First up is The Wonder Years, a pop punk band that are only playing for fifteen minutes to get the crowd warmed up and to get their name out there. They're a bouncy and fun and engage the audience which keeps their set nice and fun. They put on a good energetic show, and the building is hot and alive so for a short set they do their job and I'm sure allot of the crowd will check them out afterwards.
Up next are Nashville alt rockers Framing Hanley, who come onto the stage and get the crowd pumped straight away with their infamous cover of Lil Wayne's 'Lollipop'. They sound great with nice flowing bass, rhythmic guitars and stunning vocals. They rock the stage with lots of jumping around and movement, they definitely aren't short of energy. Part way through their set singer Kenneth Nixon says "It Smells Like Sweaty Balls up here" and I'd have to agree, the academy is so hot tonight, and this is definitely due to the crowd's energy as they just don't stop! Framing Hanley do a nice set of all their major songs including 'Stupid Girl' and 'War Zone'.
Four Year Strong take to the stage next, looking rather beardy and ready to rock. The band are definitely punk and remind me of Reggie And The Full Effect. They have great vocals with nearly all members joining in, and keyboardist Josh Lyford switches between standing behind the synths and jumping all over the stage depending on songs. Unfortunately this switch between synth really makes no difference as you cannot hear it at all due to the pure bass heavy sound the band are producing. They play 'It Must Really Suck to Be Four Year Strong Right Now' and the crowd go mental with almost constant crowd surfing till the end of their set. They give and open invite during their final track 'Wasting Time' for people to come up and jo
in them, and even though their are tonnes of crowd surfers no-one manages to get on stage. Overall they played a great set and the crowd are definitely into them but for me I proffered Framing Hanley and think that they should have been where Four Year Strong are on the bill, but I'm sure that most of the people in the academy would disagree with me.Finally the main act of the night are ready to come out on stage and finish the crowd off in style. DC pop punkers Good Charlotte fly onto the stage into modern day classic 'The Anthem' which is followed by the hit single 'Girls and Boys' and then into 'My Bloody Valentine' which is a great way to start a gig. Good Charlotte know how to work a crowd, and engage in great banter in between every 3 or 4 songs, with brothers Benji and Joel playing of each other. Joel sings part of The Smiths classic Panic, to link into his shout of "hello Birmingham" they say how thank-full they are for the crowd coming out and supporting all the artists and that if you ever see and band and they don't say they are thank-full for people coming and supporting them then they are not worth paying money for. GC rock into one of their newer tracks 'Silver Screen Romance' and tear the place down,they sound amazing, with each instrument sounding flawless, each member of the band moves round the stage all night so all the crowd can see them. The crowd are having fun and one of the great things about GC is the fact they have fun, you can clearly see they love being on stage and they love performing the songs, they're funny and know how to get a crowd jumping. They play for almost an hour and a half which considering there where four bands on tonight shows just how much GC love what they do, as they've put so much effort into keeping the crowd happy. The
y play a great set with songs from all 5 of their albums, including a cover of Blink 182's Dammit along with their ten year old track Little Things which the crowd lap up as if it was brand new. They don't leave the stage and do an encore as they make sure the crowd get as much of them as possible.A great night is definitely had by all in attendance, four great bands have given everyone a great time. Good Charlotte are definitely worthy of being headliners and I would recommend that everyone go and see them when they come back later in the year, as I know allot of people may think they're cheesy pop punk but they put they're all into every second of their performance and this makes for one hell of a show.
Wonder Years 3.5/5
Framing Hanley 4/5
Four Year Strong 4/5
Good Charlotte 5/5
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