Robin Trower live review: Loud, hypnotic and still going strong

photogroupie

13 hours ago

3 min read

Shepherd’s Bush Empire 5th September 2026

Support came from Jack J. Hutchinson, performing a stripped-back set with bass player Greg Smith, which that showed what a good songwriter he is. There was a particularly affecting moment with “I Will Follow You”, which he explained was written for his father who had dementia. It’s the kind of subject that could easily become overly sentimental, but Hutchinson delivered it with a quiet sincerity that let the song speak for itself.

The duo played as though they had something to prove, rather than simply waiting for the headline act to arrive, and by the time “Soul Believer” - the title track from his forthcoming new album - brought the set to a close, they had won over a sizeable chunk of the room. He's got some pretty impressive tracks in his back catalogue, so go and check them out before his new album hits the shelves.

Then came Robin Trower.

There was a warning from the staff before he came on: this was going to be a loud one. They weren't kidding.

Trower's guitar sound has always relied on volume, the kind of volume that allows the instrument to develop that huge, warm tone, and if that's how he gets the sound he wants in the studio, it clearly still applies when he takes it on the road.

Still armed with the Marshall stacks that have been part of his sound for decades, Trower and his three-piece band hit Shepherd's Bush Empire with a huge wall of blues-rock as heavy bass, deep grooves and that unmistakable Fender guitar tone filled the room.

Opening with “Too Rolling Stoned”, from 1974's "Bridge of Sighs", was a suitably incendiary way to get things moving. A few of the stoner rockers in the audience looked as though they'd been transported straight back to the 70s, completely entranced by the deep, resonant bass and Trower's magnetic guitar work.

Trower, now 81, is not a flashy player. There's no frantic need to demonstrate how many notes he can fit into a bar and strut around the stage. Instead, he lets the guitar breathe, stretching notes and bending them until they seem to hover over the rhythm section. When he does turn up the intensity, it has considerably more impact because he's spent so much time holding back.

“Distant Places of the Heart”, penned by Jack Bruce, was a particularly hypnotic moment. With Richard Watts on bass and vocals and Chris Taggart on drums, the three-piece locked into the song's unmistakable Cream DNA, with its slow, throbbing pulse - an early highlight.

Then came “Live Your Time”, a newer track from Trower's upcoming album "Shine", with a great riff that fitted comfortably alongside the older material. And that's one of the things that made the night work so well: the newer songs didn't feel like obligatory stops on the way back to the classics.

The classics, naturally, were hugely popular. “Day of the Eagle” brought one of the biggest thrills of the night, stepping away from the darker, slower blues groove into something far more frantic and exciting. “Bridge of Sighs”, meanwhile, still sounded gloriously psychedelic and heavy.

At no point did it feel like Trower was simply working his way through a greatest-hits set. There was a sense that the songs were being played because they still had something in them, and the newer material proves that as an artist he still has plenty of riffs up his sleeve.

The encore made that particularly clear. “Razor's Edge”, from "No More Worlds to Conquer", carried a political edge, delivered with a stoic grit rather than a sermon. It was followed by the slow blues tones of “Birdsong”, another reminder of just how much Trower can do with space, tone and feel.

That's probably what made the night work so well. Trower doesn't need to prove anything. There's no peacocking, no elaborate production and no attempt to dress the music up as anything other than what it is.

Just Robin Trower, the Marshall stacks, a heavyweight rhythm section and a room happily surrendering to the volume.

Loud? Absolutely.

Hypnotic? Definitely.

And for a couple of hours, Shepherd's Bush Empire felt like a very cool place to lose yourself in the groove.