“Trouble Came” on Halloween Night

What did you guys do on Halloween night? We went out to see one of our favourite bands of this year, Royal Blood, in the beautiful venue 3Olympia Theatre. Alex introduced me to this 2-piece-band at the start of the year, and I got hooked pretty quickly. So did a lot of people around the world, with the release of their latest album “Back To The Water Below” on the 1st of September, and with EA Sports FC 24 featuring their hit Trouble’s Coming. They played two gigs in Dublin, on the 30th and 31st of October, to end the European Leg of their tour. Halloween night is already one of the craziest nights in the world, and Royal Blood bringing a Ten Tonne Skeleton on stage made our Halloween night more exciting than ever.

Performance

The band consists of Mike Kerr playing the bass, and Ben Thatcher on the drums. I feel like being a two-piece band is pretty tricky. You either have to have mad sh*t going on stage, or you have to be ridiculously good musicians.

Royal Blood delivers in performance and with incredible musicianship. Considering the type of music they are making, which might be mentioned as alternative rock, having just a bass guitar on stage and no electric guitar at all makes the band extremely intriguing. How Mike Kerr plays the bass is SO filling and amazing that it is hard to believe they make this music with just two people.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw him play for the first time. The first time I saw a video of him playing the bass with one hand, and hitting the high-hats of the drums with the other on Glastonbury, I thought “He is the John Mayer of bassists of our generation.” Let’s not forget Ben Thatcher and how brilliant he is as a drummer. They both have amazing chemistry and complement each other so well on stage as if a single person is orchestrating every musical element of the show. Their riffs are very catchy and rhythmic and were perfectly delivered live.

Me and Alex both agreed on how close their performance was to the recorded versions, which is always appreciated for bands who stand out with their mastery of instruments. They were accompanied by Darren Watts on the keyboard, especially for some tunes from their latest album, which I felt like a good addition both musically and on stage. We loved their never-ending energy (even I was very tired towards the end of the show and was trying so hard to keep up with them) which is very cool and necessary for the type of show they are putting on.

The one thing we both felt during the show was that the show felt like a lifetime, and not in a good way, even though they played for an hour and twenty minutes. We believe that this is mostly because all the songs consist of a lot of bass and huge distortions, which sets the tune to a very high and loud standard. We don’t mind high energy and big distortions but the level of highness becomes monotone when it is consistent and without change.

We also believe that it prevented them from highlighting their best songs because it somewhat felt like we were listening to one big song for an hour and twenty minutes. That is why I think there should be more songs like “Waves” which is more like a ballad to change the tone and keep the crowd more engaged, which will be mentioned in detail later on in the setlist part.

We want to add the fact that we both definitely believe that they are VERY underrated in today’s music scene. When we were discussing the reasons for this, we both agreed that it is not their musical abilities or talent, but that “one missing stone” was their charismatic appeal.

Mike Kerr has an amazing voice, very good-looking, one of the best bassists of our generations without question, but in their performances, we can not feel the starlight aura like we do in most successful bands. We can not make sense of this and can not tell why, but we both believe that is why they are not as big as they should be. We absolutely love them and the music they make and want to see them at the top of the world, but we think that to achieve this, they need a more dominant stage presence.

The final note I want to add is that in their previous shows, even the first night in Dublin, Ben usually joins the crowd towards the end of the show as a part of the performance, which did not happen on this show. Personally, I would have LOVED to party with Ben in the crowd to hype us up. Hopefully next time!

Production

The dimensions of the stage certainly did not allow for much creativity in production. The only element present besides the musical instruments was a horizontal set of lights at their height (as far as I remember, lights above them were not used). These lights could change colour and had some effects, including the classic strobe effect and a somewhat wavier one.

Unfortunately, in our opinion, this was not enough to enrich their show. With Ben confined to the drums and Mike tied to the microphone and pedalboard, both have little freedom of movement, which means that if what happens behind them is static, the feeling is that something is missing. I imagine that the venue, being very restricted, did not allow the use of explosions or fire for safety reasons, surely limiting Royal Blood in this regard.

However, with the limited options available, they could have made the most of what they had. If I were in their shoes, I would have used a setup similar to what they had on their first tour in 2015. Very simple but more functional. Instead of having low and horizontal lights, I would have elevated them and placed them diagonally to add more three-dimensionality to the stage. Additionally, I would have added a backdrop with the jellyfish that appear on their latest album, "Back to the Water Below" to better contextualize the entire performance.

Setlist

Royal Blood, being a relatively young band with a limited discography (4 albums), manages to include all the songs that fans would like to hear without disappointing anyone. As expected, a significant portion of the setlist consists of tracks from their latest album and their first one (the most successful).

 Moreover, it had been announced the night before on their Instagram broadcast channel that they would be playing "One Trick Pony" due to popular fan demand. This is one of the B-side tracks from the album "Royal Blood", which, by the way, is not available on Spotify (but can be found on YouTube).

The setlist was well-balanced, with the most famous songs strategically placed, and the finale was quite powerful with "Out of the Black", "Ten Tonne Skeleton" (perfect for Halloween), and "Figure It Out" in the last 20 minutes. Perhaps, I would have sacrificed a few songs to add a couple more from the album "How Did We Get So Dark", as it is my personal favourite.

Songs like "Pull Me Through" and "Waves" were intended to momentarily ease the atmosphere and give a brief pause to the theatre's audio system. Regrettably, despite the softer nature of these two tracks compared to the rest of the setlist, they appeared akin to other songs characterized by powerful drums and distorted bass from Royal Blood. This, unfortunately, contributed to rendering the concert even more monotonous.

Crowd and Venue

The concert took place at the Olympia Theatre, a very elegant Victorian-style venue with classic ornate decorations and balconies on the sides. As soon as we entered, we took a couple of minutes just to look around; it's not every day that you attend concerts in such places. Perhaps a bit too elegant for a rock concert. At the end of the concert, on the corridor leading to the exit, there were photos of the artists who had performed there. After seeing the poster of Slayer, I realised that the theatre could absolutely handle the bass of Royal Blood.

 The capacity is quite limited (less than 2000 people), and the setting is undoubtedly very intimate. We were on the ground floor standing, and no matter how far away you could be, you were still very close to the artists. There were two barriers dividing the standing area into three sections. The first section (between the stage and the first barrier) was only accessible to people wearing a bracelet.

I believe (I'm not 100% sure) that this bracelet was given to the first people in line before the doors opened. I say this because I've seen it done for other concerts, and I think it makes sense as a recognition of the dedication of your fans. I would have preferred to know in advance because I would have had time to arrive a bit earlier and see them even closer. Still, as mentioned earlier, the difference would have been minimal since the standing area was relatively small.

Regarding the venue, I would add that the sound was excellent. Theatres should ensure high-quality acoustics, and given that Royal Blood had also played the night before, any technical issues would have been likely addressed by the following evening.

The audience was quite young, mostly in their 30s rather than in their 20s, which slightly surprised me considering that the band is relatively recent. Even for the new or less famous songs, there was still a significant portion of the audience singing along, indicating that Royal Blood has a very strong fan base in Ireland.

 From "Little Monster" onwards, the first mosh pits began, and from there, the audience completely let themselves be guided by the music. Fun fact: during this time, the drummer from HotWax, dressed as a banana with a Brighton shirt, came into the crowd and got everyone pumped up. It's worth noting that just before the breakdown of "Out of the Black", I initiated a circle of death, that was fun!

Finishing touch

With this review, we don't want to convey the message that Royal Blood is not a top-notch band because they are badass! Despite everything, we will continue to follow them, their songs will always be in my playlist, and every time we have the opportunity to see them, we won't hesitate to do so. Our intention is to provide constructive criticism, with a few suggestions, and with their quality, they can aspire to much more significant stages as absolute headliners.

A quick note about the opening band: Hotwax was simply incredible. I am happy to admit that I have the biggest crush on the bassist Lola. Playing the bass before Mike Kerr puts a little bit of pressure not gonna lie, but she absolutely KILLS it with a big-ass knife attached on top of her bass guitar which I also loved.

They had a very cool vibe and energy, and they are definitely the ones to watch in the future. We loved Lulah coming on stage with Royal Blood and playing a song together. Their highly engaging rock set ignited the audience and made the waiting time fly. It's great to see such an important opportunity given to a band with a limited discography but undeniably a strong desire to rock. Our congratulations for making it into the lineup for the Download Festival 2024 (where Royal Blood will also be). You guys keep going, and we're eagerly awaiting your first album!

Hot gignwings review

Performance: 🌶🌶🌶

Production: 🌶🌶

Setlist: 🌶🌶🌶🌶

Venue: 🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶

Crowd: 🌶🌶🌶🌶