Black Rebel Motorcycle Club at the Glass House Last Night



Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

September 15, 2010
Glass House
Having played one of the better shows of the year at the House of Blues Anaheim back in March, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club returned to kick off the second leg of their tour behind their album Beat The Devil's Tattoo at the Glass House. Wisps of smoke rolled across the stage setting the menacing atmosphere for the destructive tones of “War Machine”. Resembling loud artillery blasts, Robert Been attacked his bass creating sub sonic frequencies.

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The lights switched to an ominous red for “Red Eyes and Tears” as Peter Hayes crushed his wah pedal to amplify the screams emitting from his guitar. Keeping in line with darkness and shadows, “Beat The Devil's Tattoo” had intense bursts of strobe lights that matched the evil infused beat. Only a band like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club can alternate from the ground shaking fuzz of “Love Burns” to the dusky acoustic folk of “Ain't No Easy Way”.
“Berlin” was propelled by the hi-hat hisses and hard driving drums of Leah Shapiro. The overall volume of the show seemed to surpass 10 as I felt it was trying to match the energy on stage during “Weapon of Choice”. Been sat down at the piano for the haunting “Annabel Lee” that reverberated throughout the Glass House.
Ironically, the liquid guitars of “Bad Blood” came to crashing to an abrupt end when Been spotted a tussle in the audience. Without losing any momentum, the band flawlessly regained their edge to complete the song. Been and Hayes traded off vocals for the incendiary “Whatever Happened To My Rock 'N' Roll (Punk Song)” before exiting the stage for a short intermission. 
Been returned by himself for a short acoustic set that included “Dirty Old Town” and a heart wrenching rendition of “Mercy” as Been was only illuminated by a small stage light and some cigarette lighters from the audience. Hayes had his own short two song acoustic set which featured “Complicated Situation” and “The Toll”.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club would rev their engines once more with ferocious renditions of “Spread Your Love” and “Six Barrel Shotgun” before easing the throttle with “Shadow's Keeper” and the solemn closer “Open Invitation”. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club have the dubious opening slot for a few dates opening for the Stone Temple Pilots depending on Scott Weiland's functionality since the show scheduled in San Diego for tomorrow was recently postponed.
Personal Bias: I opted to leave my green military Black Rebel Motorcycle Club jacket at home so I wouldn't be “that guy”.
Crowd: Definitely not the usual Glass House crowd as a lot of fans from Los Angeles came out to the show since there isn't any Southern California dates on the schedule.
Overheard in the Crowd: Been told the crowd to “Calm down” when the scuffle broke out in the audience. 
Random Notebook Dump: I went to their filming of the video of “Berlin” at a downtown warehouse in which they played a handful of songs in between takes of filming to keep the fans entertained.
Setlist:
“War Machine”
“Mama Taught Me Better”
“Red Eyes and Tears”
“Beat the Devil's Tattoo”
“Shade of Blue”
“Love Burns”
“Ain't No Easy Way”
“Aya”
“Berlin”
“Weapon Of Choice”
“Annabel Lee”
“Bad Blood”
“Whatever Happened to my Rock 'N' Roll (Punk Song)”
“Dirty Old Town”
“Mercy”
“Complicated Situation”
“The Toll”
“Half State”
“Conscience Killer”
“Six Barrel Shotgun”
“Spread Your Love”
“Shadow's Keeper”
“Open Invitation”

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