31 March 2015 (gig)
16 April 2015
Royal Blood’s gig tonight in Milan is a rescheduled one from October 2014, and shows how things can change as these have been 5 sweet months for the band.
Accolades from everybody right up to Jimmy Page who even presented them with the Best British Group award at the Brit Awards, a tour with Foo Fighters in the UK and USA confirmed, they now arrive at the absolutely packed Alcatraz club with fans and interested folk such as I, eager to check them out.
Support band is Bad Breeding hailing from Stevenage. It’s been a while since I’ve heard an Oi, street punk style band. No smiles, no thrills, no dialogue with the audience, just straight up no nonsense 2 minute songs. They will make their mark I reckon.
Royal Blood are Mike Kerr on bass and Ben Thatcher on drums. They seemed rather overwhelmed by the heaving, tightly packed crowd, Ben apologizing for the fact that he was hospitalized last October. There really was no need, all has been forgiven.
So for just over an hour, Royal Blood give us their interestingly styled rock, to me a cross between TRex and QOTSA. Its very danceable stuff with every song having a singalong hook, all under 4 minutes, pushing all the right buttons.
Much has been said of this bass and drum combo and their full sound. It seems to be mainly due to a system called bi-amping where the bass signal is passed through an octave divider giving out 2 signals , one going to a guitar amp, one to a bass amp.
Well, whatever that is, it means that songs have no solos but interesting riffs and when added to a well worked interplay with Ben and his drums, it all works a treat.
Armed with Italian flags they triumph even if they still seem very green and can certainly improve their interaction with the crowd and develop more persona on stage.
They will need to because they will likely be one of the best festival bands to see this summer over Europe, especially as they are not a headline set, something I’m not sure they will ever attain as this set up has its limits, but for now Royal Blood are kings of the castle, masters of their domain, no question.
