All this touring has led to the fact that they pretty damn good. Like we've said before on this blog, if the Black Crowes were Welsh they'd sound like this.
Still touring their debut record, which is a fine affair - and includes the cocksure stomp of "Down To The River" - but already looking to album number two, from which they play a pair of tracks tonight, the pick of which is perhaps "Money". We like these boys a lot round here, and with the world perhaps ready for a new breed of classic sounding rock, Buffalo Summer could be at the forefront, and that's no BS.
Just before half eight The Cadillac Three finish tuning up. They don't bother with an entrance, singer/guitarist Jaren Johnston just waves a simple "hi y'all" and away we go.
Not that we should have expected any frills from the trio. This is after all a group who's opening song tonight contains the couplet "I'm southern and it ain't my fault/my daddy came from Louisiana like the hot sauce". The aforementioned track is "I'm Southern" and acts as the lead on their brilliant album "Tennessee Mojo" which emerged last year and with which RTM has bored everybody since.
Are they rock? Yes. Just listen to the album's title track. Are they country? Hell yeah. Are they superb? Absolutely.
In Europe to support country rocker Eric Church (who by the way is fabulous in his own right) these shows are a stop off in that tour's downtime. If the tortuous way they got here was like something akin to Planes, Trains And Automobiles, then the show was worth it. Swigging Jack Daniels and beer onstage (the latter bought by an audience member) for just over half an hour they turn The Temple into a Brummie Honkytonk. From the plaintive "White Lightning" to new US single "The South," it would sound wrong played by anything other than a band from Tennessee - in the hands of The Cadillac Three, though, it sounds damn near perfect. Yee and indeed ha.
We began the evening with a hard working ensemble, we end it with a hard working duo. The Graveltones have barely been off the road in the last year. Whether it was opening for Rival Sons just across the landing from where we are tonight, or on the bill with The Temperance Movement throughout their various jaunts, the beardy twosome have been here, there and everywhere.
They are still - just like the first time you see them - a little bit strange. The description of an exceptionally heavy blues band just about sums them up because, by crikey, they make an almighty racket.
Jimmy O smashes his guitar around creating a wall of huge riffs, and drummer Mikey Sorbello bangs his kit around like The Muppets Animal made flesh. Honestly like nothing you have ever seen, Sorbello on occasion uses four sticks during the course of the 70 minutes onstage.
When it all clicks, like on "I Want Your Love" and "Catch Me On The Fly" the band are excellent, but there are moments when it just doesn't and it all gets a tad samey.
Occasional missteps aside, the Anglo-Aussies deserve credit for being genuinely different and those lazy comparisons with The White Stripes need to be ended now.
Closer "Six Million" - which is also the ending song on their debut "Don't Wait Down", is perhaps the best of the lot. A slow burner, it builds to a tremendous and tumultuous climax.
With that the most eclectic bill so far this year is ended, and with all due respect to the headline act, as good as they were in large patches, they were rather eclipsed by the two fantastic support bands.
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