Yet
again it’s that time of year, the start
of the year when All Time Low come around and
yet again we have massive queues around the block,
for tonight’s gig, with the taxi driver
who drove me in almost yelping at the sheer size
if the queue. The fans are eager and are already
warm and sweaty by the time I get into the venue
and down to the photo pit for the main support
Tonight Alive, are a 5 piece from Australia and
are gaining momentum on the scene with a few albums
behind them and allot of touring experience. They
sound great, which is a relief because they sounded
poor when I saw them last year. The guitars quietly
twang then gain the brash crescendo into the choruses,
the drums sound crisp and keep the beat a flow
with the bass plodding in the mix to gain the
fullness of these sweet romantic pop rock songs.
They're all tied together with vocalist Jenna
Mcdougle’s sweet vocals that get this audience
in awe, a fellow photographer stands in amazement
at one point at the beauty and sheer presence
she has on stage. She controls this crowd and
although
they're here for All Time Low they respond so
well, she prowls the stage perching on the stands
at the front before jumping up and rocking out.
This is there first tour of the year, and it doesn't
show, they seem on top of their game and they
show this by playing a new song which goes down
a storm, by her telling the crowd to act like
they know it. And they do. It comes across like
an old favourite rather than a new treat to drop.
They totally change my opinion on them and play
an awesome set that rocks and sways this passionate
young crowd. I look forward to them coming back
soon with a new album and tour.
All
Time Low take to the stage to huge cheers, as
is always the case, as this crowd of mainly 16
year old girls go crazy in excitement for this
4 piece from Baltimore. The sound from the crowd
is almost unbearable and as All Time Low play
6 songs in a row with no break, I started to think
that they’d changed how they do things,
with them playing a huge set without the stage
antics, but I was wrong. They finish up after
playing six killer tracks; Do You Want Me (Dead?),
So Long, Soldier, The Irony Of Choking on a Lifesaver,
Stella, For Baltimore and Break Your Little Heart,
and then start with the fun, or for All Time Low
a bit of a serious note, as they as everyone to
take one giant step back, so people can breathe,
“as we don't like it when you pass out”.
This is due to the huge amount of girls that are
getting dragged out of the swelteringly hot crowd
due to heat exhaustion. But the band try and put
a fun spin on it, by then waving their hands like
fans to cool the crowd down, before throwing water
at them, it doesn’t do much but it shows
they take it seriously even if they’re here
to have fun. “How’ve you been? I've
missed you so much!” shouts singer Alex
Gaskarth “We are All Time Low from Baltimore
Maryland, we've played here like 9 times and this
feels the hottest, let’s take a picture
with you guys” before the band turn the
backs to the crowd and get a giant selfie together
which sets the crowd into overdrive. They
continue the set with Lost In Stereo, Six Feet
Under The Stars, Vegas, Guts and Weightless, which
is weird for me as they used to play weightless
near the end and now it’s a mid-set song,
it just shows how popular All Time Low are, that
there old favourites get mixed into the middle
and newer songs take over the pleasure of being
the final song played. The band sound amazing,
and have clearly taken the time to sound check
through the academy’s great system as the
music sounds so clear as if it was recorded. This
young audience enjoy the show, but wind me up
a little as most have their phones up throughout
the entire set, for reasons I’m unsure of,
I mean if you want bad footage that you’ll
never watch again, fair enough, but don’t
get taken out of the moment by watching it through
a screen,
if you wanted to do that then go home, turn the
heating up and watch all these videos on youtube.
The band slow it down a little, with 2 acoustic
tracks of Remembering Sunday and Therapy, before
going back into the fun time songs with Damned
If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don’t), Somewhere
In Neverland and Time-Bomb, in which the guys
get 5 “rockstars” up on stage to help
them sing the song, which is great fun for the
girls picked but is chaos for the swelteringly
hot fans who didn’t. The band continue there
antics by bassist Jack Backeratt tying a tie round
his head before telling the crowd “I was
borne in Birmingham” before Alex chips in
“Yeah, you was conceived
in a Nandos, taste my friend, he tastes like peri
peri chicken” before they change the subject
and talk about lesbians, “Not enough lesbians
come to our shows, which is sad, I'm the gayest
lesbian here, we encourage sexuality at our shows,
so tell your lesbian friends to get down here”.
Alex then tells us how Ryan ate a big bowl of
custard and now he's throwing up” before
they start singing an impromptu bassy drum song
with Jack singing the words gravity over and over.
They continue the set with Backseat Serenade and
Oh, Calamity before leaving the stage. They come
back after a minute and continue their set with
The Reckless and The Brave, A Love Like War in
which Jenna from Tonight Alive joins them on stage,
before playing Dear Maria, Count Me In to wrap
up the night.
Tonight has been great, with an awesome support
band in Tonight Alive who truly impressed me,
before the main act brought there fun time show
that also sounds amazing, with a great stage set
up and huge back drops they really are the real
deal and I’m sure next year they’ll
be playing arenas.
Tonight Alive 3.5/5
All Time Low 4/5
Review By James Daly
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