You Me At Six + All Time Low + Walk The Moon @ The Genting Arena, 10th February 2015

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The Genting Arena, Birmingham, the venue that tonight would be hosting the joint headline tour that sees All Time Low and You Me At Six join forces, drawing in the crowds that are near on selling out arenas around the country.

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We had never heard of the opening act Walk The Moon, an American indie rock band, and in all honesty we were guilty of not expecting much from support bands, so we were pleasantly surprised when their set exceeded our expectations. Their music was so easy to get into and as we watched the crowd on the floor of this near sold out arena show, it was clear that a majority of them felt the same way. It was clear they already had a small fan base that were very energetic at the front of the standing area and that enthusiasm seemed to ripple throughout the crowd, getting everyone excited for the rest of the night. Usually an opening act can expect to not get much feedback from an audience but these guys had everybody clapping and jumping to the music by the time they were into their second song. Pulling in a few more fans, Walk the Moon played a cover of The Killers ‘All These Things I’ve Done’ which went down well with everyone, it was as though people couldn’t help but join in. The quartet had a good overall stage presence, with them on the move constantly; and we must say their bass player had a lot of what can only be called, “funky” dance moves, which kept us amused. They were a fantastic start to the night and they most definitely got everybody warmed up for All Time Low, who were to follow.

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All Time Low are a 4 piece pop punk band from America and being a joint headline tour, there were a vast amount of people at the show to see All Time Low, this was evident from the waves of All Time Low T-shirts that could be seen on fans now at the front of the arena. The lights went down, the crowd went insane and All Time Low took the stage, plunging straight into ‘A Love Like War’. From the moment the band started playing, the standing area turned into a mosh pit which was mental and ultimately did result in a fair few people being dragged out from the barrier by security looking a bit bedraggled. They were only a few songs in when the bras started being thrown onto the stage by their over excited female fans, the band took it all in their stride hanging the undergarments on their mic. stands (after trying them on of course!).

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The energy in the room and on stage was enormous and although all the band were extremely active, none of them compared to the energy of Jack Barakat (guitar/vocals) who just didn’t stop moving; the best way to describe him is like a hyperactive child! Whilst the rest of the band had a breather, Alex Gaskarth (vocals) was left alone on stage to perform ‘Therapy’. In the past this would have been a moment for waving lighters in the air but being the technology based society we are now, Alex asked the fans to light the room with their phones, which actually made a big impact and added to the atmosphere in the room for this song.

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The remaining co headliners were You Me At Six, a British indie rock band. They arrived on stage to an already, extremely pumped crowd. They began their set with an instrumental before Josh Franceschi (vocals) appeared on stage, which is when they dove straight into ‘Room To Breathe’. They didn’t stop to speak until they were around four songs in, although they clearly didn’t need to because the fans were completely in the moment with them.

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When they did finally speak to their audience, Josh apologised if it seemed like he was hobbling around a bit, he had actually broken his ankle! Apparently they had considered cancelling but they chose not to and that definitely deserves some recognition so kudos to him for carrying on, on a broken ankle in order to not disappoint the fans. He even decided to carry on jumping around whilst singing, albeit more hoping than jumping. Being not too well versed in the You Me At Six discography, and only really knowing “well known” songs, one somehow felt like unless you knew their songs well their set could not be fully enjoyed. Having seen other bands that we don’t overly know and feeling really involved, it was just very hard to get into their set.

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Yes, there was nothing wrong at all with their actual performance, technically speaking, they were really good, everything was spot on, you only had to look around the packed arena to see they were doing it right What they were missing however was the interaction with the crowd, they seemed to dive into song after song without overly speaking to their fans. This lack of interaction however could have been down to nerves, as an arena gig is a pretty big deal in comparison to a previous gig we had been to of theirs in 2008 where they had played to a 500 capacity crowd, they had come so far in a relatively short amount of time.

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The standing crowd though were of course going mad for these guys and their mosh pit was looking pretty rough which again saw people being dragged out, looking rather worse for wear, especially after requesting for fans to crowdsurf! Visually You Me At Six had all sorts going on with visualisations on their backdrop, fireworks and glitter explosions happening during various songs as well as large inflatable balls were thrown out into the mosh pit. Overall, although this band were not big on talking to the crowd and interacting in that way, you can’t argue with an arena full of people that were quite clearly enjoying everything that You Me At Six were offering so they are definitely doing something right.

 

Set list – All Time Low:

A Love Like War

Lost in Stereo

Heroes

Stella

Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don’t)

Forget About It

The Irony of Choking on a Lifesaver

Weightless

Therapy

Somewhere in Neverland

Backseat Serenade

Time-Bomb

Something’s Gotta Give

The Reckless and the Brave

Dear Maria, Count Me In

 

Set list –You Me At Six:

Room to Breathe

Stay With Me

Loverboy

Carpe Diem

The Consequence

No One Does It Better

Underdog

Contagious Chemistry

The Dilemma

Reckless

Crash

Fireworks

Forgive and Forget

Bite My Tongue

Fresh Start Fever

Lived a Lie

 

Review: Gemma Bywater & Shaz Rafferty

Photographs: Dave Musson

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