 With the welsh pop punk perfectionists getting
on the bill for all the big bands as of late,
with the performance Brooke gave tonight you can
understand why.
Opening with “Drama Queen”, followed
by a couple more high tempo, ridiculously catchy
songs, they had the first few rows jumping up
and down and their hardcore fans singing along.
They were soon followed by the crowd as they picked
up on some of the cracking harmonies between bassist
Jak and singer Alex. They continued to win over
the crowd with some great banter between songs,
hand clap filled breakdowns, a fantastic cover
of Jason Derulo’s “In My Head”
and more energy than a set of energiser rabbits.
Finishing with the fan favourite “She’s
in Love”, the band left the stage having
successfully won over a packed out o2 Academy
2 and will surely be seen supporting even bigger
bands and headlining their own packed out shows
in the not too distant future.
If the opener of Brooke wasn’t enough, the
crowd was in for a real treat when NYC band Just
Surrender took to the stage.
 Opening with “I can barely breathe”
from their first album “If these streets
could talk”, they provided the crowd with
a furiously energetic set, packed with songs from
all of their releases to date, with a few songs
from their new album “Phoenix” making
their way into the set. “Crazy” with
it’s infectiously catchy chorus was an instant
crowd pleaser, with other new tracks “Burning
Up” and “Lose Control” also
went down very well.
The band were fully appreciative of the fans and
their crew, leaving space in some songs for the
crowd to sing along, to which the majority of
the room did, and guitarist/vocalist Dan even
handed his guitar to their technician Michael
for their last track. A perfect performance full
of spirit to build up to the main event.
The deafening entrance as Nashville outfit Framing
Hanley braced the stage was by no means unjust.
Reactions for the support bands was already of
a high standard, but this was on a whole other
level.
 Within the first two songs the room was a haze
of heat and an intense atmosphere of energy. Front
man Ken Nixon had the crowd in the palm of his
hand from the first line of their first song,
carrying a powerful presence across the stage,
even in some of their slower tracks. Bassist Luke
may have at times been somewhat static in comparison
to guitarists Ryan and Brandon but he made up
for that for the sheer effort he puts into his
harmonies with Nixon and his gut busting screams.
Their interaction with the crowd between songs
gave everyone a bit of a breather between their
heavy hitting ballads, with stories about their
songs conceptions and funny anecdotes that kept
the crowd entertained.
With a mix of tracks from their first album “The
Moment” and new album “A Promise to
Burn” the combination of the old darker
tracks and new more commercial ones sat very well
with the crowd, with new single “Back To
Go Again” sounding just as much appreciation
as “23 days” and “Slow Dance”.
At times Nixon and Luke even had their work done
for them, with the crowd managing to sing over
them both in the chorus for “Hear Me Now”,
deciding at which point to get the crowd involved
in the bridge to fulfill the 3 part vocals you
can hear on the album.
As they began to leave the stage, immediate cries
for an encore filled the room, to which the band
was only happy to oblige, wrapping up with arguably
the song which catapulted them into the spotlight,
their fantastic cover of “Lollipop”,
and the massive track “Built for Sin”
off the first album.
Framing Hanley gave a solid performance that shook
off any doubt that they are a ‘one trick
pony’ band who happened to put out a cover
to make Lil Wayne proud, but a band on the rise
with a vast array of crowd pleasing tracks from
two very strong albums.
Framing Hanley – 4/5
Just Surrender - 4/5
Brooke - 4/5
Review By Justin Andree
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