All American Rejects plus Matchbook Romance & The Format
London Brixton Academy
29th September 2006
On paper, tonight’s show has an absolutely stellar line-up. With one of the biggest mainstream rock acts in the world today and two brilliant up and coming bands from the US, this show should by all rights have been a complete sell-out.
It really is a shame then, that when THE FORMAT hit the stage, the Academy is barely half full. They’re a band that write songs that make your heart melt, and when playing live, produce a super-energetic performance which is musically perfect. Frontman Nate Ruess is literally bouncing off the walls for the duration of their half-hour set. Sadly, the crowd is less than enthusiastic and very few people seem to actually be paying attention to the stage. Despite this, they pull of a watertight set, with highlights being ‘Compromise’ and a frankly genius cover of The Sparks’ ‘This town ain’t big enough for the both of us’.
By the time MATCHBOOK ROMANCE grace us with their presence, the Academy has filled up nicely, and the audience is slightly more interested in what’s going in front of them. It’s great to see this band get this much exposure as tonight’s venue is far and above anything they’ve played before. The band manage to squeeze all of their best tunes into their set, giving note-perfect renditions of ‘Your Stories, My Alibis’, and especially ‘You can run but we’ll find you’. By the time Sean from The Matches joins them for their closing song, the Brixton Academy has become party central.
Despite two phenomenal support acts, tonight is without a doubt the ALL AMERICAN REJECTS‘ night. Without any hesitation they kick off the party with ‘Dirty Little Secret’ and power through a set of pop-rock gems, all the time making the audience eat out of the palms of their hands. Tyson Ritter and co. are clearly enjoying themselves, and so is everyone else. It would have been nice if we could actually hear him for an entire song above the 4,000 teenage girls screaming ‘I LOVE YOU TYSON’, but such is the price to pay for being a modern-day Rock ‘n Roll posterboy. However, this doesn’t hide the fact that tonight, these four boys from Stillwater, Oklahoma have proved just how deserving they are of their current fame. Without a doubt, this show was musically one of the best I have ever seen. With two support bands just as deserving of the audience numbers as the headliners themselves, Brixton held host to one hell of an evening that will be a struggle for me to forget in a hurry. Absolutely stellar.
Andrew