The
Kerrang tour is a tour which runs every February
and see’s a diverse line up of alternative
bands tour across many different cities and towns
across the country and over the years the likes
of New Found Glory, All Time Low, Good Charlotte,
Biffy Clyro, Black Veil Brides, Bring Me The Horizon
and Bullet For My Valentine have headlined the
tour, yet last year Limp Bizkit were signed up
to headline the tour and it happened to be a record
sell out for the Kerrang tour with many shows
selling out within hours of going on sale. This
year marks the tenth anniversary of the Kerrang
tour and we all knew it was going
to be hard to follow up on last year’s amazing
line up, yet this year features Don Broco headlining
with We Are The In Crowd, Bury Tomorrow and Beartooth
completing the bill and as soon as it was announced
it was met with mixed reactions with many people
slating the bill saying Don Broco were not big
enough to headline and I have to agree that on
paper the tour looked extremely weak and judging
by the fact that no show on the tour has sold
out a lot of people didn’t see the line
up warranting them spending their hard earned
cash which left Kerrang teasing that a special
guest band were being added
to the tour and it was a band who have previously
played the O2 arena in London and also Wembley
arena, this led to many people expecting the likes
of Green Day, Fall Out and many other ridiculously
massive bands to be the special guest but instead
it was revealed to be the Young Guns which was
also met with a mixed reaction but saw a steady
rise in ticket sales.
Tonight I headed down to the Academy in Bristol
which happened to be the fourth show of this year’s
Kerrang tour and I got into the venue just as
the opener Beartooth were due to take to the stage,
now anyone who
has never come across Beartooth before they are
an hardcore punk band from Columbus, Ohio who
formed back in 2012 and they are fronted by ex
Attack Attack! Vocalist Caleb Shomo and released
their debut album ‘Disgusting’ back
in June 2014.
Beartooth had a short 30 minute set tonight to
show Bristol what they were all about and they
wasted no time opening up with the heavy ‘Beaten
In Lips’ and straight away I noticed there
were a lot of Beartooth fans in attendance tonight
screaming back every word to Caleb Shomo, the
set consisted on 8 songs and featured the likes
of ‘Relapsing’, ‘ In Between’,
‘The Lines’, ‘I Have a Problem’
and not to forgot the outstanding chant-a-long
‘Body Bag’ which
even had people who had never heard the song before
shouting “one life, one decision”
towards the end of the song. The only downside
to Beartooth was the fact that they took long
breaks to get their breath back and rehydrate
between each and every song.
Up next was Southampton five piece Bury Tomorrow
and they ran into a few technical difficulties
to start with but they were soon sorted out and
from that moment the band owned the stage especially
front man Daniel Winter-Bates who spent the majority
of the set charging the stage and spitting water
at every opportunity he had.
They
had the crowd on their side from really early
on in their set and when Daniel Winter-Bates told
the crowd to form a massive circle pit they listened
to his every word with many people in the crowd
moving back as a massive circle formed which within
seconds was full of people charging at each other.
Bury Tomorrow played a mixture of songs from both
of their albums with the likes of ‘Man On
Fire’, ‘Of Glory’, ‘Watcher’
and ‘Lionheart’ being highlights of
the set and just before they left the stage Daniel
Winter-Bates shouted out “One of my pet
hates is when bands charge fans to meet them via
meet and greets, it’s bullshit you should
not have to pay to meet
the bands you are supporting and right after this
set I will be at the merch stand and want to high
five every single one of you.
Next up was the moment that many people had been
looking forward to, the return of the Young Guns
and they were fantastic they stormed the stage
to ‘I Want Out’ and the sheer energy
from the band was fantastic and the excitement
and cheers from the crowd was massive, they then
went on to play ‘Speaking In Tongues’
and ‘Bones’ and then told the crowd
that it has been a pleasure to play a short but
sweet set for them and that they will be back
in Bristol in March on their own headline tour.
Despite
playing one of the shortest sets in history Young
Guns were amazing and they left myself and many
others wishing that they could have stayed around
for a bit longer to play a few more songs but
then that’s good promotion for you as I
am sure many people who caught Young Guns for
the first time on the Kerrang tour will snap up
tickets for their own headline tour, myself included.
We Are the In Crowd were up next and for myself
it was good to see them playing so high up the
Kerrang tour as they are a band that at Alternative
Vision we have supported pretty much from the
start and tonight was easily the best show I have
ever seen them
put on and it seemed like they were loving every
minute tonight especially Rob Chianelli who was
constantly smiling whilst beating his drums and
Tay Jardine who energetically worked her way around
every inch of the stage whilst belting out her
melodic vocals.
The set that We Are The In Crowd played was like
a mini greatest hits set as they played songs
from both their debut album ‘Best Intentions’
and their more recent album ‘Weird Kids’
with the likes of ‘The Best Thing (That
Never Happened), ‘Manners’, ‘Reflections’,
‘Come Back Home’, ‘The Worst
Thing About Me’ gaining a massive reaction
from the crowd but it was set
closer ‘Rumor Mill’ which was the
highlight for many fans as Tay Jardine got right
up close with the crowd.
The headliners tonight were Don Broco a band who
I have seen on the live circuit a number of times
in the past and thought were quite average however
tonight they were fantastic, they took to the
stage with streams of smoke blasting into the
air and for the next 50minutes they treated us
to nonstop energetic pop-punk and when I say energetic
I mean it as none of the band members could stay
still for more than 5 seconds as they made the
most of the massive space they had on stage and
they also brought an impressive lighting show
with them.
Don
Broco managed to squeeze 14 songs into their headline
set and they had the crowd on their side from
start to finish as everyone was singing and moving
along to the likes of ‘Money Power Fame’,
‘Actors’, ‘Fire’.’Let’s
Go Back To School’ but for myself the hightlights
were when they went old school and played the
ever so heavy ‘Thug Workout’ which
was followed up by the super catchy ‘Hold
On’ and the quality sounding new song ‘Superlove’.
There was no encore tonight instead Don Broco
just ploughed through their set one song at a
time with a slight bit of interaction between
their fans for good measures and as their set
came to an end Rob Damiani announced that the
band will be back in the summer with an new album
and tour.
Even
though this year’s Kerrang tour looked weaker
than previous years , everyone that attended tonight
seemed like they had a lot of fun and you really
can’t complain getting to see 5 bands for
£20, there were a few technical difficulties
tonight but then that is to be expected when a
tour has so many bands playing and only a 10-15
minute change over time between bands, however
there was not a dull moment in sight and each
and every band put on a great show and many band
members decided to join the audience to watch
the remaining bands after their set which gave
the crowd ideal opportunities to meet some of
their musical heroes.
Beartooth – 4/5
Bury Tomorrow 4/5
Young Guns 5/5
We Are The In Crowd 5/5
Don Broco 5/5
Review By Trigger
|
