Review: Y&T – Yesterday and Today Live (Expanded Edition)

Metal Blade Records (June 9th 2023)

Reviewer: Mark Jackson

San Francisco’s finest Y&T, a killer hard rock band have always been a powerful musical force driven by talented guitarist, singer, songwriter Dave Meniketti (known to fellow Muso’s as the triple threat!). On this live record they deliver the goods in an 18 wheeler Mac truck loaded up with riffs, stirring lead breaks and emotive powerful lyrics and songs.

Meniketti fires the first sonic missile with ‘Meanstreak‘,locked loaded and ready for bear!.

The 1st time I saw Y&T was back in 1982 supporting AC/DC..the band and it’s songs as well as Meniketti’s playing has lost none of it’s special strength over the years, with a fine back catalogue full of great songs and immense guitar work. ‘Black Tiger‘ is a beast of a track. ‘Midnight In Tokyo‘, ‘I Believe In You‘, ‘Rescue Me‘ and many others are Hard Rock classics and the band should’ve been bigger in my humble opinion.

The production is good and solid for live, the ace in the hole being Dave’s guitar tone and crunch! pouring out licks, riffs, pops, squeals and harmonics with abandon. He is also an exceptional vocalist with a passionate delivery.

There are extra tracks on this version, so well worth the price of admission. He’s always has a monster line up. This recording features  Dave Meniketti on guitar/vocals, Phil Kennemore on bass, Stef Burns on guitar and Jimmy DeGrasso on drums. I’ve seen the current line up many times and they always do justice to the originals.

Another great bonus is the acoustic work on ‘Hard Times‘, beautiful, just beautiful…and when the band kicks in with the excellent interplay and you can see how much Zep influenced Y&T.

On to ‘I Believe In You‘, a bonafide classic full of emotion with one of the best solo’s ever!..followed by ‘Squeeze‘, in your face laced with grit, blood and sweat.

Mr Meniketti’s playing has been such an influence on mine and indeed many other’s guitarwork and I hope he has many years of playing ahead.

The years have only improved Y&T‘s music, and I hope one day San Francisco see’s fit to honour Dave Meniketti with a statue of one of it’s most talented sons.

Get this album, cherish it and go to the shows..always great Forever.

Tracklist:

CD1

01 Mean Streak

02 Hurricane

03 Don’t Stop Runnin’

04 Struck Down

05 Winds Of Change

06 Black Tiger

07 Midnight In Tokyo

08 Beautiful Dreamer

CD2   

09  Hard Times

10 I’ll Cry

11 I Believe In You

12 Squeeze

13 Forever

14  Earthshaker (Bonus Track)

15  Rescue Me  (Bonus Track)