Live Music Review: Royal Blood at Plymouth Pavilions

For Those About to Rock

As a man who admits freely to being born in the wrong century when it comes to music, what a fantastic surprise it was to hear some proper rock n' roll last year when Royal Blood popped up out of the black (pun intended) and gave the music industry of the 21st century a well needed shake. I was first made aware of the Brighton duo's riffery when I saw them support Arctic Monkeys last year during their gig at Finsbury Park, and all I could think of after the show was, "Wow. Those guys rocked," with their set arguably being more memorable than that of Alex Turner and co. So now I've bought the album, claimed the T-Shirt and bragged about being able to see them once again at my local shithole of a venue, Plymouth Pavilions, did their brilliance shine once again? In a simple answer; Most definitely.

Arriving fashionably late and subsequently missing the support act, Mini Mansions, me and my rock cronies managed to blag our way to a reasonable standing position and after only ten minutes the troublesome twosome appeared and began to blast out their brilliant Nirvana inspired B-Side "Hole", which for all accounts should have been on the full album, accompanied by flashing neon lights and the sound being well and truly rammed all the way up to eleven. Good start. After giving us a brief "Hello Plymouth", which was always going to inspire cheers from the Janner faithful, the band swiftly treated the audience to singles "Come On Over" and "Figure It Out" interjected by album filler "You Can Be So Cruel", all of which went down a storm and succeeded in awakening the natural response of a rockn'rolla to mosh heavily to the monster riffs the band have a easy knack of creating. 

Halfway through the gig, the duo blasted out the killer single, "Little Monster" which was leading contender for song of the night so far, with its' simple bass riff being turned on its' head with the sheer power of drummer Ben Thatcher, who is slowly turning into one of my favourite musician of recent times with his monstrous playing being reminiscent of the very best rock drummers such as Zeppelin's John Bonham and The Who's Keith Moon. After new track "One Trick Pony", was ripped apart, the duo showcased their love for famous rock riffs by blasting out T-Rex's "20th Century Boy" which for all accounts was a masterful take on one of rock's most famous songs of the 1970's. The latter stages of the gig focused on the octave-madness of both "Careless" and "Ten Tonne Skeleton", whilst mosh of the night was clearly won by "Loose Change", closely followed by gig closer, "Out of the Black" which was a grand-spanking way to conclude a monumental night for both band and the audience. 

Royal Blood's performance at Plymouth Pavilions, if anything, only reinforces the notion that the band are one of the hottest acts in the UK music scene right now, with the live atmosphere working brilliantly with the heavy rawness of their debut album. Well done lads. 

Overall Score: 9/10