It
was one of the hottest days of the year so far
and NOFX, Alkaline Trio and Lagwagon all rolled
up in London for the first of a double whammy
of shows across the weekend in Brixton Academy
and before even entering the venue I knew that
a hot and sweaty night was ahead of me due to
the temperature outside and knowing that the show
sold out months in advanced but I wasn’t
quite prepared for how hot and hectic it actually
was.
When
I got in the Academy the venue was packed to the
rafters to the point where it felt that the show
had been oversold and being in the main room felt
like being in Piccadilly Circus with so many people
charging in different directions to get to the
bar, smoking area, toilet, the pit and even trying
to find a steady standing place to watch the show
ahead of them but luckily the busyness did not
stop people from having fun and added to the atmosphere.
I
arrived at the Academy halfway through Lagwagon’s
set but luckily managed to catch them play the
likes of ‘Western Settlements’, ‘Alien
8’, ‘Making Friends’, ‘May
16’ and ‘Razor Burn’ and in
that short amount of time the band also managed
to interact with the crowd a lot and proceeded
to warm the crowd up nicely with the pit steaming
with Mohawks bouncing all over the place and the
majority of the crowd bouncing up and down like
they were on pogo sticks.
After
a short 15minute change over Alkaline Trio took
to the stage and with the massive reception that
the band got as soon as they took to the stage
you could tell that tonight was going to be a
show that both the band and their fans would remember
for a long time. For the first few songs things
didn’t sound right with the sound levels
all over the place but then that’s to be
expected when the crew only had 15 minutes to
change the stage around and prepare everything
and luckily this was quickly sorted and Alkaline
Trio went on to play a storming 17 song greatest
hits set which spanned right through their back
catalogue.
Matt
Skiba, Dan Andriano and Derek Grant looked so
comfortable on stage that there was hardly any
interaction between the band and the crowd and
there was hardly any movement on stage with the
band members sticking to their respective spots
on stage and normally this would be met with a
lot of criticism but Alkaline Trio nailed it tonight
they came across as a band who were there to let
their music do the talking and that is exactly
what happened as they had hundreds of fans singing
along word for word in excitement through their
whole set and it was truly epic to experience
and be a part of.
Their
set featured the likes of ‘Private Eye’,
‘Im Only Here To Disappoint’, ‘My
Friend Peter’, ‘In Vein’, ‘This
Addiction’, ‘She Took Him To The Lake’,
‘All On Black’, ‘Blue Carolina’,
‘Young Lovers’ but it was the likes
of ‘This Could Be Love’, ‘Warbrain’
and ‘Radio’ which got the biggest
reactions from the crowd especially ‘Radio’
with hundreds of fans singing loud “Shaking
like a dog shitting razor blades”, as Alkaline
Trio left the stage you could see the gleaming
smile of so many fans who were truly entertained.
Up
next were the main headliners NOFX and they took
a casual approach to taking to the stage by taking
to the stage one by one whilst the venues house
lights were still on and straight away all eyes
were on Fat Mike who took to the stage in a figure
hugging pink dress and preceded to spend the next
5minutes having banter with the crowd and talking
about anything and everything that came into his
head and then suddenly the house lights dimmed
as NOFX started off with the perfect opening song
‘60%’ which starts off slow paced
and then midway becomes fast paced which lead
to guitarist
Eric Melvin jumping highly all over the stage
and from this moment the rest of the night was
an high energy experience with plenty of hilarious
banter thrown in for good measures.
Through their set NOFX managed to play a mammoth
27 songs which is not surprising considering that
they are the kings of fast paced punk rock music
and it was like a massive greatest hits set with
the likes of ‘Dinosaurs will Die’,
‘Louise’, ‘Dig’, ‘Eat
The Meek’, ‘Stickin’ In My Eye’,
‘Bob’, ’72 Hookers’, ‘Fuck
The Kids’, ‘Linoleum’ all being
played alongside various cover songs of classic
Rancid and Tony
Sly songs which were obviously dedicated to one
of Fat Mikes best friends the late Tony Sly.
NOFX easily proved that they were worthy headliners
tonight but then who is going to disagree when
the band have been brightening up people’s
lives for well over 30 years now and their front
man Fat Mike is pretty much the king of punk rock
with his record label Fat Wreck Chords which has
seen some amazing bands and album releases over
the years.
Overall tonight was a perfect night for any punk
rock fan as they had the experience of seeing
Lagwagon perform songs from their first album
in over ten years, they had the dark and seriousness
of Alkaline Trio and then the comedy value and
spot on punk rock songs from NOFX.
Lagwagon – 4/5
Alkaline Trio 4/5
NOFX – 4/5
Review By Trigger
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