31st March 2008
Birmingham Carling Academy 2
Originally billed as a Cute Is What We Aim For show, headliners Boys Like Girls are back four months after supporting Plain White T’s. We The Kings complete the trio of bands which typify the emo sound storming pubescent ears everywhere. WTK play a tight set and clearly know what they’re doing, even if their sound isn’t new–‘Stay Young’ sounds very much like Yellowcard and The Ataris.
It’s an odd choice to relegate Cute Is What We Aim For to main support, considering they release an album soon. Late to the tour due to a mislaid passport, lead singer Shaant is on fine form tonight with boundless energy. The set itself integrates new songs with old, almost match-for-match. Ending with “i may be ugly...” Shaant informs the crowd he lost his voice last time he sung it here, and the crowd helped him out – which they’re more than happy to do again.
Boys Like Girls seem to garner less enthusiasm than CIWWAF, and play several songs from their set in January. The front-man is confident to the point of cocky and spitting into the crowd, he seems to lose some favour. However his amazement that he’s five thousand miles from home and still has people singing his songs does garner some of the favour back. Though the beginning of the set is relatively upbeat ‘Soundtrack to my Summer’ a Dashboard Confessional-esque song tones down the pace, but not the quality.
With both Cute Is What We Aim For and Boys Like Girls back in the autumn, it’s good to know both bands have a solid fan base and a solid sound. It’s not a show that broke any boundaries musically, but with three solid bands it suggests a continuation of the genre for a while yet.
Saturday, 31 May 2008
Monday, 19 May 2008
Give It A Name Introduces
19th May 2008
Birmingham Carling Academy 2
Fresh off the back of the Give It A Name festival, Four Year Strong, Meg and Dia, The Colour Fred and Mayday Parade were on a mission to gain further fans on a string of revolving-headliner tour dates.
Birmingham saw Four Year Strong opening the show with headline being granted to Mayday Parade. It’s a disappointing decision as Four Year Strong’s fantastic blend of pop-punk and hardcore was well received at GIAN and the majority of the crowd seem to be here for them. Despite sound difficulties, which saw mics being pitched at three different volumes, the crowd fully integrated into the sound as back vocalists. Frenetic and fast-paced, they’re a fantastic opener and their confirmation as support to a tour in December is welcomed news.
Contrasting the energy of FYS was Meg and Dia, a two piece clearly out of place amongst the line-up. The strong female vocals are powerful, but nestled amongst three other bands that rely heavily on volume, their sound is easily ignored. Next up was The Colour Fred, fronted unsurprisingly by Fred Masc who seemed to spend more time talking about how he had been on this very stage with his old band, Taking Back Sunday. TCF’s sound was better fitted to the Academy’s stage than an arena, but still didn’t quite pack the punch of the first band. The lengthy tales of his former band and relatively weak sound bored the remaining crowd, many of whom had left after Four Year Strong.
I left towards the end of The Colour Fred’s set, bored and tired from a weekend spent at All Tomorrow’s Parties, but safe in the knowledge that if the GIAN festival was anything to go by, I’d already seen the band of the night – Four Year Strong.
Birmingham Carling Academy 2
Fresh off the back of the Give It A Name festival, Four Year Strong, Meg and Dia, The Colour Fred and Mayday Parade were on a mission to gain further fans on a string of revolving-headliner tour dates.
Birmingham saw Four Year Strong opening the show with headline being granted to Mayday Parade. It’s a disappointing decision as Four Year Strong’s fantastic blend of pop-punk and hardcore was well received at GIAN and the majority of the crowd seem to be here for them. Despite sound difficulties, which saw mics being pitched at three different volumes, the crowd fully integrated into the sound as back vocalists. Frenetic and fast-paced, they’re a fantastic opener and their confirmation as support to a tour in December is welcomed news.
Contrasting the energy of FYS was Meg and Dia, a two piece clearly out of place amongst the line-up. The strong female vocals are powerful, but nestled amongst three other bands that rely heavily on volume, their sound is easily ignored. Next up was The Colour Fred, fronted unsurprisingly by Fred Masc who seemed to spend more time talking about how he had been on this very stage with his old band, Taking Back Sunday. TCF’s sound was better fitted to the Academy’s stage than an arena, but still didn’t quite pack the punch of the first band. The lengthy tales of his former band and relatively weak sound bored the remaining crowd, many of whom had left after Four Year Strong.
I left towards the end of The Colour Fred’s set, bored and tired from a weekend spent at All Tomorrow’s Parties, but safe in the knowledge that if the GIAN festival was anything to go by, I’d already seen the band of the night – Four Year Strong.
Sunday, 11 May 2008
Give It A Name Festival
Sheffield Hallam Arena
10-11 May
GIAN this year was interesting. I’d originally agreed to go because of the awesome time I had last year and I think had the 2007 line-up been the one from this years, I would never have gone in the first place. It was uninspiring and incredibly lacking. The headliners were a bad choice, the range of bands was mediocre and the venue and atmosphere was entirely uneventful.
Paramore and 30 Seconds to Mars as headliners? Over Glassjaw and Finch/Alkaline Trio? I’m not a musical snob by any means, but there is something intrinsically wrong about having well established bands with loyal fans who will brave emo festivals lower on the bill than flash-in-the-pan acts. Even believing that the newer bands will bring the crowds (which they didn’t, if the walk outs were anything to go by), the back catalogues of the respective bands should have had more time on stage than the newer bands with little material. All three of the bands did fine jobs of running through some of their songs, but really could have done more stage time. Paramore and Plain White T’s were fun and their singles are catchy, but headlining over Glassjaw and Finch/Alk3 is just wrong. 30STM are a band who seem to have stolen the theatrics of My Chemical Romance and a fairly ill reaching sound, whose appeal seems to be more to the generic teenage-angst than any real talent.
It wasn’t just the bands themselves, the sound output was awful. Even for some of the better bands, the bass and drum output was too loud (almost every band, notably Glassjaw) and several mics were too low (Four Year Strong and Alkaline Trio). If anything this was the most disappointing, because it made bands that were new or relatively so to the UK sound worse than they should -Mayday Parade‘s sound seemed patchy. Even by the second day this wasn’t completely fixed and generally the sound quality was poor - not something you expect from an indoor music festival.
The music wasn’t all bad, there were some fantastic highlights. Some of the bands everyone are talking about; All Time Low and Four Year Strong were stunning. The organisers did a great disservice putting Four Year Strong so low down on the bill and putting them on stage early. Lucky they put on a brilliant performance, even with the sound difficulties - the screaming was near impossible to hear, but the overall quality of the band was in place. Hopefully they will have apt chance to prove this on the GIAN Intro tour. All Time Low had a professionalism about them and a confidence on stage that far surpassed their experience. Their sound was spot on and they clearly had already some dedicated fans in the enthusiastic crowd. It wouldn’t surprise me if they’re back in a few years on the main stage.
The most unanticipated gem of the festival has to go to MC Lars. Backed up by Failsafe, they were an unstoppable force of utter fun, mocking the emo genre in an intelligent manner (Chiodos take note) and engaging the audience entirely unexpectedly. Their sample of Iggy Pop, Piebald and Supergrass were inspired and if they don’t come away with a lot more fans than before I’d be shocked. It was just a shame Failsafe as themselves didn’t get a slot, or infact any British acts.
All in all Give It A Name 2008 will go down as a loss. The atmosphere in Sheffield was devoid, the lack of pass-outs on arguably one of the hottest weekends in May was ill thought out and saw the outdoor smoking area overrun by people who just wanted somewhere to hang out that wasn’t a corridor. The organisers of GIAN still haven’t understood that it takes more than the music to make a festival and the lack of entertainment between bands and/or for people who don’t like the bands on offer is really a let down. With the genre being so popular their should be a number of companies who would relish a stand at this festival, a proper signing tent and even an acoustic stage would give this festival some of the spirit it sorely lacks. More importantly it needs to step up the music this year. Last year had such an abundance of heavyweights- Brand New, New Found Glory, Jimmy Eat World and AFI to name but a few. This year even the music couldn’t substitute for the fact that this festival is less of a feast and more of money making scheme on the emo-genre whilst its big enough to sell to the masses.
10-11 May
GIAN this year was interesting. I’d originally agreed to go because of the awesome time I had last year and I think had the 2007 line-up been the one from this years, I would never have gone in the first place. It was uninspiring and incredibly lacking. The headliners were a bad choice, the range of bands was mediocre and the venue and atmosphere was entirely uneventful.
Paramore and 30 Seconds to Mars as headliners? Over Glassjaw and Finch/Alkaline Trio? I’m not a musical snob by any means, but there is something intrinsically wrong about having well established bands with loyal fans who will brave emo festivals lower on the bill than flash-in-the-pan acts. Even believing that the newer bands will bring the crowds (which they didn’t, if the walk outs were anything to go by), the back catalogues of the respective bands should have had more time on stage than the newer bands with little material. All three of the bands did fine jobs of running through some of their songs, but really could have done more stage time. Paramore and Plain White T’s were fun and their singles are catchy, but headlining over Glassjaw and Finch/Alk3 is just wrong. 30STM are a band who seem to have stolen the theatrics of My Chemical Romance and a fairly ill reaching sound, whose appeal seems to be more to the generic teenage-angst than any real talent.
It wasn’t just the bands themselves, the sound output was awful. Even for some of the better bands, the bass and drum output was too loud (almost every band, notably Glassjaw) and several mics were too low (Four Year Strong and Alkaline Trio). If anything this was the most disappointing, because it made bands that were new or relatively so to the UK sound worse than they should -Mayday Parade‘s sound seemed patchy. Even by the second day this wasn’t completely fixed and generally the sound quality was poor - not something you expect from an indoor music festival.
The music wasn’t all bad, there were some fantastic highlights. Some of the bands everyone are talking about; All Time Low and Four Year Strong were stunning. The organisers did a great disservice putting Four Year Strong so low down on the bill and putting them on stage early. Lucky they put on a brilliant performance, even with the sound difficulties - the screaming was near impossible to hear, but the overall quality of the band was in place. Hopefully they will have apt chance to prove this on the GIAN Intro tour. All Time Low had a professionalism about them and a confidence on stage that far surpassed their experience. Their sound was spot on and they clearly had already some dedicated fans in the enthusiastic crowd. It wouldn’t surprise me if they’re back in a few years on the main stage.
The most unanticipated gem of the festival has to go to MC Lars. Backed up by Failsafe, they were an unstoppable force of utter fun, mocking the emo genre in an intelligent manner (Chiodos take note) and engaging the audience entirely unexpectedly. Their sample of Iggy Pop, Piebald and Supergrass were inspired and if they don’t come away with a lot more fans than before I’d be shocked. It was just a shame Failsafe as themselves didn’t get a slot, or infact any British acts.
All in all Give It A Name 2008 will go down as a loss. The atmosphere in Sheffield was devoid, the lack of pass-outs on arguably one of the hottest weekends in May was ill thought out and saw the outdoor smoking area overrun by people who just wanted somewhere to hang out that wasn’t a corridor. The organisers of GIAN still haven’t understood that it takes more than the music to make a festival and the lack of entertainment between bands and/or for people who don’t like the bands on offer is really a let down. With the genre being so popular their should be a number of companies who would relish a stand at this festival, a proper signing tent and even an acoustic stage would give this festival some of the spirit it sorely lacks. More importantly it needs to step up the music this year. Last year had such an abundance of heavyweights- Brand New, New Found Glory, Jimmy Eat World and AFI to name but a few. This year even the music couldn’t substitute for the fact that this festival is less of a feast and more of money making scheme on the emo-genre whilst its big enough to sell to the masses.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)