Live & Dangerous: Black Stone Cherry, Revoker

Black Stone Cherry & Revoker: Cardiff Solus 26/06/2012

Once again the Kentucky rockers returned to Cardiff (this time because of the cancellation of Sonisphere) and yet again they managed to rock Cardiff to the ground.

Revoker

Openers Revoker are local boys that have been steadily climbing the ladder to success for ages and with the release of their debut album they have become one of the go-to support bands. They do what they do very well and because of that I have no real complaint about their set except for one. The set compiled featured their signature songs like Psychoville, Stay Down and Time To Die but despite the ferocity and power in these future metal anthems the band just seem (to me) to be a bit generic (a problem I had with their album as well) they sound like an amalgamation of nearly all the bands on Roadrunner mixed with some Bullet For My Valentine. Whether a future release will change this I don't know but for now they do seem to be a band stuck in a (very lucrative) rut. 7/10

Black Stone Cherry

So then Black Stone Cherry hit the stage with Maybe Someday from their first album before kicking into Yeah Man meaning that the both the bands power and melody was shown right from the outset. The pace didn't let up with Blind Man, Change and the sing-along rocker Soul Creek. The band held the crowd in its palm for the entire gig meaning that every word was shouted back with aplomb. For a band so young Blacks Stone Cherry have both terrific stage presence and a catalogue of great songs. This is bolstered by the playing of the band and the vocals of frontman Chris Robertson which are always flawless. The band seemed to be at ease indulging a bit of guess the intro in the middle of the set. As well as bringing heavy rockers like Rain Wizard, Lonely Train and the bouncy Blame it On The Boom Boom, the band also have a penchant for big ballads bringing In My Blood, Things My Father Said and the rarely played Peace Is Free (which was rescued by the crowd after a small hiccup with the lyrics) all of which got the sell-out crowd in fine voice. The band was far looser than on previous occasions bringing a cover of Muddy Waters' Hoochie Coochie Man that segued into Rehab by Amy Winehouse. This signalled the end of the gig with the aforementioned Blame It On The Boom Boom and the near classic Lonely Train. This was another great gig from a band that could easily (and will be) headlining arenas, they were consistently brilliant. 9/10