Dark Gig Review – Black Label Society
Written By Casey Douglass
We entered the Norwich
UEA’s LCR to the strains of Crobot’s last song of the
evening, which was a shame. Of the two support bands listed, Crobot
was the one that I had most hoped to see at the Black Label
Society gig last night.
We listened to the
sound-system pumping out various rock and metal tracks as the
temperature in the room fought with the chilled Cider shandies in our
hands. Yes, Cider shandies, I don’t seem to be able to stomach
alcohol anymore. Not that I couldn’t enjoy the aroma that permeated
the air from spillages and others’ breath.
Next to take to the stage
was Black Tusk, a band I knew nothing at all about. Hailing
from Georgia, USA, their wiki lists their genre as variations of
thrash, sludge and stoner metal. They rocketed through their songs
with barely a moments pause which gave their performance an
interesting pace. Their early songs were more thrash than anything,
and left me feeling disinterested. As they neared the end of their
set, the tone changed to more drawn out, heavier and brutal metal
that made my chest shake with the vibration of the bass-guitar. I
ended up warming to them, even as I began to feel really rough
standing for so long.
Black Tusk
departed the stage and the crowd began to grow excited as the crew
uncovered Black Label Society’s equipment. A wall of
amplifiers nestled either side of the drum-kit, glowing red lights
glaring with malice at the fans. It was almost as if they were saying
‘Kiss your hearing goodbye!’ Then Zakk Wylde’s microphone stand
was placed in the centre of the stage, skulls clinging to it half-way
down like pale lichen. There was a further period of waiting as the
sound system belted out Nine Inch Nails and some other songs
that failed to get my attention.
The house lights dipped
as the crowd sang along to one more song, and then Black Label
Society strode out and started to lay down their own brand of
heavy. Zakk’s vocals were loud and powerful, the drums hard and
belting, just everything you would want. Midway through the first
song, Zakk put his guitar behind his head and plucked as perfectly as
if it was in front. The crowd approved. He also took to the small
platform off to his left for the solos, a nice touch in an admittedly
intimate venue. I must admit that I am a bit out of touch with recent
Black Label Society albums. I have some of their older ones
but nothing more recent. I didn’t recognise half of the songs I
heard but that didn’t diminish my enjoyment of them one bit.
Before I knew it, we
were at the interval, the band members heading off-stage for a quick
drink and whatever it is they do out of sight. Not Zakk though. Zakk
soloed for what I guessed was around ten minutes straight. It went on
and on and on, a guy ahead of me kept putting his hands on his head
in disbelief. Zakk moved around the stage and carried on and on.
Sweat dripped from his fingers every few seconds. He was still
playing as the other band members came back, and they finished his
hanging note together.
The latter part of the
gig saw Zakk take to the keyboard and do some of his quieter songs.
I’m not such a fan of these but they were a great listen none the
less. The last two songs however were the two I had hoped I would
hear and had pretty much given up hope of hearing. They belted out
Concrete Jungle and Stillborn, each with their own
twists and embellishments. They are two of my favourite Black
Label Society songs and I am just so happy that I got to hear
them live.
At the very end, Zakk
stayed on stage the longest and thanked the fans, taking the time to
salute them, bump fists, shake hands and smile. You could see it was
100% genuine emotion and it was a great way to round off the gig.
Today, I feel so
fucking rough and my hearing has no bass; even a flushing toilet
sounds like a crinkling carrier-bag, but it was worth it. It was a
pleasure to see a band of Black Label Society’s calibre
playing a smaller venue like the UEA LCR. There have been some great
bands coming to Norwich in recent years, some I missed like Machine
Head, some I caught, like Lacuna Coil at the Waterfront.
Now I have another to add to my list of ‘seens’, or maybe that
should be ‘heards’.
