In Elegance were met by a very irritable
crowd, when doors open at 7 with the band scheduled
to be on at 7:30 and they don’t hit the
stage till 7:50, 50 minutes of waiting will do
that to people. Never the less the audience appear
to get over it pretty quickly but still aren’t
very responsive to the band. I couldn’t
help but laugh at this one guy, half way through
the bands set the bassist (whose fault it was
they were late in the first place) took a photo
of the vocalist on the barrier with the crowd
and made some comment like “You all look
terrible” or something and some random guy
just shouted “Mate the same could be said
for you”, got to love some heckling. Apart
from that the band play amicably but nothing extraordinary
these days you’ve got to really put your
heart into it if you want to impress anybody.
Dear Superstar hit the stage commanding respect
and fighting for a reaction, no holds barred giving
it their all. It pays off to some degree but not
at first, that’s where Dear Superstar have
always succeeded; there could be 5 people there
could be 5,000 people but they’d all be
into it by the end. I will admit I was a little
disappointed with the lack of tracks from “Heartless”
which is my favourite release from the band but
you have to forgive them as they need to push
“Damned Religion” as much as they
possibly can. The sound system in the HMV institute
again messes about as sometimes certain things
lost sound and others gain volume when they shouldn’t
but it’s not too bad. Vocalist Mickey never
gives up trying to get the crowd involved with
the band and by the end has the vast majority
in the palm of his hand, final track “Glitter
Just Like Gold” had power unmatched by the
rest of the set, vocals were perfect and everyone
was getting involved and having a great time,
very successful set all in all.
Kill Hannah must have been a little bit disappointed
that the show got quite the downgrade from The
Library to The Temple which is a much smaller
room, and even that wasn’t anywhere near
full either. If it had fazed them you’d
never have been able to tell at all, charismatic
front man Mat Devine was definitely the driving
force behind the whole operation, the strange
thing being that it was in a very mellow way.
Normally at rock shows front men need to be commanding
and aggressive, but Devine speaks in calming tones
rarely demanding anything but receiving it anyway,
it’s a very strange sight to be honest but
a good one none the less. Apart from Devine providing
the entertainment the other members seem pretty
stationary and inactive, by which I mean they
don’t really seem like they’re as
into it as everyone else is, like their heart
isn’t really in it. For me a show isn’t
all about music because that’s what CD’s
are for and if it wasn’t for Devine there
wouldn’t really be much showmanship on display,
something to think about when returning.
In Elegance – 3/5
Dear Superstar – 4/5
Kill Hannah – 3.5/5
Review By James Webb
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