Music / Reviews
Review: The Brothers Osborne, O2 Academy
Just for once we had a fabulous scorchio bank holiday weekend that was totally <insert overwrought tabloid headline here> and what better way to top off the weekend and stave off the inevitable return to work than a night with the Brothers Osborne? Kendell Marvel opened proceedings to a packed house that didn’t need much encouragement to whoop and holler.
Despite looking like Kerry King’s younger brother, Kendell delivered a handful of country orientated songs from his debut LP Lowdown & Lonesome with a couple from his career as a songwriter for hire in his adopted home in Nashville. He’s penned a rake of songs that have been successfully recorded by a load of country acts but this set predominantly focussed on said debut. It was clear the man knows his way around a tune: the material slick and machine-tooled for mainstream success but delivered with passion.
is needed now More than ever
Marvel has a strong voice and an easy way with the crowd, despite the unfamiliarity with the set they were eating out of his hand from opening tune Untangle My Mind. It wasn’t just the name checking of collaborators, his tunes really resonated with the crowd, the tales of thwarted romance, unrequited romance, failed romance and romance with a Gypsy Woman clearly connected. Marvel was quite clearly touched by the response, commenting on the contrast between a yokel reception and responses from crowds back home. He could easily have played an encore given the rapturous response and no doubt shifted a few CDs.
There has been a resurgence in music that is often somewhat inaccurately described as southern rock. Blackberry Smoke, The Cadillac Three and Whiskey Myers play what may more accurately be described as Music of Southern Origins because “southern rock” was always more than guitar solos and raunch. The Brothers Osborne are arguably part of that resurgence, their recorded work not quite as rock as Blackberry Smoke, as gnarly as The Cadillac Three or as jammy as Whiskey Myers (er, as in they jam a lot, not that they’re unfeasibly lucky) but something that fits snugly with those three outfits. But what about on stage?
Well the band slaughtered it with a set drawn from their two LPs to date – a well-paced set with a couple of judicious covers; exemplary musicianship; down home bonhomie; a never played before exclusive and a splendid amount of loud guitars with a fabulous selection of squealing solos.
Opener Shoot Me Straight was a powerful statement of intent: John Osborne (senior sibling, looks like he’d be at home on stage with Molly Hatchet, lead guitar) played the riff mean and then indulged in what can only be described as a total six string wig out that was way more Download than it was Nashville but morphed delightfully into an organ lead funk work out.
TJ Osborne (junior sibling, looks like he’d be at home on stage with The Kings of Leon, lead vocals & guitar) had the lead singer thang down pat. No clichés however, just an easy stance and demeanour made all the more easy by the fact that he has a magnificent beast of a voice: deep vocals dragged over gravel and infused with a soulful blueness.
The Brothers have made a massive impact in the US, and they’ve clearly made an impact here, bypassing the gate keepers of fashion and hitting home with the public – this gig one of the few that didn’t sell out in advance on this, their debut headlining tour. The crowd were word perfect on each tune, rambunctious and raucous, clearly revelling in every moment.
The set more than ably demonstrated their USP, the ability to blend all sorts of unexpected musical tropes and styles into unexpectedly pleasurable hybrids. So Stay a Little Longer was mostly a sublimely pretty mandolin led (almost) pop tune (with an irresistible chorus) and yet it culminated with a massive guitar crescendo. Rum a funky little bluesy Caribbean romp, whilst Greener Pastures a fresh take on the twang (introduced here with a snippet of Hey Jude from John). Meanwhile Drank Like Hank managed to take a twin guitar attack à la Thin Lizzy and plant it in a honky tonk. With Charlie Watts on drums.
Of course whilst it’s their name on the tickets, the drum kit and the posters, The Brothers Osborne are a band and Adam Box (drums, percussion); Pete Sternberg (bass guitar) and Jason Graumlich (guitar, mandolin, percussion and backing vocals) underpinned the set with consummate musicianship delivered with skill & understated passion. Mind you the whole band let loose for the closing number, a storming version of their signature tune It Ain’t My Fault, its big beat, chiming lead, flamenco handclaps and anthemic chorus a boisterous end to the set.
The encore opened with the chicken scratch wah-wah of A Couple of Things Makin’ it Alright, a cheery up-tempo number that somehow evoked a funky Ry Cooder jamming with The Band. The band had encouraged requests throughout the show, gently pointing out when those who’d lost their sobriety called out for songs already played and graciously swatting aside predictably tedious calls for Sweet Home Alabama or Freebird. Those request were encouraged again with unexpected results.
Responding to a growing cry for A Little Bit Trouble, John pushed TJ into agreeing to attempt a cut never played live and the tune managed to swagger along with a lovely laid back vibe, killer harmonies and ethereal, echo drenched guitar. A gamble perhaps but one that paid off handsomely, the band clearly not afraid to take a chance and eschew the set list. Pawn Shop (apparently regarded initially as something of a runt at its inception) wasn’t just an indication of the band’s ability to pen quirky earworms, but a massively popular number. Greeted with rapture it segued into the spaghetti western of Shoot from the Hip and their most overtly traditional country number Loving Me Back.
The final cut of the lengthy encore was Take Me Home, Country Roads, a sprightly version pitched somewhere between the stately John Denver original and the balls out version routinely delivered by the mighty Jason and the Scorchers. Of course ever bugger bellowed along and jumped around, a fitting end to an uplifting gig.
Blackberry Smoke have a tee shirt that states “Too rock for country, too country for rock”, something that has irked and (perhaps) hindered that band in the States. The Brothers Osborne appear to have bridged that silly divide more successfully as last year they won two CMAs and at the end of this year they’ve made the bill at Planet Rockstock. That’s part of a return tour that sadly misses our fair city – best we get on the social medias and change that state of affairs then.
The Brothers Osborne: O2 Academy: Monday, 07 April 2018
All pix by Shona Cutt
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