Over the weekend Bristol hosted the American weekend which featured various different American musicians playing across Bristol with the legendary Colston Hall and more intimate Lantern venue being the main locations for the three nights of music and we headed down to the Lantern which is located within the Colston Hall to catch The White Buffalo preform an intimate sold out show to 250 lucky people whilst in the main room of the Colston Hall Elvis Costello was rocking out to over 2000 fans.
For anyone that is new to the world of The White Buffalo it is the stage name of California singer/songwriter Jake Smith and they are best known for their music on the TV show Sons Of Anarchy with their season 4 final ‘Come Join The Murder’ proving to be one of the most memorable moments of the show with songs such as ‘The Whistler’, ‘Set My Body Free’, ‘Oh Darling, What Have I Done’, ‘House Of The Rising Sun’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ also proving to be memorable White Buffalo songs from the show.
The White Buffalo are currently on a short tour across the UK and Europe with tonight’s show in Bristol being the first show on the tour and the support tonight was Australian Juanuta Stein who is more known for being the vocalist in indie rock band Howling Bells and tonight she treated the sold out venue to a short 25minute stripped back show which featured herself and her dad Peter stein on stage.
Just before 9pm The White Buffalo took to the stage and on the live circuit they become a three piece with a drummer and bass player gracing the stage alongside Jake Smith and tonight they put on one hell of a show with Jakes big powerful vocals shining throughout and properly lighting up the venue whilst his bassist spent the majority of the set jumping and doing impressive 360’s whilst his drummer put every ounce of energy into his performance hitting his kit up.
Tonight was one of the hottest days of the year so far and the show took place in what has to be the hottest venue I have ever been in with the only bit of air coming into the room as people entered and left the room to head to the bar and toilets which were situated in the main Colston Hall building and even the band were feeling the heat with Jake Smith wiping his head and guitar down with a towel in between each and every song due to the humidity in the room.
Over the years The White Buffalo have built up an impressive back catalogue with 5 albums, 3 ep’s and various songs featuring on TV shows and movie soundtracks meaning that they had a lot of material to play with tonight and during their 1hour and 20 minute set they treated the crowd to a near 20 song set which featured so many different themes from love to murder to alcohol to death and everything else in-between.
There were so many highlights tonight from ‘Radio With No Sound’, ‘I Got You’, ‘Love Song#1’, ‘Joe And Jolene’, ‘I Got You’ and not to forget the epic Sons Of Anarchy anthems ‘The Whistler’, ‘Oh Darling, What Have I Done’ and ‘Come Join The Murder’ which went down an absolute storm with the sold out crowd tonight with everyone mesmerised with how powerful and on par Jake Smith’s vocals were and how solid his guitar strumming was.
The show came to an end just after 10pm and I am proud to say that I walked into the room before the show a newish fan of The White Buffalo and left the room majorly impressed with the show going down as one of my favourite concerts of the year so far, with me now wanting to purchase the whole White Buffalo back catalogue to see me through until they make their return to the UK in the future.
Juanuta Stein 3.5/5
The White Buffalo 5/5
Review By Trigger |
