Review: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, O2 Academy

There really is a vogue for two piece bands nowadays, and with limited stylistic options artists are forced to push the boundaries to stand out. Restavrant (nope, not sure why either) took a whole bunch of genres and created a percussive rumpus that had the crowd rather musically confused but constantly entertained. So the countrybilly element had some portly middle aged gents trying to get their hoedown on without spilling their pints whilst several ladies went for freestyle line dancing moves combined with go-go frugging. Meanwhile the heavy blues riffs got heads banging and the punk tempo of some of the tunes saw sporadic semi-pogoing.

Troy Murrah (guitar and harp) and Tyler Whiteside (explosion in a junkyard drum kit and drum machine) belted out a half dozen or so tunes that really did manage to mash up a multiplicity of influences in to a pleasing racket. Murrah took all the vocals, equipped with a pair of mics that gave him either a distorted southern trailer park rasp or a clean(ish) rock n roll via Nashville croon, at times channelling Elvis and Lux Interior. Whiteside really shone whilst battering the buggery out of his kit (including up turned plastic bucket and a single cymbal the size of a go-kart hubcap), often letting the drum machine keep the beat whilst treating his kit as a lead instrument. His creativity with the kit left Murrah free to riff his way through the tunes: jagged leads, sleazy slide and plenty of stinging lead work, the only thing the pleasing set lacked was an ear worm to take away.

The crowd had been steadily building throughout the support set and by the time Black Rebel Motorcycle Club took to the stage it was pretty packed. By the time they finished a senses shattering rampage through nigh on two dozen songs the room was rammed with a sated, hoarse, sweaty throng who’d enjoyed a relentless aural and visual assault cunningly disguised in what can best be described as hefty post-punk Americana played with garage sensibility. Peter Hayes (guitar, bass, harp & vox), Leah Shapiro (drums & backing vox) and Robert Levon Been (bass, guitar & vox) rampaged through their seven album catalogue with soon come eighth Wrong Creatures featuring strongly. In fact the band opened with new single Little Thing Gone Wild and for the most part the new tunes were greeted with enthusiastic respect.

Naturally the fan favourites got the crowd moving and the set was cleverly paced, with Hayes and Been trading vocals (the former equipped with a cunning harp neck brace that also included a mic) and instruments too, some bass-less cuts featuring both on guitar and others featuring Been not so much playing his bass as wrestling and pummelling it for forceful melodic leads. Shapiro excelled throughout, her forceful rhythms were devoid of ego and delivered with casual cool from behind her less is more kit as she both drove the up tempo tunes and grounded the slower numbers.

The sound was uniformly excellent throughout, striking the right balance between volume and power, so minimal distortion and maximum presence, whilst the lights mostly bathed the band in blues and reds with occasional retina scorching white lights and strobes. A mid set solo acoustic interlude would have made for a decent breather in a relentlessly forceful set, but alas whilst Been performed Sympathetic Noose and Hayes played Devil’s Waitin’ the elements of the crowd weren’t exactly reverential. A selection of bladdered up bumpkins and wasted valley commandos decided the tunes were the ideal opportunity to share their inane conversations at terrace volume. Perhaps in future the bar should serve these plonkers a measure of shut the fuck up with their pints?

That said the evening was on the whole celebratory with plenty of singing, plenty of dancing and the novel concept of greeting each fan favourite with a rain of beer. Aint’ No Easy Way set the tone early in the set and both Conscience Killer and Love Burns generated both rapture and a few vigorous pits. Carried from the Start, although new was well received, but the back end of the set was packed with favourites. 666 Conducer, Red Eyes and Tears, Six Barrel Shotgun and Spread Your Love really got the crowd moving and the band responded in kind. Although mostly lost in the music, it was clear they were pleased with the crowd response and responded in kind, throwing their all in to each song.

The encore was inevitable, the jagged riffing / generation kill disco beat of US Government was greeted with a roar as the band flayed the tune into a guitar meltdown mid song before returning to the punishing riff and the unexpected beatific ending. Been asked the crowd for suggestions for the final number and unsurprisingly received an incoherent fusillade of requests. Amused he enquired “Can you agree on a song…is there any one song you want?” before the band delivered the tune that most had been shouting for all night. Whatever Happened To My Rock ‘N’ Roll (Punk Song) was delivered with a ferocious intensity inspiring a final pogoing thrashathon from the crowd, beer flying as they bellowed back the lyrics and Been finishing the song on the barrier.

BMRC are the real deal: a thoroughly modern rock band that takes plenty from the past – both distant and recent – and synthesizes a visceral and thrilling modern music that totally chimes with an increasingly fucked up world. Their recordings thrill but when they get those songs on stage, they utterly kill.

All pix John Morgan

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: O2 Academy, 2nd November 2017