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09/10 Black Country , New Road at Granada Theater
Black Country , New Road Setlist
Daneshevskaya Setlist
09/11 Black Country , New Road at First Avenue
Black Country , New Road Setlist
Tour Dates
Sep. 13 - Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
Sep. 14 - Detroit, MI @ MOCAD Sep. 15 - Toronto, ON @ The Concert Hall Sep. 16 - Montreal, QC @ le National Sep. 17 - Boston, MA @ The Sinclair (matinee) Sep. 17 - Boston, AM @ The Sinclair (evening) Sep. 19 - Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church Sep. 20 - Washington, DC @ Howard Theatre Sep. 21 - Queens, NY @ Knockdown Center Read More
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When a heralded English band finally plays live on our shores, delayed by both the departure of their lead singer and the pandemic, it only makes the most sense that like the band’s own vocals, we “tag team” our own coverage and extend it to not just one, but two cities.
It’s been an amazingly successful, and much anticipated debut North American tour for Black Country, New Road. The Cambridge, UK band has sold out most of their initial bookings, which led promoters to upgrade several venues (San Francisco, Lawrence, and Minneapolis) to accommodate for larger crowds, and/or had to add extra dates, such as additional shows in Los Angeles and Boston, many which have also sold out.
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Support for this leg of the North American tour came from NYC singer/songwriter Daneshevskaya (pronounced Dawn-eh-shev-sky-uh), touring in support of Long Is The Tunnel, her Winspear Records debut, due out November 10th. The album contemplates how the people you meet can impact the pathway you travel and features BC, NR’s own Lewis Evans on sax.
Daneshevskaya is the middle name of band leader Anna Beckerman. Her name comes from her Russian-Jewish great-grandmother, who passed away while Beckerman wrote the songs that would make up her upcoming and very personal album and the group’s style evokes the at-arm’s-length coolness of a Lana Del Rey, and the ethnic dreamy quirkiness of a Regina Spektor. Live, in addition to the many new songs, the band also works in a floaty version of Elliott Smith’s 1995 song, “Clementine”.
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For the remaining members of Black Country, New Road [Tyler Hyde (bass, vocals), May Kershaw (piano, vocals), Jockstrap’s Georgia Ellery (violin, vocals, replaced this tour by Nina Lim), Lewis Evans (saxophone, vocals), Luke Mark (guitar), and Charlie Wayne (drums)], the rabid reception and numerous sold out shows, has to feel like complete redemption for the experimental art rock band, basically starting from scratch after the departure of singer Isaac Wood in early 2022.
Out of respect, the band don’t play any selections from their first two albums, which made their initial name, and instead chose to debut all new songs live on tour, culminating in the live album and concert film Live at Bush Hall (released in February on Ninja Tune.)
09/10/2023 Sunday - Lawrence, KS Granada Theater
With school fully back in session, the students have returned, and the house was packed in Lawrence, KS at the Granada Theater for the band’s sixty-five-minute, no encore performance. The band even have fun with their intro/outro music, taking a cue from where they were playing, and this night was no exception.
Vocals were split between bassist Hyde (who, FYI, is the daughter of Underworld founder Karl Hyde), Kershaw, and Lewis, who received loud raves when he held up a Kansas Jayhawks t-shirt.
The crowd that seemed restless between acts, quieted to an absolute hush for most of the band’s performance, with the most loyal fans swaying along the front railing and one even threw a pig adorned cap on stage, which violinist Lim donned for the stunning “Turbines / Pigs” near the end of the set. The group can sound as traditionally folksy as Richard and Linda Thompson, as delicate as a flower with petals slowly lost, as baroque as a chamber rock collective, with the whimsy of a Belle and Sebastian and the experimental instrumental power of a Sigur Rós.
===09/11/2023 Monday - Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
The audience at the Minneapolis show was on the young side. Whenever the advertisement for Peppa Pig's Sing-Along Party! showed up on the projection, there were huge, maybe unironic, cheers, from the crowd.
Prior to BCNR going on stage, the venue played Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling”, which got the audience pumped and excited for the show.
We’ve always been interested in the band, when we wrote about them in July 2021, talking about how they were touring in support of their debut album For the First Time (which was nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize.)
Like with the Kansas show, members of the band paid tribute to Minneapolis, with bassist Tyler Hyde wearing a Prince’s Purple Rain T-Shirt and playing Bob Dylan’s “Tambourine Man” on the outro song.
As for the music, since the departure of Isaac Wood, the band had to develop and write brand new songs for this 2023 tour (out of respect for Wood, they band refused to play songs from their first two albums). I totally understand this, the remaining band members don’t want to be seen riding on the coattail of Wood’s talent.
The result is that their set was limited to “every song we (currently) have” and their music are wildly different from song to song, depending on the song writer and singer. It’s actually really good, based on hearing their diverse song structures and lyrics.
While I love the new BCNR, I felt perhaps they really should just change their name to reflect the new change. Perhaps just drop Black Country and call themselves New Road.
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BCNR |
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Black Country, New Road at Granada Theater, Lawrence (10 Sep 2023) |
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Daneshevskaya |
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Black Country, New Road at First Avenue, Minneapolis (11 Sep 2023) |
| john + vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com |
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