Review: Royal Blood Rocks A Sold Out Show In Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- There's a moment in every basement band's fantasy when the walls of your practice space come down to reveal the screaming crowd and the pulsing lights, both bouncing along to every beat with intensity. Gone is the wood paneling and well-worn carpet, replaced with stacks of amps and dizzying LED displays.
Royal Blood just might be living out that fantasy.
The UK rock duo had all the charm of a basement jam session between friends Wednesday night at Union Transfer in Philadelphia, but with better gear and better lighting.
In front of a backdrop of illuminated electric lines - flickering and flashing in time - the two stacked monstrous riff upon monstrous riff in muscular fashion, each more grinding and gleeful than the last.
Leading the most sold out of crowds, the pair served up twelve slices of rich rock from their 2014 self-titled debut and their upcoming album How Did We Get So Dark? A few of the new highlights like "Lights Out" and the soon to be released "I Only Lie When I Love You" slid in nicely beside standards like "Figure It Out" and "Little Monster".
Drummer Ben Thatcher perched upon a drum riser in a red Ben-FM t-shirt and black hat, sat stone-faced and mechanical with metronome style as guitarist Mike Kerr slinked across the stage in a much more glam cheetah-print button-down, sunglasses, and black jeans.
Together the two rarely let up, churning out effortless swaggering rock with no nonsense. It took seven songs for them to take a breath, which still came in the form of something mid-tempo. All the while, you never lost the feel of two boys with two instruments making the most of their time to shred. The fantasy is the reality for Royal Blood.
Royal Blood's new album How Did We Get So Dark? comes out June 16. Check out our interview from earlier here.
