Wolverhampton Slade Rooms is host to tonight’s
Family Force Five gig, a nice venue on a rather
dodgy street in Wolves which is home to sex shops
and takeaways, but the fans ignore the depravity,
queuing up hours before the show starts so they
can see the southern American dance crunk rockers.
The doors open at seven and the fans tear into
the venue getting as close to the barriers as
possible, eagerly waiting tonight’s entertainment.
I’ll admit now I did a bit of research into
the support bands before the gig and I thought
I was in for some rocky treats with some rock
DJing in the middle with Family Force Five’s
unique dance rock to end the night. But I was
wrong(well about the support bands anyway)!
The night kicked off with Tek-One who I read use
a whole host of old toys to make their music and
I thought they’d be kind of retro and maybe
even computer game inspired. But when they came
out on stage with one of them on a heavily decorated
“Drop Dead” designed drum kit with
the other on a set of turntables I know that I
should have listened to their music before making
a judgement on what they where going to be like.
Howard says hello to the crowd and asks “Are
you ready for some dubstep” the crowd screams
“yes!“ and I think to myself “Dubstep?
They must be joking, they’re going to be
supporting Bring Me The Horizon in a few months
and dubstep won’t go with that!“ but
again I was wrong! Felix gets himself comfortable
on the drums, and they kick into some dark and
dirty beats which sound immense. They’re
stage show is something different, Howard DJ’s
and mixes between tracks bringing it up and down
whilst Felix joins in on the big beats and breakdowns
putting everything his has into beating the living
shit out of the drum kit. It was not what I was
expecting but I really enjoyed it, and on second
thought the big beats will be a good start to
the BMTH gig as it really gets you pumped and
ready to rock!
It’s a shame that La More La Morgue where
not as exciting. La More La Morgue, in case you
didn’t know are a duo who have a web based
persona a bit like Daft Punk. But in actual fact
its Welsh Lost Prophet Ian Watkins and the crowd
of kids here tonight know it, screaming as soon
as they catch a glimpse of him, albeit behind
a mask and in a leather jacket. LMLM come onto
the stage and in fact there are two of them both
on one mixing desk, they just go straight into
there collection of cd’s and start the set.
The crowd are lapping up what I think are just
average dance tracks that are being mixed well.
LMLM play on the fact there are two of them with
Ian Watkins friend jumping into the crowd when
Ian doesn’t need him, making the crowd go
crazy as they think they’re grabbing onto
the Welsh superstar. There set mixes well and
they play the odd rock track including ‘beastie
boys sabotage’ but there is something missing,
maybe if they had opened the night I might have
liked them more as I feel Tek-One had a lot more
to offer.
Now for the main event, the reason why people
are here tonight Family Force Five!! Even in a
small venue like this, the band pull off a nice
open to the gig with drummer ‘Crouton’
coming on stage first and kicking into some beats
with ‘Chapstique‘, ‘Fatty’
and ‘NaDaddy’ joining him by playing
a nice bit of intro music with singer ‘Soul
Glow Activator’ appearing whilst the band
kick off proceedings by jumping straight into
their biggest hit over here ‘Dance Or Die’
which gets the kids jumping! The band go crazy
and really put everything they have into this
performance, rocking out and making the crowd
putty in their hands! The song comes to an end
to great applause and the band turn it up a notch
and change to a rockier number from their first
album which is currently unreleased over here
‘Country Gentlemen’. It has a catchy
chorus and thumping beat which makes it one of
those nod your head songs! The entire set is made
up of up-beat rock/dance songs which won’t
let you rest for a minute!
This band really have a huge live show in the
states, with a massive drum stand and a wall synthesizer
with big buttons which the band hit to play, it’s
a shame they can’t afford to bring it all
over here but they have a few things set out for
the UK gigs, from playing in tops with their faces
on to Soul Glow Activator disappears of stage
for a moment only to reappear with big Hulk like
gloves which holds his mic and allows him to punch
the air and dance around some more! He screams
into the mic and jumps into the crowd , whilst
the band continue to rock out. The gig comes to
an end and everyone can be happy with the performance
as Family Force Five really has some energy and
they clearly love what they are doing, and its
good for them, the audience here loved it too!
Tek One - 4/5
La More La Morgue - 2.5/5
Family Force Five - 4.5/5
Review By James Daly
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