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| Young Guns |
My first impression of the queue winding its way around Wolverhampton was how young everyone looked; my second was how many different hair colours there were! Although it was bloody freezing outside, being able to watch the anticipation build up, and hear the excited girly screams from fans really added to the atmosphere.
Opening up the show was young English based band ‘Marmozets’, and I’ll be honest their raucous, screamo metal, was not my cup of tea at all. It sounded like someone trying to sing over the top of a boeing 747 taking off! When lead singer Becca Macintyre sung normally she had a pleasant voice but unfortunately for me, those intervals were much too sparse. I can’t even rave about their energy because when they came on Becca told us she’d dislocated her knee, (ouch!) but it reflected in her performance, she seemed very subdued and possibly in quite a bit of pain. There was an awkward moment when it looked like one of the guitarists had attempted to climb on top of the speakers and got stuck mid-way and was left with legs flailing like an upside down beetle on the carpet, funny, but not very rock and roll. These guys are young and they’ve done incredibly well to get where they are by doing their thing, it’s just not my thing.
Following on was ‘Your
Demise’, a hardcore punk band with similarities to ‘Bring me the Horizon’ and ‘While
she sleeps’. When the bass and drums kicked in the room was literally
vibrating, it felt like having a cardiac massage, these guys were brutal, or is
that Br00t47?! I feel a bit hypocritical saying this, but these guys rocked! The
lyrics were still fairly inaudible but the driving force of these guys took
everyone’s breath away. ‘Scared of the
light’ ‘MMX’ and ‘Forget about me’ in particular seemed to
generate a lot of excitement from the audience, with circle pits and crowd
surfing a plenty. What I liked about this band was the ease of which front man Ed McRae got the audience participating.
At one point he had everyone crouched down on the floor ready to jump in the
air when the beat dropped, it was seriously impressive. What’s more the guys
looked like they were really enjoying themselves performing, and that energy
was certainly infectious, it was great to see everyone really letting go.
Next on the bill all the way from America was fresh faced ‘We are the in crowd’. These guys were
slightly softer, so the pace of the evening was slowed down just a fraction. With
a glossy, well-polished and much friendlier rock sound they reminded me of ‘Paramore’. The band had a vibrant, fun
air about them and the dual vocals from front woman Tay Jardine and guitarist/joint vocalist Jordan Eckes added a unique touch to their sound. The band certainly
seemed in their element up on stage, and the crowd lapped up songs such as ‘Rumour Mill’ and ‘Kiss me again’. I liked these guys, and my ears were certainly grateful
of the chance to recover a little bit.Finally it was time for the much anticipated headliners ‘Young Guns’. They walked on stage to flashing lights, drumrolls and the entire audience screaming and cheering, it felt like something momentous was about to happen – I could feel it in my bones! I reviewed the album ‘Bones’ when it first came out back in February this year, and while I enjoyed it, I was concerned that it was very similar to their debut album ‘All our Kings are dead’, that opinion hasn’t changed, but what Young Guns do they do fantastically. Each and every song they played was packed with energy, feeling and sounded exactly as it does on the album, which is very rare. These boys are definitely at their best when they’re on stage performing to an eager and excited audience. They played all the favourites, including ‘Winter kiss’, ‘There will be rain’ and ‘Towers (on my way)’, my personal favourite from the evening was ‘You are not’ because I could really sense the emotion behind the lyrics.
One of the great things about Young Guns is even though they shot to fame in a seemingly short time;
they’ve kept themselves very grounded. They’re still signing merch’, talking to
fans and paying genuine interest to the people who are supporting them, it’s
refreshing to see. I’ve not had the chance to have a chat with any of them yet,
but I’m hoping that will change in the near future. I had a great time; and
judging by the hordes of people coming out drenched in sweat with huge smiles
on their faces, I wasn’t the only one.
