Buckcherry/Michael Monroe/Rubikon - SWG3, Glasgow 1st March 2026

Lucky Glasgow – a prime Sunday night of dirty, sleazy rock & roll by way of a co-headline tour show featuring two of the most compelling, captivating and entertaining frontmen you’ll ever see. Not a bad way to start the month of March.

To kick us off, there was a really solid and enjoyable set from Boston MA band Rubikon. They have been around the world and around the block a few times, and after 25 years, the line-up is still the same five groovy fuckers that they started with. They seem to be a very under-the-radar kind of band, but with a lot of gems in their back catalogue, a new record called ‘Wasteland’ to share, a crowd-pleasing tribute to ‘the Biffy’ with ‘Many of Horror’ and a redoubtable stage presence, they did a very fine job of warming up the room.

Michael Monroe had a spring in his step and made me feel like shit. He’s only four months older than me, but he still “moves-like-Jagger and looks-like-Blondie” and can play the sax and kick his own height, whereas I’m now a baldy old tosser that can’t even kick his own arse! 

The ultimate and most authentic-looking glam-rocker; Michael’s gutter punk poetry took us on a wham-bam world tour of sleazy hot spots from London (‘Old Kent Road’ and ‘Hammersmith Palais’) to Japan (‘Last Train to Tokyo’) and LA (‘Malibu Beach Nightmare’). Of course, he didn’t leave out the scuzzy bits of NYC, where he found Steve Conte, on the alternative ‘Fairytale of New York’ that is ‘Ballad of the Lower East Side’ – a hymn in praise of all the “junkies, pimps and whores” back in the day, and hallelujah and amen to all that. ‘Dead, Jail or Rock ‘n’ Roll’? I’ll take the rock ‘n’ roll please - I might be bald but I’m still too pretty for jail!

The new album ‘Interstellar’ is a cracker too, and highlights of the set included ‘Disconnected’ and ‘Shinola’ from that platter, plus old Hanoi Rocks favourites like ‘Don’t You Ever Leave Me’ and their cover of ‘Up Around the Bend’.

Despite having all-stars like Conte and Sami Yaffa on the stage, the second-hardest working man up there was Michael’s assistant, who spent the whole set picking up discarded mike stands and taking care of trailing and snagged cables as the main man romped all over the place in a high energy performance, adorned with hi-viz clothing, battery-operated millinery and sometimes shades, although there was nothing handy for him to climb tonight.

After a thoroughly entertaining set, patrons were then able to visit a very well-stocked merchandise table, which included unique items like hand-fans, sleep-masks and even a tour programme, alongside more traditional fare. 

Buckcherry are on a mission to bring the danger back to rock & roll and they ‘Lit Up’ Glasgow by bringing out the big guns right from the start, backed up by monster newer songs like ‘So Hott’ and ‘Roar Like Thunder’. 

As ever, tattooed, toned and bouncy bad boy Josh Todd was the focal point, prowling the stage like a well-inked Tigger and putting some sexy into his dance moves, while sermonising and testifying like the potty-mouthed, razor blade-throated rock & roll missionary prophet that he is and always will be. I didn’t win the topless sweepstakes as he didn’t get his kit off until after ‘Ridin’’ which was the 4th song of the night, but it was worth the wait for the appreciative girlies down the front.

‘Sorry’ was the emotional spot in the set, and Josh still sings it like he means it, but he followed it up with ‘Porno Star’ and somehow, I think ‘Say Fuck It’ is what’s really in his heart these days and that joyous middle-finger of a song was the big singalong sensation of the set. It ended, as it should, with the always relatable ‘Crazy Bitch’ – this time an extended version featuring snippets of James Brown and Tina Turner among others, accompanied by some super-fly syncopated dance moves and band introductions. This was most definitely a good time and if you didn’t know that winter was coming to an end before, you certainly felt that better days were ahead when you left. Happy days.