British power-duo, Royal Blood invaded the 9:30 Club last Wednesday night to play for a packed house and gave the DC audience a taste of what this musical pair from Brighton has to offer.
The formula has been done before—two band members, a guitarist and a drummer, with one of them (or both) covering vocal duties. With large scale, internationally known acts such as The White Stripes and The Black Keys operating under this model, you would think this setup would fall into the category of “having been done to death”—but the reality is that it’s actually quite the opposite. With less happening on stage and fewer individual players in the overall mix, the listener is forced to hear the personality and musical tone of just the band’s 2 players.
After all, music is sometimes at its best when it’s in its simplest form and often it just takes 2 players to get the music and the sound to where it should be. This is certainly the case with Royal Blood who are raising the bar and elevating the “simple” standard by a measurable volume.
With a bass guitarist wielding a tone that could easily pummel through the venue’s walls and a drummer who packs more than enough wallop to hold an audience’s attention, Royal Blood paced steadily through their set, leaving the crowd wanting even more from the British duo who were, in a word, perfect.
There are two bands whose sound has become dear to me in the past few years. The first, Blood Red Shoes who played the 9:30 Club back in 2013 and visited DC9 in 2014. Second, and more recently, Royal Blood. Oddly enough, both bands are from Brighton, England.
Perhaps it something in the water there, but whatever the case, the music coming out of that town is making waves and—simply put—just sounds fucking cool.
ROYAL BLOOD
MINI MANSIONS
