I love me a two piece band and Royal Blood’s frontman Mike Kerr plays a bass that is also rigged to sound like an electric guitar at the same time with one of the best sounding distortion tones I have ever heard. Bob was originally set to go with me but the show ended up falling on Mother’s Day so Calvin took his place. We arrived at the Observatory with just enough time to grab a beverage and relieve ourselves before the opener Cleopatrick came out. Cleopatrick is also a two piece with a frontman that had a unique way of playing guitar most of the time but then again they are from Canada…they were ok and I did recognize the songs “Family Van,” ” Hometown” and “The Drake.” 

Royal Blood’s third album Typhoons was released on 4/30/21. With this album came the addition of keys and therefore a keyboard player was added to the live show for a number of tracks. The newer songs were great and having another entire album to choose from really helped round out their set. This also allowed them to save and build up to favorites “Loose Change,” “Figure It Out” and “Out of the Black.” At one point Mike said something like “I have 18 effects pedals. Do you want to hear what all of them sound like at once?” I think my mind popped right out of my head. At another point during the show Mike told a story about being in a walking boot for awhile and then held an auction for the boot as it appeared from the ceiling on a wire. Proceeds were to go to charity and the winning bidder got to go backstage for a meet and greet with the band. The winning bid was $3k to some gal standing in the VIP section. My other favorite moments were when Mike performed “All We Have Is Now” by himself on piano and when Ben teased the crowd before using the gong behind him. This band is all killer no filler.

SETLIST: Typhoons, Boilermaker, Lights Out, Come On Over, Trouble’s Coming, Hook, Line & Sinker, Honeybrains, Little Monster, How Did We Get So Dark?, Blood Hands, Million and One, Limbo, Loose Change, Figure It Out, All We Have Is Now, Ten Tonne Skeleton, Out of the Black