FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! PHOTOGRAPHY/ LOSTPROPHETS @ THE LONDON ASTORIA 11/06/08 每 As I stand front-centre at the Astoria for the first time since my teens I am nervous. About to take to the stage are a band that I saw play their first gig to a living room of people in November last year and tonight, fresh from a week-long UK tour, they are all set to每play to a crowd at least ten times the size of the one they faced only days ago. 每 It is ten minutes after doors and I was expecting no one to be but the place is filling nicely; kids seem desperate to cement their place at the front even when there is little competition. This is good news for 3FP and, as Pooke, Doggett and每Berry (drums, bass and guitar respectively) run onto the stage and start the intro to Make Like A Tree I am amazed by how每’stadium’ they sound and, more importantly, how much it suits them. Babatola (guitar/vocals) and Hemsley (vocals) join them and rip their way through the song每before launching into每Beeps & Clicks每by which time每the crowd have started nodding along in acceptance. Steven Glansberg follows and每by the time that每Aquaman You Cannot Marry A Woman Without Gills closes the set people are singing along. To say that this came about just because of Megalolz每and a Facebook group would be unfair, this is a band that have somehow managed to create a sound that is not easily comparable每and, armed with this sound, manage to win people over every time they play. And, at least for tonight, the kids love them每too. 每
Having seen 3FP take their first step into the mainstream tonight, Lostprophets, in contrast, seem to have become the finished article since I last saw them. Armed with an extended intro tape that is whistled into background noise and backdrops that are reminiscent of Stalin’s Russia, they take to the stage with the kind of confidence that comes with massive record sales and an impending headline spot at Donnington. As soon as the first bar of opener We Still Kill The Old Way is played每people on the floor give up trying to record the band as the mosh leaves no one safe. By the second song, Ride,每Watkins has lost his shirt and, in between continuously pulling his white jeans up so as not to show more of his bum crack than he already has, he manages to每show that he is an exemplary每front man. Humorous banter, super synchronised shapes thrown and a vocal that seems far stronger than years ago help to flesh out his otherwise malnourished presence. 每 Having suffered with the heat in the venue all night I had been tempted to leave before Lostprophets had started but by the end of the set I had to hold a piss, determined to not miss a second.每I failed but was back in time to see them close their hit-laden每fourteen song set with the triple whammy of Last Train Home, Shinobi vs. Dragonninja and Burn Burn. Yes this band were accused with every album of changing their sound to fit trends but tonight the songs sit next to each other effortlessly and I am finally won over by their live performance.
Dan