Live Review

Joyce Manor – The Old Blue Last, London

• 29th Sep 2012

Moving from the familiar North West to the big smoke, I expected never being able to afford to do anything decent, however East London music collective PINK MIST, kindly put on a free gig full of pop punk goodness at THE OLD BLUE LAST, a pub/venue brought to you by VICE.

I’d never been to this venue; therefore I was eager for the night ahead upon seeing the size of the stage. It was small and in the corner with the rest of the room being an intimate open space. As this was a pop punk gig, the smaller the venue means the better, for that home show vibe.

The first act was the up and coming gruff pop punk trio, GNARWOLVES. With only one 6-track album that was only released in the summer of this year, I have already had them on repeat for the past month. Without being biased, when I saw that these were opening, one thought popped into my head of simply why? All the way through GNARWOLVES’ set, you could tell how much of a following they have already. With crowd surfing starting within the first 10 seconds of ‘History Is Bunk’ and more than half the room knowing the words, it was clear to why the room was already at full capacity, I, and much of the room, felt like I was already watching the headliner. This is a band who loves what they do, from the way they spoke to the room, stage presence and even from looking at front man Thom’s face; you could see genuine happiness of seeing songs screamed back. Towards the end of the set and much like their debut release, I wanted more and I was still in wonder to how this was the first band and felt worried to how the second act could follow this robust performance.

BANGERS are a three piece from Cornwall, UK and I have to admit, after the previous band’s exploding performance, I found it hard to pay attention to what I thought was generic pop punk. They were by no means bad, they were good, but then again they weren’t amazing. With three releases since 2010, this band had quite a bit of a following but the energy seemed to of disappeared with GNARWOLVES.

The third act saw APOLOGIES, I HAVE NONE. The four piece Londoners took to stage with their own amps, spray painted with the band name in glittery silver and if it wasn’t for that and the set list, I’d of had no idea who was on stage but from seeing the front half of the room sing word for word right back at them, it was obvious they had a following. This band seemed a bit more mature than previous acts and you could tell they’d done it all before, primarily through their opening song having a 90s emo feel. This quickly changed into a pop punk party, with one super fan gyrating through the whole set, the bassist getting crowd surfed, whilst still playing and one song that reminded me a lot of Good Charlotte’s ‘The Anthem’.

JOYCE MANOR, all the way from Torrance, California, were the fourth and final act of the evening. Within seconds of their set, I found myself being thrown into the wall with the amount of people getting involved in the performance. Constant crowd surfing, pits of individuals screaming a long to each other and even a bloody shirt, you name it. The audience were really showing how grateful they were to have such an amazing band play across the pond finally. If some of the audience didn’t arrive knowing who this band is, I can promise that they do now. Catchy lyrics, a cover of ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’, this American band were showing us the type of pop punk we won’t soon forget.