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“You want me, you got me” growls Mike Kerr, offering himself and taunting Camden’s baying crowd in equal measure, like a sacrificial wolf to rock n roll.
Meanwhile, drummer Ben Thatcher is already on his second set of drumsticks, the first pair went flying during the second song. It’s that kind of night: snarling, bloody and very, very loud.
Formed early last year, the two-piece are straight up rock. Edgier than the Black Keys and present day Muse, but more accessible than Rage Against the Machine, Royal Blood’s debut shot to No.1 this summer. Fresh from a Radio One appearance, their mainstream rise also shows little sign of abating.
It helps that Kerr makes his bass sound like a supersonic piledriver in a way that even Josh Homme must quake at. From the first angry splutter, it’s a wall of noise that pulls in all around. ‘Cruel World’ is typical of the darkness, both lyrically and sonically, that also liberates. A firm two fingers to the world “choking so slowly, with hands wrapped round my throat”, its riffs and falsetto swoons incite a near riot. Breakthrough single ‘Little Monster’ has the same effect, leading to Royal Blood chants from buzzing revellers.
‘Loose Change’ is wonderfully Jack White inspired, guttural and animalistic in its themes of frustration as the pair posture around each other like fighting cocks. Whilst the sound and compositions will need freshening for the next record, right now Royal Blood is exactly what rock needs to wake it from its slumber.
The night ends with Kerr dedicating ‘Out of the Black’ to the girlfriend of a man who tried to bottle him. All hell breaks loose. Thatcher jumps in the crowd, as reverb brings the Ballroom to its knees. Kerr holds his guitar aloft in defiance. It’s a beautifully brutal assassination.
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