FANZEYEVIEW
Black Country Communion - Shepherds Bush Empire, London 30th Dec 2010
This was to be my final concert/gig of 2010 and what a way to end it , it was absolute class from start to finish.
Support for the BCC guys came from Joanne Shaw Taylor, together with the McMahon brothers (Virgil & The Accelerators) on bass and drums. Joanne's set this time around contained tracks from her new cd Diamonds In The Dirt plus one from White Sugar. A more uptempo set to tie in with the vibe of BCC and very enjoyable it was with the superior sound system showing off the bands talents to the full. I was glad the song from the new cd 'Lord Have Mercy' was played, the crowd gave the trio a very good reception before , during and after the set.
Wagner's 'Ride Of The Valkyries' started blasting out of the PA system for what seemed an age, then the unmistakeable sound of Glenn Hughes' bass riff at the beginning of Black Country, introduced the band onto the stage to raucous applause and cheering. All but a couple of songs from the BCC album were played plus three others to make up a memorable set. 'Black Country' also gave us the first crowd singalong during the declaration of ' I Am The Messenger.....'
Everyone in the band had their part to play, Glenn was astounding, prancing and posturing as well as laying down some slick bass lines and vocals., none better than on his own track 'Medusa'.
Derek Sherinian was terrific on 'Too Late For The Sun' , 'No Quarter' apart from the prominent role in these songs his underlying textures were very unobtrusive but wrapped the songs in a warm blanket. Jason Bonham needs no introduction , he was awesome on his fathers song 'No Quarter' and 'Sista Jane' where they moved into The Who's 'Won't Get Fooled Again' territory, even taken over some backing vocals on a few songs. Finally Joe Bonamassa on guitar was showing everyone tonight just how good he is, often confused by many to thinking he is a blues guitarist, he is versatile enough to do really whatever he likes, he was clearly enjoying taking a rock guitarist role on these dates. He clearly shone through on 'Beggarman', 'Song Of Yesterday' and the more beefy sounding 'Ballad Of John Henry'
The aforementioned 'Song Of Yesterday' is my personal favourite from the record and the guitar intro bought a great cheer from the crowd. After this song Joe threw his pick into the crowd for it to hit my fingers and hit the floor where the camera crew were filming, I later claimed it back during the encore break. The song itself is a BCC masterpiece and will be a classic in music for years to come. 'No Quarter' was also greeted with equal cheering with Derek laying down a wonderful keyboard intro. For the encore we were treated to an absolutely blistering version of Deep Purple's Burn. All the band were clearly enjoying this as well as the crowd who were trying their best to drown out Glenn's vocals with their own, Kevin Shirley standing on the side of the stage was also having a whale of a time during the gig, jumping , clapping and singing along.
This was clearly a marker set down by BCC tonight with a promise of more to come from them later on in 2011.
It was good to see so many familiar faces before and after the gig tonight, the only downside of the night being the ridiculous amount of photographers in the press pit blocking the view of the crowd at the front for the first three songs, I know it wasn't just myself who was bloody annoyed about this.
Support for the BCC guys came from Joanne Shaw Taylor, together with the McMahon brothers (Virgil & The Accelerators) on bass and drums. Joanne's set this time around contained tracks from her new cd Diamonds In The Dirt plus one from White Sugar. A more uptempo set to tie in with the vibe of BCC and very enjoyable it was with the superior sound system showing off the bands talents to the full. I was glad the song from the new cd 'Lord Have Mercy' was played, the crowd gave the trio a very good reception before , during and after the set.
Wagner's 'Ride Of The Valkyries' started blasting out of the PA system for what seemed an age, then the unmistakeable sound of Glenn Hughes' bass riff at the beginning of Black Country, introduced the band onto the stage to raucous applause and cheering. All but a couple of songs from the BCC album were played plus three others to make up a memorable set. 'Black Country' also gave us the first crowd singalong during the declaration of ' I Am The Messenger.....'
Everyone in the band had their part to play, Glenn was astounding, prancing and posturing as well as laying down some slick bass lines and vocals., none better than on his own track 'Medusa'.
Derek Sherinian was terrific on 'Too Late For The Sun' , 'No Quarter' apart from the prominent role in these songs his underlying textures were very unobtrusive but wrapped the songs in a warm blanket. Jason Bonham needs no introduction , he was awesome on his fathers song 'No Quarter' and 'Sista Jane' where they moved into The Who's 'Won't Get Fooled Again' territory, even taken over some backing vocals on a few songs. Finally Joe Bonamassa on guitar was showing everyone tonight just how good he is, often confused by many to thinking he is a blues guitarist, he is versatile enough to do really whatever he likes, he was clearly enjoying taking a rock guitarist role on these dates. He clearly shone through on 'Beggarman', 'Song Of Yesterday' and the more beefy sounding 'Ballad Of John Henry'
The aforementioned 'Song Of Yesterday' is my personal favourite from the record and the guitar intro bought a great cheer from the crowd. After this song Joe threw his pick into the crowd for it to hit my fingers and hit the floor where the camera crew were filming, I later claimed it back during the encore break. The song itself is a BCC masterpiece and will be a classic in music for years to come. 'No Quarter' was also greeted with equal cheering with Derek laying down a wonderful keyboard intro. For the encore we were treated to an absolutely blistering version of Deep Purple's Burn. All the band were clearly enjoying this as well as the crowd who were trying their best to drown out Glenn's vocals with their own, Kevin Shirley standing on the side of the stage was also having a whale of a time during the gig, jumping , clapping and singing along.
This was clearly a marker set down by BCC tonight with a promise of more to come from them later on in 2011.
It was good to see so many familiar faces before and after the gig tonight, the only downside of the night being the ridiculous amount of photographers in the press pit blocking the view of the crowd at the front for the first three songs, I know it wasn't just myself who was bloody annoyed about this.
Black Country / One Last Soul/ Beggarman /Revolution In Me /Down Again /Too Late For The Sun / Song Of Yesterday / Ballad Of John Henry / The Great Divide / Medusa /No Quarter /Sista Jane / Black Country**Reprise /encore....Burn
