It has been 5 years since Sue and
I saw are current favourite Southern Rock band, Blackberry Smoke. The gig has
been sold out, actually, the bands entire UK tour sold out. Some friends of
BBS, Cadillac 3, who happen to be in town playing opened the show with a short
like 25min set. They were an interesting 3 piece of drums, guitar (who did the
lead vocals), and pedal steel, who also did a lot of singing. Sadly, the pedal
steel was mixed way too low in the mix and you only herad him in the more quiet
sections, which were few as this was big heavy southern riffs, almost like a
stoner southern blues with no solos. They played Tennesse Mojo and their new
single, which is not out yet called South but I don’t remember the title of the
other three short songs.
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| Million Dollar Reload |
After a 20min break, Million
Dollar Reload, I think they were called hit the stage. They clearly had some
fans in the area where we were standing but they were really average. A bit of
AC/DC, Guns and Roses and 80’s rock and roll, ala Hanoi Rocks but we had heard
it all before. Good energy and average sing along rock songs. I was pretty
bored and just wanted to see BBS like everyone else.
I had seen the set they were
playing on this tour and it was really heavy on the Whippoorwheel, which was
only just released in the UK and Europe on Earache records, despite having been
out like 1½ years in the USA. Anyway, they opened with the hard rocking, Leave
a Scar and into Like I Am from the bands little Piece of Dixie record. Turns
out they would only play tracks from these two records with nothing from their
debut or the more country, Honky Tonk Ep. The set went by pretty fast as the
songs are played very tight and exactly like on the record except for Sleeping
Dogs, where they have a bit of fun with a jam in the middle with a bit of
Midnight Rider by the Allman Brothers and back into the song but even this is
done with picture perfection as they do it like this every night for the last
many years. People really got into Up in Smoke, which would have been a perfect
one for them to jam out and one of the few where Paul gets to do a guitar solo
but they kept it short. I really wish they would jam it out a bit more. The
bass player and drummer looked like they could have fallen asleep during the
set a few times, while Charlie and Paul were clearly having a ball playing. I
shouted out Train Rollin (a song from the first album) but Charlie said that
was a Deep Cut and they could not play it because Paul could not remember the
words! The first encore was a brand new song, called Livin in the Song, and it
was a quite a short commercial track. I did not particularly like it but you
know their songs grow on you… They were pressed for time so a quick version of
Shake your Magnolia and they were out the door in about a 95min set. Fun show for sure…
Set List: Leave a Scar, Like I am,
Six Ways to Sunday, Good One Comin’ On, Pretty Little Lie, Crimson Moon,
Sleeping Dogs, She’s Mine, Whippoorwheel, Holy Ghost, Up in Smoke, Ain’t got
the blues, Freeborn Man, Restless, One Horse Town, Ain’t much Left of Me, Livin
in a Song, Shake your Magnolia
