I was really looking forward to the moment when The Explosion took to the stage, having heard a lot of their material and being impressed with what I heard. However, when they took to the stage the crowd remained lifeless and didn’t seem to care for the band whatsoever – this crowd had come to see New Found Glory and didn’t seem prepared to give any of the support bands a chance. Sure, there was a bit of a circle pit, but this consisted of very few people while the majority of the crowd just stood their lifeless like lemons. The band got through a number of tracks off forthcoming album ‘Black Tape’ and appeared to be putting a fair amount of effort into their set but people just didn’t seem to care. I was expecting ‘Here I Am’ to get quite a big reaction due to its catchy pop sensibilities, and superb guitar riffs but the crowd didn’t even get going to that, despite its being on the music channels lately. I think the problem is that The Explosion are still relatively unknown in the UK at the moment so people didn’t really know quite how to take them or what to make of them. It can be hard trying to win over a crowd of people that have never heard your songs before as you’ve yet to release any material in that country – The Explosion are proof of this and despite attempts to get the crowd going it just never really happened. The Explosion seemed to be enjoying themselves and I don’t think they let the lifeless crowd got to them much so I have great respect for them on the basis of this alone. Despite the lack of crowd reaction, I enjoyed The Explosion’s set and thought they put on a pretty good show.
Next on was Hot Water Music – another band I have heard on CD, but never before experienced live. I didn’t think the band was that bad, they weren’t as good as I was expecting them to be but they were by no means a poor live act. Again, the crowd just didn’t seem to react to this band and everyone remained rather lifeless meaning that the gig couldn’t be as enjoyable as it should have been. Hot Water Music, much like The Explosion seemed to be putting a fair bit of energy into their set – but I just don’t think a band can give it their best shot when the audience are being this dull. I would like to see this band again as I did enjoy their set and maybe in a different situation, with a more motivated crowd then Hot Water Music would really come across at their best.
Finally, after a long wait – New Found Glory took to the stage and for the first time this evening there was actually a reaction from the crowd. As soon as the band played their first note everyone moved forward and it was just one huge crush as everyone pushed towards the front. I made my way to the back shortly after this as I really didn’t appreciate getting squashed by people half my size and could appreciate the bands set much more when I wasn’t getting crushed by sweaty 14 year olds. The band got through countless tracks off their incredible back catalogue such as the superb ‘Dressed To Kill,’ the amazing ‘Hit Or Miss’ and the storming ‘Head On Collision.’ As well as these classics that had the majority of the crowd singing along the band also played some newer material off their most recent album ‘Catalyst’ such as ‘All Downhill From Here’ and the recently released ‘I Don’t Wanna Know.’ After a mammoth set, the band went offstage – but I don’t think anyone really believe that they had gone for good. Everyone realised that they’d be coming back on for an encore – the fact that they had yet to play ‘My Friends Over You’ gave it away a bit. It was that very track that ended their set – everyone seemed to move out the way for this one and I was able to get near the front, this time without getting crushed. There was a huge circle pit for this song, which I found a bit strange seeing as its probably the most poppy of all the songs they played tonight but there you go – I guess you have to go crazy for a last song regardless of what it is! I was impressed with the set that New Found Glory put on – they were tight, played well together and there was a fair amount of talking with the crowd to keep everyone entertained so all in all it was a good night. It could have been better if the venue was a little less packed and you could actually move and breath but there you go – it doesn’t always go your way and when a bands as big as New Found Glory are its to be expected that’s its going to be a sell out and everyone’s going to be tightly packed in.
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UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.
