“Aw, yeah!” exclaims Chris Robertson of Black Stone Cherry
at one point during their headline show at the First Direct Arena in Leeds.
Actually, he exclaims it several times, in varying guises, but the sentiment
remains the same. It’s a rallying call to the fans of southern fried rock in
attendance tonight, a shout of celebration, a signal to punch the air. It’s a
shame then that half the time, that rock is served cold, dead on arrival, as
opposed to the piping hot it should be.
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| Chris Robertson of Black Stone Cherry performing live in Leeds in 2016. (Credit to Katy Blackwood.) |
Black Stone Cherry, Kentucky’s spiritual sons of Lynyrd
Skynyrd, ZZ Top et al, are proprietors of some fine riffs – short, sharp and prosaic in concept but undoubtedly effective in practice. Four albums in, with
a fifth on the way, they’ve mastered a dependable ability to marry post-grunge
and alternative metal with seventies-style blues rock with an old school charm;
but that charm is lacking at first glance as they struggle to find their
stride.
Opener Me and Mary
Jane and old single Blind Man are
raw and dirty on record; live, they’re tenderised under fumbled guitar work and
a lax rhythm section, in particular their wild haired drummer John Fred Young.
Bands often benefit from a looser feel when playing live; but as Robertson
scuffs up Violator Girl once more,
the wild abandon they are aiming for is simply a mess. At points, the show
feels lazy and it doesn’t help that some of the material is neither prodigious
nor inspiring – Yeah Man is a
standard hard rock cliché in melisma of extending one-word over the course of a
year, and signals a mass outbreak for the bar.
Yet there are touches of nuance here, and glimpses of great
songwriting there. After an obligatory drum-turned-harmonica solo, Robertson straps
on an acoustic guitar and sings the affecting ode Things My Father Said alone. The poignant beauty comes as an
about-face, and triggers a one-hundred-and-eighty turn in performance; for the
rest of the show, BSC are electrifying, undergoing a transformation from
scrappy to superb in the space of a few chords. Peace Is Free features a growling cameo from support act Halestorm
frontwoman Lzzy Hale, and upcoming material In
Our Dreams and The Rambler
showcases impressive virtuosity from guitarist Ben Wells and bassist Jon
Lawhon. It’s a much-needed mood whiplash that goes some way to salvaging their
performance.
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| Jon Lawhon of Black Stone Cherry performing live in Leeds in 2016. (Credit to Katy Blackwood.) |
When they return for an encore, after a one-two punch of the
chunky White Trash Millionaire and visceral
Blame It on the Boom Boom, they mess
it up again, albeit intentionally; after masterfully shredding through Lonely Train, they throw all semblance
of tempo aside for a ragged crash through Motorhead’s Ace of Spades in memory to the late Lemmy Kilmister. It’s shambolic
and a fitting tribute to the man. They say to play bad, you’ve got to be able
to play good in music, and Black Stone Cherry are testament to this; unfortunately,
the rough-hewn approach often means their tasty, heavy fare is served lukewarm
at best.
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