Shadows Chasing Ghosts with support from Tantrum To Blind and Against The Flood – Birmingham Academy 3 – 22-07-12

Well I arrive early at the venue to make sure I don't miss the first band Tantrum To Blind after the farce I had getting in at Yashin, which resulted in me missing most of their set.  I pick up my pass and as I walk through the door I am greeted to 30 people staring at me in the doorway, as I walk further inside the room I notice that the people staring are the only people here. It's crazy that only 30 odd people have turned up to see some of the best up and coming bands in a mixture of genres. I really do hope they all put on a good how tonight, so I am able to tell the people of Birmingham what a great night they missed!

Tantrum To Blind are first up and as they come on stage the crowd are all spread out around the room, looking rather nonchalant about them, but as they kick straight into their awesome single Get Get Get which the crowd love and by the end everyone is against the barrier rocking out through the rest of their energetic fast paced set. Tantrum To Blind are new to England but have been going for a while over in Europe as the originate from Sweden, and so know how to work a crowd no matter why the size, singer Melanie Mohlkert Interacts well between songs, asking how everyone's doing, getting people to jump, she also gets the small amount of people here to join in and sing along to parts of songs which is great for the first support of the night. Tantrum to blind are really good live as they blast there punky/rock angst into the room and feed off the crowd no matter how big and are definitely one to watch!

Against The Flood are up next, this 5 piece from Surrey really have some power. Off the bat I can tell they're not my cup of tea, they're heavy and more in the scream core genre which is fine but they just, don’t do enough for me. They look slightly uncomfortable on stage, and I'm not sure wearer this is due to only a small crowd so they're quite self-conscious or whether they're still getting used to their songs.  Singer/screamer Mat Church is a small stature but what he lacks in size he can make up for with heavy vocals that are will wake you up and make you take notice! Overall they’re very loud and very heavy and if that's your thing then I can see them coming good over the next year with more live shows under their belt, but for the time they come off lukewarm. 

Finally we have Shadows Chasing Ghosts this 5 piece from London bring the noise from the moment they come out on stage. The march out to some dubstep that gets everyone’s attention then they jump into their first song which blows everyone away.  They own the stage and the crowd, with every kick from the drum, with every chord from the guitar and with every key from Trey Tremain’s vocals.  They crash and jump around the stage making seemingly never stopping moving. They have so much energy and all this with such a small crowd, they really don’t care how many people are here to see them, they’re just happy to be on stage and this truly shows in their faces.  Trey gets in with the crowd and passes the mic the people who are singing along to join in throughout the evening.  In-between songs he keeps the crowd entertained, he gets everyone to cheer, and then says “that was ok, but if it’s not better in a few more songs then where packing up early and going home”.  They play quite a few tracks, unfortunately I didn’t get to see there set list but I know they played some from their first album ‘The Golden Ration’ including ‘S.O.S’ and ‘Girl In Sheep’s Clothing’. They also play a few from their latest album ‘Lessons’ including ‘The Hunter’, ‘Rest Easy’ and ‘Loose the Attitude’. Their brand of screamo rock is as good as any other and there live show is fun and entertaining, I recommend you go catch them when you can as soon they’ll be playing big venues and you can be that kid who says “I liked them better when before they got big”.