THE BLUE STONES AT MILKBOY IN PHILADELPHIA

Canadian duo, The Blue Stones, made a stop at MilkBoy in Philadelphia as part of their latest tour. The intimate venue was jam packed with fans who were buzzing to see the band. As I made my way towards the front of the venue that night, I stood next to a kind gentlemen who had seen them recently at their show in Lancaster, PA two nights prior. We got to chatting and he exclaimed how fantastic the band was live, which certainly set a positive mood for the night. As they took the stage, they started the night off with their hit single “Shakin’ Off the Rust”. It was a strong way to start for sure. Even with only the two of them on stage, they have quite a mighty sound. Patrons in the venue sang along and jammed out to other songs such as “Be My Fire”, “Grim”, and “Black Holes (Solid Ground)”.  

The performance overall was very tight and clearly well rehearsed. There’s a chillness to their sound, with a slight punch that keeps you on your toes. It’s hard not to bob your head to the beat while listening to them. The only thing I took issue with was that visually, the band left something to be desired. The stage at MilkBoy is quite small and doesn’t look like it allows for much movement, which is what I noticed seemed to be an issue. Vocalist/guitarist, Tarek Jafar, made do with what was given and moved around with the limited space he was given, but I feel like a band with such a big sound needed more movement. I like to think that given more space, he would’ve moved around much more. It seemed as though crowd interaction was limited as well, but the crowd didn’t seem to mind much.

Overall, the performance was decent and I would love to see where the band goes from here. I think that there’s a lot of room for growth and I think that the band has a lot of potential to really break through the U.S. market.