Black Stone Cherry at KOKO

Take all the clichès about rock ‘n’ roll: havey guitars, long hair, head banging, beers, chubby and hairy men among the audience, leather jackets and everlasting solos, either with drums or guitars. Add a husky voice, a lot of sweat onstage and the inevitable devil’s horns, shake it with some ice and whisky and a candied cherry on top, a nice cocktail gasket et voilà: Black Stone Cherry are served.

In Koko stuffed with people, the band from Kentucky played many songs from their repertoire, formed by three studio records to date, named: Black Stone Cherry, Folklore and Superstition, and Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, together with new songs from the upcoming Magic Mountain. For a hard rock ‘n’ roll band to start playing music at 7.30pm can be a real shock; that’s why, during the two hours the band played, singer Chris Robertson kept on apologising: “Sorry guys, it’s not our fault, but there’s going to be a kind of rave after and we need to finish at 9.15.” A real drama for all the rockers at the venue.

Starting with the new single Me and Mary Jane, followed up by all their famous songs – In My Blood, Devil’s Queen, Hell & High Water, Such a Shame, Blind Man and White Trash Millionaire – the band showed their charisma onstage, where all the iconic and classic rock ‘n’ roll status quo have been respected and showcased. We saw the guitarist Ben Wells running over the stage, the bassist Jon Lawhon jumping through it and the drummer John Fred Young smashing his drum with verve and power. 

It’s clear that the band have energy and power, but unfortunately there are not enough elements that make them different from others of the same kind. To date, they are like an amazing hard rock cover band. Hopefully in the future they might develop a proper personality.

Lorenzo Cibrario
Photo: Jon Callas

For further information and future events visit Black Stone Cherry’s website here.

Watch the video for Me and Mary Jane here: