[ originally published 11/07/2016 ]
ROYAL BLOOD
Newport Centre, Newport - 3rd March 2015
Support: Mini Mansions
The future of British rock: Royal Blood sold out their last tour in two minutes. This tour was bigger - more dates, larger venues - and sold out within an hour. It seems everyone wants a piece of Royal Blood, and why not? Loud, noisy guitar music is always welcome in my neck of the woods, so when a band like Royal Blood comes to Newport, it's a no brainer really.
MrsRobster perfectly summed up support band Mini Mansions - a trio from LA - with just two choice phrases. On their look: "They look like they're all in different bands." She wasn't wrong. The bassist was like a half-arsed Nicky Wire of the Manics with a tiny fraction of the charisma; the keyboard player could have been in any hipster electropop band like, say, Alt-J or Metronomy; and the stand-up drummer looked like he was in a bad Spandau Ballet tribute band playing tunes from their shite years. And on their sound: "They remind me of old dirty dishwater." Enough said.
Once we'd moved away from the really annoying woman in front of us who seemed to want to film the entire night on her mobile phone in 2-minute sequences, I tried to enjoy Royal Blood. I really did try. But they just weren't doing it for me. Don't get me wrong, they were tight, they played well and they sounded great. But that's the problem for me - they just sounded too good. It was all a little predictable, it sounded pretty much exactly like the CD. I could have listened to it at home and got as much out of it.
It also felt they were padding the set out somewhat. If a band has just one album to their name, there will always be limitations, but you can't fill things out with long pauses between songs and a pretty pointless cover of 20th Century Boy. The loud noisy jam at the very end of the set was the best part of the show for me, but otherwise I and MrsRobster came away pretty unmoved. Maybe part of it was the venue - maybe a little too big for them.
Alas, I fear the time to catch Royal Blood live has passed. Put them in a small space and they'd undoubtedly lift the roof off. Sadly, the future of British rock seem to have gotten too big too fast.
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