A Night Out With Black Label Society and Black Stone Cherry

Wow!!! What a night… I was really wound up all day yesterday knowing that I was going to see Black Label Society. I had a couple of friends with me, and we all had a great time. We got down to the Austin Music Hall just as Black Stone Cherry was hitting the stage.

More than anything, the South is known for its music and its strong family ties. Both are highlighted with Black Stone Cherry, a Kentucky band that redefines southern rock for a modern audience. Black Stone Cherry takes the larger-than-life mystique of classic rock and modernizes it with a driving attack that is equal parts roots and modern hard rock. Few bands this young (none of the four members is older than 23, the youngest is 20) - sound this powerful or versatile. They're hard and heavy, but Black Stone Cherry is southern to the core, and they come by their love of music in genuine way: it's in their blood, and it's in their home. These guys take off where Zakk left off with music from his Pride and Glory days. Make sense for them to open up for Black Label Society.

I remember thinking that I felt I was being transcended back in time because these guys got the whole 70’s hard rock sound down. I mean with their guitar playing styles and sounds. Not to mention the long hair like back in the day. “Let your freak flag fly!” I really enjoyed their performance and you can tell they are a tight knit group out there working hard to make a name for themselves. Oh yeah… Since they were the opener, the young guys really knew how to get the crowd going for Black Label Society. The lead guitarists both did the Zakk Wylde speedball pentatonic style wah-wah induced, cutting headz type tribute to Zakk. That was really cool!

Black Stone Cherry Lonely Train

Headline: Black Label Society

Zakk started the show in good fashion! There’s Zakk standing on the monitors with his guitar rised up over his head as to offer up his Gibson as a sacrificial lamb. The guitarz humming with feedback that at times sounds like a Harley Davidson. Aside from possessing godly guitar playing abilities, Zakk Wylde is renowned for two things in the heavy metal world. The first of which is being an extremely prolific songwriter. Since 1999, Zakk's band, Black Label Society, have released eight albums (one of them live). This means that BLS has written, recorded, and released one collection of ten or more songs every year since their inception!

Don’t ask me what song he started out with… I’d be lying if I said Suicide Messiah or something like that. I do remember Bleed for Me, StillBorn, Concrete Jungle, and many more. I just know that BLS jammed their asses off! What a inspirational, hardworking outfit. These guys were really having a good time up there on stage last nite. Zakk’s so-called Ugly Twin Nick Catanese doesn’t miss a riff or a lick. Talk about a straight ahead in the pocket rhythm guitar player. You can tell that Nick is a great team player and gives Zakk his 110% everynight. There is definitely a brotherhood between these guys. However, IN FUN... Zakk does profess that everybody else in the band is messing around with his wife behind his back. As for J.D. Deservio, Zakk also show his affection by calling him names I can’t mention here on this site. I guess you would call them pet names. However, Zakk also calls himself worst names then Deservio giving you a warm fuzzy feeling brotherhood in a sick kind of way. . . The drummer Craig Nunenmacher is the glue that hold everything together. Zakk might be the gunner, but Craig is the navigator. He keeps the ship true and on course through the rapture of screaming guitarz.

Zakk's other famous trait is the formula he uses for almost every album. Since this formula of intermingling hard rocking tracks (where Zakk really gets to show off his guitar chops) with melancholy ballads that feature soft, Layne Staley-by-way-of-Ozzy Osbourne vocals has been repeated on almost every album, BLS discs have become about as reliable and consistent as Big Ben. Of course let’s not forget the ballads either. Zakk played a couple tributes to our brother DimeBag. The crowd was very receptive to Zakk’s Elton John type piano playing to songs like In this River.

"A Night out with Black Label Society is a safe bet for the $38.00 spent- Riffmaster

Crapshoot Sample

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Updated: 11/29/06