STORM ORCHESTRA // L’Olympia, Paris

November 12, 2024 Brian Downie

Opening for the Black Stone Cherry / Ayron Jones double-header, Storm Orchestra did not waste one second of their hard-earned opportunity to play in the legendary Olympia in Paris.

It’s barely one and a half years since the night K-RPM got to witness Storm Orchestra live – at a packed Backstage By The Mill to celebrate the release of their second album WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE. The months since then have seen the band tour this album extensively, and then earlier this year begin work on its follow up. Other pieces of the plan have more recently fallen into place, most notably the link up with Gérard Drouot Productions. All of this has led to them being given their shot on stage at one of the most legendary music venues in France, if not further afield, with an opening slot at the famous Olympia theatre.

With a twenty-minute slot before joint headliners Aaron Jones and Black Stone Cherry hit the stage, the band certainly had what could only be described as the bear minimum amount of time in which to make their statement. At 19h, when the band were due to start, the crowd was looking desperately thin on the ground, but thankfully by the time the band did eventually appear the crowd size had become more than enough for the occasion.

The first thing that struck us as the band kicked off was that the sound they were producing was absolutely phenomenal, thanks to their regular sound engineer, Johanne Chauland. Then of course, the band themselves. If there were nerves, and it’s almost impossible to imagine that there weren’t any, they were not on display. The band did exactly what they needed to do in what was clearly a showcase gig for those who have started to take a professional interest in the band. It was a storming twenty minutes, ending as it did with latest single DRUMMER and then SUSPECT from their 2023 album they absolutely filled the Olympia with their sound and energy. It’s quite hard to imagine how it could have been any better.