I
arrive early for an interview, to see the massive
queues already forming outside a venue. It reminds
me of the You Me At Six show at the ballroom a
couple of years ago but on a smaller scale, after
a of interviews I nipped out for some food and
arrive back at the busy venue as Decade blast
into their intro, in a panic I pick up my photo
pass and push through all the screaming fans at
get to the front and start taking some photos
of the first band.
Decade
are loud rocky and proud, they remind me of a
more varied lower than Atlantis, mixing punk rock
grunge and indie all into one great sound. They're
fast they're fun and they highly energetic. This
bath 5 piece take over the stage (albeit because
they are forced to play at the front) but it really
helps get them over to this young audience allot
better when the fans can almost touch them. They
play a blinding set including songs of their debut
album Good Luck and self-titled EP, and you'd
be forgiven to think that they've been going for
years as they sound pronominal, and all of this
out of The Institutes sometimes lackluster sound
system, this something amazing for a support band,
especially one with so much energy that singer
Alex Sears likes to get of stage and join the
crowd.
Man
Overboard are up next, these self-professed heroes
who are here to defend pop punk get on stage and
give it all they’ve got. The sound quality
is less than decade, but this is mainly due to
some top end distortion due to ear blistering
levels of volume but everyone enjoys it none the
less. It’s fast energetic, loud and catchy,
everything pop punk is meant to be. They put on
a great show with little talking in between so
they can fit more songs into the set including
a song which they change the words to “its
Jesses birthday” so they don’t have
to spend time talking. The two vocalists harmonize
well
and get across the raw power that's in their songs
with sweet and screamy vocals when the song depends
on it. They wrap up their set with Where I Left
You and it goes down well with a room that's used
to more pop rock than pop punk(as is proven by
the complete lack of pits and crowd surfers),
but then again this room is full of underage girls.
Mayday Parade are the main act tonight and this
Tallahassee 5 piece take to the stage amongst
utter chaos, with the fans doing their best to
scream so loud that it makes birds fall from the
sky. The band take to the stage and kick into
Ghosts from they’re latest album Monsters
In The Closet, they sound better than Man Overboard,
but
strangely not as good as Decade, with some distortion
in the speakers, I know this is down to the night
and not down to the band, but it’s such
a shame when the main act gets knocked down a
bit by some poor sound, but I suppose it’s
because the band mix it up with some ballads and
so it’s not the easiest getting the sound
ready for fast loud numbers and quiet mellow numbers.
But as I always say, that’s just my opinion,
and the crowd didn’t care one bit as they’re
favorite rock band where on stage doing a great
job of controlling the stage, with each member
wondering about and giving everyone in the room
a great view of themselves whilst franticly jumping
around and having a good time. They continue they’re
set with Jamie All Over, When You See My Friends
and then take it down a notch with a slower song
12 through 15 before which singer Derek Sanders,
thanks the fans for coming out and for getting
so into the show. They continue with Girls, Black
Cat and then slow things down even more with Derek
getting his keyboard and playing Miserable At
Best which goes down great with the crowd getting
highly emotional at this song from they’re
debut album Lessons In Romantics, which is played
beautifully. They keep this slow pace for the
rest of the set with Stay, Hold Onto Me and Three
Cheers For Five Years, before kicking things up
with Oh Well Oh Well and then leaving the stage
to huge cheers before coming back to play one
more, a fast catchy song called Jersey.
Tonight has been a great gig, that was underwhelmed
by Decade stealing the show for me, but then again
I’m not a huge Mayday Parade fan, and well
as a 30 year old bloke I’m not really they’re
target audience, but they did great and the fans
where clear with they’re favorite band of
the night, as they almost tour the roof down with
they’re screams. It was a good mix of bands
with a good mix of styles with none of the bands
sounding the same, which is always great as you
never know what you might find, so weather you’re
thing is rock, punk or pop tonight had it all
and myself and the audience had a great time.
Decade 4/5
Man Overboard 3/5
Mayday Parade 3.5/5
Review By James Daly
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