Chris Jericho’s Fozzy bring hard rock riffs to the Roadmender

Wrestling royalty rolled into Northampton this week when former WWE star Chris Jericho’s Fozzy headlined the Roadmender.

The US hard rockers have been gigging across the UK and brought their 10-date tour to an end at the venue on Monday night.

Jericho has been a member of Fozzy for almost 25 years, juggling his wrestling career with his music one.

The band’s self-titled debut arrived in 2000 and their eighth album Boombox was released in 2022.

Over the two and a half decades, Fozzy have built up a loyal following across the world for their brand of hard rock and entertaining live show.

Joining Fozzy were fellow US rockers Pistols At Dawn and Brit quartet The Hot Damn – both who did a more than admirable job warming up the Northampton venue.

Fozzy opened with their latest single Spotlight before powering through Bad Tattoo and Painless.

And, by the time Do You Want To Start A War arrives, Jericho is armed with a CO2 gun, firing out blasts of smoke across the stage and out over the audience.

Watching Fozzy, what’s evident is all five of the band relish being on stage.

While they’re led by Jericho, the whole band get their moment in the limelight, soloing away and posturing to fans.

Jericho himself looks every part the front man, donning an outfit including a studded leopard-print jacket, trousers with words down one leg, black gloves and sparkling silver boots.

Relax is the first cover of the night, which blasts out across the Roadmender while ‘Fozzy Says Relax’ – a take on the classic Frankie branding - flashes out across on-stage LED screens.

Fozzy’s set is littered with songs boasting huge guitar riffs with sing-a-long choruses, which are lapped up by the hundreds inside.

Highlights included Sane and Nowhere To Run, and, after finishing with their 2004 single Enemy, Fozzy returned to the stage for Judas and a cover of Ramones’ Blitzkrieg Bop.

Hard rock isn’t the most fashionable genre, yet continues to pull fans into venues across the world.

With Fozzy, Jericho has no point to prove - the wrestling ‘Hall of Famer’ doesn’t need to spend a Monday night in February in Northampton.

It’s a cliché, but what’s clear from their final date of their UK tour is Fozzy are doing this because they love every minute of being on stage, entertaining fans and blasting out hard rock to an adoring fanbase.

Fozzy played:

Spotlight

Bad Tattoo

Painless

Do You Wanna Start a War

Lights Go Out

Relax (Frankie Goes to Hollywood cover)

Sane

I Still Burn

Nowhere to Run

Burn Me Out

Spider in My Mouth

Purifier

Enemy

Encore:

Judas

Blitzkrieg Bop