Stone Broken @Newcastle Riverside April 21 2022
At risk of sounding like a (Stone) Broken record this is the end of the beginning for British rock’s best young band.
When Rushonrock first heard Revelation it was exactly that.
An album so expansive in its ambition and bold in its conception that it didn’t even sound like Stone Broken.
Sure, there were echoes of the band’s formative work.
But this was Stone Broken breaking new ground and making a break from the past.
Production-wise, Revelation delivered on a near decade of potential.
The songcraft catapulted Rich Moss and co. into the commercial rock big leagues.
And adding Robyn Haycock into the vocal mix proved to be a masterstroke.
But would the new tunes translate to a sweaty club on Tyneside?
Would Revelation be fully realised beyond the studio?
And could Walsall’s finest replicate a career high record out on the road?
Well, four new songs made the 13-track setlist.
Given Revelation’s glaring quality, it could — and possibly should — have been more.
But the fresh material showcased here sounded confident, classy and consistently massive.
Revelation’s title track, Black Sunrise, The Revival and The Devil You Know are evidence of a band sure of its strengths and ripe for success.
Moss transformed all four new tunes into party bangers pitched perfectly at fans starved of their Stone Broken fix.
Turns out recreating Revelation in the live arena is pretty damn easy, after all.
These are songs as liberating live as they are reaffirming on record.
In the lexicon of Stone Broken they’ll live long in the memory.
And let’s be brutally honest…Revelation’s best bits blow the band’s previous work out of the water.
Why Revelation Is Worth Fighting For
In time, Revelation will go on to dominate the Stone Broken setlist.
Perhaps for decades to come.
But for now the band’s treading that fine line between paying respect to a popular back catalogue and placing complete faith in the future.
Had it not been for Amazon’s ‘leak’, almost everyone inside the Riverside would have been unaware of Revelation’s true power prior to this gig.
As it was, some lucky folk had bagged the new Stone Broken album early.
But this was the eve of Revelation’s ‘official’ release and so the safe bet was to pack a set with familiar fan favourites.
And Stone Broken have a few.
Let Me Go, from 2014’s debut EP, captured the hearts of long time devotees.
And anthemic hit Wait For You whipped the Broken Army into a heaving mass of joyous abandon.
Earlier, Heartbeat Away and Worth Fighting For served as a timely reminder that 2017’s Ain’t Always Easy was the obvious staging post for Revelation.
Two titanic tunes teased the future five years ago and bridged the gap between old and new half a decade down the line.
Moss turned soundcheck into live show as Stone Broken gambled on the goodwill of their fans with a toe-curling cover of Bad Company’s Feel Like Making Love.
And if that surprise move didn’t quite pay off then just about everything else did.
Stone Broken have never been found wanting when it comes to pure entertainment value.
The band’s work ethic is beyond reproach.
And in Moss they boast a charismatic frontman as fun as he is focused.
But Revelation is the record Stone Broken really needed to reach the next level.
And suddenly venues like the Riverside look like mere stepping stones on the road to arena-sized success.
Band image courtesy of Mik Gaffney