Live Review: Black Stone Cherry - O2 Academy, Birmingham
10th September 2021
Supt. Kris Barras Band
Review and live photos by Tim Finch
It’s been pretty much eighteen months since anybody went to a live show indoor that wasn’t socially distanced. So as life returns to normal it warms the heart to pull up to a venue and see a queue snaking round the block. Just two years ago that would have resulted in an “ah fuck look at the queue!”, yet today it’s a wonderful site to behold. Live music is back!
As the venue fills and the queue still snakes it’s way outside, the lights dim inside and former mixed martial artist Kris Barras takes to the stage with the Kris Barras Band!
As the only support act on the tour They get a good forty five minutes to shine. Delivering a heavily blues inspired set, Kris’ background adds the grit and determination to the music to draw the fans in. Just fifteen minutes in, the venue now full, and full of fans pumping fists and banging heads along to the hook laden anthems. Kris a whirl wind on stage, standing still on to sing and whirling around like the Tasmanian devil when not. A sight to behold and a welcome return to live music.
As the fan sing along to Iron Maiden and Queen subsides, the lights dip and the cheers grow. As the lights return tonight’s headliners are on stage, things are about to get messy!
Kicking off with ‘Me and Mary Jane’ the crowd is bouncing, singing along at the top of their lungs audible above the music pumping out of the PA. As they bound through ‘Yeah Man’ and ‘Again’ it is obviously the band are relishing being back on stage once more. Grins from ear to ear span the musicians and the crowd this evening.
The band mixes it up with a career spanning set from ‘Hell & High Water’ from their 2006 debut through to the aforementioned ‘Again’ and ‘Ringing In My Head’ from their 2020 offering ‘The Human Condition’. Testament to the bands song writing ability that the old and new meld together as one when performed live!
As the evening rolls on, the fans are hot an sweaty by the time the ever popular ‘Blame It On The Boom Boom’ blows the roof off the Academy in Birmingham. ‘White Trash Millionaire, ‘Lonely Train’ and ‘Peace Is Free’ close off a spectacular evening.
It’s been a long time coming for fans and band alike, and this evening proved that post-pandemic live music is alive and well in Birmingham!
Live photo credits: Tim Finch Photography
