Live Review

Lower Than Atlantis – Electric Ballroom

• 24th Oct 2012

It’s difficult to describe the buzz, when you walk into a last-night-of-tour, sold-out, home crowd venue, but exciting is one way. Radio 1 lovies Lower Than Atlantis were set for a great show if the crowd was anything to go by, and with a stellar line up, this ‘big gig’ in a small venue was buzzing with ‘next big thing’ whispers.

High expectations were definitely on the menu this evening, and Leeds lads ‘Gnarwolves’ were the first of three support acts. I can’t describe how great they are without the use of expletives, but if you haven’t yet listened to them, do it. They are fresh, they are fun, and they are on Spotify so you can’t say you can’t get hold of the album.

Next up came American band The Dangerous Summer. They played to a seemingly disinterested crowd, which was a shame for the talent and drummer…the drummer was exceptional. They seemed to catch the attention of the crowd who slowly filled up to see them, hopefully not just for what was about to come.

Next up were Bedfordshire babes Don Broco, who were absolutely show stealing. Fresh, fun, and playing all their new hits, smashing out single ‘Priorities’ before missing out on a few golden oldies, but the set was complete with ‘Thug workout’, coordinated dance moves, crowd sing-alongs and lots and lots of energy. It was going to be a tough act to follow.

But then an eerie silence took hold of the room and Mike Duce skulked out in that way that he does, followed the rest of his Watford quartet and immediately opened the proceedings with a sentence too rude to write. He was very overwhelmed it seemed, and almost too thankful, but it was nice to see a band with such a hard image being so thankful about where they are and who it was down to. They played a set most fans would be pleased with, new songs from the album including ‘Normally Strange’, ‘On Strike’ and ‘Love someone else’ and older smash hits like ‘Motor (way of life)’. The most impressive bit was the fans, sitting when told to sit like an army of loyal dogs, jumping when told to jump, and singing back every word to the band. The lights were a particular feature of the show, almost covering up for the lack of intimacy and movement from the band, who almost seemed overcome with fatigue and illness that takes over by the end of the tour, but they tried to interact with the crowd as much as they could muster. It could have been better, but the whole night, support acts and all, was worthy of a strong 8/10.