Celebrating The "Celebrate" Tour With Black Stone Cherry

Black Stone Cherry hit the road again to promote their latest EP "Celebrate" out March 6th 2026 with a stop at The Forge in Joliet, IL. This is my 5th time see Black Stone Cherry, first time seeing them perform was at a rock festival in Rockford called "Wing Ding", I had heard them on the radio but they blew me away with their energetic live performance and I was a fan ever since. I went on to see them a few more times at the same festival and the latest being last year locally as the headliner! When I saw they were playing The Forge this year I jumped on the opportunity to not only enjoy them for the 5th time, but get to photograph them and be right up in the action.

As always they did not disappoint! After almost 20 years of seeing them live, their stage presence and energy hasn't slowed down a bit. Now with way more music to enjoy after all these years, each show I've seen has had a different line up. Of course every show still ending with the hit that made them big "Lonely Train", that one never gets old!

The crowd seemed just as hyped to see them as I was, singing along to every song, jumping with Ben (Guitar) and Steve (Bass). This was a rescheduled show from a few weeks ago due to a sever snow storm on the original night, a typical winter in northern Illinois, but that didn't stop the fans from coming back and enjoying the show. Ben even mentioned at one point how us "Illinois People" are a special kind of people to be able to handle the snow and then the freezing cold temperatures of our winters, did I mention is was in the low teens the night of the rescheduled show?

They played their new upcoming release "Celebrate" and it was the southern rock band we all would expect from Black Stone Cherry, everyone was psyched to hear it myself included! It was another great night with a great band and blessed to have had the opportunity to shoot them this time and can't wait for their next show!