Live Review : Blackberry Smoke + Read Southall Band @ Academy, Manchester on April 2nd 2023

It’s been a while since I have been to a Sunday night sold out show at the Academy 1 and the queue for the men’s toilets on arrival is a giveaway as to the make-up of the already packed venue. Read Southall Band are on stage and indulge us with a nine track setlist with songs from their 2021 album “For the Birds” and a few from 2017 album “Borrowed Time”. They are straight into the latest album’s title track and immediately I can see why these guys are on tour with Blackberry Smoke. They sound exactly as you would expect their support act to sound.

Now that isn’t necessarily a bad thing and with their website citing that they are for fans of Temple of the Dog, Smashing Pumpkins, Chris Cornell, Rival Sons I am intrigued to hear more. This six-piece ensemble hail from Oklahoma City and have been around since 2015, refining their sound during the pandemic with what they call timeless rock’n’roll. I am curious about the talents of the band having read their keyboardist was previously their merch guy, but so dedicated to the cause he taught himself to play and is now a fully-fledged member of the band! Not bad going.

They charge through the set with great rapport between them, Read himself highly animated and despite the double denim (including a waistcoat – gulp!) and spiral permed hair they give an excellent performance. It’s easy listening for a Sunday night but they are well received, and everyone looks to be enjoying themselves.

Blackberry Smoke are a southern rock/ blues/ country/ folk band who have been around over 20 years, but they have passed me by until a few years ago when I heard them on the radio. Tonight, I am to be fully initiated as we are given a stroll through their impressive seven studio album career with no less than 21 songs packed into a two-hour set. The first few songs are a mix from the latest 2021 album “You Hear Georgia” and some older tracks.

While I love singer and guitarist Charlie Starr’s vocals with that Atlanta twang, after the first four songs, I am already feeling restless and like the rest of the night could sound like one, very… long… song… Luckily there is a reason why Blackberry Smoke have such a huge following and were the first independently-released band to hit number one on the Billboard Country Album charts in modern history and that is the authentic quality and sheen of their facsimile blues.

We go back in time for the next number ‘Pretty Little Lie’ and this change in pace has my attention back in the room; definitely more like it. You can tell from each member of the band (there are seven on this tour) that they absolutely love performing. They haven’t been in Manchester for three years, which they mention before the next song, ‘Payback’s A Bitch’. Despite being the final night of this tour, they give it their all and Charlie tells us how much they have enjoyed being in the UK and how welcoming everyone has been. In fact, he threatens to kiss us all but decides to just carry on with the set.

We charge through a few more songs and I zone out a bit again, I still have not heard a song I know but then I probably only know about 3 or 4 songs from their huge back catalogue. Halfway through and I get my moment of recognition with ‘Ain’t the Same’ from the latest album and this I love. Soulful lyrics, powerfully sung with a rousing musical accompaniment of what looks effortlessly executed and it is full of foot tapping goodness. A perfect performance.

Despite Charlie not talking all the much during the set (not much time when you have 21 songs to fit in and multiple guitar swap overs before curfew) he is warm and engaging. At one point his aviators finally come off and he later relays the tale of their first ever show in New Orleans. He says they performed to only two waitresses and one drug dealer. He quips they knew he was as they bought drugs off him, and it was the following day that the song ‘Lesson in a Bottle’ came to exist. Hard to believe they had no audience when they started out compared to the sold-out show tonight.

As we near the end of the night, Charlie introduces us to the band and around 10pm I notice a few people leaving for Sunday’s final transport; but the majority of the audience remain engrossed, and the band have maintained the same energy levels from start to finish. Despite thinking they are more of a listen a home kind of band for me, the set is punctured with notable high points including acoustic number ‘One Horse Town’ which is evidently a favourite among the crowd who dutifully sing-along (also has on YouTube 76 million views!).

For the legions of die-hard fans the excitement in the air has remained palpable. And that is the point. This is authentic southern fried boogie transported to the frozen wastes of pre-spring Manchester. I may not have been as offay with their material as the evangelical devotees but there is a magic here. That magic may not have kept me transfixed every minute of the night but it is still a magic that transports you back to dive bars and packed whiskey joints. My overriding consensus at the end of the night is if they were good here in a cavernous hall, imagine how they would be in one of those places.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Blackberry Smoke