Live Review

Kerrang Tour – Manchester Academy

• 12th Feb 2008

Most of tonight’s sell-out crowd aren’t here for Circa Survive, but they probably should be. Having seen the band play an incendiary set in Academy 3 I’m a bit wary about how they might adapt their uber-personal style to such a big venue, but those worries turn out to be misplaced. Whilst their set is, obviously, so much less intimate than it might have been, they play to their other strengths and put on an intense show, full of energy. Anthony Green does seem a little lost on the huge stage and doesn’t quite fill the venue with his charisma as normal, but the band’s decision to stick to their more fast-paced tunes means that the kids coming in from the cold at least have something to dance to, and by the end of their set they seem to have warmed the hearts of most of those in attendance.

It’s moderately depressing to realise that the vast majority are here to see , but having never really given either a fair chance I decide to stick out both sets and see how it goes. While I delight in mocking Fightstar for their singer’s dodgy musical past (and its pointed out to me that he wins there, as he’s now a millionaire and I’m not) I did secretly like ‘Hazy Eyes’. Yet tonight they seem to be playing at being Slayer, with most melodies lost in a haze of guttural screaming and the constant throb of a double kick-pedal. They’re trying to be too metal for their means and I would assume too metal for their fans too, but all the black-clad teens lap it up for whatever reason. Every song hammers the nail in the coffin for me, and I can now with a clear conscience state that Fightstar are just shit.

Madina Lake, too, sink me into despondency every time I see or hear them. Of course, with this being the Kerrang Tour I should expect no less, but being sandwiched between the openers and headliners, both of whom shun typical media images, ML come across more and more like rock wannabes. You can’t cloak a pop ballad in heavy riffs and fool the masses, and soon enough their fans are going to realise this. Over the top and lacklustre at the same time, Madina Lake fall far short of the standard set by other bands here tonight. Is this really what the country’s most popular music weekly deems as good music? Jesus Christ!

Thank god, then, for Coheed and Cambria. As a unique and eclectic mix of styles, they’re the perfect antidote to bands who are trying desperately to be something and missing just slightly. While the indifference of a lot of the crowd robs the gig of its usual electricity, the cries of ‘Coheed!’ still ring around the venue before the man/hair mountain that is Claudio takes the stage. Ripping straight into ‘No World For Tomorrow’, the call-to-arms that opens their latest record, they don’t mess around with banter, but then again, they don’t need to. The line “Raise your hands high young brothers and sisters” gets the fans reaching for the skies and even rouses the less-than-enthused, though the few of us bounding around near the front are in the minority. Unusually for Coheed they’ve recruited the talents of a deuce of blonde backing singers, although the girls’ vocals get lost in the mix so Claudio’s top-end voice still commands the most attention, but the pure musicianship is of such better standard than the other bands here that it’s almost startling. Harking back to the prog-rock heyday with their complex riffs and harmonies while encompassing the spirit of hardcore in their performance, they impress me time and time again. Happily for the die-hards, their set is interspersed with older classics (Devil In Jersey City and In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth:3 being particularly exhilarating) though the new album is given fair representation, and by the time they return for the encore of ‘Welcome Home’, nearly everyone is pogoing and reaching for the stage. If hair equals greatness then this band have it in abundance, and I have a sneaking feeling it goes even deeper than that.

Keep reading for interviews with Mic for Coheed and Cambria and Anthony from Circa Survive later this week.