Bands: Yellowcard and Young Guns
Venue: Brixton Academy, London
Date: 13th March 2011
Young Guns are an exceptional live band. After witnessing these guys live countless amounts of times over the past few years, I have watched them rise to the degree of awesomeness and pure brilliance that I always knew they would become.
Tonight they were playing the Brixton Academy. This was the first time I had ever been to this venue, and it is without a shadow of a doubt, one of the best venues I have ever been to. Its acoustics are perfect, along with its sound system. I love the fact that no matter where you were standing, you could still see everything that was happening on stage and hear the band as clear as day from any angle.
I felt Young Guns set tonight was too short at only thirty minutes long. Maybe this is because I have such greed and hunger for their music now, no time scale is ever enough.
Gustav was as flamboyant and overwhelming on stage as ever and each band member wowed their audience with true passion and dedication in their eyes.
They played a variety of tracks off their album; ‘All These Kings Are Dead’ and as they played so well, it was hard to pick just one stand-out track of the night. ‘Stitches‘, was a soulful and different side to Young Guns, which empowered its listeners from beginning to end. ‘Winter Kiss’ with enticing lyrics and an addictive guitar riffs had people launching themselves into frenzy; and closing track ’Weight of the Worlds’, by far the crowd pleaser of the night, ending their evening perfectly.
Fully satisfied with their performance, I found myself asking if Young Guns can actually get any better?
Next up was American legends Yellowcard. Being such an asset to music in their own right I felt it strange that they needed to support such a commercial band such as All Time Low. I feel they could easily sell out this venue themselves so why did they need to be a support act?
Yellowcard have always stood out in their genre, being one of the few bands to have a violin within their music. So choosing their set list tonight must have been a difficult task as they have such an epic back catalogue of music. Having to pick just ten songs from seven albums for me would have been impossible; so I felt short lived for only having them on stage for only thirty minutes.
Track of the night was surprisingly one of their newest, ‘For You and Your Denial’; an awesome track with an addictive chorus and amazing solos from violinist Sean Mackin. It really sent the entire academy into a dancing frenzy! There was uncontrollable madness and I loved it!
Having been going for so many years now Yellowcard really have impressed me and I feel honoured to say I have finally witnessed them live. They were truly better than expected.
I hope they come back to the UK soon and wow us all with an epically long set list full of their original songs and years of musical expertise. A pleasure to watch tonight and I count down the days until their return.
Reviewer: Steph Knight
Photos: Georgia Rawson
