Yashin

support Eight Tide Suicide + Forever Can Wait + Don Broco
author BL date 16/09/10 venue Joiners, Southampton, UK

There's nothing like the feeling of being away from the live music scene for months, and then coming back straight into it after missing it for a while. During the summer I had been to no shows and so there was a feeling of excitement when I headed down to Southampton's Joiners to see Yashin headline their show for their new album. Which any fan of that sort of Funeral For A Friend/The Blackout-esque post-hardcore should have checked out by now. The full lineup also consisted of Eight Tide Suicide, Forever Can Wait, Don Broco filling up the support slots. And like any good little gig going reviewer, I planned to get at the venue in good time, see all the bands, and have a good time as well. Unfortunately getting on time didn't quite happen as smoothly as I had hoped, having been let down by the bus service...again. So by the time I arrived local boys Eight Tide Suicide were already into their set.

Eight Tide Suicide

These guys played what is best described as sort of metalcore mixed with some light progressive metal influences. Thanks to my slightly late arrival I only caught the last three songs and my lasting impression was that the vocalist Louis had quite the impressive screaming vocals, which was punctuated with thick and low growls. Unfortunately the occasional cheesy chugging breakdown kept interrupting the flow of the music itself unnecessarily, which was a shame since the rest of their last song "The King And The Cowboy" had some nice clean guitar, and a tasteful solo that matched the backing ambience in the best possible way. Having missed the start of their set, our new photographer Lauren told me that the band had various technical problems from the start which included the drummer breaking his drums. Louis also kept making apologetic remarks about how bad they had sounded. And while I was not exactly widening my eyes (oh no I didn't tehe!) at what I saw, there's at least hints of better things to come here and there. For me being a little late (sorry!) and that it would be unfair to judge on just half a set, I'll leave a grade out.

Forever Can Wait

A female fronted pop punk band? Yeah it's becoming less uncommon these days but I always find them refreshing when I see one. I'll say that once again it was the vocalist that stood out the most. Tash, like mentioned in the review from this show, sang a great performance. She did so well that I think a lot of people found themselves getting into the swing of the music and the pristine quality of her voice nicely, and didn't really take much notice or mind that the band were experiencing technical difficulties left, right and centre with Lauren running around fixing various drum cymbals, guitar straps, and microphone stands. Good thing she was around to help because I think otherwise everything would have stopped working at the end. It was a little odd to see and hear some breakdowns dotting the otherwise fairly standard pop punk tracks in action, but strangely it not only fitted in well but almost gave a nod to the other heavier bands on show tonight since Forever Can Wait were by far the least heavy band on the bill. And while the cover of "Paper Planes" by M.I.A. ended the set with everyone singing along, their new single "Walking On Wasted Time" deserves the most checking out, it's got simple but pretty melodies wrapping a nice structured song, some decent drum parts to go with them, and ofcourse some really good catchy singing that kind of sticks with you afterwards. With a competent and solid performance like that there will certainly be new fans tonight, me being one of them.

7

Don Broco

Don Broco have a unique and unusual sound, one that takes seconds for me to get into though because boy do these guys have some energy. Front man Rob is just jumping around and bouncing all over the place while able to sing impressively to the equally energetic music. The rest of the band show plenty of movement and despite not really catching the names of the songs, nor remembering every little detail I was certainly quite impressed by what I saw and heard. Especially one of the songs that had prominent clean guitar verses with an anthemic chorus which I remember being very catchy. The mixture of almost pop-indie-rock with the occasional hardcore element also had the crowd errupting into somewhat of a frenzy, moshing and singing along to every corresponding part. Rob at one point inbetween songs mentioned how he had this ongoing friendly rivalry with Harry from Yashin during the tour, and said that if the crowd incited the issue enough, he would openly challenge Harry to an arm wrestle later on as some kind of proof of front-manly-ness (more on that later). As for the rest of the set, well it was all in the same positive vein - fun to see and hear the whole way for sure. I also realised I'd have to listen to more of the band after seeing them in action, something I'll make a note of.

Yashin

Having eventually migrated to the front of the crowd I was pretty eager for the big finale to get under way, and it was also getting strangely late. This tour was in support of Yashin's superb new album "Put Your Hands Where I Can See Them" which while departed from the tapped guitar overload of their fantastic EP, certainly saw plenty of playtime for me over the months leading up to this night. When the band finally got to the stage and started with the epic album intro "Intro (Awake While I'm Asleep)", I knew instantly it was going to be a fun filled set. Once the guitars and drums kicked into full roar, the band's newest members and double vocalists Harry and Kevin got to the stage and things quickly transitioned into "Get Loose!", the first single. Bodies started flinging themselves about as we took in every scream, every chorus, every guitar line and every beat of the music.

A good portion of the EP was played which was sure to delight the fans who've been around for longer, all of the first four tracks in fact. The tapped guitars from "Heroes" and "Mr Hyde" were even more catchy live than on record, the same goes for the choruses which were made to be sang along to. The way Harry and Kevin exchanged vocal parts worked remarkably smooth especially for the older songs (if you consider that it used to be one person doing all the vocals), with the bassist Andrew occasionally lending a helping hand (or voice). It was a shame that "So We're Named After Saints" didn't make the set, but having the other EP tracks performed perfectly more than made up for that. I was a little more disappointed though that songs like "Hope" and in particular "Down, But Homeward Bound" weren't included either, the latter being probably my favourite track from the whole album and would have easily had the best chorus for crowd singing participation. Nonetheless everybody around me was having a good time, there were some people at the back of the room who weren't quite feeling it which must have been disappointing for the band. But I guessed that maybe it was because it was getting late and people were tired, I hope.

Harry eventually stopped the set briefly so that he would take up Rob (who was in the crowd) from Don Broco's challenge of an arm wrestle. Having gotten two members of the audience to act as a table, Harry and Rob proceeded to try to do battle in what looked like a pretty close contest. Harry eventually outpowered Rob though and pushed through for the win, to much cheering from the crowd with Rob gracious in defeat. After that it was back to the party with a couple of strong hits from the new album "Let It Go" and "Friends In High Places" before revisting the EP for "Dirty Slut" which features such a fun breakdown at the end. Finally the set was rounded off with the band's cover of Britney Spears's "Everytime". I think most would agree that a headliner ought to end on one of their own tracks and play the cover mid set instead, but it is a damn fine cover indeed, and has all singing our little hearts (and voices) out and moshing to Britney Spears at nearly half hour to midnight. That's certainly one way to end a fun packed evening, and looking back over the whole night as we leave the venue once everything has concluded, all has been a pretty good way to get the new season of live shows for the Rockfreaks Southampton branch underway. Bring on the rest I say.

8

Setlist:

Intro (Awake While I'm Asleep)

Get Loose!

Remember Me

Mr Hyde

The First Rule Of Fight Club

Heroes (Alive In Us Yet)

Let It Go

Friends In High Places

Dirty Slut

Everytime

Photos courtesy of Lauren Harris. To see the rest of the photos check out Lauren Harris Photography's facebook page.

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