 Getting
into the Academy 2 tonight, no problems what so
ever, Easy, its good to have a night like this!
First up were Franko, an indie rock band from
the UK, they Open there set with 'Waiting', its
an OK opener but not that memorable, like the
rest of there set it all seemed a bit bland, the
crows, on the other hand were eating it up. There
set wasn't all bad, it had moments when it got
a tad catchy, but seemed very generic at times.
The solos while decent, seemed like very throwaway
stuff, its not something that was memorable or
made the song. They put on a decent show, and
were very well received by the crowd, but it felt
like for me this is something ive seen before
and im going to see it repeated many times after
that.
Next up and main headline act were, Me vs Hero,
a pop/punk rock band, very lively from the off,
opening there set with 'what seems to be the officer
problem?' a fairly catchy song for sure, but it
seems it could have been done by any of the million
pop punk bands out there, theres nothing in this
set to seperate them from other bands in there
genre, the crowd loved there set which included
'Hand me the Keys to the Massey', 'Spiceweasel
Bam','Upbeat', Star Raiders and Space Invaders
and set closer 'Days that shape our Lives' which
was pretty much the nest song in there set, again
the crowd loved it, and a nice touch was them
getting the crowd to sing happy birthday to a
lucky fan in the room, with simple drumming and
at times bland guitar riffs, the only thing i
enjoyed was the last song and that visually they
put on a good show.
 Elliot Minor, a band i have seen 3 times this
year already, and i have to admit i was starting
to get a tad bored of a pretty much predictable
set, Parallel worlds was getting really old on
me now, im not sure how some fans still love it.
But tonight, was the best they've ever sounded
they were even heavy at times, could have been
down to the mix, but i liked what i was hearing.
Jessica sounded pretty decent too. Ali the keyboard
player was made to say a few words after the crowd
and band members forced him center stage, the
band said that Birmingham crowds are there favorites.
Alex seemed to have been playing a little less
than usual as he spent more time singing than
playing and singing at the same time. A strange
thing i noticed was that at times they sounded
like Fightstar, perhaps that's what a heavy Elliot
Minor sound like! Songs that featured included,
'Running away' which had 'Time after time' whacked
on to it, 'Still Figuring out', they palyed a
few songs off there latest album as well, which
included 'Discover(why love hurts),'I Believe','The
Dancer' and set closer Better 'Than the Courtroom'
which made a change from Parallel Worlds although
that was the other song in there encore, i have
to say it is the best ive seen them play and the
crowd had a good time too, it was a solid performance
tonight.
Franko – 3/5
Me Vs Hero 3/5
Elliot Minor 5/5
Review By Robert Lawrence |
