After years of headlining smaller UK venues, starting from the Astoria and working their way up to the Apollo, Black Stone Cherry are headlining Wembley Arena. They build up to their set well with a white sheet covering the stage immediately after Airbourne’s set. The band come out behind said sheet and begin the introduction to ‘Rain Wizard’, the sheet only drops as the song kicks in.
Black Stone Cherry are a band who really love to get the crowd involved and it works. Some bands rely too heavily on crowd vocal and it makes an audience wonder why the vocalist even bothered taking to the stage at all. Chris Robertson makes it work though. In some songs, such as ‘Me and Mary Jane’, he hardly sings a word through the chorus’s, ‘In My Blood’ is started and ended by crowd vocal, and it all creates a great atmosphere. If this wasn’t enough to make the crowd feel involved and appreciated, the smile on Chris’ face as 8,000 people sing his lyrics back at him really does the job.
Source: Kayla ElliottThe consistently great main set is overshadowed, however, when the band return to stage for their two song encore. At first it’s only Chris and guitarist Ben Wells who appear, and start up ‘Peace Is Free’. No Black Stone Cherry set would be complete without the beauty of this track. All phones and lighters are immediately in the air as Chris’s emotional vocal carries us through the verses, even over how powerful his voice is the crowd can be heard, before he steps back letting the audience alone sing the chorus. After the bridge the whole band kicks in, electrifying the arena.
Things pick up again for the closing song, the first song the band put out, ‘Lonely Train’. The heavier track is the perfect way to end the set, bringing the energy up again, allowing the crowd to sing and headbang to their hearts content.
Black Stone Cherry connect brilliantly with such a large audience holding their attention all set and keeping the energy high. Nothing can quite compare to the encore though, as that is what makes the evening and leaves the crowd with a lasting impression of the red-neck rockers.
Source: Kayla Elliott
