Presidents
Of United States Of America
Straight Lines
Bristol, Academy
8th March 2012
Straight
Lines were the one and only support for The Presidents
Of United States Of America tonight and from the
start I felt very sorry for them as they played
to a maximum of 200 people and there were only
a couple of people actually getting into it jumping
around and bopping along and this seemed to of
played on the mind of Straight Lines a bit as
throughout their 30minute set there was a massive
lack of drive and atmosphere. The band did play
a number of great songs such as ‘Set Me
On Fire’, ‘Say It For your Sake’,
‘Ring The Bells’ and their latest
single ‘Half Gone’ but sadly it was
only appreciated by a handful of people, Tom Jenkins
did spent a bit of time interacting with the crowd
telling them that they had merch for sale but
I would be majorly surprised if they sold much
tonight, despite tonight not being Straight Lines
night I still think
they are a band worth keeping an eye on over the
next couple of months as they are due to release
their new album ‘Freaks Like Us’ in
April which I have high hopes for and I am sure
that if they were playing to a room of their own
fans tonight it would of been a whole different
experience.
The last time Presidents Of United States Of America
toured the UK was back in 2008 and I happened
to see them here in Bristol Academy on that tour
and thought the band were one of the most randomly
energetic bands I had ever seen so tonight I had
high expectations especially considering that
they were playing their debut album all the way
through.
The wait between Straight Lines and the Presidents
Of United States Of America felt like forever
but as soon as the lights dimmed and an announcement
shouted “put your hands together for the
Presidents Of United States Of America’,
the now filled up Academy
was buzzing with excitement, the band walked onto
the stage and Chris spoke to the crowd briefly
saying “Sorry it has taken us so long to
come back but it is great to be back in Bristol
and for the opening night of the tour”,
the band then blasted straight into ‘Rot
In The Sun’ which was played with so much
energy with Chris jumping across the stage like
a teenager every time he moved away from his microphone.
The first 5 songs that the Presidents played were
classics but not from their debut album however
they were still crowd pleasers with everyone going
crazy singing-a-long to the likes of ‘Ladybug
and ‘Mach 5’ but after a quick random
rendition of ‘Jeff Johns Song’ Chris
spoke to the crowd again saying “I bet you
feel a bit short changed as we have yet played
anything from our debut, how about we start now
and play it from start to finish”, this
was met with massive cheers as the band launched
into ‘Kitty’.
The
playing of their debut album breezed past with
each and every song getting a big reaction but
it was ‘Peaches’ and ‘Back Porch’
which really got the crowd moving tonight with
everyone in the mosh pit jumping up and down in
time chanting the random lyrics back to the Presidents.
After playing the debut in its entirety the Presidents
played three more tracks with ‘Video Killed
The Radio Star’ being the climax before
the encore, the Presidents then came back on to
play ‘Ghosts Are Everywhere’, ‘Nuthin
Bu Luv’ and set closer ‘More Bad Times’.
It is not often that you watch a high profile
band headline with no stage show at all but the
Presidents played with a basic set up and a basic
lighting show but still had the crowd in the
palm of their hand from start to finish and their
fast paced stage antics and classic songs was
enough to keep everyone smiling and a few basic
tricks such as playing in darkness and encouraging
the crowd to go back to the feel of the 70’s
with lighters in the air to light up the venue
and also Chris and Andrew swapping instruments.
It is safe to say that every Presidents Of The
United States Of America show is going to be a
blast and tonight they proved despite having no
new material that they are still relevant can
still sell out venues and can put a smile on thousands
of peoples faces at a time.
Straight Lines – 3/5
Presidents Of United States Of America –
5/5
Review By Trigger
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