“Watching Over Me” takes Kris Barras back to what he calls the “old bluesing days”. A song for his dad, who never got to see his son playing the big stages to the big crowds, it remains deeply personal. Making it tonight’s centrepiece works beautifully. On the penultimate night of this farewell tour, it also offers a reminder of where this journey began.
Before that, though, there’s another journey worth making. It’s not often 10 Years visit England, and when they do, you make the effort. Somewhere between Tool, Alice In Chains and Seether, the Knoxville, Tennessee mob are quite the thing.
Given 45 minutes, they work in the shadows of “Novacaine”, make “Now Is the Time (Ravenous)” properly heavy, then prove with “Waking Up” that they understand a chorus. Jesse Hasek dedicates “Through the Iris” to the old-school fan he spots in the crowd, while “Gravity” seems to lurk. Everything feels dark and serious.
There is humour, mind you. After making Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box” their own, Hasek jokes that they’ve only recently written it and reckon it has potential.
“Russian Roulette” underlines how much heavier they are than you might imagine. “Fix Me” carries that sense that every song matters, while “Shoot It Out” has an almost urban feel, its drumming right to the fore. “Wasteland” delivers melody with something of Alice In Chains about it, before the uniquely American “The Optimist” finishes things with real enjoyment.
They relish these opportunities. Just as when we saw them opening for Three Days Grace four years ago, they are about as impressive as a support band gets.
Kris Barras Band arrive to Tenacious D’s “Tribute”. Overplayed or otherwise, it’s still a cracker, and “Who Needs Enemies” immediately shows how comfortably Danny Dela Cruz fits in. Covering Josiah J Manning’s paternity leave, he looks utterly at home.
“Unbreakable” grooves, and “Dead Horses” gets heads banging. It’s a long time since Barras could reasonably be described simply as a blues artist. He wanted to rock, and this band most certainly does.
“Unspoken”, from the new “Monsters We Made” album, sounds arena-ready. If Barras was ever going to get there, the songs were in place. The title track, arguably one of the record’s finest moments, becomes one of the show’s best too.
“Savages” brings Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” speech into proceedings before Barras leaves his guitar behind and lets Dela Cruz take over. “These Voices” concentrates on the choruses, and “Devil You Know” sends “we’re not here to be forgiven” into the air. Barras stalking the stage as a proper frontman really works.
Then comes that poignant return to “Watching Over Me”, its emotion undiminished by the heavier music around it. “Ignite (Light It Up)” reconnects with the bluesier side too: in another world, Black Stone Cherry could be playing something like this.
Dela Cruz gets a brilliant instrumental showcase, and Barras is lavish in his praise. “Beautiful Lie” finds the band’s harmonies working in tandem, while “Riot of One”, another from the new — and perhaps final — album, makes a claim to being its best song. Its late position suggests Barras knows its worth.
“My Parade” is surely his anthem. That refusal to give a fuck what people say has always seemed central to his career. At its end, the band cut loose as though relishing one final chance to throw down. You realise again just what a rock band this is.
Back for an encore, Barras cheerily offers one more. As though he wasn’t always going to play “Hail Mary”. A copper-bottomed brilliant song, it’s a hell of a way to finish if this is the last time we see him.
Across eleven years, it has been some journey. He sent his debut album from his own email address, not long after this site began. Seeing him open for Stevie Nimmo at The Robin, he looked every inch the young blues firebrand, perhaps in the Laurence Jones mould. Yet you always sensed he wanted something else. He wanted to be a rock ’n’ roller.
He became one.
If this really is how it ends, Barras can look back proudly on that journey. From those early blues gigs to nights like this, he did it his way.
Thank you for the memories.
Thank you for the music.
