Reviews Archives

Last Sunday the All-American Rejects played The Refectory at Leeds University. Matchbook Romance opened the show for them (and another band before them, I'm going to be honest, we missed them :p) which did a not bad job of getting the crowd warmed up ready for AAR.

They hit the stage at about 9-9:30ish opening with Dirty Little Secret followed by Top of the World. It took quite a while for them to really get the crowd going but it was an entertaining performance. Tyson asked for the inflated condom to be passed to the front before pointing out if any guy tells you it doesn't fit he is clearly lieing :D.

Plus they finished off with an encore of Night Drive and Move Along which really got the crowd going. All in all, I've been to more lively gigs but it was a solid performance from the Rejects and one that I am very glad I went to.

While I've only recently got into Story of the Year, I've already been strongly impressed by some of their stuff. Most notably Page Avenue. Songs like Until the Day I Die draw in you in fast and this is followed by getting hucked on tracks like Burning Wings.

Story of the Year manage to maintain a fairly constantly heavy beat given they fall quite well into the emo genre. Whereas bands like American Hi-Fi rise and drop into their hardest edge, Story of the Year manage to keep the beat up constantly while still giving it a mix that is most notable on Page Avenue.

In short, their other work is good, Page Avenue is better.

Wow, this is such a BT blog. But what the hell, they rock. So yeah, last Sunday I went to see Billy Talent playing at The Cockpit. Allow me to assure you it was awesome. While I can't say they gave some kind of mind-blowing stage show the songs were knocked out wonderfully with added commentary in between from Benjamin.

That said, the crowd was clearly divided into two. The front half were really up for it and jumping around while the back half just kind of stud around. I got caught in that crowd at the start but after annoying enough people by screaming in their ears (just for reference, I wasn't actually) I pushed my way forward and the atmosphere was great further forward.

The support band weren't bad although they didn't particuarlly inspire me. I didn't get massively bored though so I've seen way worse support bands.

So yeah, awesome gig, don't miss them when they are next playing near you. If you are in the US and aren't going to the Warped Tour there is something wrong with you.

I figured that with a name like She Wants Revenge this band had to be emo, there is just no way you would give a band such a name if you weren't emo. But then the name suggests the band has a slightly darker side than emo and indeed they do.

AMG hit in spot on when they quoted Joy Division as the bands inspiration (whether the band were actually inspired by Joy Division or not remains irrelevant as it does wonders to describe the music). It's a bit down beat and gothy for emo similar to say Godsmack, there is a hint of emo in there but it's not on the same scale as the major bands of the genre.

It's a good album but it's quite long in the rifts for an emo fan. Don't get me wrong though - there is emo to be had in here. If a little darker than most.