Loud and gritty in Wolverhampton

Time again for the periodic trip to Wolverhampton. The last few visits (Nov 2008-Sigur Rós, Jan 2009- Seasick Steve) were to Civic Hall, but 28th April was to the smaller sister venue Wulfrun Hall. We hadn't been there for (I believe, don't really want to count!) 5 years, and in a lot of ways it is a better venue than the Civic -more intimate but still good acoustics.

The reason for this trip was to see Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (BRMC). I somehow want to write 'underground', but as the show was a sellout and I believe many of the other dates were/are too, maybe 'ignored by the media' will suffice. Certainly I can't recall reading much about them recently, however over the years there's been a steady stream of albums with a few varying styles. M and I saw BRMC separately back in 2003 and enjoyed the band's live sets then. Amazingly, BRMC's website has their entire 'gigography' online, so according to them the respective dates were 4th and 8th November (Sheffield and Cardiff dates). My! It really doesn't feel that long ago!

The support, Dark Horses, were new to both of us but certainly entertained. Kinda dark psychedelicy rock, seemed entirely suitable too. Well worth a future listen, myspace available. According to another review I found here, Dark Horses are unsigned?! I would hope not for long. There is a link on their myspace and on their website for 2 free downloads.

Dark Horses started playing to a fairly empty room but by the end of their set the sellout was obvious. BRMC teased the crowd with a false start but then kicked off with War Machine. Set list (from the same midlands rocks review mentioned earlier): War Machine / Mama Taught Me Better / Red Eyes and Tears / Bad Blood / Beat The Devil's Tattoo / Love Burns / Ain't No Easy Way / Aya / Berlin / Weapon of Choice / Annabel Lee / Awake / Whatever Happened to my Rock N Roll (Punk Song) / Acoustic Break / River Styx / Shuffle Your Feet / Conscience Killer / Six Barrel Shotgun / Spread Your Love / Stop / Shadows Keeper. Happily for us the set was a mix of old and new; I think my standout tracks were Shuffle Your Feet, Weapon of Choice and Whatever Happened to my Rock N Roll. BRMC are very polished live performers with an incredible sound (volume as well as melody!) and were on stage for nearly 2 hours. All this for a very reasonable ticket price. Excellent!

A must see band, as much now as they were in 2003. New UK tour dates for later in the year have been announced, see link for the list on BRMC's site.

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