Live at Bush Hall by Black Country, New Road

In last year’s review of Black Country, New Road’s amazing sophomore album, Ants From Up There (#11 in 2022), I shared that their deep-voiced lead singer, Isaac Wood, had left the band due to mental health reasons just four days before the release of the album. The band’s future was summarily thrown into the unknown. How does a band move on from something as impossibly disruptive as losing their lead voice?

Well, I couldn’t be happier to report that they’ve gone and done the impossible. BC,NR, from Cambridgeshire, England, went from a seven-piece ensemble with one lead singer to a six-piece group with four alternating leads, to magical effect. Shortly after Wood’s departure, the band had regrouped but knew their road to recovery wasn’t straightforward. Tyler Hyde, bassist for the band and de facto lead, shared that the band's next release might not take the form of a studio album, saying at the time, “I know it's not going to be an album in its normal form. It would be cool to work with an orchestra; it would be cool to do a film score. These are just some of the ideas we're bouncing around at the moment.” Just under a year later, the band took the natural next step: they put together three separate experience-driven performances at Bush Hall in West London, filmed them from multiple angles (including fans in the audience who had been tasked as part of the AV Club), edited those performances together into one cohesive whole, and then released the result as a film and subsequent album, the amazing Live at Bush Hall.

I don’t usually feature live albums in the Top 31, because live albums, no matter how nicely produced, tend to be mere “best of” collections of songs. The songs on Live at Bush Hall are all entirely new for BC,NR, written and performed live in the aftermath from Wood’s departure. In the span of 8 months in 2022, the band worked out the full set that would make up the three performances, with none of their earlier work with Wood being featured. In fact, the band has said they will never perform songs from their first two albums, out of respect for Wood, but should he feel strong enough to make a return to the stage, they would welcome the opportunity to do so.

The six piece are an eclectic mix, not unlike former indie darlings Arcade Fire. Tyler Hyde (bass), May Kershaw (keyboards), and Lewis Evans (horns and woodwinds) all take turns singing lead on two or more songs. And Charlie Wayne (drums), Georgia Ellery (violin), and Luke Mark (guitar) all lend their voice in harmony and background throughout the album.

When watching the film (linked above), you get a little insight into the three themes they chose for the performances. As reviewed in NME back in February, each performance “has its own unique theme, for which the band (under the collective pseudonym Hubert Dalcrosse) penned a brief synopsis for a different fictional theatrical performance. They are, respectively, “When The Whistle Thins,” about a council of Somerset farmers’ quarterly harvest summit, “I Ain’t Alfredo No Ghosts,” about a beloved pizza chef’s encounter with a poltergeist, and “The Taming Of The School,” a 1980s prom-themed caper. Each performance involved DIY art and stagecraft set, costumes and face paint, and, at least in the case of the pizza story, what appears to be a complete dining experience with actual pizza served. There is no attempt to make these three performances feel like one single performance in the film, by design. This is a collection of the best of the bunch from all three, and presented as such.

Having only heard Ants, but knowing Wood was no longer in the band, I had the immense pleasure of seeing BC,NR perform in the afternoon sun on the main stage at THING 2023. I didn’t know a single song (as I hadn’t known what had gone into Bush Hall and the stellar performance album that came from it), but I left feeling elated. Watch my personal recording of the band’s gobsmackingly lovely performance of “Turbines/Pigs,” led by pianist Kershaw. You can sense a real hush fall on the crowd – 95% not sure what we’re in for – as the song starts, and we all stand in rapt attention for 9 minutes of pure emotion. I saw more than one person crying at the end of it, no joke.

I cannot wait to see where BC,NR go next. Something tells me they won’t simply record these songs in a sterile studio environment. I expect the next record to be a full, studio-recorded album of new songs. Or maybe they’ve found their groove as a live-only band, and that’s what will form their next recorded work. One things for sure, they’re nowhere near “done.” They’ve faced a kind of adversity that bands never come back from, and they weathered the storm. I’ll be waiting here with bated breath for whatever comes next.