There was a moment towards the end of Black Country, New Road’s set at Stockport Plaza when one of the three lead vocalists (I won’t pretend to know who is who) thanked the audience for sticking with the band and ‘our new sound’. ‘You don’t have to be here,’ she said. ‘But you are, and we appreciate it.’ It spoke to one of the things I have been thinking about the most since the show and the release of new album Forever Howlong: are they really Black Country, New Road anymore? And does it matter?
Many of the people in the crowd will have been there because of the reputation the band has garnered through their first two albums, but this was like seeing an entirely different band. Any sense of heaviness, of post punk influence, is gone. The orchestral, beautiful swells in their music remain – and were even more impressive on stage. But there can be no doubt that some integral elements of the band not-formerly known as Black Country, New Road are gone.
Despite having spent two paragraphs not doing this, the conclusion I come to is that we now have to assess them as an entirely different beast. And if we do that, the most obvious thing to start with is how amazingly talented they are as musicians. In an old, classic venue like the theatre at Stockport Plaza, the way they swap instruments, pick up a violin for a few seconds before grabbing their guitars, or play a whole song only on these massive recorders (the type of which I’ve never seen before) is dazzling. If you took a second, during almost any moment of the show, to focus on a different member of the band, they’d be doing something very impressive. They clearly know each other and their instruments inside out, too. For such a large group of people, their sounds meld so well together and the whole performance seems effortless.
But even with all this being true, it does take me a while to get truly lost in the performance. Black Country, New Road have been on my gig bucket list since I got into For The First Time. But I am very aware that none of those songs, or any of the amazing Ants From Up There, will be on display tonight. This is a slightly mis ordered playthrough of Forever Howlong and, in playing the album back to front, it feels like the final step needed to take them to the new stage of their career. If Live at Bush Hall was a hint at where they would go, we now have confirmation.
I probably got over my distraction around the time that we reached ‘Two Horses’ – the faster pace of this song snapped me out of it, and I really started to appreciate what was happening before my eyes. ‘Nancy Tries to Take The Night’ was another highlight. The cacophony of sounds matching the grandeur in the theatre. But it was final song ‘Happy Birthday’ that really saw them burst into life more than any other, leaving you with a feeling that, as the tour progresses, the power of their live show will grow with it.
To come away from the show with a feeling that I can’t wait to see what comes next was probably an indication that they are on the right path in a strange career so far. Losing a character like Isaac Wood was always going to be a tough thing to come back from, but they have done so by focusing on the talents and abilities that most make them unique. All of those were on display here, and it was hard not to leave with a sense of awe.
Words by Fran Slater
Picky Bastards 