Gig Review: Royal Blood

So my first gig of November was Royal Blood, I'd say that there are worse ways to start a month! I still can't believe the way that they've escalated! I'm just glad that I got be there for it from here until now.

As expected the show was sold out but I often find that "sold out" shows still have a bunch of free seats and ample room to move around in by the time I get there. However, this show was definitely sold out, balconies were packed and standing was so packed that I could feel the heart beat of the person behind me. Safe to say that I was steeling myself for a rowdy show. Turbowolf were supporting and although I'd heard of them before, I hadn't heard any of their material until the live show so I wasn't sure what to expect. They were really cool though - super eccentric, mainly due to the lead singer's crazy ad-libs and wild movements. It was like grunge meets glam rock and throws a hard rock party. Lots of mic swinging, foot stomping and hair stroking but amidst all the theatrics were some raging beats, awesome instrumentals and heavy breakdowns. Yes. They tried really hard to get the crowd hyped, managing a couple of pits and some good crowd banter. All in all, they're each fantastic musicians and I'd definitely advise checking them out.

It seemed like we were waiting for Royal Blood for ages but once they stepped on stage everyone forgot about that, the atmosphere went from 0 to 100 real quick. They entered to Jay-Z's "99 Problems" (much to my delight) and then plowed straight in with "Hole". The crowd was galvanised. I have to admit, as a whole, the crowd was A LOT tamer than the crowd at their Reading set this year here, but they did put up a bit of a fight. Pits forming in the middle, sweat flying off of peoples bodies but the best thing about the whole show was that every single person in that crowd knew the lyrics. There wasn't one point in the show when I couldn't just turn to a random stranger and scream the lyrics with/at them as if we'd written the song ourselves and it was brilliant. Comparing it to the first time I saw Royal Blood perform at Institute here they seemed heaps more confident and they absolutely killed it. They played every single song on the album. EVERY. SINGLE. SONG... PLUS B-SIDES. I near on lost my mind. I was a little surprised to leave the show with "Ten Tonne Skeleton" stuck in my head and not "Out Of The Black" but man that song is catchy! It was just a great night and I know it's early on but I cannot wait for another album from them - this debut will be hard to beat! My third time seeing them and definitely not the last. Great show, great band.

Overall Rating - 8/10


Here are some pictures from the night...