Playing in front of a predominantly teen girl audience must be dream come true for the five lads in the band. At each note from the dark stage beforehand as part of the soundcheck a huge roar of approval would go up and I had done my homework by finding my copy of No Pads, No HelmetsÂ… Just Balls and giving the skater sounding boys a couple of listens.
But they took me by surprise, they were so much fuller sounding and edgier than the CD suggests, more pumped up with some lovely crunching riffs occasionally emanating from them as they threw themselves off anything high. The bass player sounded a bit shot away and got angry with his bass throwing it into the bass bins and yelling a few verses before someone backstage found him another one.
But his antics, understated some great basslines and the rest of the band were clearly playing very much inside their abilities. I wonder whether they'd prefer to be a little harder edged! Both Worst Day Ever and I'd Do Anything were much more hybrid rock than they were on the album and the new songs were meatier much more Sum 41 than Busted!
The elder element of the crowd were clearly here for Simple Plan and a belting version of Addicted took the band by surprise who thanked everyone for knowing the words and creating a great atmosphere. Fills played by either guitarist between the tunes mainly from their first album had me guessing ACDC, Pantera, Metallica before they resumed their own light metal.
But before the end they let us all rock out with their own pumped up version of the Darkness' Thing Called Love and we all go mental!
They're a great band, highly entertaining live, much more my cup of tea than Avril, and I'm sure that they'll be back on these shores as headliners next time. I'll certainly be checking out the new album released at the end of the month! The three or four tunes they played from it sounded pretty strong.
article by: Scott Williams
photos by: Karen Williams
published: 11/10/2004 11:04
FUTURE GIGS
sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.