Monday 19 November 2012

Lost Prophets – Wolves Civic – 1-11-12 – With Support From Pure Love and We Are The Ocean

It’s now officially November, which means colder weather, darker nights and that fun run up to Christmas, but tonight is rather mild as we queue outside the Civic Hall.  Tonight I get to see a band that have always eluded me, I miss them for another band at a festival, can’t afford a ticket or even get ill and miss the gig after buying tickets. There a band who’ve been part of my getting into good rock music with their first album back in 2000 (the original pressing, not the reissue), who’ve get plenty of great songs and albums and who just keep on going. Tonight I get to see them, and I’m rather excited, but first we have the supports and the first one are a band I can’t wait to see too!

Pure Love are up first, the lights stay up and the band walk onto the stage and Frank announces “We’re here to play some songs that you won’t have heard before, but we hope you’ll enjoy it” and they blast into an 8 song set which includes their singles, Bury My Bones and Handsome Devils Club.  The first song is performed as a normal band would, on stage with everyone in their position playing well and rocking out, then we hit the second and half way through guitarist Jim Carroll decides he’s had enough of the stage and jumps down into the photo pit and plays on the barrier in front of the crowd. He gets back up on stage and then Frank gets down into the pit and takes his mic and stand with him, as the song ends he’s half way over the barrier and is asking people to take the mic stand so he can sing in the middle of the crowd.  He climbs over into a crowd of bemused LP fans and sings a few songs in the crowd, he eventually realises that people can’t see him and climbs on a fans shoulders. He beckons Jim to join him in the crowd, and after a bit of persuasion, he comes in and sits on a fan shoulders playing guitar whilst frank bellows down the mic. It’s a sight to be seen as they play some great rock songs in the middle of a crowd, whilst the rest of the band blends into the background on stage. Eventually they go back on stage and finish their set to great applause. They performed really well, both sounding great and doing something different, they’ve made some new fans tonight that’s for sure. 4.5/5

We Are The Ocean are up next, and after the last time I saw this 4 piece from Essex, I gave them a poor write up, they were lacklustre and missing something without their departed second vocalist Dan Brown, but tonight they were different, they were much better.  They play a nice set list of 9 songs which sounds great, the levels are near perfect and they’re performance is full of energy and bang which comes out in the members moving about the stage and jumping about whilst singer Liam Cromby powerfully roars “come on” to get the crowd moving.  They play singles from their last 2 albums including; The Road, Overtime Is A Crime, Young Heart, What It Feels Like, Waiting Room and end of their latest single Bleed, which all go down well. Waiting Room works well without the back and forth between the two singers; it’s still powerful and gets the crowd singing along.  The band do a great job, and have definitely won over some new fans, with the band asking people to come see them at the merch desk later, and as I left it was full of people waiting to say hello.  4/5

Lost Prophets are up now and everyone knows they are a 6 piece from Pontypridd (but I thought I’d tell you again anyway), they play rock/pop/punk music and they have 5 critically acclaimed albums, so with all this under their belts you’d expect them to be a decent live act with a great show and great performance, and you’d be correct.  The stage is dark and as the lights come up Ian Watkins walks out onto the stage alone to huge screams from the crowd, he stands there in his military coat for a few seconds in silence as slowly the rest of the band emerge and take their places on stage.  They all stay silent and soak up the applause, and then start a great setlist by playing a track off album The Betrayed; A Better Nothing before going back to the great album Liberation Transmission and play tracks New Transmission and Can’t Catch Tomorrow which shake the room with the pure power and energy! They sound amazing, with the banging drums, vibrant keyboards, thumping bass, heavy guitars and gravelly vocals along with some beautiful harmonies.  They look amazing too, with the stage being well lit and the band themselves looking smartly dressed and cool.  Ian Watkins doesn’t really say too much in-between songs, with just the casual “Thanks for coming and for your continued support”, “We love Wolverhampton, we should have a residency here” and “We decided to play some songs we haven’t played in a while, as we’ve been playing the same songs for years, we don’t know if it’s good or bad as tonight’s the first night, but we’ll let you decided” and with that they blast into old school classic Kobrakai with the haunting opening guitar notes and bass drop bringing the room to its knees. They continue this flux of old school songs by playing The Fake Sound Of Progress and Shinobi Vs Dragon Ninja, which causes an eruption of circle pits around the venue as the fans get into the music. They set list is great and is mixed up very evenly with 4 songs from each album with a few extra’s thrown in for good measure. Other songs played are We Bring An Arsenal, Last Summer, Jesus Walks, Rooftops, Burn Burn, Last Train Home and then going into an unusual end of set with little known heavy song from their first album A Thousand Apologies, going into Can’t Get Enough with its heavy scratching and ending on a secret heavy track Weapon from Weapons. It’s the first time I’ve seen a band end on a secret track but it goes down great, with everyone now knackered from all the dancing and moshing as this has been a heavy set.

Overall Lost Prophets where amazing, with a great setlist and great sound.  I’m upset I had never seen them before tonight, as I know I would have loved it, but I’m glad I’ve finally seen them, as I know not to miss the next time there back in town and I hope you won’t either!

5/5

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