Live review: Kris Barras Band - The Brook Southampton, 02/02/23

 

Photo credit: The Brook

Guest writer and frontman of The Outlaw Orchestra David Roux gives us his account of the show.

Kris Barras once said to me on a shared bill “Once you can pull 200 people in most towns around the UK you can pack up the day job.” Kris had no worries about going back to 9 to 5 tomorrow morning - a sold out Brook in Southampton following sold out shows around the UK in the most far reaching places, not forgetting it was a cold school night.

 

Kicking off with what are now old favourites, including Hail Mary which sets the pace and new boy on bass Fraser Kerslake clearly is having a ball from the outset.

 

There’s something different tonight about Kris; something that’s come with time having seen him on previous occasions and having shared dressing rooms with him, he looks totally comfortable in his shoes. On the rise up the music ladder, the pressure to perform at every gig “because you don’t know who is watching” gives way to a seriousness that creates tension. Not these days, with the latest cracking album Death Valley Paradisebehind him, he is filling club venues and clearly loving the crowd singing back at him, right in his face.

 

The single My Parade took everything up a notch with almost everyone in the Brook singing it at the top of their lungs. There were bluesy moments when the band pulled it all back down to let the guitar do the talking, but this was sandwiched between all out rockers.

 

There was a time when the road for Kris Barras seemed to be leading to the Joe Bonamassa school of blues guitar slingers, but as said in interviews, Kris comes from a metal background and wants to play hard rock. Besides, he gets his blues release when he is across the pond playing in his other band Sonic Blues Machine - often with none other than The Reverend Billy F Gibbons.

 

Back to the Brook and we are treated to new and older favourites, including Ignite and Dead Horses with stunning work from rhythm guitarist Josiah J Manning and Billy Hammett on drums tearing it up.

 

The smiles in the crowd as well as the band’s was a done deal for the night. As quick as a flash they were back on their shiny tour bus and on their way down the south coast for the last few legs of the tour which wound up in Trecco Bay, headlining Planet Rocks Winters End festival.