The venue is its normal chaotic self as fans wrestle
to get inside as the queue goes all the way round
the block. The bill tonight is a huge one, topped
by the mighty A Day To Remember, who haven't been
on a UK tour in a while but are hot of the back
of a massive gig at Alexandra Palace where they
filmed a live dvd. The room is bustling and so
the first band takes to the stage.
The
Story So Far are up first and this band sound
like allot like A Day To Remember, heavy flowing
riffs, with crunchy vocals, there's no slowdowns
and harmonies like there headline counterparts
but they're definitely the punky side to them.
The fast circle pit inducing music gets the crowd
instantly pumped with sweat already starting to
form on many a person’s brow. They sound
slightly muffled, but nothing that affects the
enjoyment of seeing a punk band shred and growl
through a set. They aren't too energetic but they
do
move about a little, they play a nice 20 minute
set that gets over what they’re about, and
leaves the crowd pumped for the next act.
Every Time I Die take to the stage and take 5
seconds to blow it up, they are, to me, just noise,
but amazing noise, beautiful angry noise. They
move around the stage like decapitated chickens
whilst thrashing out caterwauling screeches and
angst. It’s hard to detect the last song
from the next apart from the change in pace, it
gets faster and faster as the set progresses with
the crowd going crazy in the pits, jumping and
moshing as if it was all going to end! This band
is the perfect opener as they don't talk too much.
They're constantly moving and it’s hard
not
to move along to their cries of pure passion and
rage! They play a twenty minute set and look completely
knackered towards the end, they take the time
to thank all the bands and take a good look at
the beautiful crowd on Valentine’s Day.
Mallory Knox are up next with a more rhythmic
and slower take on the rock genre that the band
before. They blast onto the stage and get all
the teenage girls screaming, they sound great
and come across crisp and clear as they blast
into the bustling academy. They do a great job
of keeping the energy brimming not quite as chaotic
as before, but a good
sing along vibe never the less. The blokes in
the crowd get into the more refined harmonies
and clean cut guitars and start moshing their
heads along with the girls. By the time the band
hits Death Rattle the crowd are all singing along
and making themselves heard especially in the
oooh oooh oooh part. They do a great job of using
the space around them and it’s clear that
a year of touring has worked well for them as
they seem allot more at ease and work the stage
with pride. Again they take little time to talk
to the crowd, with the occasional thanks for coming,
who's excited for a day to remember. But it’s
fine as we get to
hear more songs including one that is in progress
from their next album. The also play resuscitate
from their Pilot EP which gives the show a heavier
vibe and still reminds me of Down With The Sickness.
They put on a great show and I can’t wait
for their next headline tour to come around.
A Day To Remember don’t have to do allot
of work as this crowd is already warmed up, and
with a nice sing along to System Of A Downs Chop
Suey helps the crowd stay ready before they blast
onto the stage with All I want, I’m Made
Of Wax Larry, What Are You Made Of? And Homesick.
Which sets a statement, we’re here to rock
out and have fun! And they do, they
control the stage and move around the open and
bare stage giving everyone a clear view of each
member no matter where you are in the crowd, they
sound great and are coming across nice and clear
with the dynamic vocals of singer Jeremy McKinnon
dominating the sound to pure bliss. The rest of
the band sound great too, with the heavy guitars
and booming bass all whisping together with the
ever changing pace of the drums, which add something
to this bare stage with their light up LED’s
which shine when the lights go down on the stage.
These Florida pop-punk/hardcore rockers know how
to have fun with the crowd, along with the light
up drums, they have blasting confetti cannons,
and
smoke cannons that blast the crowd and the stage.
They also bring the Beach Balls and flood the
audience with them during 2nd Sucks and Right
Back At It Again. The fans are making the security
work with tonnes of them crowd surfing and going
crazy, more so than I’ve seen in a long
time! The band don’t talk to the crowd to
much but that’s because they have a 18 song
setlist, to get through which includes songs from
all 5 albums, including the latest Common Courtesy,
they go to play City Of Ocala as Jeromy says “Were
gonna play a new one, whilst we throw some free
t-shirts into the crowd!”. They slow things
down and ask “Who's seen us before? We thought
we’d play some songs people didn't expect,
so were doing acoustic songs from our first albums”
and go into You Had Me At Hello, If It Means A
Lot To You before speeding things up
and playing It’s Complicated in which Jeremy
gets into a giant Zorb (or hamster ball) and goes
out into the crowd for 30 seconds before being
unzipped and getting back on stage to finish the
song. The sound then took a downward spiral during
Mr Highways Thinking about The End, when Jeremy
sings “it’s like speaking in tongues”
his mic sounds distorted and the guitars are too
loud, I’m guessing this is due to switching
from acoustic to electric, or even the use of
samples, but it puts a dampener on an otherwise
impressive set! The sound does get better, but
it’s never as good as the start. Before
playing Sometimes You’re the Hammer, Sometimes
You’re the Nail Jeremy announces “This
is the last new song we’re going to play,
thanks for all the support during the hard time
we had making the album, if it wasn’t for
you
guys we wouldn’t be a band”. They
wrap up the set with Have Fair In Me and The Plot
to Bomb the Panhandle, before taking a quick break
and coming on to finish the night off with Violence,
All Signs Point to Lauderdale and The Downfall
of Us All.
Tonight’s gig has been a long one with 4
great bands playing their hearts out. It started
with the awesome Story So Far, before getting
a heavy twist with Every Time I Die before a sing
a long with Mallory Knox and then the main act,
A Day To Remember hit the ball out of the park
with a stonking set of old and new which got everyone
in the building singing and dancing. It’s
been 4 years since they were last in Birmingham
and we’ve missed them, they put on a great
show and know how to work a crowd. Hopefully they’ll
be back allot sooner and with the same great songs
and stage presence.
Story So Far 3/5
Every Time I Die 3/5
Mallory Knox 4/5
A Day To Remember 4.5/5
Review By James Daly
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