PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
It’s twenty to seven and Black Label Society fans are already queueing outside the O2 ABC in Glasgow on this Wednesday night. These people have a brilliant answer to the question of what to do on a Wednesdays night?
Black Label Society started their European Tour on 11th of February in the heart of Scotland. After numerous gigs in the USA and Canada since the beginning of the year, it was time to show up in Europe and make a rocking mess. Because going on tour alone is simply not fun, BLS grabbed Crobot and Black Tusk with them for this jaunt.
As usual, the O2 ABC doors were opened at seven o’clock and the long queue of people was slowly getting in to find observing places with pints in the hand before Crobot, the hard rock band, with a very interesting name (hard to forget, hah) kicked things off with definitely a great start to the evening. They are a super expressive quartet of musicians. The rock’n’roll rolled straight from the beginning, poured down to the audience and by the time band played half of their set, the venue seemed to be way more crowded than before. From Pottsville, USA, they did not seem to stay on the stage too long and after half an hour warming up they were off to have fun “behind the scenes” allowing the second band to show the best they had to offer.
If you would expect only hard rock and heavy metal for the support of Black Label Society, then you would quite surprised. It is just enough to hear the name of the Black Tusk. For anyone unfamiliar with these fellows – check out their music that is full of sludge/stoner metal and groovy tunes between. That’s how they sounded during their show in Glasgow. They were the heaviest and darkest band of the whole gig, which quite possibly blew audience minds away: an audience that was taken by surprise, darkness and strong storm of this heavy music. Black Tusk went on the tour with changes to the line-up: as few months ago they tragically lost their bass guitar player Jonathan Athon. The band expressed their grief on the stage as well. Despite this fact, they gave their best and without much talking played one neck cracking 45 minutes long sludgey swamp metal set.
After Black Tusk the crowed jostled into the best positions for the Black Label Society show. A curtain with the Black Label Society logo was down in front of the stage and fans had the perfect background for selfies, to pass the time waiting for the set to begin. The long intro of “Whole Lotta Sabbath” bellowed out and made it clear that Black Label Society with Zakk Wylde at the front was about to appear. Starting with “The Beginning… At Last” – the last track of the the first album “Sonic Brew”, the band made their statement. The audience went wild and crowdsurfing was significant proof of that. The Black Label Society setlist consisted of 13 hellraising tracks from various albums, salted with a long and powerful Zakk guitar solo in the middle. To make the whole event more lyrical and softer, Zakk took a break from the guitar for his “In This River” ballad and performed the whole song on the piano. Still touring for new album “Catacombs of the Black Vatican”, a solid amount of tracks from it were played as well: “Heart of Darkness”, “Angel of Mercy”, “Damn the Flood” and of course “My Dying Time”. After an hour and a half of pure rock’n’roll, changing striped bulls-eye guitars, with energy and constant wild fan responses to all of it, the show was over. Black Label Society left Glasgow exhausted but rejuvenated in the middle of a long week: Just what Dr. Rock prescribed.
Black Label Society setlist:
The Beginning… At Last
Funeral Bell
Bleed for Me
Heart of Darkness
Suicide Messiah
My Dying Time
Damn the Flood
Guitar Solo
Godspeed Hell Bound
Angel of Mercy
In This River
The Blessed Hellride
Concrete Jungle
Stillborn
