AFI / The Explosion

On a cold October evening the dingy bowels of the Birmingham Carling Academy seemed heavenly, and the music wasn’t half-bad either. The Explosion were supporting and did a fantastic job in building a responsive and lively atmosphere amongst the audience, managing to get a bunch of fashion conscious adolescents to dance, which is an impressive feat.

The atmosphere dipped somewhat during the long wait for AFI to enter the stage but it was kept alive with verbal displays of devotion from the fans. When they did arrive, the most prominent feature was how aesthetically pleasing the whole show was. The band wore pure white clothes and the lighting consisted of a selection of pale hues, which was an extremely impressive representation of the bleak concept art and lyrical theme 'Here it is December every day' associated with their new album: ‘December Underground’.

The lighting was quite dynamic, though, and regularly changed to suit the theme of the songs. For example a deep, angry red was used for the heavier songs, which really helped create a mood with imagery to accompany the music. The band themselves were very entertaining to watch, especially the lead singer ‘Davey Havoc’, not only because of their makeup, floppy oversized fringes and fake eyelashes, but also because they were so animated. As for the music: Amazing. They played brilliantly with seemingly inexhaustible energy and enjoyment, whether it was for the slower, more emotional songs, or the loud ‘punky’ riffs that populate the rest of their music.

Although the set mainly consisted of newer songs, the band did give their old classics a look in. The crowd seemed particularly pleased about anything off ‘The Art Of Drowning’ album. The varied sounds of AFI made it a very interesting show, because there are so many different styles produced, (from intimate slow songs to really heavy songs with epic solos) within the genre while still retaining a relevance to the concept and a recognisable sound. This variety was complemented by the tasteful cover of a ‘Robert Smith’ song, which pleased many older members of the audience, and perhaps inspired the younger members to give ‘The Cure’ a look in.

All in all the show was amazing to watch and it is difficult to find anything wrong with it. I haven’t really followed ‘AFI’ and have heard a minimal amount of their music, but despite this disadvantage I still found it to be one of the most enjoyable gigs of the year, and it has certainly inspired me to add their records to my collection.

FUTURE GIGS

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