First
up tonight are Fearless Vampire Killers. I'd liken
them to early My Chemical Romance, somewhere between
the first two albums, certainly in their live
performance, I can't comment on their studio stuff.
They are a lively band, and the music is fairly
catchy, it keeps one entertained and kicks off
the night in fine style. They open with the lively
'Bow Ties on Dead Guys', (the titles even sound
like MCR songs) this is followed by 'Bite Down
on My Winchester' and 'Death or Disgrace' talking
things down a little, then an odd Elton John cover,
'I'm still standing', just with the pace taken
out of the song and replaced with a touch of heaviness.
After a few more decent songs on which keep the
crowd going they close out with, 'At War With
The Thirst', not a bad closing song, finishing
strongly and setting a decent bar for the rest
of the bands to follow.
Next
up are Tonight Alive, nice people as I had the
pleasure of interviewing Jenna and Whak. I say
this a lot but so many of female fronted bands
seem to follow the Paramore formula, when it works
its great, when it doesn't its just boring and
predictable. This band are one of the good ones.
The drums on the opening tracks are quite heavy
but they are toned down a bit with the following
songs. The vocals are pretty stand out for me,
while all the songs have a touch of varying heaviness
in them to mix things up a bit.They are a lively
band and hold your attention pretty well, again
they take the bar up some more keeping the following
bands on their toes.
All
I can smell is hair dye, I guess there aren't
a lot of natural black haired people here tonight!
Main support tonight are Chiodos, they take things
in a heavier direction, the heaviest so far by
some way. They open with, 'The Undertakers Thirsts
For Revenge Is Unquenchable', swiftly followed
by 'Two Birds Stoned At Once', and my highlight
of the set 'Thermacare' as the guitar playing
is just top notch on this song, so much so I stay
down one end of the pit to listen to the monitor
as it sounds just superb, great riffs. The heaviness
is constant throughout, lots of heavy bass with
some meaty guitar riffs sneaking about through
the songs such as 'If I Cut My Hair Hawaii Will
Suck', 'A Letter From Janelle' and set
closer, 'The Words 'best friend' Become Redefined'.
Their set just flys by as their liveliness just
doesn't let up, just like their movement on stage
is constant. Great set and some act to follow,
I wasn't sure what to make of Black Veil Brides,
my opinion of them was split, they had good music
but wasn't sure about them as they sounded quite
a bit like Avenged Sevenfold, I guess you either
love them or hate them, as many do.
They open with 'Bulletproof', it's a rather lively
way to open the set but I'd have gone with a newer
song 'Wretched & Divine', but 'Bulletproof'
is still a storming track to liven the night back
up after a rather lengthy change over in which
nothing happened and they were late on to the
stage and the drummer looked a bit worse for wear
as he was helped on to the drum kit.
In between the second and third songs, the superb
'New Religion' and newer track 'Wretched &
Divine', they had a few guitar technical difficulties,
but they were sorted out after a few short minutes.
Next up was a cover of 'Rebel Yell', but I thought
it really lacked the attitude of the original
and also the HIM cover of it too.
I
have to say I prefer this band live as it's highly
entertaining set to watch, the band really interact
with the crowd playing up the rock star image
to the crowd, it's good to see when it's done
well.
The midset consists of 'Shadows Die', 'Rebel Love
Song' and Resurrect The Sun', kind of apt with
all the shitty weather we are having at the moment,
but there is really no let up from BVB as they
are on it tonight, playing songs flawlessly on
the most part while being highly mobile and playing
for the crowd, mind you with them only playing
for an hour you can keep up this sort of high
energy gig for the duration.
They close out the night with 'Perfect Weapon',
'Legacy', and the highly catchy 'Fallen Angels'
with the crowd really singing along as they have
done all evening, the kids are having a good time.
After a short break BVB play one final song, 'In
The End' to polish off the night in fine style.
One
thing that really annoys me, is the sort of crowd
this band have attracted, mostly teenage girls,
mostly attention seeking kids, what really annoys
me more is kids 'acting' drunk, and over hearing
one girl saying how she wished she'd brought a
knife to the gig so she could cut herself, how
stupid are these kids? Other than this gripe,
it was a pretty entertaining night 4 good bands
each one upstaging the one before.
Fearless Vampire Killers 3.5/5
Tonight Alive 3.5/5
Chiodos 4/5
Black Veil Brides 5/5
Review By Robert Lawrence
|
