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Review |
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The last time I saw Angels and Airwaves play was back in April 2006 when
they played at the Give It A Name festival in Earl's Court Arena London,
the sound was stunning sounding just as good as they did on their debut
album 'We Don’t Need To Whisper' but their stage performance was
lacking a lot. Firstly, Tom Delonge appeared more mature and managed a
whole set without cracking any jokes and instead spent the most of the
set talking about how Angels And Airwaves are the best band ever, and
secondly the band had no energy what so ever on stage pretty much standing
in one place for the whole 45 minute set. Sixteen months on Angels and
Airwaves are back in England ready to appear at the Carling Weekend Reading
and Leeds festivals and also to do a warm up show at the intimate central
London venue, the Astoria a day before their festival appearances.
The Astoria is one of the best venues in London where you get a proper
feel for live music mainly due to the smallish size of the venue and the
fact some of the biggest bands play there and end up playing the best
shows of their career. You can see from pretty much anywhere in the Astoria
due to the unique layout of the venue and you are guaranteed to leave
the venue after any show hot and sweaty even if you haven’t been
in the mosh pit which is down to the fact 1000's of people are crammed
into such a small venue.
The support bands tonight were Lostalone and Eisley. By the time we entered
the venue Lostalone were finished which I was slightly gutted about as
I have so far enjoyed the songs I have heard from the band. Eisley took
to the stage about ten minutes after we entered the venue and are a 5
piece mixed sex band with 3 females and 2 males. The vocalist is also
the keyboardist but to be honest I was bored of the band after 2 songs
and left to get a drink and enjoy it in the quiet bar.
We went and took our position upstairs near the front about 5 minutes
before Angels and Airwaves were due to take to the stage. The odd thing
I noticed was that the venue wasn't as full as previous gigs I have seen
at the Astoria despite the fact the show was apparently sold out, but
I put this down to people buying tickets then ending up getting tickets
for Reading or Leeds and not turning up to the Astoria show.
Angels and Airwaves finally took to the stage at 8.55pm just 5 minutes
later than scheduled. Tom Delonge took to the stage first strumming along
to the introduction of 'Distraction' and the rest of the band soon joined
him. Tom soon ditched his guitar and took to the mic and was prancing
around stage like a man full of confidence spreading his arms out like
a man in control.
This was the bands first show in the UK since their ex bass player Ryan
Sinn got sacked and Matt Wachter joined the band and to tell you the truth,
I didn’t really notice the difference but the band definitely sounded
tighter than when I last saw them live over 16 months ago, the only downside
was Tom's vocals didn’t sound up to scratch the whole time.
The band played the whole of their debut album 'We Don't Need To Whisper'
with Tom back to normal cracking a few jokes in between songs and interacting
more with the crowd but not on the huge scale he did back in the Blink
182 days.
The highlight of the show was when they played 'The Adventure' with the
crowd chanting along to every word leaving Tom to rest his vocals for
the majority of the show. Two new songs from the bands forthcoming album
'I-Empire' were played with the fans singing along word for word proving
that internet piracy is still as high as ever but the fans are dedicated
at the same time.
The set ended with Angels and Airwaves playing 'The War' which is the
rockiest song the band have so far recorded. It was a great finish to
the show with pretty much the whole of the Astoria singing "Why won't
you tell me that it's almost over? Why must this tear my head inside out?".
Overall Angels and Airwaves are a much tighter live band since I last
saw them and are more energetic, Tom also seems to be showing his more
humorous side once again which was extremely welcomed by the fans. Angels
and Airwaves are never going to conquer the world and become the biggest
band ever like Tom dreams of, but with a show as good as this they can
only go from strength to strength building up a steady fan base as they
go.
4/5
Review By Trigger |
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| Angels
And Airwaves |
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Tom DeLonge (Vocals, Rhythm Guitar)
David Kennedy (Lead Guitar)
Matt Wachter (Bass, Backing Vocals,
Keyboards)
Atom Willard (Drums) |
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| Band
Related Links |
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| Review
Score Code |
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- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
-
What Was That? |
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