Black Stone Cherry - Southampton Guildhall 27th March 2012

The last time I came to Southampton Guildhall was to see the late, great Dio - only to be confronted by a huge, handwritten  sign outside reading "PLEASE NOTE - NOT DIDO !!"

No need for the signage this time around as once we navigated around the Titanic exhibition and made a note of where Ikea was (Rock n Roll eh?) it was pretty obvious that the crowd of assorted adults, kids, biker types and skater dudes were all here to see the best new band in many a year.  I say "new", Black Stone Cherry have been going from strength to strength for eleven years now with their modern take on a classic Southern Rock sound.

First up was Rival Sons. This is definitely another band going from strength to strength. Playing a number of tracks from their Pressure and Time album, and their Rival Sons EP - they rocked the place. Considering they simply consist of a vocalist, bass, drums and a single guitarist they have a huge sound. They do stray off into a bit of introspective jamming from time to time, but then they bring it all back together for a thundering climax and you forgive them for it.

Black Stone Cherry always put on good show - whether it's in a sweaty club or in the slightly more grandiose confines of the Guildhall.  The band hit the ground running with "Change", "Maybe" and "Blind Man". I've seen BSC a number of times over the last decade, and Chris Robertson never ceases to amaze me - until you see them live you don't fully appreciate how much he contributes to the BSC sound, with a wonderful Southern Rock voice and fiery guitar solo's. Personally I think ...Cherry are the perfect band  - powerhouse drumming, down-tuned guitars, Southern Rock style and sing-along choruses - the perfect template as far as I'm concerned.

We had an acoustic break which included tracks from Adele, Oasis and Nirvana ( let's see Molly Hatchet try that!) then after the crowd sung "Things My Father Said", we had the magnificent Devil's Queen.

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I'm not convinced that BSC thought that we enjoyed the gig as much as we should - everyday this week they have posted on Facebook about how wonderful the crowd was, except after the Southampton gig - maybe I'm just being overly sensitive about it - Chris had done his homework though - throwing in the odd Portsmouth comment when the crowd were too quiet.

Great band, Great gig - 'nuff said.

NR