Robyn Writes

Broken bones and broken tours – what are these guys up to?

Right now, the UK is sitting in uncertainty over their tour dates. Andy Biersack from Black Veil Brides broke his nose, so Kitteh’s virtually dying inside to see if they’ll finish off their UK tour (not for BVB you understand… My Passion is her passion). Matt Skiba broke his foot last night, so unless he can get a walking cast, the Alkaline Trio UK tour may not be going underway. The atmosphere in our house is unbelievably tense as we await news bulletins, tweets and Facebook statuses. Tours usually get rescheduled, so we might be overreacting. But these are some of our favourite bands that we’re waiting on – in the case of Alkaline Trio, it’s been over a year since their last UK appearance.

So, should dudes in bands start pulling off dangerous stunts while on tour or just before?

My answer is… yes! Of course they should! In the case of Andy from BVB, he gained his injury on stage, presumably doing what he does best. Skiba was out riding his motorbike when a truck got too close at a traffic light and ran over his foot, leaving both the foot and his ankle pretty badly broken. Part of why we love bands so much is not necessarily for the music – it’s for the personalities behind the music. Without their stage antics, or their constant Twitter updates containing information about all the stupid stuff they’ve been doing lately, would we love them just as much?

The same counts for lesser disasters too. Kitteh recently got bashed in the head by Laurence Rene’s mic at a My Passion gig and ended up with whiplash. She didn’t complain about it, she carried on going mental. When Max Bemis lost his voice at a Say Anything tour (possibly the last date they played in Birmingham actually… Guys, get back over here!), we didn’t stress and neither did he. He picked up an acoustic guitar, sent the band off stage, carried on and had us sing half of the songs. Although those last two examples are barely exploits of rebellion and daring-do, we are prepared to carry on, they are prepared to carry on and if they can’t, shit gets rescheduled. Kitteh comes from a different position – she is pretty upset that she might not be able to see My Passion due to someone else’s mistake. But without that reputation, would My Passion be touring with them in the first place? Probably not.

In times like these, all we can do is wish them the best, hold on to our tickets and play some tunes. And if tours go ahead, we can be safe in the knowledge that we will have one pretty interesting night ahead of us. That Say Anything show, despite being cut short, was one of the greatest nights ever – I made some good friends, Max brought some classics out we may otherwise not have heard and I can say that I’ve seen a performance nobody else has. If tours don’t go ahead… well, it’s not like I have a quiet winter without one show.

We Are Fiction – Prince of Wales Leamington Spa, 14/10/11

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.

The Headstart – The Plug, Birmingham, 25/09/11

A Sunday night in Birmingham couldn’t really get much better. It was a beautiful night, more reminiscent of summer than of autumn, there was some crazy Irish folk coming from the pub next to the venue and a lot of extremely happy looking teenage girls milling about outside The Plug. The Irish folk was tempting, and you can probably hear it on the interview video we did with the band before the show, but we weren’t there for that. We were there for a night of pure pop-punk pleasure with the fellows from The Headstart as they embarked on a headlining tour entitled “It’s Gonna Get Messy”. According to the naked Facebook pictures, it had been getting pretty messy all around the country, but was Birmingham going to shape up to that awesome reputation?

The first band on for Kitteh and I (we arrived slightly late due to camera drop-offs), who I must deduce as Every Inch A King – they mumbled their name – showed miles of promise. Obviously a very young band, they combined some interesting synth work and programming with their sound. Their sound was, however, all over the place. The boys need to sit down and do some serious genre figuring out – was it post-hardcore? Enter Shikari-style trancecore? Pop-punk? Who knew? There’s absolutely nothing wrong with taking a lot of different styles and blending them together in your own way, but there has to be some consistency, which they were sadly lacking. For a relatively new band on the scene, they were pretty tight, although a few slips from the vocalist regarding timing were spotted here and there, but I attributed that mostly to nerves. Also, Chris Martin called and wants his hand movements back! But in all seriousness, give these guys a few years, a few tattoos and no doubt they’ll have completely got it together.

Follow You Home, to be quite honest, were a disgrace. Their music was okay and they were clearly quite well practised together, but the amount of ripped off riffs and vocal lines we heard in their songs was abysmal. In just one song, there was the exact same riff from A’s Nothing in their breakdown, a line from a Framing Hanley song and a very similar, in fact too similar, sequence to Sum 41’s Still Waiting. Having influences is one thing, but taking those influences and claiming them as your own is just wrong, especially when said influences are still in the public memory. A really weren’t that long ago! Their lead singer had absolutely no power behind her voice, leaving her as just another Hayley Williams wannabe in a very difficult scene to crack. They were confident, no doubt, but nothing stood out in their songs until it was a riff that wasn’t entirely their own. The band were getting a fair amount of media attention from Lava TV and got to the top five in Kerrang’s Slam Dunk competition, but it’s just like a majority of the bands in the British scene right now – rip offs of American favourites who will get by on image alone. Which is sad, really.

Chasing Skylines, local Birmingham lads, were a great improvement upon the band before them. Half pop-punk, half classic rock, they powered through a reasonably pleasing set. It wasn’t the most exciting of sets, but the band were pretty tight. One downside was that for all the singer’s theatrics and decent stage presence, his vocals sadly suffered, with his breathing all over the place and a pretty weak effort coming out of his mouth. There were also a lot of unnecessary moshpits invoked – it’s not the sort of music you want to punch someone in the face too, it’s far too light. But anyway, they were fun to watch though and are definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of Don Broco.

The Headstart, the main event, were utterly fantastic. In fact, I felt so sorry that they weren’t getting the love they deserved. They have some really dedicated fans, but not a lot of those seem to be from Birmingham – the majority of the audience left with the support bands and the rest stood stock still, which is not what the boys deserved at all. Despite having only released a single EP so far, their songs are inspiring, extraordinarily well put together and contain a certain hint of nostalgia for the true days of pop-punk while being totally original at the same time, which is a quality that definitely shows through live. The band have so much energy and invest so much in their performance, as well as their interaction with the audience. I suspect on a different night, there might have been some more banter, but the crowd just weren’t responding. Truly, it’s the little things that make their performance – their cheeky banter, the sly ‘I <3 Kyle' on the back of Gaz's guitar, the wary little jumps on a very unstable stage (followed by a big 'ah fuck it' one) amongst other highlights. Their dedication to their fans is also really sweet - they stayed to chat and sign stuff and take photos for a fair while after the set. It's awesome to see such a positive attitude; despite the venue change to the relatively tiny Plug (in comparison to the shiny new HMV Institute), the band made the best of everything and gave it their all. It might not have been the NIA, but just give it some time and hopefully The Headstart will start getting the attention they so completely deserve. I can't wait for the debut album and resulting tour; maybe that one might end up a bit messier than that Sunday night in Birmingham.

Interview with The Headstart, 25/09/11

Check out the band at their Facebook page or their website!

content coming soon!

Hey guys!

I am currently editing an interview with those lovely boys from The Headstart which will be up later today. We’ll also be posting a review of the gig of theirs we went to and one of Merthyr Rock festival when Kitteh gets back from London.

TBO is now back in a normal part of the Midlands so expect waaaay more stuff to start popping up on your page.

Thanks for sticking with us!

xoxo – Ripper