ShareRoyal Blood performing their Typhoons Tour at The Motorpoint Arena Nottingham on Tuesday 29th March 2022
Images and Review by Kevin Cooper
Royal Blood arrived at The Motorpoint Arena on Tuesday night, slightly later than planned but despite the delay they absolutely nailed it.
They are on the face of it a rather odd arena rock band and one that has no guitarist are, to be honest, even odder. But the power of two individuals to capture the crowd’s attention means that they have taken talent to a whole new level.
Adding new colours to their monochrome garage rock formula, they have launched this tour with a technically dazzling that has wrapped their minimalistic music in to a maximalistic spectacle.
Assisted by touring keyboard player, Darren James, they opened with Typhoons, and followed up with Lights Out an early stand out song which still sounded as smooth as it always has, whilst Come On Over sent the crowd wild.
New track Trouble’s Coming fitted right in and encapsulated front man, Mike Kerr’s use of various effect pedals and amps. They absolutely thundered their way through Hook Line And Sinker before keyboards added a little texture to Million To One, and Loose Change which passed by in a riot of sound.
With the spotlight on drummer Ben Thatcher, perched upon a raised platform, he had everyone cheering when the drums kicked in for Little Monster. During the chorus such was the noise from the crowd that the vocals were barely heard and it all culminated into a glorious, jaw dropping, extended drum solo which saw Thatcher pay homage to the late Taylor Hawkins on the concave video screen behind him.
When the riff for Figure It Out plays out, the whole Arena claps along to the build up and by this time the duo could be singing the contents of a takeaway menu because the crowd are sweaty, euphoric and putty in their hands.
With an encore that included the poignant All We Have Is Now, they were soon back with all the hedonism Of Ten Tonne Skeleton before Out Of The Black sent the crowd into the biggest frenzy of the night.
