Black Stone Cherry - 6th October 2023 St Luke’s, Glasgow

You’ve got to love Glasgow on a Friday night. The optimism and anticipation that “tonight’s going to be the best night ever” hangs in the air. You can feel it in every pub, and everyone I meet is looking forward to their Friday night, cos after a full on week, they deserve it.

That feeling gets all the thicker and more obvious the closer I get to the East End. There is a real buzz about the place tonight; the people in Black Stone Cherry tee shirts just know they are in for something special.

We started our night in the Van Winkle, a newish bar across the road from tonight’s venue, St Luke’s. It was the perfect place to start, all about Americana, from the menu to the drinks to the music. The poster for Kentucky whiskey in the loos just made me smile.

By now it was 6 o’clock and we had a spare ticket. One of my amigos put in a call to his friend Trish. She was had just ordered her first drink in a pub in Bonnybridge. She left it untouched on the bar and ran home for the car keys. Forty minutes, three speeding violations and a bit of dodgy parking later, she was in the pub and raring to go. That kind of summed up the anticipation of fans tonight.

This was to be a really intimate show. The last time I saw Black Stone Cherry they were headlining a festival of around 35,000 people in a big field. Tonight, they are playing in a small room in front of a capacity crowd of 500. It's a great room too. This converted church still has the original organ pipes and pulpit as central features which, when combined with the stained glass, the balcony and crowd, combine to create a fantastic atmosphere.

Tonight there was no starter, just straight to the main course and, if it was food we were waiting on, it’d be brisket, ribs and dirty fries – good southern fayre and plenty of it.

Just before 8:30 the stage door opened, the band arrived and the onslaught began. “Screamin’ at the Sky”, the title track from this year’s album, opened the show at pace and was unremittingly followed up with “Blind Man” from Folklore and Superstition then “White Trash Millionaire” - this was the crowds first opportunity to really get their voices warmed up. There was a wee moment to breathe before the old Bob Marley song, “Stir it Up” morphed into “Me and Mary Jane”.

So far, it's been non-stop. My worry was that, given these guys are used to playing massive arenas, their sound might be too massive for this old room. Glad to say I was wrong. The mix was sound and it really made for a great listening experience. The band also managed to bring that arena polish into this tight venue. These are guys at the top of their game and really know how to command a show. It was a really nice touch that the leader of the pack, Chris Robertson, reeled off all the venues they have played in Glasgow over the years from the Cathouse to the Hydro and everywhere in between. There were certainly a number of the crowd tonight who had been to them all. He then told us something every single one of us already knew for a fact – “Glasgow, you are the best crowd in the world”!

Back to the music, the band hammered through songs from across their 22-year career – “Again”, “Nervous” and “Burnin’”. We then had the first of two more intimate moments when Chris and Ben Wells played as a duo. This was a nice touch and served its purpose very well. For me, I think one of these interludes would have had more impact than the two they did.

“Like I Roll” is a favourite of mine and hearing it tonight really made me smile. “Cheaper to Drink Alone” took us to John Fred Young’s drum solo. What an effort he put in tonight. The kit moved with every with every strike and I cannot fathom how the cymbals survived the night. Like the rest of his playing, he nailed the solo and the crowd loved it. What they also loved was his Glasgow t-shirt – that was a nice touch.

This was the first time I had seen Steve Jewell on bass. It must have been a challenge coming into a band that had enjoyed a solid line-up for the 20 years leading up to his arrival. He was absolutely bang on. He smiled throughout the show and sang as much as the rest of us. As the night went on, he and Ben regularly swapped places singing backing vocals in each other’s mics and giving the crowd a something else to enjoy. I’m glad they recruited a fan.

There were a couple of shouts for Lonely Train at this point. That gave the band a smile as Ben observed that “there must be some first timers in tonight”. Patience my friend, patience. Ben is always good value in this band. He prowls the stage throughout the show getting hot and sweaty and holding his axe up letting the crowd know how much he is enjoying the night.

We get to “Lonely Train” tune via “Blame it on the Boom Boom”. Now, I have been to this venue many times and have seen some rocking shows in there, but this was the first time I have felt the St Luke’s floor move. The place was buzzing.

“Lonely Train” took us to the end of the set. There was no way the crowd were settling for that. The screams kept going and, sure enough, back the band came. The night ended with “Peace is Free” at around 10:15.

I was knackered as were most people around me. This was one of those nights where the band and crowd sort of merged. This was not a fan club night but could just as well have been. Pretty much everyone knew all the words and the band played all the songs the crowd wanted to hear. It was great to be a part of a stadium gig in a tiny venue. I don’t know what possessed Black Stone Cherry to park their German tour bus outside St Luke’s the night before they go home to the United States, but I am very glad they did.

This was a special evening and it's one unlikely to be repeated. The roof was in danger of falling in at times, but this old building just about survived the power of the band and the physical and vocal enthusiasm of the crowd. Everyone left happy, knowing they had seen something unique. Trish got in her car to take a more sedate drive home to Bonnybridge. If that speeding fine does arrive, she can smile and simply blame it on the boom boom.