The Kerrang Tour is always a big musical event and the diversity of the bands is usually as intriguing as the show itself. This year the magazine decided to combine two bands that would appeal to the metalheads and moshers out there- aka up and coming Americans Beartooth and fully established, ground shaking Southampton based Bury Tomorrow– with Young Guns, female fronted pop-rockers We Are The In Crowd and everyone’s favourite Bedford lads Don Broco.
Beartooth, despite only having their debut album to showcase material from, shock the room and raise the roof. Having only played tiny shows in the UK before the band could easily have crumbed on a stage this size, but Caleb has certainly taken influence from previous musical endeavours and knows how to work the crowd The recurring chants of ‘One life one decision’ echo through the venue as fans move more than we’d originally expected.
Being the heaviest and most ‘metal’ band on tonight’s bill meant we were sceptical how the crowd would react to Bury Tomorrow. How many We Are The In Crowd fans also love Bury Tomorrow? You’d be forgiven for thinking that the five piece were headlining tonight’s proceedings, as they don’t tone down their sound to fit with the other bands (thankfully!), and every riff and scream from tracks spanning latest albums Runes and 2012 album Union of Crowns is met with pure mayhem by all those involved.
As a late addition, and with only three songs to play, Young Guns had to push everything into their fifteen minutes onstage and they do an impressive job. Opener ‘I Want Out’ was unveiled last year to give a hint to the bands future sound, but this is lost very slightly as it takes almost a song to for the sound to get spot on. Brand new track ‘Speaking in Tongues’ rears its head next and gets the crowd excited to have the band back. It wouldn’t be a Young Guns set (regardless of length) without ‘Bones’ would it?! The closing track has everyone on their feet, screaming, singing and generally having the time of their lives. Kudos to Kerrang for the last minute addition.
It was always going to be three tough acts for We Are The In Crowd to follow and unfortunately the New York based pop-rockers don’t quite manage to capture all of the audiences attention. There’s no denying down on the floor that their avid fans are enjoying every second, screaming along and swaying to the softer tracks but the rest of the venue seems sadly a little bored. Conversations start, queues at the bar get longer and people don’t quite seem to mind queuing for ten minutes to use the toilets. That’s not to say the set was bad at all, but compared to the intensity of the other bands it just doesn’t quite hit the spot, although the vocal harmonies between front woman Tay Jardine and guitarist Jordon Eckes are pretty beautiful they’re just drowned out by the venue.
Headliners tonight are British rockers Don Broco, who seem to have disappeared a little over the past year with little new music and even less touring, but as soon as the opening of newer track ‘Money Power Fame’ starts it all feels like familiar territory. It’s been a rise to the top for the four piece and they deserve every second of it. Their on stage dance moves, cheeky banter and catchy tracks are enough to cause any crowd to want to party whether you’re there for the Broco or not. Everything the band do is perfectly in sync after years of honing their touring practice from the days of local shows to headlining London’s Koko just over a year ago. The hooks of ‘Yeah Man’ ring around the venue while ‘Whole Truth’ is just a massive sing-a-long. Chaos begins to unfold during older track ‘Thug Workout’ when Dani from Bury Tomorrow joins the band on stage, the pairing work fantastically together and the venue almost hits a richter scale rating as the ground shakes and rumbles underfoot. You’d be forgiven for thinking this was as good as their set was going to get but then they flit through greats such as ‘Hold On’ and ‘Priorities’ before finally finishing as the audience look officially beaten.
Dani from Bury Tomorrow mentioned that this Kerrang Tour has catered to pop punk, metal, hardcore and rock and it’s not often that you see this happen. Tonight’s show certainly proved that rock is a diverse genre but regardless of your tastes there are shows to satisfy to your every whim.
