Opening the night was Californian act Dead Sara. Having only
had a brief introduction of the band my limited knowledge was of two features.
Loud, and with female vocals. Both, when used correctly, can make me love a band in
an instant. This was one of those moments. Dead Sara provide the ideal opening
to anthemic rock show. Crashing through a 30 minute slot the band don’t
necessarily leave me wanting more of the same straight away but they are a band
I will listen more closely to in the near future. Providing distorted moments
not too unfamiliar to early 90s grunge and rock a la Smashing Pumpkins, the band
may leave this younger crowd with a different take on female-fronted rock that
seems to be dominated by such acts as Paramore in recent times.
Charlie Simpson comes next. Clichés will be clichés and
despite having heard pieces of his solo record before the show I did not expect
what was to come in the 40 minute set. The Charlie Simpson
of the past provides the idea of pop anthem choruses from his Busted days and
then ‘screamo’ vocals and detuned guitars from the Fightstar days that
followed. This time around we got folk rock and in all honesty it really wasn’t
bad at all. Please don’t go thinking that Charlie Simpson has jumped ship and
gone all Mumford & Sons on us as that is not the case. Simply put,
Charlie Simpson seems to have grown up. The set was littered with great pop
sensibilities, harmonies and a set of songs that, if written and sung by anyone
else, people in their mid 20s-30s would not be ashamed to be seen listening to.
By the end of the set a very humble Simpson thanks the crowd for giving his new
guise a chance. Any scepticism from the crowd seemed to have disappeared by the
end. I have no problem saying I would happily go and watch him again.
9:30pm rolled around and it was time for what the 1500 strong
crowd had been waiting for. Twin Atlantic hit the stage with such ferocity and
conviction, and set the crowd alight for the next 90 minutes of fast paced rock
n roll. Due to only having 1 EP, 1 mini-album and 1 full album most of what you
would want to hear is played in this set. In truth if you have seen Twin play
before this is a set you will be familiar with. However it’s the boldness,
scale, and production that is seen on this show that sets it apart from previous
performances. The light show is huge; there are drum risers and balloons.
Everything that you expect from a big rock show. The difference here is there
are songs to go with it which occasionally is not the case from such a young
band playing such a large show. The most impressive parts of the set is when
vocalist Sam McTrusty gets the crowd involved. Little can make a show more impressive than a
singalong. Nearing the end of the set title track from debut album Free is
played and you would be forgiven for thinking the night will get no better for
these four Glasgow lads. The riffs fill the room but somehow the singing is
even louder. A few songs later we have the bands stadium moment.
Crashland is unleashed with such delicacy but the crowd can't help
but get involved in this beautiful song. At this point the band thank the crowd
for making their "wildest dreams come true". You can image acts can say this
day after day, but in this moment the sincerity is shown and you truly believe
this is a band who realise how lucky they are to have a fanbase this loyal.
SK
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