BRMC tourzine

BRMC On The Sopranos

Tune in to HBO this Sunday at 9.00pm, as Black Rebel Motorcycle Club will be featured on The Sopranos! Sadly, the boys won't be doing shots with Tony at the Bada Bing Club, but their song "American X" from Baby 81 will be used in the long-running mob drama.

Detroit, MI - 05/25

Green Clothes has the full report from the Detroit show...

"...If you're a fan of BRMC, then there’s no excuse for you to miss them, ticket price be damned. The energy they bring to the stage and to their fans is remarkable; their sound on stage is extremely clear and full..."

Chicago, IL - 05/24

Radio Free Chicago has all the details (and a ton of great pix!) from the show last night:

...The highlight of the night for me was easily the very end of the first set, and the short acoustic interlude that followed. After swapping out his bass for lead guitar and vocal duties on "Need Some Air," Robert Turner then lead the band into a raucous performance of their new 9+minute jam, "American X."...

Milwaukee, WI - 05/23

 
Muzzle Of Bees has the rundown from the Milwaukee show last night!

...the band charged through two hours worth of music while being able to seamlessly transform from hard rocking electric to acoustic blues. It’s too early to tell my appreciation for Baby 81, but using last night’s performance as a measurement of success it seems that many others have already latched on and embraced it...

Minneapolis, MN - 05/22

Perfect Porridge reports back on the Minneapolis show:

...The trio opened with "Took Out A Loan," the opening track from the group's new album, Baby 81, immediately achieved audience buy-in and proceeded to rock the energetic crowd for close to two hours. Not bad for 10:45 on a Tuesday. As blistering, bluesy riffs met with oxidizing drum kicks and smoldering vocals, last night Black Rebel Motorcyle Club claimed a piece of the rock and roll sound for themselves. A swirling light show matched by mammoth strobes kept the audience stimulated as the band introduced a set rife with new material...

St. Louis, MO - 05/20

PLAYBACK:stl reports back from the show!

...It's impossible to ignore BRMC's energy in translation from album to live performance, but my expectations were blown away by how much momentum and emotive control Hayes, Been, and drummer Nick Jago were able to maintain throughout the night. New rockers "Weapon of Choice" (big cheer from the new converts) and "666 Conducer" were driving and big, yet maintained the raw, bone-grinding touch of earlier efforts such as "Six Barrel Shotgun." And maybe it was the frequent backlighting, silhouetting the band and shifting attention toward the audience, but everyone in the building seemed to know the answer when Hayes sang "Whatever Happened to My Rock 'n' Roll (Punk Song)"—it's here for the taking...

Seattle, WA - 05/13

Usounds has all the details from the Seattle show:

...Peter, Robert and Nick emerged from the fog, erupting strait into “Took Out A Loan” as the smoke changed to brilliant colors of red and blue. I noticed that most of the band members had glorious longish manes except for Peter who was sporting some kind of extra thick yet fashionable bowl cut. The wood floor boards immediately started shaking like the big one of 1906 as some Seattleites shook their medium-sized fists in the air while others awkwardly danced to the first song. Everyone knows that people don’t normally dance at rock shows in Seattle, it’s practically against the law. So, kudos to The Club...

Black Rebel Banter

FILTER: Are you excited to debut the new songs from Baby 81 on the tour?

PETER HAYES: Yeah yeah yeah, I'm hoping we get them down good enough, that's what we're trying to do right now, trying to get them so they make sense live.

F: Are there any of your songs that you'd like to play live but just can't quite get them to sound like they do on the record?

PH: There's a couple b-sides that would be fun, but you know that's that. I'm having a hard time with "All You Do Is Talk" right now, getting that to sound like the record, or just get the sound quite right. We'll figure it out.

F: And the b-sides you talked about, you tend to shy away from them because its difficult to recreate the sound or you feel that people wont know them as well as the album tracks?

PH: Well, with the b-sides, we get pretty experimental with them sometimes, as far as there's one from the... I think its from the first album but it might be on the second one, called "Abstract Dragon", that's 13 minutes or something like that, it goes from place to place.  there's just no way to really do that, you'd have to hear it, you'd need about 4 guitar players and a bunch of stuff going on.

Portland, OR - 05/11

Harmonium reports back on the Portland show:

...first song of the evening, Baby 81 opener “Took Out a Loan”, and instantly the crowd was transfixed by the trio’s sexy, swaggering, gut-punching swamp-rock. This was far less like the reverb-drowned Velvet fuzzfest that comes through in BRMC's studio material...

San Francisco, CA - 05/09

betterPropaganda says seeing BRMC live makes them want to drink beer! We agree!

...The show drew heavily from their recent release, Baby 81. The best of from this lot was the hit-ready "Weapon of Choice", the chorus of "I won't waste my love on nation" pumped the crowd up and provided a turning point in the show that continued to build in mood and intensity through out. They felt big, epic, important...