Busted + Wheatus + Emma Blackery @ Genting Arena, 20th May 2016
First up this evening is singer-songwriter and You Tube Vlogger Emma Blackery who has amassed over 1.1 million subscribers and 111 million views, so to say that she’s unknown would most probably not be telling the truth. Performing tracks from new EP Sucks To Be You, Blackery does well to entertain the growing crowd however due to performing to a backing track with only an accompanying guitarist the songs often lose their edge and fail to fill the space that these arena’s command.
Next up are American rock group Wheatus, who open with their cover of Erasure’s A Little Respect before playing a career spanning set. It must be noted that I was initially skeptical as Wheatus are often billed as a one hit wonder type of band however all songs performed tonight were engaging and Brendan B Brown’s vocals are interesting to say the least. Once the band play Teenage Dirtbag you could be convinced that everyone in the arena tonight is in fact here for Wheatus, with the loudest sing along I have ever had the pleasure of hearing from a support band.
Busted last released an album in 2003 and only have two albums to their name. However their popularity has apparently never wavered with Charlie Simpson doing a variety of other projects whilst James Bourne and Matt Willis have recently been playing in McBusted. To have the trio back together is wonderful and by the atmosphere in the room this evening everyone couldn’t be more excited.
Entitled the ‘Pigs Can Fly’ tour in reference to the fact that the band thought it was more likely that pigs could fly than the band reforming, the arena is adorned with a giant flying pig before the band take to the stage this evening. Upon the bands arrival, a giant ‘pigsty’ is revealed to the back of the stage holding a number of fans who had bought experience tickets making them a part of the show.
Opening with ‘Coming Home’ the band then blast through a number of older album cuts such as ‘Falling For You’, ‘Everything I Knew’ and ‘Dawon’s Geek’ before moving onto a B-stage towards the back of the arena. This involves them getting put into boxes and moved onto this stage whilst the Pink Panther theme plays over the speakers. Once here we’re treated to the second new song of the evening ‘Easy’ as well as later on in the evening ‘One Of A Kind’ with James Bourne playing the keytar. These new tracks introduce a much more pop orientated and electronic led approach to song writing and it will be interesting to see how the album turns out upon its release.
Charlie Simpson is the bands saving grace it must be said and is most probably the reason why fans have come out this evening. His vocals are brilliant throughout and in particular on tracks such as ‘Why’ and ‘Meet You There’. This isn’t to say that the harmonies on show tonight aren’t top notch with the band arguably sounding better than they did the first time around. Tonight’s set list focuses heavily on album tracks that fans were perhaps not expecting to hear, before closing with ‘Crashed The Wedding’, What I Go To School For’, ‘3AM’ and ‘Year 3000’.
This is not some quick cash scheme. This is a band who are revitalised, motivated and in short bloody good.
Words: Dan Earl
Photographs: Andy Watson