It’s
now officially November, which means colder weather,
darker nights and that fun run up to Christmas,
but tonight is rather mild as we queue outside
the Civic Hall. Tonight I get to see a band that
have always eluded me, I miss them for another
band at a festival, can’t afford a ticket
or even get ill and miss the gig after buying
tickets. There a band who’ve been part of
my getting into good rock music with their first
album back in 2000 (the original pressing, not
the reissue), who’ve get plenty of great
songs and albums and who just keep on going. Tonight
I get to see them, and I’m rather excited,
but first we have the supports and the first one
are a band I can’t wait to see too!
Pure
Love are up first, the lights stay up and the
band walk onto the stage and Frank announces “We’re
here to play some songs that you won’t have
heard before, but we hope you’ll enjoy it”
and they blast into an 8 song set which includes
their singles, Bury My Bones and Handsome Devils
Club. The first song is performed as a normal
band would, on stage with everyone in their position
playing well and rocking out, then we hit the
second and half way through guitarist Jim Carroll
decides he’s had enough of the stage and
jumps down into the photo pit and plays on the
barrier in front of the crowd. He gets back up
on stage and then Frank gets down into the pit
and takes his mic and stand with
him, as the song ends he’s half way over
the barrier and is asking people to take the mic
stand so he can sing in the middle of the crowd.
He climbs over into a crowd of bemused LP fans
and sings a few songs in the crowd, he eventually
realises that people can’t see him and climbs
on a fans shoulders. He beckons Jim to join him
in the crowd, and after a bit of persuasion, he
comes in and sits on a fan shoulders playing guitar
whilst frank bellows down the mic. It’s
a sight to be seen as they play some great rock
songs in the middle of a crowd, whilst the rest
of the band blends into the background on stage.
Eventually they go back on stage and finish their
set to great applause. They performed really well,
both sounding great and doing something different,
they’ve made some new fans tonight that’s
for sure.
We
Are The Ocean are up next, and after the last
time I saw this 4 piece from Essex, I gave them
a poor write up, they were lacklustre and missing
something without their departed second vocalist
Dan Brown, but tonight they were different, they
were much better. They play a nice set list of
9 songs which sounds great, the levels are near
perfect and they’re performance is full
of energy and bang which comes out in the members
moving about the stage and jumping about whilst
singer Liam Cromby powerfully roars “come
on” to get the crowd moving. They play singles
from their last 2 albums including; The Road,
Overtime Is A Crime, Young Heart, What It Feels
Like, Waiting Room and end of their latest single
Bleed, which all go down well. Waiting Room works
well without the back and forth between the two
singers; it’s still powerful and gets the
crowd singing along. The band do a great job,
and have definitely won over some new fans, with
the band asking people to come see them at the
merch desk later, and as I left it was full of
people waiting to say hello.
Lost
Prophets are up now and everyone knows they are
a 6 piece from Pontypridd (but I thought I’d
tell you again anyway), they play rock/pop/punk
music and they have 5 critically acclaimed albums,
so with all this under their belts you’d
expect them to be a decent live act with a great
show and great performance, and you’d be
correct. The stage is dark and as the lights come
up Ian Watkins walks out onto the stage alone
to huge screams from the crowd, he stands there
in his military coat for a few seconds in silence
as slowly the rest of the band emerge and take
their places on stage. They all stay silent and
soak up the applause, and then start a great setlist
by playing a track off album The Betrayed; A Better
Nothing before going back to the great album Liberation
Transmission and play tracks New Transmission
and Can’t Catch
Tomorrow which shake the room with the pure power
and energy! They sound amazing, with the banging
drums, vibrant keyboards, thumping bass, heavy
guitars and gravelly vocals along with some beautiful
harmonies. They look amazing too, with the stage
being well lit and the band themselves looking
smartly dressed and cool. Ian Watkins doesn’t
really say too much in-between songs, with just
the casual “Thanks for coming and for your
continued support”, “We love Wolverhampton,
we should have a residency here” and “We
decided to play some songs we haven’t played
in a while, as we’ve been playing the same
songs for years, we don’t know if it’s
good or bad as tonight’s the first night,
but we’ll let you decided” and with
that they blast into old school classic Kobrakai
with the haunting opening guitar notes and bass
drop bringing
the room to its knees. They continue this flux
of old school songs by playing The Fake Sound
Of Progress and Shinobi Vs Dragon Ninja, which
causes an eruption of circle pits around the venue
as the fans get into the music. They set list
is great and is mixed up very evenly with 4 songs
from each album with a few extra’s thrown
in for good measure. Other songs played are We
Bring An Arsenal, Last Summer, Jesus Walks, Rooftops,
Burn Burn, Last Train Home and then going into
an unusual end of set with little known heavy
song from their first album A Thousand Apologies,
going into Can’t Get Enough with its heavy
scratching and ending on a secret heavy track
Weapon from Weapons. It’s the first time
I’ve seen a band end on a secret track but
it goes down great, with everyone now knackered
from all the dancing and moshing as this has been
a heavy set.
Overall Lost Prophets where amazing, with a great
setlist and great sound. I’m upset I had
never seen them before tonight, as I know I would
have loved it, but I’m glad I’ve finally
seen them, as I know not to miss the next time
there back in town and I hope you won’t
either!
Pure Love 4.5/5
We Are The Ocean 4/5
Lostprophets 5/5
Review By James Daly
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