Robyn Writes

Alkaline Trio – 21/5/10 [O2 Academy Birmingham]

To view photos for this show, see my Flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/twobeatsoff/

There was a lot of trouble concerning this show. To begin with, I wasn’t even planning on going – I was going to catch the 30th anniversary Bad Religion show instead. However, my friend bought a ticket and wanted me to go with her, so I gave up on the Bad Religion (I could always dream that they were doing Reading Festival this year) and booked myself in. That same friend then didn’t get her ticket in time for the show and couldn’t go. It could have potentially turned into a disaster, but I’d persuaded Kitteh to come along a couple of weeks previously, so everything was just peachy in the end.

Alkaline Trio are always one of those bands that I’d missed on pretty much every tour they ever did. Even if I was in the same vicinity as them, I ended up missing them, which I found pretty weird for one of my favourite bands. I put it partly down to transport – I used to have to get my dad to drive me everywhere – and also down to lots of other bands touring at the same time. When you’re relying on other people to get you there, you have to go with what they say. So term time means easy access to Birmingham, which means I get to go to shit. And then get yelled at by my mother for spending money. However, I think if she’d have witnessed the Alkaline Trio set, she’d heartily approve.

First up on the bill were Me Vs Hero, a pop-punk band from Blackpool. Well, I say pop-punk, but this sure as hell wasn’t some Fall Out Boy shit – this was from the new school of pop-punk spliced with hardcore, which is precisely what I like. They were much better than I expected them to be, but then I realised that they would be when I saw their baseball t-shirts at the merch stand. To get a clear idea of their sound, imagine New Found Glory but with a lot more breakdowns and a lot more British. Though they may be lacking the diversity of NFG’s sound, they certainly weren’t lacking the passion and played brilliantly. The set was ridiculously fun, and I can tell that I’ll be hearing a lot more from them. The ‘pop-core’ sound is perfect for the summer and it wouldn’t surprise me to see a lot more jumping around, hair flying everywhere and sweet, sweet breakdowns at Reading. Even if their guitarist did have some very girly sounding screams.

Next up were Set Your Goals, also on Epitaph, which I suppose links how they were playing with Alkaline Trio. I thought that the two supporting bands possibly didn’t fit so well with the headliner, but even so, I was glad they were there. Would it be going too far to suggest that Set Your Goals were the best band of the evening? I certainly don’t think so. I saw SYG at Reading and, if I’m being honest, wasn’t all that impressed. Their sound was a bit weak then, but they had no problem owning the venue tonight with their own brand of pop-punk. Despite the lack of a circlepit, the set was excessively fun as they whipped out some old material in the form of ‘Goonies Never Say Die’ and some new stuff from their latest release, ‘This Will Be The Death Of Us’. The dual vocalist effect worked much better here than at Reading, but even so, I’d love to see Set Your Goals in a much smaller venue, as I think that’s where their sound would come out best. Not to mention the crowd would probably go fucking mental. Kitteh was very enthralled with Audelio’s screams as he threw his guitar at Jordan and took centre stage to show us all how to growl like a real man! The new material sounded absolutely stellar and I’m very much looking forwards to their next headline tour.

Alkaline Trio had the best opening of any band ever. Even better than when Story Of The Year came on to the Star Wars theme. Only Alkaline Trio can get away with dancing onto the stage to a bit of ghoulish pop. Fresh off their European tour, Alkaline Trio were headlining a big tour across the UK and Birmingham was the first to witness it. Dan Andriano came out with a fantastic beard, Matt Skiba had a proper old man cap… oh, if only fightclubsandwich were there. That was probably the most accessible part of their set however, because if you weren’t a huge Alkaline Trio fan, you’d have been entirely lost by half of their set. While they covered a couple of singles like ‘Private Eye’, ‘Stupid Kid’ and ‘We’ve Had Enough’, the vast majority of their set was built up of ‘From Here To Infirmary’ material and previous, leaving much of the audience lost, including Kitteh. However, I’ve been listening to this shit since I was 10, so I was alright. Even if you didn’t get their set so much, you could still appreciate the performance, as it was absolutely blinding. Their skill as musicians was certainly showcased well as the band swapped around for the encore with Dan on guitar and Matt on drums, and he certainly mixed up his vocals gloriously throughout the rest of the show, displaying that yes, Alkaline Trio aren’t just revered for their dark, tongue in cheek lyrics. Even though there was plenty of that on show with ‘Mr Chainsaw’ and my own personal favourite, ‘This Could Be Love’. The crowd were possibly not as responsive as the band would have liked, as they cracked jokes and tried to get a bit more of a reaction. However, we were the first show on the tour, so the band could possibly have been testing the waters. Whatever it was, it didn’t work and sadly, a lot of the people around me were not having as good as time as they should have been. I don’t attribute this to the band, but to the twelve year old dickheads who didn’t know what the fuck to do. That said, the Trio could have picked a better set list with a few more of the singles. It was actually a reasonably low-key set, as they played a lot of their more mellow material. There was something for everyone though in their 90 minute set, as they finished on classic ‘Radio’. They might have been better off ending on a slightly more high-energy song, but it kept the fans happy and I was definitely surprised and delighted to see it played. It’s plain to see that Alkaline Trio are still kicking and have bounced back spectacularly with latest album, ‘This Addiction’. Here’s hoping that next time they return, we’re all a bit better prepared.

Live: Reel Big Fish – O2 Academy Birmingham, 25/1/10

Monday night’s alright for skanking, or so they say, so I headed on down to Birmingham to catch me some Reel Big Fish and ditch those January blues. I must admit, I was pretty damn excited about going to this show. First of all, the mere prospect of Reel Big Fish gets me more excited than fat Twihards watching Robert Pattinson documentaries. Despite Matt Wong’s departure last year, I knew that I was most likely in for some fun. Secondly, it was in the new Academy, which I had never visited before; this particularly reveals a lot about my current taste in music, I believe, as well as my favourite bands’ sucky touring schedules. Thirdly, it was my first ‘big’ gig of the year. And finally, it meant getting off campus, which believe me, can be a real joy.

I think it’s important that I start with my views on the new Academy building. It’s just as close to the train station, if not closer, and brings me past the comic book shop on the way. That’s pretty awesome. We didn’t encounter priority entrance as such, but having our tickets already got us in there pretty swiftly and up until this point, I was pretty psyched. However, upon stepping inside, I was disappointed. It’s bigger, it’s cleaner, it’s brighter, but those aren’t necessarily good things. Perhaps I’m just lost in the memories I have of the old Academy building – I went to my first show there, I’ve seen all my favourite bands there, I’ve generally spent some of the best nights of my life there – and I’m old and bitter and therefore unable to adapt to the new. No matter what though, the drinks are still way too fucking expensive. One thing I can’t fathom about the venue though is that the balcony is now all seated. I suppose it lets them get more people in there, but personally, it seems utterly pointless when many gigs only have the stalls open. Anyway, I’m pretty sure I’ll learn to love the new building, but right now… not feeling it.

So, bands! Sonic Boom Six opened up and I arrived about a third of the way through their set. I’ve never really been a massive SBS fan, but then again, I’ve never listened to many of their songs. I was reasonably impressed. Admittedly, their best songs were the ones where they brought in the horn section from Big D And The Kids Table to come and help out, and I found it really quite strange that they didn’t have a horn section. However, this wasn’t entirely a problem. Their sound has echoes of second wave ska (they even partly covered Ghost Town) and was a little bit more punk than the rest of the offerings that evening. The dual guy/girl vocals were pretty interesting (and she had killer hair!) and overall, they were quite good to watch.

However, SBS could not compare to Big D And The Kids Table at all. Big D are one of those bands that I really like, but I don’t have any of their material and end up listening to the same three or four songs that happen to be on their Myspace at the time. But there are two things I know about Big D. First of all, their saxophone player is hot. Secondly, they are awesome. Live, they’re pretty impressive. No bands suffered from sound problems at all that night, but Big D just sounded so much better than SBS. They have backing singers who dance by the screen, which is the epitome of cool, especially in their matching hounds tooth dresses. And you do not need the words to have a good time. Big D have some real easy going songs and then some pretty upbeat ones that are hella easy to skank to. They played a very varied set, accommodating the best from all of their albums (as far as I could tell), and promoted the new one well. If these guys roll into your town, go and check them out because you’ll have a hell of a lot of fun.

And holy shit, Reel Big Fish were so good! My expectations were fully realised that night. As soon as they opened with Sell Out, I knew that it was going to be a killer set. Everyone was dancing, everyone was having fun and quite rightfully! The little bromance between Aaron and Scott is always amusing, and they were on fine form. They played all the classics – Beer, Take On Me, Where Have You Been?, Don’t Start A Band, She Has A Girlfriend Now, etc etc – and absolutely owned the venue. It’s true, it was kind of lame that Matt wasn’t there, and as fightclubsandwich has said, “No Wong, no deal!” but to be honest, Reel Big Fish have always been just as energetic, just as fun, just as great no matter what the lineup. The encore was potentially one of the best I’ve ever witnessed in my life as they rattled through various different musical styles whilst playing S.R. (even death metal!) and whilst RBF might not be “MASTERS!” of all the musical styles in the world, they certainly are masters of their craft. Which is hella awesome ska.

Live: Never Say Die! 2010 – O2 Academy Birmingham, 31/10/10

The minute I stepped through the door, I thought ‘I shouldn’t be here’. It was Halloween, Kitteh and I thought that we should do something because neither of us could do our usual respective Halloween activities and we chanced upon Parkway Drive and Comeback Kid touring together. “You wanna do it?” “Hell yeah I wanna do it!” and the tickets were booked. But stepping through the doors, into a barrage of scene mullets, fat girls with too much eyeliner and brightly coloured band t-shirts (seriously, what happened to black?), was almost too much to handle. I guess I forgot that hardcore is a bit ridiculous these days.

At the merch stand, Kitteh got major props from Bleeding Through’s super awesome keyboardist Marta (“That necklace is soooo cool, where did you get it?!” “To be honest, Claire’s… the Halloween stuff is surprisingly good.” “No way!!”), I picked up a bitchin’ Comeback Kid shirt and we kicked back, relaxed, paid far too much for a VK and a coke and waited for the next band to come on, having already missed We Came As Romans, who I’m sure were very good as they had dinosaurs on their t-shirts. Your Demise, who to my surprise were British, came on and we ventured on in. Despite being just the second band on, they had a lot of support from the audience who two-stepped and floor-punched their way into a frenzy. Your Demise are great hardcore – absolutely full of energy with enough melody to actually make a song while still being heavy as fuck. They’re not too serious, but it was clear that there was a lot more depth than just ‘mosh mosh mosh’ in their sound. War From A Harlot’s Mouth were up next, but they didn’t leave a lasting impression. They were vaguely akin to Caliban, so in other words, heavy German metalcore. You get the picture.

Emmure, however, were something incredible. Glorious deathcore hailing from various parts of the US, they shocked and awed the crowd with an amazing performance. Vocalist Frankie Palmeri has a voice that sounds like a bowel movement in his throat – deep, distressing and potentially cathartic. Emmure are an insanely intense band; every song is like a direct assault. There’s no bullshit either; the band’s there to play, not chat to the teenies on the front row. I wasn’t in the mosh, but I believed it to be brutal, much like the sound coming out of the speakers. It’s impressive stuff, so definitely check them out if they’re over again.

Bleeding Through are a band that Kitteh and I have been waiting to see for a while. And oh man, they were definitely the heaviest band of the night. Marta is just so impressive to behold – the headbanging whilst rocking the keyboards was so intense she probably got some kind of concussion. The songs from the latest release sound amazing and the band were on top form. They’re so typically American though – Brandon says thank you after every song, everything’s posi until they tell us they’re enemies of everything and I dunno, it gave the set a bit of a weird feel. However, it’s forgivable because Brandon is ridiculously beef. So so beef.

Comeback Kid are also in the same boat – they’re a band I’ve been wanting to see for absolutely ages. And they delivered, holy shit they delivered. They also played a lot from their latest release and the new songs sound great; that perfect mix of crushing yet melodic hardcore that Comeback Kid are renowned for. I got a bit too excited when they played Broadcasting. The sound wasn’t as good for Comeback Kid as it should have been – the levels were a bit off, but nevertheless, it was an exciting set. While they may not be quite as fun to watch as bands like Your Demise and headliners Parkway Drive (who to be fair, are just mental), they’re certainly captivating. Not the best set of the evening but pretty damn close.

The best set of the evening, truly, must be reserved for Parkway Drive. It may have been their first time in Birmingham, but they owned the venue entirely. The set was divided into two halves – they played songs from Deep Blue, the new album first, and then a mix from Horizons and Killing With A Smile. When I say two halves, I literally mean that – a quick break in the set to change the back drop, put out some palm trees and to try and make it feel a bit more like Byron Bay. Dinghies and beach balls all inclusive too. The sound was sorted out entirely and every note in Winston’s growl was audible all the way to the back. Parkway Drive are excellent showmen – there was a mini circle pit on stage, they got the crowd going insane over an Australian football and you felt like you were part of something grander. The inclusion of older songs in the set was pretty impressive, especially Romance Is Dead and Guns For Show, Knives For A Pro, which sounded amazing. As a devotee to Killing With A Smile, I was happy. When I say I’ve never seen anything quite like it, that’s not hyperbole, that’s fact – Parkway Drive are just insane live, and insanely good at that. The new giants of hardcore are here.

Live: Motion City Soundtrack – O2 Academy Birmingham 2, 28/3/10

This show almost never happened for me. As a planned birthday present for my father (because he is rad), I asked him whether he would like to go, seeing as he’d have to drive there. He initially said no, but about a week later, he popped his head around my door in the middle of a busy FF session and said ‘let’s do it’. So, being in the middle of FFXIII, I decided to wait until the morning to book tickets where I found, much to my chagrin, they were all sold out. Bummer. However, my dad is an absolute hero and got us tickets anyway, and I bought him some Jason Statham DVDs for his birthday instead. Everyone’s a winner.

I had a much less arduous journey on my hands this time, but we still ended up late, as is my family’s tradition whenever we attend anything. However, in the case of Jenny Owen Youngs, this wasn’t exactly a bad thing. Indie rock with a touch of country and the most irritating vocals I’ve heard in a long time. Even more irritating than the guy from Kyoto Drive the day before. The rest of the music wasn’t too bad – a little cliché, but on the whole, it sounded pretty okay. Just… bleh, those vocals! Something was dying up there. She had bitchin’ hair though. Do want.

With that out of the way, next band up, Free Energy were pretty sweet. Now, they had the most awful lyrics I’ve heard in possibly forever (“bang bang, pop pop”? What the, what the fuck?) but on the whole, they were good! An odd choice to support a band like Motion City Soundtrack due to their general hippie rock feel – doubly defined by the hair on show – but they had some seriously feel good songs. There’s too much negativity in rock music these days and we need bands like Free Energy to shake it up a bit. Lots of finger tapping, cowbell and an extremely skinny singer strutting across the stage. Possibly a throwback to the 80s, but let’s face it… they were the best decade.

I was pretty excited for Motion City Soundtrack to be coming out. Having listened to My Dinosaur Life a couple of times before the show, I knew that in the studio, they hadn’t changed at all. In fact, it was even an improvement on Even If It Kills Me, despite that being a brilliant album. It turns out that I was entirely right to be excited as Motion City Soundtrack are just great performers. My one lament is that Jesse didn’t have his bendy keyboard stand, but on a stage that small, I can see how that might not have worked so well. Asides from that notion, they were so good. They played one of the best sets I’ve seen any band play, with a shit ton of stuff from I Am The Movie (my favourite), including “The Red Dress”, which I never imagined would happen, and the rest of the songs came from across the board – in fact, here’s the setlist. The new material sounds great live, except the keyboard is a little lacking live, but I think that’s a problem to do with levels and seems to be consistent whenever anybody with a synth is playing anywhere. Justin still has crazy hair and is the perfect gentleman, and I wish to steal his Keyboard Cat shirt. One thing I really appreciate about Motion City Soundtrack is that they actually look like they want to be there – there were smiles all around the band and the crowd! It’d been four years since I’d seen Motion City Soundtrack, all the way back when Give It A Name was still being done in Birmingham, and in fact, four years since the band had toured over here. At the end of the night, Justin told us “it’s been far too long and I promise it’ll never be this long again”. Let’s hope not, because the UK needs Motion City Soundtrack.

Less Than Jake – O2 Academy Birmingham, 9/11/08 (a review by Ripper)

Now, I’m a Less Than Jake virgin. Wait, make that a ska virgin. It’s true! Of all the shows I have ever been to, I have never experienced a major band ska show. I’ve been to local ska shows, but around my area, that just means that the band’s attempting to be [spunge] and nobody’s skanking.

So, when I turned up to the Academy, in the pouring down rain, I didn’t quite know what to expect.

Also, I should mention here that fightclubsandwich was also at the show, and in between every band, me and my boyfriend searched in vain for her, believing that she still had pink hair. She didn’t tell us she’d dyed it back to black. So, we gave up in the end, until she came dancing over during LTJ’s set. We TBO girls really need to co-ordinate ourselves better.

For one of the first times in my life, I didn’t miss the support bands. First up were Imperial Leisure, a British band with a unique mix of ska and hip-hop. There were literally a sea of people skanking, and it was good to see a support band with so much… support! They were a lot of fun, but they’re potentially controversial in the way that ska fans will either love them or hate them. It’s definitely not traditional ska that Imperial Leisure are playing, but it works.

Beat Union were up next, and to begin with, I wasn’t enamoured. The type of bands they’ve supported in past put me off, the main one of these being Good Charlotte. I actually like GC, but they have a habit of playing with notoriously bad support bands (I think the main exception to that is Millencolin, who I actually preferred to GC when I saw them a few years ago). However, after a couple of songs, I was pleasantly surprised. Pop-punk with more emphasis on the punk, they played loud and energetically. Obviously influenced by the Police, they incorporated a more laidback style into some of their songs which worked well. They were my boyfriend’s favourite band of the night, and what pleased him even more was that they were local lads. Nevertheless, they played well and got the crowd going.

The third band on the bill was Pepper, a ska band hailing from Florida. Pepper are very much influenced by Sublime, and you can tell. Not that that’s a bad thing, though. Their laidback ska grooves were great, and it amused me greatly how every member of the band was wearing shorts in Birmingham, of all places. Their onset jokes were funny though crude. I found a lot of it funny, but when they started joking about weed, I wasn’t impressed. It doesn’t take much to stereotype ska fans, unfortunately, and they did it with ease. However, the songs were good and the brief cover of Bro Hymn by Pennywise went down well.

Finally, the band in question. Less Than Jake. fightclubsandwich and I disagreed on a few aspects of this show, but LTJ was one where we couldn’t help but to agree. They were awesome. It’s actually impossible to go to a Less Than Jake gig and come out with a frown on your face. I haven’t heard a lot of the new album, but the songs from GNV FLA came across as some of the strongest, as well as tons of classics from Hello Rockview, Borders And Boundaries, Anthem and even a couple of songs from even earlier were played. I was very pleased by the amount of Anthem material, because that was the album of 2003 for me, and songs where I actually knew the words! I’m abysmal when it comes to song lyrics. It was an extremely entertaining set. Bad jokes from the brass section! Heavy metal scream contests! Making fun of security guards! It felt good to laugh at a show again. LTJ’s sound was also incredible, making up for the bad levels in previous sets. Everyone was dancing, everyone was singing, everyone was having a good time. And that’s what a show should be like.

The truth is, whether you’re a Less Than Jake fan or not, it’s hard to deny that cheeky grin creeping up on your face when they’re playing. This band is essential for everyone, especially in a scene now dominated by depressing haircuts and suicidal lyrics. And hey, who doesn’t like trombones?