It was an overcast windy afternoon and Sydney Harbour was a little choppy as we made our way out to The Island. Just like the harbour, British garage rock duo Royal Blood are also making waves on the music scene.
Royal Blood have barely been together for two years and they’re already causing a stir amongst the music community. Coming out to our shores as part of the St Jerome’s Laneway Festival lineup, in this current form it would be their second time around playing to Aussie audiences. Clearly since that first time, their fan base has grown exponentially, as there was barely any audience wiggle room left on our floating barge.
They waste no time bringing their large rock sound to the crowd, opening up their short set with “Come On Over” that has a frenetic guitar intro, that is quickly followed up by the booming drums. All of the tracks we’d hear feature on their debut LP Royal Blood, which has been repeatedly making appearances in 2014 Top Albums lists in a variety of music publications.. It’s not long before the crowd is writhing and head-banging along to the noise. “Figure It Out” goes off in a more fast-paced blues vibe and vocalist/bassist Mike Kerr has his vocal work cut out for him as he rattles off the verses in rapid fire. Changing gears again with “Little Monster”, this time Kerr opts for near crooning soothing vocals in his verses but this is virtually countered by his roaring choruses. “Ten Tonne Skeleton” gives the duo a chance to show off their onstage chemistry as Ben Thatcher’s marching beat drums marry up with Kerr’s staccato chords. One excitable member of the crowd mounts his mate’s shoulders and is fist pumping his way through the track.
Thatcher really gets to show off how colossal his drums can sound in set closer “Out Of The Black”, where we get some great rolls and beats. But sneaky Kerr steals the show by running off and disappearing somewhere backstage. We can still hear him cranking out the chords and soon enough, the speedboat they arrived in cruises slowly past us on the barge with Kerr in the back still jamming wirelessly. Thatcher has given up on the drums by now, tossing his sticks into the ocean and making his way to the side of the barge to scale the railing and cheer his bandmate on.
I gotta say, that was a pretty rock star way to end the show.
There’s a raw energy and power these guys emit during their performance. It’s still surprising that so much noise can come from just the two of them. It’s no wonder that guys like Matt Helders of Arctic Monkeys and Dom Howard from Muse have been raving about them and that Royal Blood have been recruited as the support act for selected dates on the Foo Fighters’ upcoming US & UK tours. There’s a mountain of potential here and an ever growing fan base that’s eager for new material, which is still a little while away. In the meantime, be sure to check out Royal Blood next time you can, because soon they’ll be headlining their own stadium shows.
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Royal Blood’s performance for the Channel [v] Island Party will go to air Monday 9 February at 8:30pm AEDST on channel [v]
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