Rival Sons’ Give An Electrifying Performance at London’s Roundhouse. Gig review

October 15, 2023 rocknews

We’d been waiting eagerly for this one since we interviewed Scott Holiday, Rival Sons’ guitarist, back in May, and last night’s hottest ticket in London didn’t disappoint.

LA Edwards

Support at London’s Roundhouse came in the form of Californians LA Edwards. The trio warmed the North London crowd up brilliantly with their country-rock sensibilities and lovely vocal harmonies. The majority of their 9-song set came from this years ‘Out of the Heart of Darkness’ album, including new release ‘Peace Be With You’.

Songwriter Luke Edwards, along with his brothers Jay and Jerry went down a storm and we look forward to seeing more of them.

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Rival Sons

Fellow Californians Rival Sons took to the stage a little after 9pm and what a reception they received! Kicking off with ‘Mirrors’ from this years’ ‘Darkfighter’ album, frontman Jay Buchanan had the Roundhouse faithful in the palm of his hand from the off. We were then treated to a career-spanning set list.

‘Do Your Worst’, ‘Electric Man’ and ‘Rapture’ followed in quick succession and saw Buchanan brandishing a tambourine as the crowd sang lyric after lyric back to him.

‘Open My Eyes’ from 2014’s ‘Great Western Valkyrie’ included a spectacular drum solo by Mike Miley before we had three from upcoming release ‘Lightbringer’. ‘Sweet Life’ was followed by the live debut of both ‘Mercy’ and ‘Feral Roots’. We gave ‘Lightbringer’ a rave review recently and it was fabulous to see these songs get the live treatment. The audience loved them too, judging from the cheers and shouts of approval.

‘Face of Light’ showcased Scot Holiday’s guitar prowess as he played a mesmerising solo.

2012’s ‘Keep on Swinging’ closed the set and left the Roundhouse audience thrilled, exhilarated and satisfied.

Rival Sons are one of our favourite bands right now, and are touring the UK four the rest of the month. We strongly recommend you catch them if you can.