Black Stone Cherry

Black Stone Cherry
Review by ~ Jenna

When I found out that Black Stone Cherry were going to be playing my all time favorite venue, the Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow, I didn't waste any time in getting a ticket. Admittedly I didn't know a huge amount of their material but I had both their albums and liked them enough to want to see them live. The fact that it was at "The Barras" totally sold me on it.

I arrived just before the doors were opening at 7pm and my friend, who had been there all day, had saved me a spot in the queue. So we get in and grab a spot on the barrier at stage right. There were two support acts that night, The Parlor Mob and Duff McKagan's Loaded. The Parlor Mob were up first and were really not my thing. Very 70's rock and roll but to me, every song droned on and all sounded the same. Loaded were up next and I've always been a fan of Duff ever since Guns N' Roses so was looking forward to seeing them. I thoroughly enjoyed their very energetic set with particular highlights being New Rose, Seattle Head, Attitude and Sleaze Factory.

The change over between Loaded and BSC seemed to take quite a long time, with BSC coming on at about 9.30pm instead of the usual 9pm that I'm used to. I'd been jammed up against the barrier for the other two bands and somehow had moved up to near centre stage by the time that BSC came on. Since they're from Kentucky, their intro music was some very Bluegrass style song which the crowd seemed to love and the very excited Glasgow crowd was geared up to rock!

Opening with Rain Wizard, I was very surprised at how energetic the band was. I had never seen any live footage of them but they ran on and exploded into life, with guitarist Ben Wells running about and windmilling from the very first note! As always, the Glasgow crowd never fails to kick maximum ass and everyone was jumping, singing, headbanging and throwing the horns right from the get go. I'm not sure what I expected of them live, but I certainly didn't expect the crowd to be quite so violent (but in a good way). During Blind Man, the whole place was jumping to the rafters and the people on the barrier were getting very squashed. It was nothing that I wasn't used to from the many metal shows I've attended but I guess because I didn't think they were that "heavy", then I expected the crowd to be a bit tamer. The band were clearly having a blast and at one point, they even threw out candy bars into the crowd! They also managed to rock so hard that they blew the lights on the stage after only three songs and it took a couple more for them to be restored! During Soul Creek, singer and guitarist Chris Robertson couldn't stop grinning at the crowd because they were just so loud.

My only complaint about the show was the drum solo that followed. It was about 10 minutes long and although was an impressive show of drummer John Fred Young's talent, I found it quite boring after a while and I think the rest of the crowd did as well, which showed as the girl next to me began a conversation with the security guard during this. The epic singalong that followed more than made up for it though. An acoustic rendition of Peace Is Free had everyone in the whole room singing at the top of their voices, drowning out Chris who once again stepped back and let us sing the choruses. Things didn't stay mellow for too long though, plowing through Maybe Someday and Lonely Train back to back which once again had the crowd bouncing up to the ceiling.

At one point during the show, they even had what I can only assume was their roadies come up and join them for a song or two. Something I've never seen before a show but a very cool thing for the band to do. My favorite song, Things My Father Said, was the highlight of the set for me. Chris started singing it but only got a few words out before smiling, stepping back from the mic and letting the sold out Glasgow crowd sing it for him. You can tell this is a really emotional song for him as he had tears in his eyes whilst singing it. We Are The Kings and a jam on Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child closed the excellent set. Particular highlights were Things My Father Said, Hell And High Water, Peace Is Free and Lonely Train. I peeled myself off the barrier and had to run the mile from Barrowlands to the train station in order to get the last train home and I made it just in time. I wasn't a huge BSC fan when I entered the venue...but I most definitely am now!!

The setlist was...

Rain Wizard
Blackwoods Gold
Shooting Star
Cowboys
Yeah Man
Blind Man
Hell And High Water
Please Come In
Soul Creek
Drum Solo
Peace Is Free
Sweet Home Alabama jam
Hoochie Coochie Man
Maybe Someday
Lonely Train
Can't You See
Things My Father Said
We Are The Kings

Video of Peace Is Free - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvE_YdQP5Yc