Sleeping With Sirens @ o2 Academy, 5 March 2016

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It’s not even been a year since Kellin Quinn and co were in the second city, playing this very venue with their best buddies in Pierce the Veil, but that hasn’t stopped an awful lot of people turning up for another round tonight. There is clearly still plenty of excitement about Sleeping With Sirens — a little too much for some, judging by how many young fans are passing out and having to be rescued by the Academy’s security staff.

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A few crowd members down, the band take the stage and kick things off with a trio of songs from most recent album ‘Madness’; ‘Don’t Say Anything’ is a bit of slow burner to open with (not helped by Quinn’s vocals being incredibly low in the mix) but the show really moves up the gears with ‘Kick Me’ and ‘We Like it Loud’, two songs that show this outfit at their best — crunchy, bouncy riffs and choruses that will stick in your head for days.

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While Sleeping With Sirens are always entertaining live, tonight’s show is a marked improvement on their last visit where, as solid as they were, they were simply blown away by tour mates Pierce the Veil. Tonight though, on their own terms, Sleeping With Sirens are cracking — full of energy and able to keep the screaming crowd in the palm of their hand. ‘Better Off Dead’ and ‘Parasites’ keep things moving while ‘Congratulations’ still sounds as fantastic as it always has.

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Much as Sleeping With Sirens are clearly brilliant at what they do, their show does feel a little overly scripted at points. I can’t recall many, if any, points where Quinn actually mentions the name of the town he’s playing in tonight, which doesn’t exactly make you feel special, and everything about the show is so slick and choreographed that it does take a little of the edge off it. This isn’t said to criticise the band — their style of live show perfectly suits their music and their image, their fans go crazy for it and they pull it off with aplomb, I just prefer my rock shows to be more organic and raw, so seeing Quinn frantically putting his hair back in place after every tiny headbang is, to my eyes, a little odd.

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Unsurprisingly, given that they are about to release a live acoustic album, the band calm things down for an acoustic section, which is almost entirely taken from ‘Madness’, before cranking things back into full rock show mode to round the evening off. It’s admirable that the band has the confidence to include this laid back section in their set and shows that they aren’t just about looking good — they can actually play and, obviously, Quinn has a very special voice.

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They round things off with the excellent ‘If You Can’t Hang’ and send everyone home happy, if a little miffed at some of the excellent picks from their back catalogue that don’t make tonight’s set list. However, they’ve more than bounced back from their last visit to Birmingham and will undoubtedly be back soon — something I’m sure will please the masses packed into the Academy tonight.

 

Words and photographs: Dave Musson

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