 
For the first time thus far in my Joiners experience, the room was full
of fourteen year olds. I felt old, and didn't like it. I'm only nineteen
for God's sake. One of the bands "Saving Grace" had pulled out,
and so we were treated to just one support band, Shibby.
The wannabe-blink182 threesome played quite a long set to make up for
the missing second band, and as well as all their original material threw
in a handful of covers. "Rooftops" by Lostprophets, "Aliens
Exist" by Blink 182, and "When Your Heart Stops Beating"
by +44, which were all executed surprisingly well, and the crowd were
loving it. However, giving the clientèle, I'd imagine they'd have
loved anything. I could have commandeered the stage with a cowbell and
get them throwing themselves at each other, I'd imagine. The lead singer
had an interesting voice that I imagine would sound good in studio, but
live, although he could hit the notes, he wobbled a bit and tended to
glide between them which made for an interesting sound to say the least.
The bassist backed up with some vocals (hmm haven't we seen that somewhere
else in an American-Pop-Punk three-piece?) When I say American, I mean
they play American Punk, as opposed to true Punk, not that they are American.
There would be calls from the stage of circle pits, and after someone
in the crowd suggested a Wall Of Death, that went ahead too. I just stood
back and watched these little boys throw themselves at each other. Somebody
called for another one but I think everyone was in pain and certainly
not in the mood. So to sum up this opening band, I'd say for the people
they were playing to they were pretty good. Their music wasn't particularly
interesting but they had a rapor with the crowd and everyone seemed to
be enjoying themselves. Change the crowd to a group of people in their
late teens, and I'm not sure they'd do so well...
Elliot Minor came on stage to some interesting classical-esque music,
that sounded like it should have been in Pirates of the Caribbean or something;
and equally interesting was Alex dressed very much like Captain Jack Sparrow.
Ed was in a blazer and shirt, and the other three were looking very casual
in tshirts and whatnot. Opening with "Still Figuring Out," I
was amazed at how the vocals sounded so similar to the record in this
live environment, a blend of Alex and Ed, and occasionally the drummer,
Dan. Predictably the crowd were loving it, and unlike the support act,
I'm pretty sure anybody watching would agree they played very well. Trying
to fit songs around interruptions from the audience calling out Alex's
name and making requests and so on, the band played through a handful
of songs. I'm quite sure that in general, most people didn't know a great
deal of the songs, due to the fact no album has been released yet and
only the second single is about to be released. When they came to play
"Time After Time," they all swapped instruments. Alex went to
the keys, Ali to the drums, Dan to guitar and vocals, and Ed swapped with
Teddy. They made it part way through the first verse until it all fell
apart. Dan turned to Ali; "man you're shit on the drums." They
all laughed and returned to their positions.
"Hey, good guitar playing man," mentioned Alex to Dan.
"I didn't play it," he replied.
"Oh."
Take two, and this time everything was perfect. Such an awesome song.
I don't know what it is about it, but I love it.
"This is my favourite part" said Ed as each member emptied a
tube of glow-sticks into their hands and cracked them, and then on the
count of three launched them into the crowd. Now, not only is it a small
venue but there were so many glow-sticks it was mental. And I was momentarily
blinded by a multicoloured screen of glowing lights. When I'd regained
my vision, the crowd had disappeared? Oh no, they were just all on the
floor scrabbling for glow-sticks like the little kids they are.
A few more songs followed including "Jessica" and the predictable
crowd favourite, their first single and possibly greatest song, "Parallel
Worlds."
All in all both bands played very well but I get the feeling they're aimed
at quite a specific young audience when it comes to live performances,
which is fair enough I suppose. There's always going to be young people,
isn't there.
Review By Thom
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