Black Star Riders - O2 Academy, Leeds - December 8 2013 (Live Review)
Monday, 09 December 2013
Written by Daniel Lynch
Darkness descended on the O2 Academy as five figures appeared on stage. The audience collectively inhaled, waiting for the hammer to fall. And it fell with a crash as Black Star Riders hurled themselves into the title track of their debut album, ‘All Hell Breaks Loose’. What you see is what you get with this band - it’s polished, powerful and everything that can possibly be classic about rock.
Frontman Ricky Warwick played the crowd, using the tried and tested Phil Lynott method of screaming “are you ready?” over a wall of feedback. Although they are still a bone of contention among fans of the iconic band, Black Star Riders have embraced their collective pasts, and who are we to say they’re wrong to do so?
As there simply isn’t the material for Black Star Riders to fill a set with original songs, there remained a heavy reliance on Thin Lizzy tracks. The Boys Are Back In Town, Jailbreak and Don’t Believe A Word were clear crowd favourites, while Bad Reputation, Emerald and Southbound possessed as much class and craft as they did first time round.
Luckily for Warwick, Scott Gorham, Damon Johnson, Jimmy DeGrasso and Marco Mendoza, tracks off their own album went down just as well and the twisting, lilting guitars in Bloodshot and Valley Of The Stones showed the band as a force to be reckoned with in their own right. Warwick prowled the stage and at times was visibly awestruck by the sea of people singing back at him.
Kingdom Of The Lost, a deeply personal song for Warwick taken from Black Star Riders’ debut, and encore track Whiskey In The Jar more than struck a chord with the frontman, who already had “Belfast” emblazoned both on his guitar and leather jacket. Like Lynott before him, he’s the foil that keeps Gorham on top of his game and the Californian made his guitar sing.
The formidable rhythm section, of DeGrasso and Mendoza, allowed Gorham and Johnson the space to work their magic on Cowboy Song and Before The War, as they took turns to solo and fire plectrums into the outstretched arms of the front row. In Johnson, Gorham finally has a right hand man cut from the same cloth as Brian Robertson and the late Gary Moore. Their two styles complemented each other well and Johnson’s fretwork provoked that extra bit of flair from Gorham, which was possibly lacking on previous tours.
Touring a setlist in which half the songs belong another band can create the air of a greatest hits show and there was more than a nod to ‘Live And Dangerous’ as Johnson played Robertson’s Cowboy Song solo note for note. But Black Star Riders seem to have struck a balance from which they can move forward. They’ve accepted that they will, to an extent, be judged against Thin Lizzy, but they’ve taken that and thrown it back in the face of any doubters.
Tue December 10 2013 - LEAMINGTON SPA Assembly Rooms
Thu December 12 2013 - NOTTINGHAM Rock City
Fri December 13 2013 - MANCHESTER The Ritz
Sat December 14 2013 - DUBLIN Academy
Sun December 15 2013 - BELFAST The Limelight
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