adam Slack, bassist Jed Elliott, and drummer Gethin Davies, and quickly got a reputation as road warriors. In 2014, they opened for the aforementioned Stones in Paris, only to have the plug pulled on them for going over their set time. They don’t bear a grudge, though; they covered “Tumbling Dice” on the Howard Stern show last year.
They had a better experience with the Foo Fighters in 2018, when Spiller was joining the headliners on stage night after night to sing the Queen-David Bowie classic, “Under Pressure,” with late drummer Taylor Hawkins. Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl once called The Struts “the best opening band we’ve ever had.”
Their upcoming show at Revolution Live will be at least their tenth South Florida concert over the last decade. It was in Miami, in fact, where a night of debauchery just a few years ago led to the rueful “Bad Decisions,” from the band’s 2023 album, Pretty Vicious. (Sample lyric: “Feel like I’m barely holding on/Lack of sleep from what I’ve done.”) As Spiller told Loudersound, that memorably bad night in Miami “came back and blew up in my face.” So who knows what they’ll do for an encore in Fort Lauderdale!
The Struts, with The Lab, play 7pm Saturday at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale thestruts.com ~ David Rolland
