Battle-hardened with an eighty-minute set that is almost entirely killer, Royal Blood came and conquered in 1066 land.
This run of dates is a mini-tour of small venue dates between UK festival appearances – they last played Brighton in November 2017. Royal Blood in an intimate venue? Yes, please!
Frontman Mike Kerr looked as if he had hit the gym with purpose and took great pleasure in abusing his bass and bludgeoning the audience with big fat riffs. Some critics look down on the band as lowest common denominator commercial rockers but with a set expanded with material from the second album How Did We Get So Dark? we get light to go with the cacophony.
Mike lets the music do the talking with stage commentary kept to a minimum but drummer Ben Thatcher is the band’s communicator with the crowd with a knowing nod or raises the hand eliciting a cheer. Mosh-pits break out in the crowd showing the delirium that this duo generates live. Musically the band is rooted in blues rock but polished and streamlined with a pop sensibility to make it a sound for today. The set passes by quickly and ends with Figure It Out as part of a two-song encore.
Royal Blood Setlist:
- Hook, Line & Sinker
- Come On Over
- You Can Be So Cruel
- Lights Out
- Loose Change
- I Only Lie When I Love You
- Boilermaker
- Little Monster
- How Did We Get So Dark?
- King
- Hole In Your Heart
- Blood Hands
- Ten Tonne Skeleton
- Out of the Black
- Where Are You Now? (Encore)
- Figure It Out (Encore)
The Mysterines were supporting tonight and despite having the difficult task of opening the proceedings and providing an alternative to beer quaffing did a fine job.
The trio’s rock/garage assault went down well and the main hall was nearly full by the time they had finished their thirty-minute set. Of particular note was the drummer’s hateful pummeling of his kit. I’m not sure who offended him but.
Ones to watch.
The Royal Blood third album is due for release soon:
Plugged In Brighton 