Having been over for a few shows in February, Boys Like Girls returned to the UK on April 26th 2010 for a gig at Shepherds Bush Empire, with support from UK based bands Me Vs Hero and Futures.
With doors at 7:00pm we unfortunately missed out on opening act Me Vs Hero, next to the stage was London’s very own Futures however, and the unfortunate thing there was that we didn’t miss them. In a set completely devoid of any energy or passion, and with a drummer that looked like he could fall asleep at any time (and may well have done at certain points), Futures droned through a number of tracks that all sounded distinctly similar. Finishing with ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’, the band certainly seemed to appeal to some of those at the front, personally however I found little to really smile about in the band’s music, and hearing that ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’ was their last track was the most excited I managed to get during the band’s performance.
With Futures’ set having finished, the Shepherds Bush Empire decided it was time to slap Maroon 5 on the stereo, and even if Futures’ performance hadn’t been a hit with some, Maroon 5’s ‘Songs About Jane’ album during the interval certainly seemed to do the trick as the majority of the young audience began to sing along and get ready for Boys Like Girls to take to the stage. After what felt like an eternity of Maroon 5, it was finally time for Boys Like Girls to take to the stage and provide the crowd with the music that they’d been waiting for.
Kicking off their show with the Black Eyed Peas’ hit ‘I Gotta Feeling’, straight away Boys Like Girls began to work the crowd as they took to the stage and the predominantly teen audience began to go wild. Jumping straight into ‘Love Drunk’ from there, Boys Like Girls continued to impress with their upbeat brand of pop punk/pop rock and launched through a number of tracks from their first two albums.
In a set that included tracks such as ‘Hero/Heroine’, ‘Five Minutes to Midnight’, ‘Heart Heart Heartbreak’, ‘She’s Got A Boyfriend Now’, and ‘Thunder’, Boys Like Girls was able to keep the energy levels high at all times before bringing numerous crowd members to the stage for closing number ‘The Great Escape’. The setlist was identical to that of February’s show at the O2 Academy, Islington, despite playing the same set however the band certainly didn’t seem tired of it and looked genuinely pleased to be playing to a London crowd for the second time in just over two months.
Before coming back to the UK for this show at Shepherds Bush Empire, Boys Like Girls was scheduled to play a number of shows over in Germany, as a result of the closed airspace the band therefore had to miss out on their German tour dates however and these shows will therefore have to be rescheduled for a later date.
For fans of pop punk/pop rock, Boys Like Girls certainly put on an impressive show at the Shepherds Bush Empire, and if you’ve yet to see this band live then doing so at a later stage is a definite must. The band may only have released two albums thus far, Boys Like Girls is still a band with much to offer however and their live show certainly recreates the supreme positivity of their records. The Boys Like Girls sound is one that is extremely upbeat and exciting, and if you’re up for a bit of pop fuelled rock/punk energy then this is a band that definitely deserves to be seen.
Rating:
UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.
