BRKN Love Concert Review-Rebel Lounge Phoenix AZ 09-21-22

Justin Benlolo-BRKN Love

BRKN Love Concert Review-Rebel Lounge Phoenix AZ 09-21-22-Review and Photos By Roc Boyum

BRKN Love, exploded onto the Rebel Lounge stage in Phoenix AZ on 09-21-22 with their special brand of Canadian Alt/Hard Rock performing to a completely packed venue of ravenous and crazed fans. This night these fans would get what they came for and so much more!

BRKN Love band members consist of: Singer/Songwriter and guitarist, Justin Benlolo, guitarist Kyle Duke, bassist Nick Katz and drummer Russell Holzman.

For those not yet familiar with BRKN Love; the band is the brainchild of Justin Benlolo who has stated that the band’s music has been Inspired by such musical greats as Soundgarden, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stoneage, Led Zeppelin, and Black Sabbath, just to name a few. Benlolo has managed to craft songs that encompass the essence of the past fifty years of Rock music, while maintaining a unique sense of true originality. Regarding the musicality of the band, their original sound is based on power and scorching vocals, insanely killer guitar riffs, badass rhythm grooves and in addition to being some of the most powerful rock you will hear, it is also music that you can sing to, dance to and of course bang your head to – but perhaps not all at once. The last time I caught this band live, they were opening for Pop Evil at the famed Marquee Theater in Tempe AZ, and tonight, they opened for The Dead Poets Society in a much more intimate venue; the Rebel Lounge.

The band opened their set with the heavy rocker, “Shot Down” from their self titled LP that was released in November of 2020 on Spinfarm Records. Singer Justin Benlolo’s vocals were scorching from the moment the band hit the stage and the song “Shot Down” showcases not only Benlolo’s vocals but the heavier side of the band with it’s Zeppelin style guitar lines that really got the audience immediately fired up!

Justin Benlolo-BRKN Love

The band continued with a string of fan favorites including “Forever’s Enough, Papercuts, Like a Drug”, “Flies in the Honey” and a shreding version of “Dead Weight” that we’ll go into deeper later in the review.

Benlolo introduce the song “Like a Drug” by imparting the question; Do you like drugs? We do! But only the good ones! It’s also noteworthy to mention that during the chorus section in “Like a Drug”, drummer Russell Holzman kept “time” with the use of a tambourine in place of a ride cymbal or high hat which gave the song a nice percussive feel.

Russell Holzman-BRKN Love

Also, throughout the night, many fans were heard yelling (I love You), while the entire audience was an army of pumping fists to music that hits you as hard in the head as it does in the hips. Benlolo’s performance throughout the night was electrifying while he belted out some killer vocals and played some bad ass rippin’ guitar as well.

The band ripped through a blistering set of eleven songs with Benlolo interacting with the audience throughout their set. Benlolo’s vocals live are just as stunning as they are on record which is really impressive to say the least. Tonight there was an additional backing vocal with Benlolo imparting that in addition to the backups by guitarist Duke and bassist Kyle, drummer Russell Holzman would be making his vocal debut here on this night. Benlolo then jokingly said; so let’s give our drummer big round of applause but not too big as we don’t want it to go to his head!

Russell Holzman-BRKN Love

At one point in their show, Benlolo thanked the fans for their over the top enthusiasm by saying that you guys are so awesome, I want to move here. He went on to say that the only problem is that “I’m Canadian, so it will take a green card marriage to get me here and anyone who is interested, can meet me at the merch booth after the show.” Whether he was joking or not, the merch table after the show was absolutely jammed; no surprise there!

Towards the end of their set, the band augmented their material with some classic bad ass grooves by The Beatles; yes, I said The Beatles! First they imparted a nice jam on the super cool “tom-tom” groove from the song “Come Together” off the Abbey Road LP, a song that has been covered by such notable bands like Aerosmith and more recently by Godsmack. Then, towards the end of their last song “Dead Weight” things got really interesting as they dug down deep into the Beatles catalogue and pulled out a groove from the outro of the song “I Want You” (She’s So Heavy), again off their Abbey Road LP and is a song that was mainly written by John Lennon; although the credits state Lennon-McCartney as usual. The Beatles original outro to this song was always a deep and heavy grinding groove that has an in your face attitude and is FN brilliant. BKRN Love did not disappoint with their version of the outro with their thick and heavy guitars that came down on you like a ton of bricks; in a good way! I’m sure Lennon was looking down and smiling on this interpretation that embodied the “She’s So Heavy” vibe in the song’s name. For those of us who knew this heavy vibe, we were looking around and saying; this is so badass, that’s how it’s done people! For those who never heard this groove before, well; they were simply left with their jaws dropped at the intensity of super thick sound and basically, everyone in attendance was totally blown away by the band’s killer jam on this groove!

If you want to hear some Alt/Hard Rock music with killer vocals, killer guitar riffs, thick and heavy badass rhythm grooves and songs that you can sing and songs that will stick in your head, BRKN Love are a band and you must see – These guys kill it live and be sure to check them out on disc as well.

BRKN Love are a young band with a bright future, we predict great things happening soon for this band, so don’t miss your chance to be a part of their live energy. Get their LPs and become part of the BRKN Love family now, you will not disappointed and be part of this great band and their rise in this Music Industry.

Check into BRKN Love here!

The BRKN Love Rebel Lounge Set List Was: