reviewsarchiv 703

11 years and 4 albums later these Americans are more present, than ever before. And this is not due to their supportslot for Alter Bridge in the US or their festival appearances at Rock am Ring and Rock at Park last year here in Germany. No it is indeed their latest release ‚Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea’ which has been thrown up into the stratsophere of music biz, just like David's slingshot , and this again without any bruises.
Although these boys from Edmonton, Kentucky, USA are still pretty young, at least they seem so. And I do ask myself ,whether Black Stone Cherry have started playing music with each other in kindergarten in the sandbox.
This feeling of age differences is even more obvious, as guitarist Ben Wells, who let's out the animal in himself on stage, is a pretty quiet boy backstage starting the answer to most questions with - 'yes Ma'am' or 'no Ma'am' . Halleluja, that feels like... how shall I describe this best..? - a clash of generations. And I do beg this boys, to leave this Ma'am away, as it makes me feel even older than I am anyway. Okay, forget this. It's a fact, that for tonight's concert of Black Stone Cherry, aprox. 1.000 fans have found their way into the Backstage Werk to celebrate their new idols with a huge Goliath step-.

First of all we've got local support named Concept Chaos, who I haven't heard of before, though I'm living in this town for more than 20 years now.

But well, I guess, -A) you can't know everything, and B) this band doesn't exist that long anyway. And on the whole,this has nothing to do with ignorance of mine. In fact, I do like to hear new stuff, if I've got the possibillity to convince myself about the quality.
The debutalbum of this band came out last October. And it's this, which is still the one to promote. There is only one thing coming to my mind immidiately,while watching this group. Because of the fact, that I had arrived pretty early at the venue for the date with Ben from Black Stone Cherry, I have caught a little bit of the Concept Chaos soundcheck and discovered, that frontgirl Maike Werner has indeed got a pretty good voice. But at the actuall show this one is drowning a bit. Shame, and I'm not sure, whether this is due to the acoustic or the music itselves, burying the vocals a little beneath the soundcloud.
Apart from this fact and the rather unusal look of Maike, the music ain't nothing really new, but you can feel, that these kids do it with all their heart and love for details, with enthusiasm and are happy, to receive some positive reactions from the audiance.
Let's put it that way, I don't wanna judge them too hard because of some reasons. But I assume, that this Munich band is already pleased that they've got the possibillity for this supportslot, to increase thier popularity status in certain circles. Just let's hope, that they will get more chances just like this
http://www.conceptchaos.de/

Everything is waiting for Black Stone Cherry, who soon after enter the stage....

And Respect: Singer Chris Robertson has obviously taken care about his shape. And the long hair has gone for a smart short look, though hidden beneath a baseball hat. His voice has stayed the same. And this is the most important thing
He's got a certain aura, that's for sure. And mind me, there is still guitarist Ben Wells, who gets crazy on stage, as I mentioned before. And to complete the chapter there is also bassist Jon Lawhon and drummer John 'Fred' Young bringing a major input in this group.

Black Stone Cherry give a 100 percent and throw out one ace after the other out of their back catalogue. The setlist is the same like at most shows on this tour, only now and then they put in another track, according to Ben. Of course we also get to hear ‚White Thrash Millionaire’ from the current Longplayer and ‚Blame It On The Boom Bomm’ featured within the encore. On the whole we get seven tracks served from this new album.

And the Fans do obviously like what they get - no doubt about that. No surprise, as this band presents themselves a old professionells, who know the business very well. Whereby knowing the biz might be true, but not the age.
Also their southern rock music contains so many earworms, which are so easy to sing along with a 100 percent re recognition.

However, but those 90 minutes certainly have been worth while in every way. This has been a solid show with a high entertainment level. And it's not only me, thinking, that Black Stone Cherry haven't reached their highpoint yet, but are still on the way up. And nobody can stop them - or can it?! - But if, then it's definately not their fault.
http://www.blackstonecherry.com/