By David O’Neill
This is another night when Black Stone Cherry commence their ÜK tour in Cardiff. I first saw them on the ‘ABIII’ tour supporting Alter Bridge in 2011 and I’ve seen them on every ÜK tour at least once since including the phenomenal day in Caerphilly Castle in 2019. No way was I going to miss this double whammy with The Darkness. I first saw The Darkness “up the mountain” at Steelhouse festival in 2016 and again in 2021. They blew me away both times but in 2016 it surprised a lot of my friends as to how heavy they could be.
Whilst my first instinct was this was a strange joint headline I put my hand in my pocket without hesitation for a ticket ever since it was announced. It was apparently a tour first postulated in 2012 after they both performed in Thetford Forest in Cambridgeshire. The only thing I thought Thetford was famous for before I found out this fact was the portapotties that get used in caravans.
Danko Jones are a Canadian trio who have been together long enough to have 12 albums under their belt. I have picked up a few tracks on Planet Rock but this was my first time seeing them live. A heavy mix of punk driven energetic rock was on the agenda. This was a good start to what had the potential to be a great night.
Danko Jones came on at 7pm and opened up with ‘Saturday’ (why wouldn’t you?). Rapidly followed by ‘I Gotta Rock’, the trio brought some real energy to the stage without dancing around too much (made life easy for a photographer!). All the tracks that followed were upbeat and punky and easy to follow along. There was some solid musicianship on show and for a three piece they got the show off to a good start that culminated in ‘My Little R’n’R’ just before 730. I really enjoyed the set and will definitely catch them when they tour again. I think they impressed a lot of people.
A thirty minute break followed before The Darkness came on dead on 8pm – and boy did they make an entrance. With the band logo on a silver backdrop, a river of fireworks fell from top to bottom of the stage. Kicking off in his customarily flamboyant dress style of a lime green sparkly top and shiny pink trousers, ‘Growing On Me’ blasted the set off. ‘Black Shuck’ and ‘Motorheart’ were accompanied by multiple pyrotechnics but the thing that has impressed me more and more each time I see them is their musicianship and stagecraft. The whole band delivered it in spades. Add in the almost constant pyrotechnics and explosions (so much so I think they may have burned their own hole in the ozone layer), they really threw the whole kitchen, not just the kitchen sink, at the event, which rapidly became a spectacle rather than a gig.
What I really like about the band is the constant tongue in cheek nature of the lyrics and the effort that must be involved in not taking yourself seriously that Justin and the band appear to extol the virtue of. This was clearly displayed by Solid Gold and Get your hands off my woman, both of which raised some serious smiles on many peoples faces. The crowd lapped it all up, joining in with the singing and hand swaying but when the opening of I believe in a thing called love arrived they went bonkers. This was an exceptional display of musicianship and stage craft. Add in the fact that during Love on the Rocks (with no ice) Justin went “walkabout” on the shoulders of one of the stage crew (called Softy) right around the arena whilst playing guitar and that is the show that will have people talking for a long time.
There followed a huge stage crew effort to get all the kit off stage and move Black Stone Cherry into place, including a change of all the lighting rig at rear of the stage, behind a kabuki drop.
Kicking off with ‘Me n Mary Jane’, which has been the band’s staple for the past few times Ive seen them, Ben Wells is like Tigger on speed, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him stand still for longer than ten seconds. This must be contagious because even Steve Jewell has started to run around the stage. When I saw him with Otis (also supporting BSC) he was so laid back he was horizontal and barely moved. Not so now. With his long hair swinging around his head and also running from left to right across the stage he is starting to get the stage presence and partnership that Jon Lawhon had with Ben.
How do you follow ‘Me N Mary Jane’? I know, ‘Blind Man’ and ‘Burnin’: three really good openers and whilst there was little in the way of pyrotechnics, the Kentucky quartet let the music be the event.
This was a combination of two of my favourite BSC albums, ‘Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea’ and ‘Folklore and Superstition’. Add into the mix that it had been announced earlier in the day that they were going to be the Sunday night headliners at Steelhouse and I was like a dog in a street full of lampposts – happy is a serious understatement. Even Ben was so excited when he made the announcement on stage he spoke so fast that his voice went up a couple of octaves… so much so that some in the audience didn’t really hear what he said!
‘Soulcreek’ is a cracking track and following it with ‘In my Blood’ is always going to get the crowd going. The lighting and smoke cannon effects were on point as the new track ‘Out of Pocket’ rattled the venue. With all that energy expended ‘Like I Roll’ gave the band a breather before ‘Cheaper To Drink Alone’ rattled into the Jon Fred drum solo: I’ve seen this many times and this one was the best yet!
Chris Robertson always gets emotional during ‘Things my Father Said’; the best crowd version I heard was in St Davids’ Hall last year but this one came close. Put a group of drunken Welsh people together and ask them to sing and this is what you get. ‘Oh Oh Blame It On The Boom Boom’ soon popped that emotional bubble and finishing up with ‘Lonely Train’ could only have been topped by ‘Rain Wizard’ (but I guess we need to save that one for Steelhouse don’t we!).
With the encore of ELOs ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’ from ‘The Human Condition’ you could hear everyone singing “Brruce”. I could see a lot of happy faces leaving and many I know said they’ll be off to Steelhouse on the back of that performance.
The tour continues at the Resorts World Arena in Birmingham tonight (Tuesday 31 January), before heading to Manchester on Thursday (2 February) and Leeds on Friday (3 February), finishing at London’s OVO Arena on Saturday (4 February). You really ought to go see it. Black Stone Cherry return to headline the Steelhouse Festival on Sunday 30 July.