I’ve been a fan of Black Stone Cherry’s stuff for a while now, and snapped up two pairs of tickets for their gig in Glasgow on the day of release a few months back. Last night myself, Fliss, and our friends Campbell and Claire made a night of it and enjoyed one of the best gigs I’ve seen at the O2.
The stars aligned that made it possible for us to meet in Glasgow, go for an Italian meal in Di Maggio’s in Royal Exchange Square, then walk to the venue and arrive just before the support act came on. Pretty amazing timing considering we weren’t exactly clock watching!
Rival Sons, the support act, were pretty good I thought. The singer wore all black with brilliant white basketball boots that were sort of distracting when he slithered across the stage. That’s just an observation – it didn’t detract from their sound, which was heavy!
I left my ear plugs out for the Rival Sons, but from my previous experience of gigs at the O2 I knew that they’d be cranking it up to uncomfortable levels for the main act. And, even with my ear plugs in, when they came on Black Stone Cherry made a very powerful sound – with loads of energy that the crowd really responded to. Over the course of the evening it was the most animated crowd I’ve seen at that venue, actually.
It was only half an hour in when I realised they’d done most of my favourite songs and the gig was racing along. They saved Things my father said for close to the end, which is a song I really like, but they did the thing where they get the crowd to sing it while they played along.
I don’t mean to be a killjoy, but when I pay £16 for a ticket to a gig at a mediocre venue with horribly outdated toilet facilities, the upside has to be that the band I’m there to see performs their songs. I don’t mind being asked to sing along, but I was a bit disappointed that they got the crowd to sing one of their best songs when I wanted to hear it live. Ah well, maybe next time.
And I mean that, too – I so enjoyed the performance last night that I’ll definitely try to see them again when they’re on tour. Hopefully next time they’ll sing all the songs themselves and play for a bit longer as well – we were out of the place just after 10pm, which is practically unheard of for a Saturday night gig in town.
The early finish did mean we could get to the pub and round off an excellent evening spent with good friends, good food, and good music. Perfect! 🙂
