The bandwagon of new country rolled into Birmingham this
evening as The Band Perry made the second city their first stop on the UK leg
of the Pioneer World Tour. An enthusiastic and committed crowd gave the Alabama raised sibling trio a warm reception with Kimberly endearing the locals by perfecting
the art of hometown pronunciation. Mutual love was certainly on the menu as an action
packed eighty minute set confirmed the reputation of The Band Perry as being one
of the hottest live acts surfacing out of the Nashville majors.
The fast paced evolution of modern country music always has
the potential to exasperate the chasm that has always existed within different
strands of the genre. The Band Perry have anchored their style securely to the
radio friendly and arena fraternity but have an underpinning substance to
broaden their appeal and reach out to those who prefer the package a little
less gift wrapped. While the stage presence and song delivery from their two studio
albums to date rotated between unabated brashness and genuine heartfelt
sincerity, the slick yet high octane performance brought the material to life
in a way that met the full approval of this mixed aged audience.
The evening was not short of pop/rock overtures as the trio
backed by a four piece touring band opened their set with ‘Done’ from the latest album and closing the two-song encore just
over an hour and a quarter later with a rip roaring cover of Queen’s ‘Fat Bottomed Girls'. From a personal
point of view the gig got into the groove from the second track ‘Night Gone Wasted’ and from then on
Kimberly orchestrated the moods from the lower key ‘All Your Life’, concluded
with a sampling of ‘I Will Always Love
You’, to the rousing ‘I am a Keeper’
and its lively follow on track ‘Forever
Mine Never Mind’.
The segment of the show where Kimberly and her brothers, Neil and Reid, shared the roots of their act with the audience went a long way
to defining the important role The Band Perry have to play in driving a new
generation. The trio of ‘Pioneer’, ‘Amazing Grace’ and ‘End of Times’ couldn’t help but captivate those present at this well
attended gig which hopefully demonstrated to promoters that more mainstream
touring country artists should add Birmingham to their UK itineraries. As well
as sharing the pride of their musical Alabama upbringing, the siblings also
acknowledged the influence previous UK audiences had in the ultimate naming of
their sophomore album PIONEER which has proceeded to be a very successful
venture for The Band Perry.
As impressive as this heart rendering trio of songs was, the
current pivotal sound of the band is to step up the pace and there was no finer
example of this during the evening than the current US radio smash ‘Don’t Let Me Be Lonely’ which in my
opinion serves as a perfect example of their mass appeal. Just prior to the
encore we had a reminder of the excellent writing talents of Brandy Clark who
had a prominent role in the composing of the popular ‘Better Dig Two’. However for many of the crowd, the anticipated
highlight came soon after the band returned to the stage and Kimberly didn’t
need to extend the invitation for some vocal assistance to ‘If I Die Young’. At this point of the
evening there was an increasingly sad realisation that a personal favourite ‘Independence’ wasn’t going to make the
set cut.
Despite this irritating omission, the evening was a resounding success and The Band Perry are living the dream of being an influential act capturing the moment and spearheading a fruitful path for the cross mass appeal sector of the country music genre. As long as artists like The Band Perry are the leading lights of new country then evolution need not be viewed too negatively and the spirit in the title of the PIONEER album can continue to set the agenda.