The Blackout + From First To Last + We Are The Ocean @ The Irish Club, Birmingham – 3rd October 2008
The Irish Club in Digbeth is a decent venue with a respectable PA and the requisite Gaelic above the bar, and tonight it was crammed from the get go. London’s We Are The Ocean may seem all skinny jeans and straighteners but they open strong, and to more than a few shrieks. They played a relatively short set with crowd favourites such as Ready for the Fall and ended on Nothing Good Has Happened Yet, with a handful of the crowd shouting along.
From First To Last have a grimy, post-hardcore edge to their music, and a strong backbone of guitar and percussion with current vocalist Matt Good being powerful enough not to get lost in the middle. The Irish Club was packed and sweaty when they entered onto the stage, with older fans lounging at the edges. An enthusiastic pit formed for Note To Self and continued throughout the rest of the set, with tracks such as I Once Was Lost But Am Now Profound adding to the energy to the room. There was some technical difficulties with the last track but the band recovered and ended the set strongly.
The Blackout entered to the crowd chanting along with Tick Tick BOOM!!, the first track on We Are The Dynamite. Beginning at a great tempo they didn’t drop the pace throughout the night, bantering inbetween tracks and complimenting the frequent outbreaks of circle pits in the crowd. The Beijing Cocktail and Spread Legs Not Lies were enthusiastically received between Sean Smith’s spitting and older tracks like their cover of Gwen Stefani’s Hollaback Girl and songs from their earlier releases. The crowd were tutored in shouting along with a new track and responded as enthusiastically as to the well-known numbers, showing that the new CD will be consumed just as eagerly as 2007’s effort.
Review – Jack Briggs