Black Country, New Road Live review by Ryan Beardsley
Black Country, New Road are a curious beast. They’ve been releasing music for less than a decade and already have a lore that sometimes feels stranger than fiction. Back in 2022, they released one of the albums of the decade: Ants From Up There, only for frontman Isaac Wood to immediately step back from the band to prioritise his mental health, leaving the rest of BC,NR with a decision to make.
Thankfully, that call was to carry on, but in doing so they decided to rip things up and start again from scratch, refusing to play any songs from their two existing albums ever again in what I can only consider a crime against music when the tracks were so damn good.
Anyway, four years later and they have reinvented themselves as a band with three frontwomen, released an acclaimed third album, and they’re on the Somerset House stage in front of a packed-out crowd.
In a bold move, they kick off with a fun cover of Wings classic Band On The Run, a perfect choice really that showcases the talents of the whole group and emphasises the camaraderie within.
Everyone has something to offer as they each take turns in the spotlight; May Kershaw shines on For The Cold Country, her voice powerful yet delicate, and each time she reaches a peak there’s a noticeable hush across Somerset House.
Tyler Hyde takes centre stage for the most part and makes the most of it with a spellbinding performance of Mary, but it’s Georgia Ellery who steals the show, and I think therein lies the problem.
As immensely talented as the band are both individually and as a collective, the stage presence is lacking as it’s bound to be after losing your frontman; but it’s not helped by protracted silences between tracks where no one seems to know whose job it is to engage with the crowd.
There’s an easy fix in the form of Ellery, who is surely the natural successor to Wood as band leader; her songs are the strongest on Forever Howlong, and she has a natural charisma on stage that the band should put front and centre. On lead single Besties, she stakes her claim, and it gets the biggest singalong of the night before her rendition of Two Horses brings Somerset House to a standstill.
It would be crazy to do anything but laud the band from a musical perspective; super-talented multi-instrumentalists all, and on Turbines/Pigs this is displayed in all its glory, culminating in a wall-of-sound finale that left my head spinning.
Another great night at a historic venue in what has been an awesome week, for BC,NR I’m excited to see where they go next, whatever they decide, you can be sure it won’t be dull.
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