“Grrrrreat Brrritain, We Are The Mighty, Mighty Ten Ton Hammer” declares Robert Flynn with a large grin. “Do you like my English accent?! We have travelled to your land from far across the sea to drink all your vodka!” The band (with the excellent Phil Demmel on guitar) took the stage last night at the utterly sold out London Highbury Garage at 10pm and what followed was 90 minutes of awesomeness. Kicking off the set with a cover of Metallica’s Creeping Death, complete with crushing moshpit, the band blasted their way through a variety of old and new Machine Head songs and a ton of covers. “This is a cover by a band called Machine Head”, he soon bellows. ‘Head songs Davidian, Old, Blood For Blood, Ten Ton Hammer, The Blood, The Sweat, The Tears, American High, & Supercharger were heard. Cover snippets and songs were mixed in Sepultura’s Roots & Territory got an airing, along with System Of A Down’s Sugar, Iron Maiden’s Trooper, Run To The Hills, & Number of the Beast, Judas Priest’s The Hellion, Queens Of The Stone Age’s Feel Good Hit Of The Summer, Pantera’s Walk, Black Sabbath’s Electric Funeral, and even Motley Crue’s Live Wire (dedicated to the lovely Michelle Kerr of RR UK, the band’s 8-year long-suffering press officer). All present surely noticed that during ‘Roots’ the lyrics to one verse changed to “I’m too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt”.. yes, THAT Right Said Fred song. Hotter than a Mexican sweatshop, during the show Adam (bassist) commented to his tech on the heat, pointing out the puddle of sweat he was standing in. You could see the sweat pouring off the band – they were literally dripping. And they didn’t slow down for even an instant. The Garage was rammed from back to front, and side to side – there were even people climbing onto the cigarette machine. Every possible viewing point had a body in it. The monster circle pit built up during Davidian stretched the entire venue! Were you one of the lucky 100 people to get a very limited edition Ten Ton Hammer t-shirt, designed for the Garage show? Ending the set by dragging a fan out of the pit onto the stage to chug a couple ‘Brown Eyes’ and then hang out backstage, Robb slapped hands with those at the front and beamed at everyone present, telling “this show means a lot, it’s the first time we’ve taken Ten Ton Hammer out of the Bay area, thank you!!” We’ll leave you with one last memory… Robb laughing and asking, “what the hell are we doing up here?!” We say, having a fuckin’ good time and taking everyone along for the ride. Awesome!