All Time Low + The Maine + We Are The In Crowd @ Birmingham O2 Academy – 28th January 2012
Opening the set for the night were, We Are The In Crowd. At first glance this 5 piece appeared to be a carbon copy of Paramore. After a couple of songs however you could tell that they do have their own style and had stage presence. The crowd were very much into the band from the get go with good participation, lots of clapping, cheering and singing along to the New Yorkers’ catchy tunes.
Halfway through the set however the entire band forgot how to play the next song in the set list, they recovered well and made a joke of it so no harm done really. Towards the end of the set Alex from All Time Low joined them on stage for a duet, to which the female portion of the crowd went crazy to the point of the girl next to me fainting! All in all a great warm up for the main headliners.
Next on stage was The Maine. This was a much slower paced set list which really didn’t go with the other two bands. The crowd seemed to enjoy the band and know all the lyrics, but the drummer and bassist just didn’t gel with the rest of the band. Both of them were very energetic where as the rest of the band seemed rooted to one spot. 3 songs in, the lead singer played guitar but even this did very little to lift the room. There was a definite country feel to the majority of the band. During the final couple of songs the backing vocalist/guitarist appeared to get more and more out of tune, and the lead needed the crowd to hit the notes that he couldn’t. ‘Mainely’ disappointing.
So onto the headliners for tonight’s festivities, All Time Low. The house lights go down, the very spectacular stage lights go up and the chants and cheers are almost deafening. Out come the pop punk 4 piece and start the set with their current single ‘Timebomb’. The atmosphere and energy from the crowd was matched by the band, with Jack standing on top of the bank of speakers. There were clearly a lot of female admirers for the band judging by the amount of underwear hanging from Jack’s microphone stand.
You could be forgiven for saying that ATL were like Blink 182 in their early days – lots of laughing and joking on stage playing off one another. As this was their second night at the O2 they were eager to see if the crowd could outdo the night before by the size of the moshpit! Very memorable quote from Jack being “pants down the sweatiest show of the tour”. Throughout the set the energy stayed high along with crowd participation. The set was a good mix of new and old songs, to which the crowd knew all the words.
Towards the end of the set, the band left the stage just leaving Alex to do an acoustic number, which was clearly a favorite with the crowd. The Adele cover felt slightly out of place, but this was soon rectified by the crowd singing along. During the closing songs of the set a glass of water soaked Alex, to which he just opened a bottle of water throwing the contents at the culprit. A very strong set from start to finish.
Review – Richard Brake
Photos – Michelle Ballard