The Swellers – 05-12-11 – Birmingham Academy 3 – With Support from Broadway Calls

It’s a cold dry night here in Birmingham and so I'm glad there is no queue to get inside the nice warm Academy 3. I arrive at the venue before Broadway Calls take to the stage, only to find that the room is less than half empty, now I've been in this room once before and that was for My Passion a year ago, and you could not move for people! It was wall to wall with bodies and I expected more of that tonight!

Broadway Calls or Calling Broadway as it said on the venues stage times, take to the stage and burst into a set of punk rock, it's very fast it's very loud and its fun! The Oregon 3 piece don’t really talk to the audience but it doesn't matter, as I'm sure they can come and talk to everyone individually later as it wouldn't take them to long! They blast through a half hour set of rocky tunes with simple heavy riffs and nice harmonies, the drums are thumping and the sound is raw. This is right up my street and the vocals are very similar to Less Than Jake which puts a smile on my face. Myself and the rest of this small audience enjoy their set which hardly leaves you time to relax in between songs.

The Swellers, who in case you don’t know, are a 4 piece punk rock band from Flint, Michigan. They come out on stage and get everyone to come forward, the once sparse room now turns into a hectic front of room party full of moshing and dancing! Singer Nick Diener tells the crowd why he loves England, "short drives, babe-a-licious babes, handsome dudes, and the weather sucks, but in different ways". He also comments of how great the crowd are tonight “in America people sing along but don't know the words, it's like they’re eating water melons, but here you know them all! Thank you”. The band kick into my personal favourite, Fire Away, the sound is really loud, deafening even, but the band comes across clearly. The bass flows freely and the guitar runs smooth into these punky tunes with a bit of pop drilled in.  

 This is their first proper headline tour, and I thought with endorsements from bands such as Paramore and Motion City Soundtrack people would be flocking, their videos are always on Kerrang and they've supported bands over here quite heavily in the last year. They’re also on Pet Wentz’s label “Fueled by Ramen” and yet there playing to a half full Academy 3 and not to a full Academy 2! I mean, I know allot of people say how they remember seeing huge bands in small venues, but those venues are small and a full, they’re not half full.

This is a band who are jumpy and pumped full of energy, they’re really good fun, if  more people where at this gig, it would have been awesome but the atmosphere just isn't there, people don’ t fully let themselves go if people might be watching them. So next time around get your arses down and see this great band, that is keeping punk flowing through to the next stage! I have no doubt that this band will be huge, so don’t miss out on seeing them rise to fame!

Broadway Calls – 3/5

The Swellers – 4/5

Twin Atlantic – 2/12/2011 at Birmingham O2 Academy 2 – Support from Dinosaur Pile Up and Arcane Roots

Well tonight is a mixed one for me, I've heard allot of twin Atlantics songs and really want to see how they perform live, but Dinosaur Pile Up are supporting and the last time I went watching them, I wrote a review which wasn't greatly received, basically it said that they were ok, but on the whole the night was poor.

Arriving at the venue at half 6 for an interview with twin Atlantic I find out that the doors have been open for half hour and that my interview is taking place whilst the Arcane Roots are on stage, and I'm glad I missed half their set.

Arcane Roots are not my thing at all, thrashy trashy guitars with lots of high pitched cymbals whilst the singer (if that’s what he is) whine’s strange noises into the mic. In the middle of their songs there are quiet breakdowns that seem to go on forever, until they build up and overflow with a burst of noise and energy. I'm sure on another day I could get into them, maybe at a festival but tonight I’m not a fan, luckily though there's quite a few people here who enjoyed there set.

Next up is Dinosaur Pile Up and I'm anxious to see how they’ve come on since the last time. The answer..... Not far. They seem to blend into the background this time around, just standing, moaning on, with almost every song sounding the same. There’s the odd song which changes the pace and passion, but most of the songs seem to fade away into obscurity, just moments after hearing them. The vocals are drowned out by the sound of the bass, with just the harmonics of the guitar being slightly heard over the rest of the noise coming from the tinny drums. I think after two tries of going to see them, I just don't like this band, which sucks because I really thought I'd love them when I heard them on the radio, which leads me to another point, they didn’t play their main single “Mona Lisa” which to me suggests they want to stay underground and want to play for themselves, which you just can’t do, because who pays for the bands to play, the fans and what fan is going to watch a band that doesn’t play the songs they like. Ah well, the set comes to an end and next up is the main act!

Twin Atlantic, this Glaswegian 4 piece have come a long way over there 4 years of being a band, they’ve had a great year gaining success in the US and getting bigger here in the UK playing Leeds and Reading Festivals the great aplomb.  They’re a band that put allot of effort into what they do; tonight you can tell this straight away just by the lighting and the way they enter the stage, the lighting has been dark and dingy but now the stage is lit by hanging light bulbs and brightly coloured lights that flood the stage and when mixed with their intro music make an amazing atmosphere, the crowd are eager to rock out and when each member appears one by one adding to the music the room is ready to explode, finally singer Sam Mctrusty appears on stage with his hood up and the crowd go wild, Twin Atlantic know where to take this energy and that’s to pour it straight into one of their biggest singles “Beast Of Myself” which goes down a storm. The band feed off the audience and play a stonking set that sounds amazing, the band have allot of work to do, but they make it seem effortless, switching between instruments mid song, whilst also jumping around. I’ve seen allot of bands this year and I have to say that Twin Atlantic are up there in bands of the year, both live and on CD. I cannot recommend this band more highly, there set is amazing and during song “Human After All” Sam leaps into the crowd with guitar still rapped around him. The set comes to an end to the great single “Free” which demolishes the audience.

Tonight’s gig was let down by the supports but Twin Atlantic where that good, it made me forget all about it. Tonight’s almost sell-out crowd seemed to love every moment and even the supports received a good reception, but it was made up of mainly, just legal, kids getting tanked up ready for the long night of clubbing ahead.

 Arcane Roots, 2/5

Dinosaur Pile Up, 1/5

Twin Atlantic, 5/5

Twin Atlantic - Interview - 02/12/11

I cought up with Barry and Ross from the great Scottish band Twin Atlantic, who are playing the Birmingham academy two tonight. This band are really gaining some grownd recently and I decided to ask them a few questions about how they're progression is going.

You have not long got back from your American tour with Awolnation and Middle Class Rut, how did you find the tour?

Ross: Fantastic because we got to go to places that we’ve only been to once before and some that we’ve never been to before in America and there were people to play to because it was obviously their tour. It was really good fun, we got to see a lot of America that we hadn’t seen before and they were nice chaps (laughter)

Barry: It was good to play to crowds because in the UK people have a bad habit of coming down late to shows just to watch the band that they’ve bought the ticket for but, in America most people tend to come down when the doors open because their up for watching  new bands and checking out new things.

Ross: Everybody does that, I do it as well. You just go and see who you want to see and it’s horrible, you shouldn’t do that but you end up doing it all the time.

How do the American shows compare to those back here? And how did it feel to explore new places?

Ross: The shows we’re doing on this tour are a similar size but they’re our own shows so it’s a totally different thing. As fun as it is to go and play to people who don’t know you it’s also amazing to play to people who you can see that they’ve come because they want to listen to the songs and not just through default and you’re trying to win them over. It’s kind of a different experience altogether isn’t it?

Barry: Yeah it’s massively different but they’re both good. It’s two different challenges I guess, as Ross said it’s totally different trying to win people over as opposed to people who have already got some sort of familiarity or affinity with your music. What you just try to do is put on the best show possible so that they leave having had a really good night.

Do you have plans to revisit the US in the near future?

Ross: I think we’re going back at the start of the year again and in the summer for various. I think next year we’ll probably be there a lot more than we were this year as things are starting to roll out over there. I think the album only comes out in January in America so that means a lot more time over there but still focusing on here mainly because that’s where we’re from. 

You are currently on a headline tour of the UK, how have the shows been so far?

Ross: We’re three shows in and all three have sold out which we didn’t expect at all. That was kind of overwhelming but everybody has been up for getting involved and having a good time.

Barry: I’ve been looking forward to all the shows but there’s something about this show. We’ve been here quite a few times and this has usually been the place where things are going to go wrong or there hasn’t been as many people, so tonight is quite exciting for us because we’re playing a slightly bigger venue.

You have Arcane Roots and Dinosaur Pile Up supporting you on tour, how have you found touring with them? Do you enjoy their music?

Barry: Yeah totally. They’re two totally different bands. Dinosaur Pile Up are more of your throw back 90’s Nirvana grunge band and Arcane Roots are more techy, it’s kind of schizophrenic  at times but that’s cool. They’re both great bands for different reasons we’re excited to have them both playing with us.

You originally released ‘Free’ back in April but it is due for release as a single again on the 19^th December, what was the decision behind this?

Ross: We kind of felt at the start that we really liked the song and because the amount of people coming to our shows has taken such a big leap since we released it we wanted more people to get to know it. People seem to be picking up on it and the video seems to be being played a lot so we though if people want to hear it then bring it on. If we were fed up with it then I think it would be different but as the album has only been out a while it’s still quite new.

You have just announced the Twin Atlantic ‘Instagram Project’, can you tell us a little more about this?

Ross: Basically we’ve teamed up with the people at instagram to do this thing where people can upload their pictures to our specific instagram account and all of the photos are going to go into a limited edition lithograph. So if you take a photo it’s going to go onto a Twin Atlantic artwork lithograph so when you get one you’ll see your photo and everyone else’s. It’s cool as well because the more photos that get added the more stuff gets unlocked. I don’t know if that’s the right word but photos will be added and an acoustic video that we recorded.

Barry: And some B sides that never got released.

2011 has been a massive year for you but what would you say your main highlight of the year has been?

Ross: This is funny because this is a question that keeps popping up. We haven’t done a lot of press just lately because of being in America but this week we’ve had a few people asking us to look back and remember stuff from the year. Up until this week we hadn’t done that because we’ve been so busy with releasing the recording and going on tour. 

Barry: Having done so this week I’d probably say getting to play Reading and Leeds for the first time was incredible for us. Well just festivals in general because we got to do a big slot at T in the park as well.

Ross: For me it’s been this week and being able to these shows has been a highlight. We’ve been working so hard all year and been away so much so it’s almost like having an end of year gift which has been amazing. It’s almost like a reward for us, being able to come back and play on these stages and have fun. It’s a really enjoyable experience, not that being in a band isn’t because there are some things which are hard but this is like a Christmas present a present

Barry: A Christmas present (laughter)

You hail from Glasgow, which seems to have a great music scene at the moment but what new bands from Scotland would you recommend?

Barry: We had a band out last time called the Lafontaine’s and they’re a weird blend of rock music, pop music and hip hop. Maybe they’re kill me for describing it like this but if you take Professor Green and fucking oh I don’t know, I honestly don’t know. Maybe the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and mashed them up and somewhere in the middle you’d have this thing that was them but not like either of them. That was a really shit analogy right there but that’s what I’m going for.

Ross: There’s so many it’s hard to name them. There’s a band called The Xcerts who are good friends of ours, they’re amazing and they’re doing really well right now. They’ve been out on tour with a few bands that I like, they’re all really good guys and their album came out earlier this year and it was a really good album.

Do you plan to have a much earned rest over the festive period?

Ross: I mean when we go home we’ll probably have a couple of days before Christmas.

Barry: Yeah we’ll have a couple of hours to ourselves (laughter)

Ross: And then the time before Christmas and New Year except for our rehearsal for our New Year’s show in Aberdeen. 

Barry: After this year we’ll definitely need to recharge our batteries and Christmas is one of those times when most of your friends and family are back home so it’s always nice to see them. We always say we’ve got such a selfish lifestyle because we leave all the people we love for months and months so it’s nice when we do come home and spend some time with them.

What can we expect from you in 2012?

Barry: We’ve got loads of touring that we’re just about to announce and then we’ll probably have to think about new material as well. Not that we haven’t been but we’ll have to think seriously about what we’re got do and when we’re gonna do it.

What’s your take on music reality TV shows such as the X Factor?

Ross: I actually really like them, I’m a total sucker. I watch it as much as I can because I think it’s so different from normal music. For young people who might not ordinarily get into music because they might not have an access point. But if they here one of them sing something like  a Queen song  and really like it then that’s like an access point for them into music. It’s also so different from this world of music that I don’t even think that’s it’s offensive. It’s a competition to find a performer and there will always be good performers whether there was a TV show or not. Simon Cowell was always going to sign somebody to sing a song written by blah blah blah so I don’t see a problem with it.

Barry: I used to like the X Factor more than I do now. I used to like the audition stage because you’d have a dude walk in and you’d have literally no idea what he was going to sound like. Sometimes it’s fairly hilarious and other times the guy comes out with an incredible voice. Now it seems to be more of a popularity contest rather than about singing. Like this year Frankie Cocozza is possibly one of the worst singers I’ve ever heard but he was put in front of millions of viewers week after week because people thought he was funny or hot. He’s a dreadful, dreadful singer and because it wasn’t about the voice I stopped watching it.

Where do you hope to see yourselves in a year’s time?

Barry: Who knows, a whole lot can happen in a year. When we look at the wacky journey we’re had this year it’s hard to fathom where we’ll be in a years’ time. Ideally back in Birmingham playing downstairs in the bigger room (laughter). For us this band has always been about progression. When you go to a place for the first time and there’s five people watching you and you go back again and there’s twenty people then it’s amazing because you can see that bit of growth. I think there’s 600 people in tonight but if we come again and there’s 750 or 800 then that’ll be amazing.

One last random question that we ask every band, if you could be an animal out of a zebra or Giraffe which one would you be and why?

Ross: There’s pros and cons to both because Giraffes and eat from up high but if you have to fight then you have to do this neck whip thing and that looks really sore.  Zebras have the worst camouflage of all the animals

Barry: Not true, Zebras have black and white stripes because it confuses Lions.

Ross: Zebra then.

Barry: It’s an evolutionary thing and it’d also be really cool to wear a black and white jacket every day. One thing you couldn’t do as a zebra though would be come into town because if you used a zebra crossing you’d just blend right in (growns)

Thanks for your time is there a message for your fans reading this?

Ross: No (laughter) thank you for….

Barry: I want to see where this is going (laughter)

Ross: I don’t know, thank you for buying our record and if anyone has been to one of our gigs then thank you for coming.

Wonder Years Interview

I managed to catch up with Soupy just half hour before him and the rest of The Wonder Years went out on stage at the HMV Institute in support of Saves The Day and Yellowcard, heres what he had to say.

Now The Wonder Years have been around for a five  years or so, you’ve released 3 albums and have toured all over the place, now for people that might not know a lot about you of you can you give a brief history of the band and how you came up with the name?

Soupy: A brief history of the band is as follows. We thought it’d be funny to write some songs about senseless bullshit, we wrote said songs, said songs came out on a record. We then decided to be a real band and to write real songs, those songs came out on several other records and since then we’ve just been touring as hard as we can. The band’s name holds no significance whatsoever. At the time we were just writing these empty songs about nothing just for fun and there was no point in putting any thought into a name at that point. We then thought it was unwise to change the name midway through the upswing for us so we left it.

What can someone who has never seen you before expect from your live show?

Soupy: If we’re headlining we’ll play 15 to 17 songs but if we’re supporting we’ll play about 8. We generally play a mix between “The Upsides” and “Suburbia I’ve Given You All And Now I’m Nothing”. If we’re doing a headlining set then we’ll do some tracks off some of our 7” records. Six guys on stage getting sweaty is what you can expect and we tend to do stupid things. I don’t want to say expect it, cus you know, I don’t jump off the PA stack every time we play, but it happens*. It depends on the show and the vibe as well as how dangerous of a dive it is. We just tend to put everything we can into our live set.

*Just half hour after the interview, Soupy decided whilst playing the gig that the stage was too small, so he jumped off stage and performed half of their set in the crowd, so he didn’t jump of a PA but he did make their set memorable!
 
Your latest album “Suburbia: I’ve Given You All and Now I’m Nothing” was released in June this year, how has it been going down with the fans and critics?

Soupy: It has been critically the most warmly received album we’ve ever done. The reviews were all really highly rated which was exciting for us. I guess the best judge is when you play a set and you look out and see kids going off just as hard for the new songs as the old ones. That’s not a common thing so it’s exciting for us.  A lot of times people want to hear the old stuff and when you play the new stuff they’re more laid back. We get the same reaction for any song if not a bigger reaction for the newer stuff. That’s a good sign because it means we’re growing.

You've just released the video for your new single "come out swinging", which has a girl dressed as a ghost playing pranks; do you guys like playing pranks?

Soupy: No (laughter). We’re not really social guys, we’re kind of awkward and I feel like all the pranksters are cool people. I don’t think I have pulled a good prank in my entire life. The video wasn’t so much about pranks for me. I wrote the treatment for the video and the song has the line “I spent this year as a ghost” so I started thinking about just ghosts in general. That led to me thinking about the idea of being lost, psychically lost like being away and not always having a place and then in more of a metaphorical way of being lost and being angsty. I had this young girl dress up as a ghost and use her suburban terrorism as a kind of outlet for the angst. That feeling of being upset but you’re not sure what has upset you. It’s kind of this thing of I’m upset and fuck the world, I’m gonna take it down with me but put into the ideology of a child and what they could do to tear down the world.

Did you direct the video?

Soupy:  I came up with the idea and then it’s all d.i.y. We had our friends Mitch and Larry help and we got my little cousin Megan to dress up as a ghost so that was her big acting debut, although she did play Eeyore in a school play (laughter). So yeah we just got our friends together and shot it over two days and Mitch and Larry made the ideas in my head come to life for me. We like to be hands on in any way we can. For instance when a lot of people write a record they’ll write pieces of it and then go into a studio and work with a producer and cut out some songs. We wrote thirteen songs for this record and all thirteen of them are on it because we spent months on each one crafting it before anyone else even heard it.

Your website has a nice idea which shows a map and which tells the fans what locations inspired the songs on the latest album, who came up with this unique idea, does it mean allot to you to share your inspiration and what’s the deal with the pigeon?

Soupy: I stole the idea from a band called “The Hold Steady”. A lot of their songs have a lot of references bedded into them and somebody took the time to find those references and put them onto a map of the twin cities. I thought it was really cool and wanted to do something similar. We wanted to make it more localised so we made it about our home town and told our stories through that medium.

The pigeon began with our old keyboard player who hated pigeons; it was just this horrible bird that nobody wanted around. We just started thinking about it more when we were all going to college. Because we weren’t really a full time band it means that nobody can really “care too much” as far as the industry was concerned. I’ve put air quotes around that so please include that and this in your transcription (laughter). As far as the industry in concerned that want people who are working on this all the time and we were only working on it part of the time but twice as hard to catch up. If we couldn’t be on tour because we were at school then we were writing and releasing a 7” or touring all weekend. We were running ourselves ragged doing this because we had jobs. Classes and then I was doing these teaching programs at different schools. Nobody cared and nobody listened because we weren’t a full time band. We felt like we were unwanted but instead of letting that destroy us we let that be the catalyst to a lot of things and we would push harder. I fell that’s like a pigeon and what a pigeon does. They’re everywhere in every city in the world in their droves despite how bad people hate them. That’s how we felt about ourselves as a band, no matter how much people didn’t want us there we were gonna crash the party. 
 
You’ve played allot of gigs and festivals this year including the Kerrang tour with Good Charlotte and Four Year Strong, The Warped Tour, your own headline tour, you’ve just finish New Found Glorys “Pop Punk’s Not Dead” tour and your now on this Saves The Day/ Yellowcard tour. You’ve pretty much been none stop touring since the start of the year. Do you find it hard being on the road of have you grown used to it and  what has been your main Highs and Lows of the this year?

Soupy: It’s definitely hard especially when you’re doing a US tour. We’ll be here and our driver will be like “ahh man we’ve gotta drive six hours tonight” and I’m like “yeah”.  He thinks that’s far where at home an average drive is six hours where a bad drive is like twelve or thirteen and sometimes you have to do those and then play a show. We don’t get to leave after a show until one in the morning, load in is at 2pm so there’s only thirteen hours in between which means you have to drive nonstop.  You get gas, cram food in yourself and try to sleep in the van but it’s not really comfortable. It’s hard, you get sick and your back hurts. You definitely want to go home sometimes but at the same time I got to spend this entire year playing music to people that want to hear us play, I got to spend most of this year on tour with people that I’ve spent my entire life looking up to as musicians and as people and I’ve got to go to a lot of countries in the past couple of years. We’ve played almost every state and seen those sites that you go on vacation to see. We stopped in the Redwood Forest and we got to see the biggest tree in the world, although I think it’s like the third biggest tree in the world because they don’t want to tell you where the biggest one is in case you carve your name in to it (laughter). There are pros and cons to it like there is which any job although this one definitely has a lot of ups 

What does the future hold for the Wonder Years?

Soupy: This is our eleventh week without going home so in two more we go home but we play three shows. Then I’m going to Monday Night Raw and then we’re off for like two months. After that I think we’ll do some headline stuff, come back here and hopefully go to Australia again. That’s really where our plans end at the moment and then it becomes this ambiguous do we go on tour again or do we start writing some more songs and that question hasn’t been answered yet.

One last question that we ask every band, if you could be an animal out of a zebra and a giraffe which would you be and why?

Soupy: A giraffe because they’re big as shit. That’s a good of reason as any right? (laughter)
 
Thanks for your time; do you have a message for your fans reading this?

Soupy: That’s a weird question because it’s normally the same answer that everyone gives, you know, that were grateful etc. Er I dunno, whatever the last band you interviewed said copy and paste that for me but put that I said that (laughter)

Me: Er, what band was it? I think it was Capdown or New Found Glory

Soupy: Definitely put New Found Glory’s answer down!

“Thank you so much for supporting our band, we appreciate it and hopefully we’ll see you next time we come through!” – Ian, New Found Glory
 
 

Yellowcard with support from Saves The Day and The Wonder Years – HMV Institute Birmingham– 29-11-11

Well I arrive at the venue later than planned due to the chaotic traffic on the Birmingham express way, an hour late for my interview with first support The Wonder Years and by the time I get in its only half an hour till they go on stage.  But due to them being such nice guys I still get an interview with lead singer Soupy as he and the rest of the band are getting ready. After the interview I go out and take my place by the barrier and shortly after....

The Wonder years come out on stage, this Philadelphian 6 piece were great when I saw them back in February supporting Good Charlotte, so I was hoping that tonight they’re just as good, but I was wrong, they were so much better! They kick off to their latest single, “Come Out Swinging” and although most of the crowd are hear for some emo and violins this pop punk outfit get people moving. After 2 songs there singer Soupy, declares to the crowd "this stage is the smallest tackiest stage I've ever played on, I’ve almost fallen off it 5 times" and so decides to get off stage and take it to the audience, performing in a circle of people, most have no idea what's going on, but it's fun and the rest of the band are rocking out on stage! He eventually goes back on stage for the last few songs, and his ear piercingly strong vocals demolish the audience. The room is hot and sweaty now and everyone is warmed up and ready for the next act

After a good wait, Saves The Day finally come on stage, there given a warm reception, the room isn't set alight but people look happy enough. The New Jersey 4 piece hasn’t played in the UK for 7 years so I was expecting the crowd to go wild, seeing as this was a joint headline tour! They’re set list is rather a long one which in the most is pretty boring. The singer’s high pitched voice grates me by the time they're 4 songs in. If you want a night of slow sways and high pitched ear bleeding then Saves The Day are for you. I know they’re emo legends and 10 years ago try where huge, but it seems like they're stuck there, I can't tell one song from another and they luck rather uninterested be to on the stage, I know each band member had about 500 pedals and it’s hard to have fun whilst concentrating, but come on your playing a gig, cheer up!

At least I can say they sound alright, but it’s just stringy guitar chords, and some flowing bass. Halfway through they slow it down which is hard to do seeing as most of their songs are as slow as treacle coming of a spoon. As you can tell I wasn't impressed with Saves The Day and a hour and 15 minute set is way to long for me and most of the audience to bear, with only a handful of people dancing and singing in a sold out venue! The only saving grace is at the end of the set they play mega hit “At Your Funeral” which sets the room on fire, and even the band seem happy! At least there last song has got the crowd going again and luckily Yellowcard are up next and they don't take too long to set up and get the crowd more pumped!

Yellowcard instantly get everyone moving, it seems they’re the band everyone came here to see! The Floridian rockers come out to For You And Your Denial which goes down well but their second song Way Away brings the house down, everyone is singing along and the band find it hard to believe, the Violinist Sean Mackin is High Fiving the front row in-between his parts and the energy of the crowd feeds the band as they start jumping and spinning around. This energy is fed back to the crowd and it’s hard for people not to be on their feet moving around! Their sound is great, the levels are just right, it's not over powered with violins or bass, it's mixed up great!

They were last meant to play the UK back in 2007 but the tour got cancelled and then the band went on hiatus for two years, so people of the UK haven’t had chance to see them in six years, they did support All Time Low early this year but by the time they were announced most shows where sold out, this is something the band seem overwhelmed by “Six years and a sold out show, I can’t believe the reception we’ve been getting here in the UK this year!” says singer Ryan Key.  They want tonight to be better than the gig than last night in Glasgow and by word the Birmingham crowd pull it off! Yellowcard play a stonking set of old and new including classics such as Lights and Sounds, Light Up The Sky and Only One before finishing there set with the song that put them into the big time back in 2004 Oceans Avenue.

Yellowcard where amazing, much better than on their support slot with All Time Low early in the year. I would have said The Wonder Years where the best band of the night but Yellowcard blew me and everyone in the venue away, a pure 5 star performance. I can’t wait to see them and The Wonder Years in the future, but I hope I don’t ever have the misfortune of seeing Saves The Day again.

The Wonder Years – 4/5

Saves The Day – 1/5

Yellowcard – 5/5