“Yesterday was a shit day,” frontman Mike Kerr summed up Royal Blood’s mood. Their concert in Paris had to be canceled at the last minute because their stage and instruments didn’t make it. A blockade of truck drivers put sticks in the wheels. Gone momentum, gone start to the European mainland tour. Then Tuesday and the Lotto Arena, the bassist thought with a big grin. He walked up with a clenched fist and still wanted to get rid of his lesson ‘French for Beginners’. He sprinkled the one “Thank you!” after another “Bonsoir!” around as if the Flemish National Singing Festival never takes place in this hall.
power failure
passons. Mike Kerr shouted “to have twice the energy” after their French fiasco. Unfortunately, the Lotto Arena was just as unprepared for that walking nuclear power station as Tinne Van der Straeten. After three quarters of an hour of concert, the power suddenly went out completely. Only the monitor sound on stage still worked, so the duo continued to play until a roadie tapped them on the shoulder.
Without a word of explanation, Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher stepped off the stage. Only to reappear three minutes later as if nothing had happened. “It’s up to our keyboardist,” Kerr pointed out moments later to supporting band member Darren James, who was halfway hidden in the darkness. “He urgently needed to go to the toilet.” Or: “It became too unsafe in the public.” All very strange. Could the problem have been caused by the drum solo that Ben Thatcher had just started? The fact that you can no longer make that with impunity in 2022 is hopefully a sign of the times. No, even that bit of Boney M’s ‘Rasputin’ didn’t make your drum solo essential, Ben.
Failing bass guitar
The power outage was not the first and only fault. When Kerr wanted to use the new ‘Honeybrains’ fifteen minutes earlier, his bass failed after a few notes. He stormed off the stage and grumbled that they would play another song. ‘Little Monster’ was the right choice. The crowd roared in one voice, and a royal mosh pit spontaneously opened up. The monster was alive. We even spot a man with crutches in the fray. A Resurrection: Royal Blood made the crippled walk again. They also had the masses with ‘Lights Out’ and ‘Come On Over’. Kerr snuggled up close to Ben Thatcher on the elevated drum stage. Eyes full of fire, fists full of lead. At such moments you hardly noticed that the top ring in the Lotto Arena had remained eerily empty. Then it was two for all, and all for two.
So don’t get us wrong. When this duo pumps out of all cylinders, they roll over the entire Russian army. It’s times like these that you would love to gift Royal Blood to Volodymyr Zelensky. With a machine gun on a bass and bone-dry drums they blow everyone over. Lightning fast, with precision, from the hip.
Piano
Why Mike Kerr decided to start the bisronde by coming to play a piano ballad solo was just as surprising as those technical concerns. Was anyone really waiting for that? Okay, the key question is how long can you maintain the attention span with just two instruments. Even if you have a nice light show and a giant screen. After eleven years and three records, the rack may be a bit out of Royal Blood’s bass and drum formula.
‘Typhoons’ and ‘Boilermaker’ from their danceable latest record opened the one and a half hour concert and could count on significantly less enthusiasm than the songs from their self-titled debut. But it had not escaped Kerr that Antwerp still holds them close to their hearts. He reminded the Belgian public that it all started in a small room at Thatcher’s house. Their only spectator at the time was a washing machine. One with coins, by any chance? ‘Loose Change’ showed how Royal Blood sounded at its best. Raw, with a wonderful groove and a punch to your lower jaw: sublimely accurate. ‘Figure It Out’ followed as a folk hymn.
After the piano intermezzo of ‘All We Have Is Now’, Royal Blood came out with a finale that gave the audience a lift. ‘Ten Tonne Skeleton’ turned into ‘Out of the Black’. Mike Kerr pitted one half of the room against the other in a musical question and answer game. Ben Thatcher left his drum stool and went on to stir up the crowd even more. The mosh pit reached a boiling point. Look, that’s how a performance should end. They can.
If this show was a dress rehearsal for Rock Werchter on July 3rd, we hope that by this summer all ballast will be thrown overboard and the technical problems will be gone. A clenched set at a solid pace can light the fuse on the festival meadow. Now you went home feeling like the machine was sputtering too much.
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