“Here we are now, entertain us.”
Those words from 1991 might have defined a generation. They might also have marked the point at which rock music took a different turn. Tonight, when they are sung by Mitchel Emms, once of The Treatment, towards the end of the second set, they seem a particularly appropriate demand.
Because whatever else The Rock Orchestra might be, they are absolutely in the entertainment business.
This is rock on a grand scale. Rock with spectacle, bombast and an eye for showmanship. Their “Arena Of Fire” production takes songs you have heard hundreds of times and finds different ways to make them fill an arena. Sometimes that involves extraordinary musicianship. Sometimes it involves flames. Frequently, it involves both.
It makes perfect sense to begin with Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir”. There is something inherently orchestral about its grandeur anyway, and the arrangement makes the most of every imposing twist. Moving straight from that into Linkin Park’s “Numb”, however, gives you some idea of the ground being covered.
“Sweet Child O’ Mine” is another early highlight. Played instrumentally, with a violin taking the guitar part, it underlines something wonderfully straightforward: a great song remains a great song, whatever instrument you play it on.
Interestingly, the slower material does not always benefit quite as much. Aerosmith’s “Dream On” works less well for me, suggesting that some songs offer more room for reinvention than others. Another Zeppelin excursion, “Stairway To Heaven”, gives the players plenty of scope to stretch out, before an incredible “Enter Sandman” provides one of the first half’s defining moments.
Emms makes his entrance here, and the Metallica song has all the menace and weight you could want. It is a reminder of just how heavy these instruments can sound in the right hands.
Papa Roach’s “Last Resort” gets an ominous opening, although the harsher metal vocals are less to my taste. That is a personal preference which crops up again during Evanescence’s “Bring Me To Life”: I could happily have done without the growling male contribution. There is enough power in the arrangement and the soaring singing already.
Between those comes “The Sound Of Silence”, and the way it builds is superb. Simon & Garfunkel’s song has become something of a modern rock standard, but this version understands how to let the drama develop. Frankly, I would take it over the godawful Disturbed rendition any day.
For all the focus on the voices, though, the musicians deserve plenty of attention. Violinist Ivana Cetkovic is extraordinary, the resident shredder attacking passages with the sort of abandon you might expect from Yngwie Malmsteen. There is precision everywhere, but there is also a willingness to throw themselves into the performance.
I have never been the biggest System Of A Down fan. Even so, when an instrumental “Toxicity” closes the first set, there is no arguing with either the skill or the spectacle. Its rhythmic shifts give the ensemble something to get their teeth into, and they attack it with relish.
The second half begins with the pomp and circumstance of Metallica’s “One”, before “Nothing Else Matters”, introduced as one of the greatest rock ballads, is given astonishing power. Whatever your relationship with the original, hearing it performed like this makes its scale impossible to ignore.
Then comes AC/DC’s “Back In Black”.
Now, you probably knew it was a classic. You probably did not know it needed a saxophone solo. Yet here we are, watching a bloke who appears to have dressed as Rob Halford circa the “British Steel” tour, giving it everything. All that is missing is the motorbike.
A cello solo introduces “Paint It Black”, and The Rolling Stones’ song becomes gloriously cinematic. The drums, meanwhile, have the sort of enormous sound usually reserved for Def Leppard at their most arena-filling. There is nothing polite about the impact.
“Welcome To The Jungle” takes an unexpected turn towards disco, with the saxophone adding to the sense that these arrangements are prepared to have some fun with their source material.
“Freak On A Leash” brings a different sort of recognition. Back in January 2015, I sat somewhere close to where I am tonight watching Korn support Slipknot in this very building, when it was called the Barclaycard Arena. Safe to say it did not sound much like this then. The strange, unsettling character of the song survives, even as the way it is delivered changes dramatically.
By “Thunderstruck”, resistance is pretty much futile. The instrumental performance is sensational, the Fuel Girls and the pyro add to the spectacle, and you find yourself swept along by the whole thing. There is so much happening, but the music still gives you something to follow through it all.
Hozier’s “Take Me To Church” requires a confession. To my knowledge, I have never heard it before. On this evidence, perhaps I should have: the vocal performance is tremendous, and familiarity is hardly a requirement for enjoying what happens here.
From there, it becomes the sort of race to the finish that any arena rock band would recognise.
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” is surprisingly close to the original, its rough edges surviving the change of instrumentation. “Zombie” brings the phone lights into the air, as The Cranberries’ song provides a moment of shared emotion, before another System Of A Down instrumental, “Chop Suey!”, closes the second set. Again, it is music I am less familiar with than much of tonight’s selection, but the playing is tremendous, and the singers’ harmonies arriving towards the end add another dimension.
That leaves the encore, and “Killing In The Name” is quite a way to finish.
There is something about hearing that defiance delivered on this scale. Rage Against The Machine’s refusal to comply remains intact, and the final outburst has lost none of its bite amid all the orchestration.
Nathan Reed’s creation gives these songs a setting big enough to match their ambition. As with the orchestral opening to Sabaton’s shows, there is something about the power of this music that lends itself to being played this way. Riffs become imposing string passages, melodies emerge from unexpected places, and songs you thought you knew reveal something else.
The Rock Orchestra promised entertainment. Across two sets and an encore, they delivered it with extraordinary skill, a few moments that worked less well for my tastes, and plenty that were simply spectacular.
Entertain us? Consider it done.
