Band: We Are The In Crowd
Support: Save Your Breath and Neck Deep
Venue: KOKO, London
Date: 10/02/2014
It doesn’t take long for KOKO to fill up tonight and the venue is already pretty packed by the time the first support act, Save Your Breath, come out. There is no build up to their entrance as they walk on stage with the lights up and do some final checks on their instruments while the singer introduces them. Between songs the vocalist seems overwhelmed and most of the crowd interaction comes from the guitarist. It is he who acknowledges a smartly dressed fan in the front row. “Nice dickie bow, mate,” he says. “You’ve made an effort.” He also encourages people to photograph the drummer, asking what animal he looks like. For those interested, ostrich is the accepted answer. Musically, you can’t fault them, but unfortunately the crowd don’t really get into it until the last song.
Neck Deep make a bigger impact on the crowd from the start, entering the stage to flashing lights. There are clearly fans of the band in tonight as plenty of people are getting involved in the music, clapping and singing. The biggest cheer though, comes halfway through a song, as We Are The In Crowd invade the stage chanting ‘449’. Mike had clearly been standing just off stage playing Flappy Bird and interrupted Neck Deep’s set to boast about it. The vocalist didn’t seem too annoyed at the disruption however, excusing Mike saying, “If you play Flappy Bird you know how competitive it gets.” Once the band are back on track the crowd immediately get into the music again, even starting up a circle pit at one point, until the bands manager comes out to do some screamed vocals. Their last song is a good one, with a sing-a-long ‘woah-oh’ moment.
The crowd are truly ready for We Are The In Crowd now: but the band seems to be running late. The house music keeps everyone amused though, as everyone sings along to everything from Katy Perry to blink-182. During this time the stage is rearranged, so there is more space and flight cases are brought on to replace the monitors so Tay has something to stand on.
When the headline band do appear on stage, drummer Rob Chianelli leads the way to get the fans clapping before everyone else arrives and launches into ‘The Best Thing (That Never Happened)’. Despite it being a relatively new track, the crowd sings along happily, but it’s not until the third song ‘The Worst Thing About Me’ that the audience starts jumping and really getting into the music.
The band are eager to encourage the fans so during ‘Lights Out’ they encourage crowd surfing. “Our tour manager Dave will be at the front and he’ll be giving out fun coupons, whoever gets the most gets a special prize.” While I never found out what the ‘special prize’ is, there were a few people who were keen to win it.
A few of the guys then left the stage so that Tay and Jordan could play ‘For The Win’. “We’re gonna do this one acoustic,” Tay tells the audience, “because I wanna hear all your beautiful voices.” And it works, KOKO’s collective voice fills the venue as the lights shine out from the stage.
After this we are treated to two more songs from the band’s new album ‘Weird Kids’; the emotional ‘Windows In Heaven’, which showcases a powerful side to Tay’s vocals, and ‘Long Live The Kids’ which gives the vocalist a chance to jump down to the barrier and interact with the fans. The next, and last, new track the band perform is ‘Attention’ and Tay sits on her flight box for ‘story time’ as she tells us a bit about the inspiration behind the album. “We are very smart to yours ways and we love that you’re not afraid to show us, we were very inspired by you guys,” she tells us.
Once they have left the stage and returned again to chants of ‘one more song’, We Are The In Crowd put all of their remaining vigour into two classic WATIC tracks, and so do the crowd. Every voice in the room sings ‘Both Sides of the Story’ and ‘Rumor Mill’, sending the evening out on an energised high.
9/10
Reviewer: Jenna Young
Photos: Kayla Elliott
