Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Carrboro, NC - 09/17/03

Finally, a show I've been dying to see makes its way to North Carolina. And I have to begin by saying thank you to all of the folks who mentioned how terrible Warlock are because on your advice, I didn't bother to get there until late, and THANK GOD! They supposedly took the stage at 9 and played until 10:20. I have no idea why they were allowed to drone on until then. It was horrifying. One of my friends said it was criminal to have seven people on stage and have them all suck.

Ugh!!

So contrast how bad seven people were with how incredibly good just three musicians can be. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club took the stage sometime around 10:45 and played till around 1ish without an intermission. I managed to get a setlist kind of ironically - on my way into the parking lot, the main stage roadie guy was coming out of their bus, and I almost took him out! Doh! So later I gave him some grief about "Man, you almost kill a guy with your car, and he refuses to hook you up with a setlist." So yeah, that was my little amusing moment.

Anyway, here was the set:

Stop
Six Barrel Shotgun
Red Eyes & Tears
US Government
Spread Your Love
White Palms
Rise or Fall
Screaming Gun
Love Burns
In Like the Rose
We're All In Love
Rifles
Going Under
Shades of Blue
Punk Song (whatever happened to rocknroll...)
**********
Hi Low
Salvation
Heart & Soul

Overall the show was really good. They're still not long on chitchat, but that's ok. Basically if you like their whole "rolling rock" sound, as my friend Laurie put it, you're gonna be happy. Personal highlights for me were "Spread Your Love" and "In Like the Rose," but there weren't really any lowlights. I wish I could remember their show from last year opening for Spiritualized well enough to compare their presentation of songs from their debut, but due to recent surgery, I was on painkillers at the time. I remember being impressed with them at the time and remain so even without the vicodin, so that says something.

I was pretty lucky, managing to get a really good spot directly under Robert with a clear view of the stage for the whole show. Of course, I forgot that I could take my camera in...damn it.

There were a few problems at this venue with the mics not being turned up enough, and Peter (guitar) got really frustrated during the end for that reason, threw his mic on the floor and stomped off. This left Robert (bass) and Nick (drums) to finish up "Punk Song," which they did seemingly non-plussed by Peter's exit. Fortunately, he came back for the encores and actually apologised to the audience for getting pissed off. That was kinda new to see but showed style.

Although the crowd was not particularly energetic, (read: no jumping about - just lots of head-bobbing) they were very vocal in their applause as well as in disappointment when Robert announced the last song. It was good to see that the band got an enthusiastic reception here. Hopefully they will come back again. They are one of the few decent bands I've been able to see and now on both of their tours. So I'm a pretty happy girl.

One question - did Robert jump into the crowd at any other show and make out with some random girl for like a minute? I can't absolutely swear that this happened, but it kinda looked that way. And if it did, can you imagine how bummed I was that it wasn't me? Ok, so I'm a little bit of a groupie...sue me.

Now I have a long dry spell again till someone else I'm into comes, but I'll live...November is just around the corner.