 |
| Gig
Review |
|
|
 
I have always had more positive things to say about
the Academy in Bristol than I have negative, and
to be fair to the venue they always have some really
good bands playing there, but I have now come to
the conclusion that the best thing they could do
to the venue is bulldoze it down and rebuild it,
the Americans seem to do it all the time with their
buildings and build a building that’s 10 times
better in its replacement, don’t get me wrong
the Academy is an ok venue but it’s certainly
seen better days. The venue is extremely small and
looks really run down inside with pillers everywhere,
once you find your spot in the venue you are stuck
their for the rest of the night unless you are prepared
to battle your way out, the lighting in the venue
is extremely poor changing from your standard red
and green and the sound is always hit or miss.
Tonight Angels And Airwaves decided to play at
the Academy in Bristol on their UK tour, now Bristol
is the last place that I would expect Angels And
Airwaves to play, but myself and what seemed like
hundreds of other people were quite excited to
see Angels And Airwaves coming to town.
We got to the Academy just before 8.30pm ready
to see the main support band You Me At Six, but
due to someone giving us the wrong stage times
You Me At Six had already played and the stage
was being set up for Angels And Airwaves, the
stage featured a big spacey looking Angels And
Airwaves banner at the back situated above the
drum kit, the usual stuff happened during set
up time with the roadie shouting "1,2"
down the microphone testing that it was all set
right this was all met with cheers from the crowd,
who you could clearly tell were gig virgins.
After about 30 minutes of the stage crew setting
up, the clock ticked 9pm and the lights went dark,
Angels And Airwaves stormed the stage opening
up with 'Call To Arms', the first track from their
current album 'I-Empire'. The crowd roared in
delight and the wait was over and Angels And Airwaves
were finally on stage, frontman Tom Delonge looked
more sensible than he has looked in years with
his nice new short haircut replacing the emo fringe
he has supported for years, and drummer Atom Willard
looked the part sporting longish hair that flapped
around his face as he bashed the crap out of his
drums.
The band fired through songs from both albums
with 'It Hurts' and 'Distraction' from the bands
debut album 'We Don't Need To Whisper' which went
down extremely well with the crowd. 'Everything
Magic' sounded just as good as it does on cd,
with the crowd loving every moment singing word
for word back to the band.
Now the first song I ever heard by Angels And
Airwaves and also one of my favourite tracks by
the band is 'The Adventure' I was extremely looking
forward to the band playing this, but once it
came and went I was left feeling quite dissapointed
it just didn’t sound or feel the same and
this is something that I blame the venue for as
the sound through the whole set was quite hit
or miss, during one song it would be perfect and
then the next it would sound a mess.
It took the band nearly half way through there
set before they introduced themselves and spoke
to the crowd, now this is something that I was
shocked about as Tom Delonge likes to talk but
he made up for lost time by talking in between
most songs from this point on, you could clearly
see that the old Tom Delonge is slowly coming
back, he was back to his jokey self making jokes
about vagina's, how Bristol is the best place
and all the usual stuff he used to joke about.
The biggest surprise during the set was when they
played a few fast paced punk rock shows including
a rendition of Blink 182's 'Reckless Abandon',
this was a total crowd pleaser and Tom Delonge
seemed very happy playing it, joking along with
the crowd after. The final song of the night was
'Valkiline Missile' the opening track from the
bands debut album 'We Don't Need To Whisper' the
song went down a storm and the long introduction
was executed perfectly.
I don’t know why it happens but when a
band announces this is our last song of the night,
the last words are spoken and the last notes are
played, the instruments hit the floor the band
leaves the stage yet the venues lights don’t
come on, clearly due to the band coming back on
stage in 2 minutes to play an en-core, but the
crowd starts to leave, now all these people can’t
be gig virgins as it happens at every show with
two thirds of the crowd screaming for the band
to come back and the other third leaving. Like
expected Angels And Airwaves retook to the stage
to play two more songs, the first was 'True Love'
which went down well, and the last song of the
night was the bands hardest hitting song 'The
War', the riffs were thick and heavy and was a
real crowd pleaser and great end to the show.
Now Tom Delonge has promised a lot of things
in his time, from Angels And Airwaves being the
best band in the world and how each Angels And
Airwaves album is the best album in the world,
these promises have always failed which of course
is all down to a matter of opinion with some people
agreeing to Tom's claims and a big majority of
people disagreeing with them, I personally like
Angels And Airwaves and enjoy the two albums but
do not agree with the above statements. Tom now
has another failed promise on his hands, a few
months before the band started their tour he promised
that they would be using new NASA technology in
their set, call me stupid but I don’t call
wearing a pair of goggles with green light saber
style lasers beaming out into the crowd for 20
seconds and prancing around like a space man
NASA technology.
Angels And Airwaves have come along way in the
three years they have been together, they are
now an extremely tight sounding band, they totally
know how to rock out and please a crowd, the majority
of the people at the Academy tonight went away
with a smile on their face, but somehow I can’t
see the band ever getting to fill out huge stadiums
like Tom dreams off, the only way Tom will be
filling out stadiums again is if and when Blink
182 reform which is bound to happen sooner or
later.
3.5/5
Review By Trigger |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Angels
And Airwaves |
|
|
Tom DeLonge (Vocals, Rhythm Guitar)
David Kennedy (Lead Guitar)
Matt Wachter (Bass, Backing Vocals,
Keyboards)
Atom Willard (Drums) |
|
|
|
|
|
| Band
Related Links |
|
|
| Review
Score Code |
|
|
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
-
What Was That? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
