Gig review: BLACKBERRY SMOKE – O2 Islington Academy, 3 March 2014
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After treading the boards in the USA for some years, Blackberry Smoke’s belated marketing push to crack the UK seems to be paying off: hot on the heels of their belatedly released The Whippoorwill album reaching the top 30, the 800 Capacity Academy was sold out and more packed than I can ever remember it.
Several new bands have successfully emerged with their own take on an updated southern rock sound, from Black Stone Cherry to (gulp!) the Kings of Leon, but few channel the spirit of the original pioneers such as the Allmans and Skynyrd as well as Charlie Starr’s band, and this was reflected in a crowd way older than would normally be expected at a gig by a relatively fresh act.
Opening with the frantically paced ‘Leave A Scar’, some songs such as ‘Six Ways To Sunday’ and ‘Good One Going On’ plough the same high octane rock n roll path that Dan Baird has trod, with the Georgia Satellites and subsequently, with a southern drawl to match, while ‘Like I Am’ had the Free-type spaciousness in its grooves that reminded me of the much missed Cry of Love.
However they range across the full gamut of rootsy southern sounds and while there was plenty of fine lead guitar work from Charlie, and occasionally his foil Paul Jackson, Brandon Still’s Hammond organ gave a richer dimension.
Songs like the dreamy title track, ‘Ain’t Got the Blues’ and ‘One Horse Town’ sat more in country rock territory while ‘Everybody Knows She’s Min’e had the country swamp feel of Skynyrd’s ‘Ballad of Curtis Loew’.
The downside of southern rock can be a tendency to drift into long jams and a friend of mine who saw last November’s showcase at the Barfly was put off them by this aspect, yet I felt only once did they outstay their welcome with ‘Sleeping Dogs’, complete with a snatch of the Allman’s ‘Midnight Rider’.
‘Up In Smoke’ which had a few hands in the air and ‘Restless’ showed their more straight ahead rock side, and set closer ‘Ain’t Much Left of Me’ segued seamlessly into a cover of ‘When The Levee Breaks’.
Slightly strangely, given that more crowd pleasing songs from ‘Little Piece of Dixie’ remained unplayed, they encored with a new (and unintroduced) song before the Stonesy grooves of ‘Shake Your Magnolia’.
My one reservation was that despite a striking, hairy look, they have a somewhat introverted stage presence, with very little movement, audience banter or participation, or all the aspects of showmanship that make for a great live band. As it was, the experience didn’t really add enough value to listening to the songs.
But on purely musical grounds classic southern rock has new heroes and it appears us limeys are going to take them to their hearts too.
Review by Andy Nathan
Photos by Iain Scott
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