Black Country, New Road | Gig Review

August 16, 2023 Kirsten Moreton

August 16 | Written By Evelyn Burr

As Georgia Ellery, Lewis Evans, Luke Mark, May Kershaw and Tyler Hyde take to the stage in Cambridge for the first time since the departure of their frontman, Isaac Wood, the feeling in the audience is not one of nervous curiosity but of excitement.

At this point, Black Country, New Road have little left to prove. The release of the brilliantly whimsical Live at Bush Hall, a live recording of the songs written for the band’s post-Wood performances, has already fully cemented the band’s capacity for renewal. Their set list tonight remains mostly faithful to the track order of the album, with well-circulated fan recordings of newer songs ‘Horses’ and ‘Nancy Tries to Take the Night’ allowing the additions to become equally enshrined in the performance’s order of events. The audience knows what it is getting, and waits for each song in electric anticipation.

The chirpy ‘Up Song’ kicks the show off wonderfully, with the room chanting the “look at what we did together / BCNR, friends forever” chorus, somewhat poetically, in perfect unison. Hyde’s vocals, both here and across the night, are simultaneously bold and delicate, carrying the emotional weight that Wood was known to deliver on previous Black Country, New Road projects.

While Evans’ voice lacks some of the versatility of Hyde’s, it is gutsy and heartfelt, making the upbeat tune ‘Across the Pond Friend’ one of the highlights of the evening. Both the instrumentals and the audience are bursting with life here, as the sprightly violin passages and cheers from below sound even more animated than in the live recordings.

The ethereal Turbines/Pigs is where the payoff of such an established setlist is strongest. As the other band members take a seat on stage and Kershaw readies herself to play, the audience and performers are united in the knowledge of magic that is to follow. The room settles; a few whispers of the song title dance around the venue. In the 9-minute ballad that follows, Kershaw’s vocals are almost as other-worldly as the arcane scenes of witches and wildlife that she describes. The musical layers of the song build gradually, and culminate in what can only be described as a supernova of sound and feeling that vibrates in the walls of this modest Cambridgeshire venue.

“Look at what we did together” is one of the many Up Song lyrics reprised by Hyde in the final song of the night. The line captures not only the journey of the band up until this point, but the performance that the audience has just been invited into. Despite the remarkable and expansive sounds that Black County, New Road have delivered, it seems impossible to leave without the sense of a closeness with the band and your fellow audience members. “BCNR, friends forever” is truly the takeaway of the night.