It’s a special week for Black Stone Cherry with the band celebrating 17 years together and lead vocalist Chris Roberson celebrating his 33rd birthday on Monday. The band are also the penultimate act on the main stage at on Saturday evening before the mighty Guns N’ Roses. As a warm-up for the massive slot at the band are playing several dates at venues across the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The mini tour started on Tuesday evening the tiny Doolans Warehouse in Limerick before rolling into Dublin to play for a packed Academy crowd tonight.
The evening was kicked off with local lads New Valley Wolves, who were honoured to be ing the Kentucky boys in their hometown. Playing to a roughly half full venue due to the slightly earlier start than d, the band started their set with powerful “Shake Your Bones” and immediately showed through their dramatic poses and brilliant facial expressions that they meant business.
Although the set seemed slightly shorter than the previous night in Limerick they were still able to showcase what the Irish rock scene has to offer to this visiting Brit and treated the crowd to tracks such as “Eyes on Me”, “Trouble” and “Fire in the Blood”. Even though there was only Jonny Lucey and Baz Joyce on stage, the massive sound and ion they had for the music they played more than filled the venue.
As the stage was set up ready for Black Stone Cherry, you could feel the sense of anticipation in the air. This feeling soon turned to pure excitement when John Fred Young took his position at the drums before being ed on stage by the rest of the band. Kicking things off as they meant to go on, Chris Robertson screamed “Y’all ready to have some fun tonight?” into the mic before opening the set with the massive single “Burning” off the band’s latest album Family Tree. The pace remained just as energetic on stage for the second track “Blind Man”, which of course being one of the band’s breakthrough tracks was a crowd favourite. After a funky/reggae breakdown of Bob Marley’s “Stir It Up” and an equally funky intro to “Me and Mary Jane” to get the crowd singing along, the band restarted the song at full power with the full complement of instruments and a trademark kick from Ben Wells on guitar.
Robertson began the forth song of the night with “Any old school fans in?” and the second the first chord of “Rain Wizard” was played it was clear the answer to that question was yes, the venue was full of them. Between samples of The Allman Brothers’ “Midnight Rider” and Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady” was “In My Blood” which gave the crowd their first chance of the night to have a singalong to a slightly slower tempo track. Even with the slower song John Fred was still able to break his drum kit for the first time this evening, Anyone who has seen his energetic style of drumming knows that this wouldn’t be the last time tonight.
The crowd were asked “How many people have our new record Family Tree?” before the band began to play “Bad Habit” from the album. It was clear from the crowd’s reaction that they approve of the new material. Guitarist Ben Wells then made his way to the front of the stage to start a bit of a jam session and he was soon ed by Robertson. The tune morphed into the recognisable intro of “Cheaper to Drink Alone”, a fitting song considering two pints of coke for myself and fellow Moshville Times reviewer Kristal had just set me back €12 (£10.54 in English money) at the venue bar. Before the song ended Robertson took the time to introduce the rest of the rest of the band including a temporary member on the bongos.
Up next were another couple of singalong tracks, “Hell or High Water” and “Like I Roll” which got the crowd clapping along and singing at the top of their lungs, especially during “Like I Roll” when Robertson sang the line “No matter what they say” before stepping back from the mic to let the crowd sing “At the end of the day” before completing the verse by belting out “I did it my way” showing off his impressive vocal range.
It was then time for Wells to have a chat to the crowd, he asked if they were feeling good before asking if there were any new “Cherry Heads in the house?” After a cheer from a small section of the audience he also took the time to welcome them to the family. Up next was a real treat, which was a song that the band don’t think they have ever played in Dublin before. This was an album track “Tired of the Rain” off the band’s self-titled debut album from back in 2006, featuring a cover in the middle which seemed to catch bass player John Lawhon out slightly as he had to quickly check the setlist to see what he was meant to be playing.
Jumping from the first album to the most recent album Robertson got the audience revved up by screaming “Are you ready?” followed by a few “Ain’t nobody in here ready”’s until the cheers were loud enough for them to start playing “Ain’t Nobody”, a funky track which Wells said was the track of the night to have a dance to. Straight after this song was finished Robertson introduced Young as “The man who needs no introduction” and “The best drummer on the face of the planet” before leaving to allow Young to perform a mighty drum solo. The end of the solo featured one handed drumming while Young also played the harmonica, he continued to do this as the rest of the band returned to play “Hoochie Coochie Man”, a cover of the Muddy Waters track which appeared on Black Stone Cherry’s 2017 EP Black to Blues.
At the point in the evening where other bands would be thinking about heading back to the dressing room, Black Stone Cherry turned it up a notch with three massive tracks back to back without evening pausing for breath. The heavier combination of “Lonely Train”, “Blame It on The Boom Boom” and “White Trash Millionaire” definitely got the crowd bouncing again after the chance to relax and appreciate the music during the previous blues number.
After opening with the first single off their latest album, Black Stone Cherry chose to finish the evening with the title “Family Tree” off the same album and a quick “Be safe on the way home, God bless” and a “See you next time”. There was no time for encores as they had already squeezed in a whopping 17 songs, testing out the four new songs on the Irish crowds along the way. One thing is for sure, the band are definitely on form and ready so be sure to be at the main stage at 17:20 on Saturday.
Photos by Jack Barker Photography
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