Taking Back Sunday, Brixton Academy, London
So this was my first visit to Brixton’s Carling Academy. I arrived to what I thought was a modest queue, however quickly discovering that the queue I was in went straight past the venue, all the way round the back and up the other side - I realised this was a big step up for TAKING BACK SUNDAY from their Kentish Forum show 5 months earlier.
Missing COMMINQUE, the opening band, I eventually managed to get myself into the standing area where I was greeted by MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE. I have never been a massive fan of this band, either by cd or live performance, however they managed to attain my attention for a short while of their set and I think I just may have been in the minority not completely impressed by Gerard Way and co’s pop-punk, gothic-esque noise. The rest of the crowd on the other hand were lapping it up, throwing the lyrics right back at the New Jersey 5 piece. I don’t think I’ve seen such reception for a support band in quite a while. MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE blistered through 9-10 songs before exiting. There’s no denying this band are extremely popular and they’ve got everything in the right places, but there was nothing that made me want to sing along with the other 1000 plus kids, I didn’t feel as though there was a single stand out feature from this band except their static performance (bar guitarist Frank Iero) and Mr Way's whining vocals..(5/10)
TAKING BACK SUNDAY’S banner drops to a momentous cheer. The band appears a few minutes later to even louder response. This was my third time seeing TAKING BACK SUNDAY and I thought there were a few certain things you could always guarantee from TAKING BACK SUNDAY; mic swinging and singing - lots and lots singing. There was, it seemed to me at least, a severe shortage of the latter tonight. The Long Island boys played in peaks and toughs, ripping apart some songs from the new album and sloppily playing a few old ones in the middle. It was discouraging for me to hear the songs that I really love, and feel really ‘made’ the band, as it were, being beaten about and abused so badly. The band end with ‘cute without the e’ before guitarist Fred Mascherino reappears, acoustic guitar in hand, soon joined by vocalist Adam Lazzara and a petite woman clutching a violin for the encore. They go on to perform an awesome version of their ‘American classic’, which, for me at least, turned the show around from being very average indeed. There was nothing I really disliked about TAKING BACK SUNDAY’S set, apart from a couple of awful timings, but at the same time there was nothing (apart from the acoustic performance) that could justify me spending £15 on a ticket. (6/10)
Tonight Sonic Boom Six played the other side of London in a dramatically smaller sized venue, which was, at least, half the price. I know which one I would have rather been at. Just because it comes with an American accent, MTV plays and Kerrang spreads, it doesn’t guarantee that they’ll perform any better. Now I’m no ‘up teh punx’ no where near in fact, but I felt tonight’s show was, in large, a case of hype over substance. I didn’t think either band played well enough to deserve the stage in front of 5000 odd people and I left quite discouraged from seeing either band again.
Ross Brown
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