Black Star Riders
Wednesday evening the Black Star Riders came to town, along with a few friends of course. The UEA is a great venue, but for some strange reason, there are quite a few sound engineers that struggle to get it right. On another note, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the UEA as empty as it was on Wednesday, which is a shame as a lot of the great atmosphere the venue normally brings was lost.
Opening the show were Scottish rockers Gun. I was listening to these guys as a teenager but never got to see them live, until now. So have they still got “it?” The answer to that is a resounding “YES!” Their set was only 30 minutes, so for me it was over far too quickly, I could have watched them for another hour or so. Word Up was always going to get the crowd going, so that was a safe bet, and playing it early on in their set was very clever. They had the crowd from then on, and never lost them.
Following on were Backyard Babies who I’d heard great things about from others at the show, but the sound was awful to start with. The vocals were lost, the guitars were muddy and the bass just overpowered pretty much everything, even the drums at one point. This was a good example of how not to do the sound. Thankfully it was being tweaked as they went on, but there were only a few songs that benefitted from anything near decent which is a shame, as they at least looked good on stage.
There were no such issues with sound for Black Star Riders, although it seemed to take an age for them to get going. As I’ve mentioned though, if you don’t get it right, you can spoil it for everyone. A massive cheer went up as they took to the stage, and they let loose with all guns blazing. The twin lead guitars of Damon Johnson and Scott Gorham give BSR an unmistakeable sound, and they shared solo duties throughout the set. Ricky was on top form too, performing rhythm guitar duties as well as that distinctive growl his vocals possess. With the rhythm section consisting of Jimmy DeGrasso and Robbie Crane driving everything, this was an all-out onslaught. Most notable though, was the fact that only one Thin Lizzy song made it into the set. BSR have been around in this guise for five years now, and have just put out their third album. The quality of the new music is astounding, and long may they continue because as a live band, they’re incredible.
