The Subways @ Birmingham Academy 2, 20th September 2011
The Subways were upstairs in the village hall like Academy 2. The siren turned as Billy, Charlotte and Josh bounced on stage to Chariots of Fire. Every note pitch perfect the awesome trio from Hertfordshire showed why their fan base is so loyal and still, 5 years after “making it” with not much commercial success, the Academy was packed out with more than likely Reading and Leeds festival goers. From home recordings to crowded venues, I look forward to The Subways return to Birmingham as performing is “what they like do” and with previous self-funded 35 date tours they almost certainly will.
The support act were Straight Lines, a band with obviously a lot of local support however when you type in Straight Lines on Google you get the equation for one. The question is; Why weren’t this band downstairs? They sound just like Attack Attack. Why bring them upstairs to ruin The Subways vibe, to make them look better? There album is called Persistent In This Game and of course you need a lot of persistence when you’re not very good.(How on earth they made an album I’ll never know.) “The Ballad Of Peter Devine” was okay, but they must kick themselves every time they have to listen to The Subways as they know how to write a good song. From minimal audience participation from their slot to crazy mosh pits for the headliners, they’ve got to be asking themselves where they’re going wrong.
His hair dyed bright red, you’d expect Billy Lunn to be the Sid Vicious type but the “Thank you” after each song and the cringe factor when Lunn says a swearword states otherwise. The subways, inspired by Nirvana and Oasis seem like the nicest rock three piece around. There set list was varied and proved popular with the crowd. From sing-alongs to the “biggest pit Birmingham’s ever seen” the audience loved it (some Oasis fans were obviously in the crowd as not everyone was in the pit.) Crowd pleasers were obviously “Rock and Roll Queen” and “We don’t need money to have a good time” but so too were “Celebrity”, “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” and of course Lunn’s proudest creation of the 50 or so songs he wrote for the album Money and Celebrity “It’s a party.” Some of The Subways new songs sound like songs Scouting For Girls would make i.e. “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” but the different chords used distinguish them from that genre, songs like the conveniently named “Popdeath” and of course “I Wanna Dance With You.”
The charging around on stage and all the energy given by the threesome makes you wonder how they manage to keep the music on form. But this is the great thing about The Subways whether it be the couple hundred at the academy or thousands at Glastonbury, they will put on a damn good show.
Since it was such an intimate gig you would expect the cheers for an encore to be louder but as the young teens from the front of the room shouted for more the back of the room remembered they had work at 9 in the morning. Looking back at the encore they gave I’m sure people wished they’d involved themselves more as the encore was the highlight of the show. Billy and Josh both stripped down to the torso and performed two punchy chorused songs. Mid chorus on the last song of the night Billy launched into the crowd (a great way to end the show.) A night to remember I look forward to seeing the Subways on their return, as not even nodules on the vocal chords can stop them for now.
Review – John Kirby
Photos – Jordan Hughes