Black Country, New Road share eight unreleased songs in concert film Live at Bush Hall
In lieu of a third studio LP, BC,NR has shared the music they’ve been playing live for the past year, since Isaac Wood’s departure from the band, in a film compiling footage from three December gigs in London.
Days before the release of Black Country, New Road’s towering sophomore LP, Ants From Up There (42nd on our 50 best albums of 2022 list), lead singer Isaac Wood left the band abruptly, citing the onset of debilitating depression and anxiety that made it “difficult to play guitar and sing at the same time.” Instead of calling it quits — and without even taking much time to process the loss — the remaining six members of the group wrote an entirely new set of songs to perform on their ensuing world tour. Unreleased until now, eight of these tracks have been immortalized in a new concert film: Live at Bush Hall.
The 52-minute film, directed by Greg Barnes, tastefully compiles footage from three consecutive December 2022 BC,NR shows at Bush Hall — a historic, independent venue in West London’s Shepherd’s Bush neighborhood. Sprinkled between the songs (pulled from all three gigs but centering an intricately devised prom-themed performance) are quick, intimate B-roll clips that together form an emotional portrait of the lead-up to the performances.
With vocal duties now split between bassist Tyler Hyde, pianist/accordionist May Kershaw, and flautist/saxophonist Lewis Evans, the new, characteristically suite-like songs swell with the same melodramatic passion the tracks on Ants did, albeit without the edge Woods’ lyrics and voice provided even at his most earnest moments. That they work at all is a testament to Black Country, New Road’s brilliant musicianship and arrangements, and their genuine love of one another.
“We didn’t want to do a studio album,” Kershaw writes in a press release. “We wrote the new tracks specifically to perform live, so we thought it might be a nice idea to put out a performance.”
“It’s about capturing the moment,” Evans adds, “a little time capsule of these eight months that we’ve had playing these songs on the road.”
Watch Black Country, New Road Live at Bush Hall below, and read our 2022 interview with the group here.