The Prince of Wales in Leamington is a charming “pub lounge” at the end of Warwick Street. It’s got kooky decorations (including a very weird lampshade with naked Barbies attached to it), comfortable and stylish seating and a nice little conservatory space at the back. This space regularly gets overtaken with rowdy bands. Tonight was We Are Fiction’s turn.
Rewards and Revenge were support for this show. They were alright. Well, okay, they were more than alright, but they were also pretty much just a covers band. If they had any of their own songs, they blended so much into the covers material that they were doing that it was just unnoticeable. There were indeed a lot of fun covers – a bit of Blitzkrieg Bop, I Fought The Law and Kick Out The Jams went down very well – but ultimately, they borrowed too much of the 70s and 80s and didn’t bring their own twist to it. However, they were perfectly accomplished with a clear talent for performing. Perhaps in time, they’ll come to find their own sound and no doubt when they do, it’ll be pretty impressive.
We Are Fiction… oh my. At the beginning of the set, vocalist Phil warned everyone to keep back because they like to move and my gosh, do they. The band have so much energy and were thrashing about on the floor and jumping off unstable sideboards like there was no tomorrow. They played an average length set – about 40 minutes – but looked as if they could have played all night, which is actually awesome because it’s great to see a band really loving what they do. They played a mixture of old and new songs (which were thankfully described in the right way – although I have listened to the band before and enjoyed them on record, I’m not totally up to date with it all) which went down well. Finishing on old favourite Sail On was a great move as the crowd had microphones shoved in their face and Chris tried to sing in tune. Bless. The dynamics between members were fantastic – the dual vocalist approach that everyone’s after these days has been perfected in We Are Fiction, with Phil’s rasping scream being perfectly countered by Marc’s impassioned clean vocals. The band are really together, no doubt aided by Tom’s incredible drumming; dubstep beats? No problem. But most importantly, We Are Fiction are so much fun – they banter, they throw themselves into each other while remaining perfectly on task and they rule. Simple as.
The US has its own particular brand of post-hardcore coming out at the moment, with bands such as letlive., Touche Amore and Tiger’s Jaw all contributing to “The Wave”. Britain certainly has its rival wave, in bands like Deaf Havana, Lower Than Atlantis and of course, We Are Fiction. It’s difficult to determine whether we or our American friends have the better scene at the moment, but at the very least, We Are Fiction are at the forefront of ours and they deserve all the accolades you can throw at them. That was probably one of the best performances I’ve seen all year. Make sure you don’t miss them when they hit up your town.