Suburban Legends + MC Lars + The Bottom Line @ The Rainbow, 9th April 2015
The first band on at The Rainbow, Birmingham, was The Bottom Line. When this three piece UK band stepped onto the stage I immediately thought “pop-punk” and I was spot on. If Blink 182 and New Found Glory ever had a love child, The Bottom Line would be it! Their sound is the definition of the early 2000’s pop punk scene. With them resembling the soundtrack of my teenage years, I really enjoyed them and it’s safe to say I wasn’t the only one. It was a shame, however, that one of the microphones wasn’t calibrated properly which made it quite difficult to hear the one singer properly but despite that, they still got the then, small crowd to sing along with them. This was particularly true when they covered Wheatus’ ‘Teenage Dirtbag’. These guys clearly enjoy what they do and they were a fun band to watch.
The room had packed out a little more by the time MC Lars, a white American rapper, took the stage and judging by the crowd participation during his first track ‘Where Ya Been Lars’, quite a few people were gathered there specifically to see him. Lars had absolutely no trouble interacting with his fans and whether it was singing, bouncing or waving their arms in the air, the crowd were quite happy to oblige when he gave instructions to be involved. It was good to hear old tracks in Lars’ set, but he did throw in his latest song ‘Dragon Blood’ which is inspired by and references the popular TV show, Game Of Thrones. When he performed ‘Mr Raven’ he was joined on stage by MC Kal, a local Birmingham rapper who was in charge of the puppet raven prop as well as rapping with Lars; unfortunately his microphone was broken so we couldn’t hear him! When Lars performed his final song ‘This Gigantic Robot Kills’, Suburban Legends joined him, which well and truly got the fans excited for what was to come from Suburban Legends during their set.
Whilst waiting for Suburban Legends, I was looking at the small stage and I was wondering how the six piece, Ska band were going to fit on it and still perform their set to its full potential (as I have seen them do before) but as soon as they took to the tiny stage, any doubt I had was eliminated.
They greeted their fans with high-fives which took them into their first song ‘High-fives (for all the guys)’, the energy in the room was instant and it clearly rubbed off on the fans; within minutes the whole room was dancing and skanking. This bands set has a fast tempo and they just don’t stop moving, they even have dance routines which are incredible and funny to watch. All of the band members (bar the drummer, obviously) take part in the dance routines but none more so than their trombone and trumpet player.
Whilst the band were performing ‘Hey DJ’, these two hosted a mid-song dance off. They split the crowd into two and picked a fan from either side to dance for their team, it was a lot of fun as was the rest of their set. They covered various Disney songs such as ‘You Got A Friend In Me’ from Toy Story, the theme song from Ducktails, ‘I Just Can’t Wait To Be King’ from Lion King and ‘Kiss The Girl’ & ‘Under The Sea’ from The Little Mermaid.
These Disney songs of course all went down well with the crowd and everybody joined in, because let’s face it, everyone loves a good ol’ Disney sing along! If you have never had the pleasure of seeing Suburban legends live, you are missing out and I urge you to go to one of their shows if you get the opportunity. I can say in all honesty, they are one of the most entertaining bands I have ever seen live and can’t find a bad word to say about them.
Set lists
Suburban Legends:
High-fives
My Friend
You’ve Got a Friend in Me
Open Up Your Eyes
Just Be Happy
Forever in the Friendzone
Hey DJ
Kiss the Girl
Girlfriend’s Pretty
DuckTales
Come Back Home
Getting Down to Business
Saturday Night
I Just Can’t Wait to Be King
Whoa
Encore:
Under the Sea
Bright Spring Morning
MC Lars:
Where Ya Been Lars?
True Player for Real
Signing Emo
Download This Song
Dragonblood
Mr. Raven
This Gigantic Robot Kills
The Bottom Line:
Role Models?
Drive thru night?
Thursdays bad luck
Insecure
Wheatus cover (Teenage dirtbag)
Record Player
Review: Gemma Bywater
Photographs: Shaz Rafferty