On Stage: Royal Blood @ Paradiso

Brighton rockers Royal Blood seemingly came out of nowhere three years ago when they took the music world by storm with their first album that is full of heavy rocking songs. The two musicians skipped the smaller venues and sky rocketed directly into middle size ones and the bigger stages on festivals. A few weeks back they announced the follow up album and added a show at Paradiso that already is too small for them.

Royal Blood at Paradiso Amsterdam, May 24 2017

That show sold out in no time and I was glad to have bought my tickets in the presale. Shortly after they announced a new show in November in the AFAS Live which is triple the size of Paradiso but will probably fill up quite fast as well. Two singles have been released so far off the new album How Did We Get So Dark? that will come out next month. Those tracks already revealed that the duo wasn't gonna mellow down but will continue just as loud as they did before.

And if there was any doubt, tonight it is clear that the new album will be a massive rocking record again, since they start off with two new songs that come down like a sledge hammer. They didn't change much about their formula, so much is clear, but instead perfected their sound even more. The giant wall of heavy rock has an even more firm foundation of ear piercing riffs and tight in your face drum grooves. The two are having so much fun on stage that their energy rubs off to the fans immediately.

Only once their is a slight change when a keyboard is put on stage and Mike Kerr combines synth sounds with his riffs. For the rest he is rocking the left of the stage, regularly visiting drummer Ben Thatcher at the other side. A nice touch are the lasers at the front of the stage that once and while form a light fence that separates the band from the crowd. It produces a surreal effect that works quite well.

There simply is no stopping to this band and it is clear the new record is gonna be a killer once more. Like a monster truck their show keeps rolling with high speed and shakes Paradiso with great force. People are jamming all the way to the back and without hardly any breaks the duo plays on. Without an encore the truck stops after 75 minutes, leaving the crowd begging for more. I'm pretty sure it will be a rare sight seeing them play these kind of venues again, since they have moved on to much larger ones for good.



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Setlist:
01. Where Are You Now?
02. Lights Out
03. Come on Over
04. I Only Lie When I Love You
05. Little Monster
06. Hook, Line & Sinker
07. Blood Hands
08. How Did We Get So Dark?
09. Figure It Out
10. Better Strangers
11. Hole in Your Heart
12. Loose Change
13. Ten Tonne Skeleton
14. Out of the Black