“I would have rebuilt Jericho for nights as good as this.”
It’s a line in a song that’s played late at night, of course, but it almost sums up the vibe throughout.
This—literally—is a party. Planet Rock radio is 25, and where better to celebrate than at the best rock venue in the land?
And what better way to start than with a (relatively) young act that the station is currently championing? Dan Byrne deserves the exposure.
For one thing, he has a genuinely stunning voice—one of power and melody. For another, he has a collection of excellent songs.
“Hard To Breathe” rather underlines this, but the new song “Hate Me” is all the more reason to get excited.
Back a few years ago, he was the singer in Revival Black (a hotly tipped band, not least on these pages), and their “Wide Awake” has all the swagger that set them apart.
Before he plays “Wide Awake,” there’s a heartfelt thank-you, and you get the feeling that if he weren’t playing here, he’d be watching. And—as he’s told MV before—we were the first review he ever got. Then, by the time he’s done the current Planet Rock playlisted single “Death Of Me,” it’s obvious there’s only one way this career is going.
There’s a moment, around the time they play “Under The Sky,” that you realise just how good The Answer is and just how much we needed them back.
Cormac and the lads arguably could have headlined this themselves, and their hour-long set is a testament to that.
Classic rock they might be, but they don’t necessarily want to look back. To that end, they begin with “Blood Brother,” a single from last year’s “Sundowners” record, and its title track is very much the centerpiece as Neeson vows “to shake out the negative.”
More inclined to a jam than they were before, perhaps, the frontman seems possessed by the music on “Want You To Love Me,” while their long history with the radio station whose birthday it is sees “With A Little Help From My Friends” dedicated to them.
As ever, “Preachin'” sees them go fire and brimstone, but “Demon Eyes” is as short as it is sharp. The evolution of The Answer continues, and the inclusion of “Here’s A Health To Company”—the traditional Irish folk song—might indicate that this time is all about camaraderie as much as anything else.
May 30th, 2013.
It was Black Star Riders’ first-ever show, and on the blog I did before MV, I wrote after witnessing it: “This truly is a band who is doing what they want to and doing it because they can.”
Eleven and a half years on, and it kind of feels like going back to the future.
This is their only show of 2024, and Marco Mendoza and Jimmy DeGrasso (who both played that night at the Marshall Amps Studio) are back. The opening of this 90-minute set has a very much back-to-the-early-days feel, with “All Hell Breaks Loose” and the Thin Lizzy standard “Are You Ready?”The inclusion of the latter so early is interesting too because in recent times there’s been much less focus on the Lizzy stuff (the roots of the band are such that Phil’s spirit will always infuse this music), but they’ve always taken that on and made it gold of their own.
Relatively inactive for 18 months or so they may have been, but for the 10 years before that, they’d built up a back catalogue that was second to none.
All of those albums are represented here (albeit with an emphasis on the early stuff), and there really are few better. “The Killer Instinct”, “Better Than Saturday Night” (the only original one they play from the most recent album), and “When The Night Comes In” are as good as it gets.
Even some of the “lesser lights,” as it were, such as “Blindsided” and “Before The War,” shine.
More than ever, it seems, that BSR is Ricky Warwick’s band. He’s a wonderful frontman, probably the best there is, and he has a way of carrying any show. Of course, it helps when you have this quality of songs. “Hey Judas,” but whatever, there’s something special here.
“Jailbreak” gives Sam Wood a chance to prove he really is the young Scott Gorham that I’ve always believed him to be, and that’s before the crescendo they’ve always had. “Bound For Glory” — the best song in the last 15 years — is followed by Cormac Neeson appearing to reprise the one that’s set in Dino’s Bar and Grill. You probably know it. It’s touched by genius. As all Thin Lizzy songs are.
Then with a simple “We are Black Star Riders and this could be our ‘Finest Hour,'” they play just that. The one that sort of just became a classic by virtue of being brilliant.
A kind of band of the people means no encore nonsense; instead, they leave promising to see us soon, and that’s it. Which is just fine as this was a celebration where the music did the talking.
Indeed, even if you’re like me and hate parties, this is one bash that was worth it.
PICTURES: CHRIS THORLEY
