Skip to main content

Live Show Review: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - 10/2/13

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Date:  October 2, 2013
Venue:  Rams Head Live, Baltimore, MD

 Since I'd been working on my review of BRMC's latest album Specter At The Feast earlier this week, I thought it'd be appropriate to hit up their live show at Rams Head Live in Baltimore last night.  I had already attended their sold out 930 Club show in DC this past May, so I was pleasantly surprised by the smaller crowd this time.  In fact, it was an intimate affair by comparison, with plenty of room to move about, rock out, do a little air guitar, or sway and grind with a partner.    


Peter Hayes (left), Leah Shapiro (center), and Robert Levon Been (right)

Yeah, that's right, I had almost forgotten how damn sexy a BRMC show could be.  The focus of my Specter At The Feast album review was on the snotty rawk these guys do so well, but their repertoire is full of great slow jams like "Screaming Gun," "Shade of Blue," and new track "Fire Walker" that served to break up the screeching noise quiet nicely.  
Robert Levon Been (left) and Peter Hayes (right)
The band did play their requisite full throttle hits ("Conscience Killer," "Whatever Happened To My Rock 'n' Roll," and "Six Barrel Shotgun") but a mid-set reprieve with a lone Robert Levon Been on piano teasing out the elegant ballad "Promise" followed by Peter Hayes solo on guitar doing a fantastic acoustic version of "Some Kind of Ghost" was the highlight of the show.     

Robert Levon Been (left), Leah Shapiro (center), and Peter Hayes (right)

I had actually dissed "Some Kind of Ghost" in my Specter At The Feast review, saying it could've been reserved for a b-sides collection, but Hayes' minimal, bluesy dust-bowl acoustic rendition was totally arresting.  It garnered so much hollering and raucous applause from the audience that Hayes couldn't help but flash a rare smile at the song's conclusion.  Just a great moment - and certainly the best of the evening.  All in all a great show.  Can't wait to see 'em again.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Albums 2023 - Top Ten

Another year done and gone, and what a great year for music.  These are my top ten favorite albums of 2023, in alphabetical order by artist name . . . . Baroness:   Stone     (Abraxan Hymns - 9/15/23) Not so long prior to 2015’s   Purple , Baroness’ excellent fourth album in a color-coded series that concluded this year, their tour bus flipped in Bath, England, resulting in both shattered bones and band lineup.     Founder and frontman John Baizley remains as the sole original member of this Savannah, GA, sludge and progressive metal group.     2017’s   Gold & Grey   introduced fans to axe-shredder extraordinaire Gina Gleason, cementing a new and now consistent dynamic that pays dividends on Baroness’ latest LP,   Stone .     As its title implies, this one is rock solid with drums and bass locked in propulsive motorik tempo, Gleason’s soari...
Post a Comment
Read more

Albums 2025 - Top Ten

To borrow from a Brent Cobb album title, the dominant musical theme for me this year was "ain't rocked in a while."  Despite auditory excursions into electro, drum & bass, and country music, my craving for guitar riffage and six-string shredding was strong, and 2025 delivered.  Long time favorites like Deftones and Ghost returned with late career highlights while the next generation of Gen Z artists inspired by Gen X sounds - Doomsday, Die Spitz, and Rocket - picked up guitars and released outstanding debut albums. These are my top ten favorite albums of 2025, in alphabetical order by artist name . . . . Client_03:   Testbed_Assembly     (Client_03, 7/4/25) Electro has roots in krautrock, funk, and the cut-up rhythms of the nascent hip-hop scene - a cyborg groove built on 808s, synthesizers, and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

100 Favorite Albums of the 1990s: Part 2 of 10 (1992 - 1993)

Part 2 of my "100 Favorite Albums of the 1990s" list covers a period of time when I was finishing up middle school and about to head into high school.   Despite having very limited knowledge or context for anything at the time, I was internalizing all the corporate-curated alternative rock "authenticity" propaganda of the era and, without much sense of irony, had become somewhat of a purist.   For the most part, only bands with at least one clearly defined guitarist, bassist, drummer, and vocalist would do.  Extra points for lyrics conveying some sense of tortured realism.  Nirvana and Red Hot Chili Peppers were my favorites.  Doc Martens, Chuck Taylors, flannels, and band t-shirts from Sam Goody were my uniform.  I'd also picked up my first Discman (a Sony D-111) for my birthday in '92, so now I was mobile.  Music as identity - that is, "you are what you listen to" - now seemed like a very big deal.   - Will G The Black Crowes:   The Souther...
Post a Comment
Read more