I
arrive at the lovely O2 to see chaos as tonight’s
gig is sold out and in the main academy All Time
Low are playing, so with long queues and masses
of people unsure where they should be it takes
an awful long time to get inside. When I finally
do, the room is already full with people moving
along to the ska sounds of JB Conspiracy, who
with, what little I saw, where just as good as
they were when they were supporting Capdown back
in October. They sounded good and they’re
ska tones set the atmosphere for tonight’s
main act!
Orange, where the next act up and here at Alternative
Vision, we have a bit of a love hate relationship
with them. We love their stuff on Cd but live
they always tend to disappoint. This will be the
third time I’ve seen them in as many years
and for a band I’m not keen on it’s
a bit much, but hey I get to go to lots of gigs
so I can’t complain. The last time I saw
them James Webb reviewed them and gave them 2/5
and tonight, I can’t say they were much
better. They sound a bit better and maybe a smaller
room suits them, they sound ok with nice crashing
cymbals and nice guitar work, the vocals are quiet
and need more volume to make it sound better,
then again maybe it’s the lack of vocals
that are making them sound good tonight. They
still look odd and the singer is definitely a
cross between Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance
and John from You Me at Six but hey if they’re
quirky and people like it, then fair enough but
tonight people aren’t here to rock they’re
ready to skank! Theyre set blends into one after
about half way through and I just wanted it to
be over. Overall a bit better than last time but
still needs more work!
Reel
Big Fish are one of my all-time favourite bands,
they’re pure ska punk and I’ve seen
them quite a few times before, the last though
was probably about 8 years ago and tonight I get
to see them again and relive my days gone by.
The crowd are eager and start chants of “Lets
Go Big Fish” to which guitars start pumping
through the amps from back stage in time with
the chants, then the chats stop and the theme
to Superman pumps out and all 6 members walk out
onto the stage. They stand still then pounce into
action and play an early classic “everything
sucks” which gets the crowd going crazy
and everyone sings along, they continue to play
great upbeat classics which keeps people skanking
around for a good half hour with very little crowd
interaction between songs, its an unrelenting
wall of ska that everyone is happy with. They
play Monkey Man and singer Aaran Barret proclaims
“If you don’t know this song then
you can Fuck Off!” They sound great, with
sound levels perfect, the sound of the trumpets
doesn’t overpower the guitar solos or the
vocals and the bass and drums come through keeping
up the beat. Reel Big Fish has had many a line-up
changes over the years and the only members out
of 6 still left from when I saw them are Aaran
and  Dan, but they still sound just as fresh as
they did 20 years ago. This is proven by the crowd
tonight, a sell-out crowd of old and young all
coming together over a band that is older than
allot the kids that are here.
They play a stonking set of 20 classics and covers
and they all go down a storm, including hits such
as “Where Have You Been” and “Beer”
and end on “Sell Out” and the famous
cover of Ah Ha “Take On Me” which
wraps up this great night with a bang, the band
performed great, they crowd loved it all. I won’t
be waiting another 8 years before I see Reel Big
Fish and I suggest that you don’t either!
Orange 2.5/5
Reel Big Fish 5/5
Review By James Daly
|
