It's fair to say that My Chemical Romance are a band that divide opinion at the best of times. Once loved by many of my peers when we were younger, they were soon labelled as "uncool" to like as age dictates the music taste of many. While I was living through the age of their rise, with their explosive breakthrough on second album Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, many began to dislike the band and their alleged "emo" tag. When this visceral punk rock album was succeed by the anthemic yet dark The Black Parade, this incorrectly associated tag became ever harder to shift.
With their third album, My Chemical Romance became a worldwide success. Playing arenas the world over for 2 solid years, including sell out tours of back-to-back dates at Wembley Arena and a second sell out tour including London's O2 Arena, their popularity had never been higher, yet also never lower. A legion of devoted fans would attend their gigs wherever they went, and a legion of haters would follow behind. The violent riots against fans in Mexico in early 2008 prompted frontman Gerard Way to speak out against the emo-tag, stating the band had zero association with such ideas. The bottling received at Reading Festival 2006 and the artical that year by The Daily Mail stating MCR are a band representing a self-harming community and all-round force of evil are stories which have dogged the band for years. The destructive process of recording The Black Parade, subsequent intense touring and little recovery time brought this band to its limits.
Such breaking points were eventually broken. The band's drummer Bob Bryar eventually left the band during the recording process for Danger Days, though he is credited on a number of songs. The band built up barriers around themselves, stating that they had to record to a set of rules, if they were to ever advance on the success of their third album. At the same time, they were convinced that the bells and whistles of The Black Parade that made it sound like Queen-meets-punk-rock should be stripped out. The album should be direct and energetic and raw; a throwback to The Ramones, if you will. An album was recorded and was ready. Then the band threw it away.
Deciding it to be poor, lacking substance and not the direction the band should go in, the 4 members called it quits for a while and went on some much needed R&R. While on holiday with wife Lyn-Z (of Mindless Self Indulgence fame) and baby Bandit, Gerard took in his surroundings and created the concept of the new album. Visualising a world of colour and Pop Art, laser guns, American muscle cars and good guys versus bad guys, he wrote the song Na Na Na. He felt renewed, and rushed back home to pull the others into the studio.
The result? A band ecstatic with this new concept. The new rules for writing - there were no rules. If it sounded good, it went down. Electronic elements (Planetary (GO!)) to upfront punk (Vampire Money) have been blended into this new album. And what a fantastic effort it is.
Kicking out with the radio transmission and concept-setting Look Alive Sunshine and blending straight into lead single Na Na Na, the album explodes with joyous energy and colour and FUN. This is the ying to the yang that was the monochromatic, dark and soul-sucking The Black Parade. It's the sign of the band turning heel and producing an album that will drive uplift into you.
Na Na Na's catchy chorus fades out and gives way to Bulletproof Heart, a structurally simple yet anthemic number that is sure to be a crowd favourite to sing along to. The powerful chorus of "Gravity, don't mean too much to me, I'm who I've got to be" helps to reiterate how the band are holding nothing back and abiding by no rules, simply being the band they want to be.
Single Sing follows on from this, slowing the pace slightly with this uniting ballad. The accompanying video shows a tale of the Killjoys breaking into the Bl/ind dystopia of Battery City to rescue a kid called Girl. They blast through with laser guns and make a break for it, but the security rises up to stop them. NewsAGoGo, head of Scarecrow Unit's security, releases Korse - comic book writer Grant Morrison dressed like a butler from the 19th century - to take down the Killjoys. When Party Poison (Gerard) accidentally kills his ally Agent Cherri Cola (played by MSI's Jimmy Urine) he hesitates and is then killed by Korse. The others make a break for it, dying one by one with Girl managing to escape with Dr Death Defying (MSI's Steve Righ?). As you can see - the album is packed with this kind of colourful concept. Watch the video to believe it:
The album revs back up with Planetary (GO!), a song that bounces with a disgustingly catchy beat and electronic dance influence, while still powering and soaring through. A song guaranteed to make you want to tap your foot. The Only Hope For Me Is You follows on, beginning slowly with the resonating voice of Gerard saying "Remember me..." before the chorus explodes through. A song in much the same vein as Bulletproof Heart, but not with quite the same level of impact, it makes another fine addition to the album.
Steve Righ? returns for the interlude for Jet-Star and The Kobra Kid/Traffic Report, explaining how Ray and Frank (respectively) have been "ghosted" and this gives way to Party Poison, a fast upfront blast of punk kicked off with NewsAGoGo talking and a driving discord of noise. A song that will get hands clapping, it doesn't quite match the grandness of the songs before it but is, nonetheless, a buzzing number.
Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back follows with yet another catchy chorus of "na na na na na"-ing but packs attitude and is a throwback to the anthem sounds of The Black Parade and continues the album riding high on power and colour and even contains a rather cracking guitar solo.
The album then slows for back-to-back ballads on S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W and Summertime. The former deeply resonates the sound of The Used, with Gerard almost sounding exactly like Bert McCracken during the chorus' high pitched singing, resembling The Used's Kissing You Goodbye. Featuring strings and a real wave-your-arms-in-the-air feeling, the song sucks some energy from the album but is by no means a bad song. However, following this with another mid-paced ballad detracts somewhat from the feeling previously established. Opening with the sound of Red Light Company but producing a song that is by far the most radio friendly of the album, it shows the diversity of the musical palette this album has. A good enough song, but perhaps wrongly placed in the track listing.
The pounding Destroya helps rectify this by smashing onwards and upwards and recalling the similarly named DSTRYR/DSTRYR by Lostprophets in its powerful chorus of yelling the song title repeatedly but most effectively. The song is backed by swelling keyboards and broken in by the sounds of the band sounding slightly orgasmic. This song is by far one of the best the band have written to date.
The Kids From Yesterday once again flexes those ballad muscles but is a better effort than its predecessors, and nicely tunes out into the album's outro Goodnight, Dr Death with Steve Righ? bidding the listeners of his pirate radio station a fond farewell, as he must now run away with the Killjoys all dead. The transmission ends with a heart-warming rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner.
However a massive burst of static crashes in and leads straight into the battling drums of Vampire Money. Shedding their Killjoy names and Gerard asking each member by their real names if they're ready, a count of "3-2-1!" counts in the utterly massive album closer. A hands-clapping, high-octane 3 minutes follow with the band unleashed a crushing and fantastic end to a truly great album - an album that helps counter the grey clouds much of the media have placed over them as a symbol of evil, and reinstates them as a truly massive sounding rock band with much to offer.
OVERALL RATING - 9/10
SUGGESTED SONGS - Bulletproof Heart, Destroya, Vampire Money
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
A Story
Beginning. Middle. End. Three things which define a story.
At 4am one should really be asleep, but after a solid 2-3 days of work and all the related stress that comes with academics, it can be justified to reward someone with a chance to flex their body clock's muscles. Or, in short, to not care about their lectures tomorrow afternoon and hope they don't miss breakfast. 09:30am is a cruel deadline for food.
Rewind. Within the last 48 hours I was struck with the realisation that I was actually angry. There's a point I should make here - I don't really have the time of day to be angry. 2008 was the year I was taught patience, the hard way. Hard being the key word here. When you learn a "skill" like patience under testing conditions, are you actually undermining the foundation of what you're learning or enhancing it with real life experience? I would have said the latter, and I reckon I still would do now. But I will still cast doubt on this.
Angry? Why? Teenage angst striking again in these, my final 6 weeks of being a teenager? Hardly. Not to scoff the idea of random bouts of emotional flux, but that is something I like to believe I have grown out of. No, this anger was genuine, if unexpected.
Seriously, why then? I can be sure that the reason was slow burning and part of a chain effect. I learnt patience via burying my troubles at the time and never addressing them again. While I said to one poor best friend that she "could never understand" and so was useless to talk to because she "couldn't ever provide sympathy" or see my viewpoint, I probably should have not been so dismissive (or rude). I would preach one thing and contradict it myself. My advice of always talking to a friend when in need fell on my own deaf ears. This is the beginning of the story.
Bottled up experiences with no release valve therefore have a horrid tendency to reappear now and then. A simple trigger is all that is needed. This trigger was a card with a mouse on it. The mouse has no relevance.
The card is from one person I could possibly pin all blame on. I won't because no single person is solely responsible and you yourself can never be absent from blame. You're involved the moment you react, regardless if you wanted to or not. The card sends greetings, well wishes and an invitation. An invite to have a family Christmas dinner. This is the trigger of the story.
Family is a word I hold both dear and distant. My family is, and always will be, my priority in life. I've always loved my family, I still do, and one day I will love my own. But take it with a pinch of sodium chloride. There are some experiences in the world which stretch even that very tight bond and I fear mine has stretched too far, like a jumper stretched beyond repair. And having never directly addressed every issue in the chain of events, the damage may be done for many years or decades.
The blanket and support of a family was cut from me, somewhat faster and cruder than the average teenager experiences by simply growing up and moving onwards. The blanket itself now lies in torn chunks and that makes it rather hard to have Christmas dinner. This is the middle of the story.
Last year I sought a new blanket and found it with a friend or two. And what good blankets they were. This year I don't know what to do. A false proposal of a "family" made from the original blanket but which remains incomplete is pitted against a real family, albeit not my own but a damn fine replacement. I'm leaning towards the latter, but subtle guilt trips are the trigger. They spark the chain.
What's in this chain? Near enough anything that has happened in the past 3 years, or even 6 years. A spiral of illogical thinking cascades the situation. First being angry over a guilt trip triggers a memory of why things are how they are. Anger results as you realise how this actually has altered the way you act for years now. Then you notice the effects of your actions which you wish you could change, and could have, had this chain of events not started. Triggers cause memories, which cause anger and regret.
Regret that many things could have been different in the past 2 years had I acted differently. But you can't act differently when things in the background are controlling you at the time in ways you don't realise. And as everything is bottled up, no problems are addressed and solved. With nothing solved, triggers in the future remind you of these unsolved problems. The chain continues. The story ends.
Every story has a moral at the end of it. Mine is simple - don't leave a problem unsolved. Talk about it, because suppressed things come back to bite you and can easily result from an indirect trigger. The drama that can follow can almost form a story. My story? It begins with me ignoring problems, so that one trigger reminds me of one problem, cascading to another problem and another in a chain. In the end, it's all a bit out of control. Seriously kids, don't bottle shit up.
Who knew one Christmas invite could incite such irritation?
Bah, humbug.
Average Ken x
At 4am one should really be asleep, but after a solid 2-3 days of work and all the related stress that comes with academics, it can be justified to reward someone with a chance to flex their body clock's muscles. Or, in short, to not care about their lectures tomorrow afternoon and hope they don't miss breakfast. 09:30am is a cruel deadline for food.
Rewind. Within the last 48 hours I was struck with the realisation that I was actually angry. There's a point I should make here - I don't really have the time of day to be angry. 2008 was the year I was taught patience, the hard way. Hard being the key word here. When you learn a "skill" like patience under testing conditions, are you actually undermining the foundation of what you're learning or enhancing it with real life experience? I would have said the latter, and I reckon I still would do now. But I will still cast doubt on this.
Angry? Why? Teenage angst striking again in these, my final 6 weeks of being a teenager? Hardly. Not to scoff the idea of random bouts of emotional flux, but that is something I like to believe I have grown out of. No, this anger was genuine, if unexpected.
Seriously, why then? I can be sure that the reason was slow burning and part of a chain effect. I learnt patience via burying my troubles at the time and never addressing them again. While I said to one poor best friend that she "could never understand" and so was useless to talk to because she "couldn't ever provide sympathy" or see my viewpoint, I probably should have not been so dismissive (or rude). I would preach one thing and contradict it myself. My advice of always talking to a friend when in need fell on my own deaf ears. This is the beginning of the story.
Bottled up experiences with no release valve therefore have a horrid tendency to reappear now and then. A simple trigger is all that is needed. This trigger was a card with a mouse on it. The mouse has no relevance.
The card is from one person I could possibly pin all blame on. I won't because no single person is solely responsible and you yourself can never be absent from blame. You're involved the moment you react, regardless if you wanted to or not. The card sends greetings, well wishes and an invitation. An invite to have a family Christmas dinner. This is the trigger of the story.
Family is a word I hold both dear and distant. My family is, and always will be, my priority in life. I've always loved my family, I still do, and one day I will love my own. But take it with a pinch of sodium chloride. There are some experiences in the world which stretch even that very tight bond and I fear mine has stretched too far, like a jumper stretched beyond repair. And having never directly addressed every issue in the chain of events, the damage may be done for many years or decades.
The blanket and support of a family was cut from me, somewhat faster and cruder than the average teenager experiences by simply growing up and moving onwards. The blanket itself now lies in torn chunks and that makes it rather hard to have Christmas dinner. This is the middle of the story.
Last year I sought a new blanket and found it with a friend or two. And what good blankets they were. This year I don't know what to do. A false proposal of a "family" made from the original blanket but which remains incomplete is pitted against a real family, albeit not my own but a damn fine replacement. I'm leaning towards the latter, but subtle guilt trips are the trigger. They spark the chain.
What's in this chain? Near enough anything that has happened in the past 3 years, or even 6 years. A spiral of illogical thinking cascades the situation. First being angry over a guilt trip triggers a memory of why things are how they are. Anger results as you realise how this actually has altered the way you act for years now. Then you notice the effects of your actions which you wish you could change, and could have, had this chain of events not started. Triggers cause memories, which cause anger and regret.
Regret that many things could have been different in the past 2 years had I acted differently. But you can't act differently when things in the background are controlling you at the time in ways you don't realise. And as everything is bottled up, no problems are addressed and solved. With nothing solved, triggers in the future remind you of these unsolved problems. The chain continues. The story ends.
Every story has a moral at the end of it. Mine is simple - don't leave a problem unsolved. Talk about it, because suppressed things come back to bite you and can easily result from an indirect trigger. The drama that can follow can almost form a story. My story? It begins with me ignoring problems, so that one trigger reminds me of one problem, cascading to another problem and another in a chain. In the end, it's all a bit out of control. Seriously kids, don't bottle shit up.
Who knew one Christmas invite could incite such irritation?
Bah, humbug.
Average Ken x
Thursday, 7 October 2010
Working Class Boy to Model Student
There was a reason, or rather a large number of them, as to why I am now at university and why I wasn't already here last year and why I am not still dredging away at the public sector's To-Do List.
To confine a convoluted tale of treachery and debauchery into a finite number of sentences, it's best to say I was not in the same mind-set as the majority of my peers when Year 12 was coming to a close. Most people had just battled their way through AS Level exams with less than pleasing results and were now concentrating on rectifying the mess. However they would go on to do this with a target; an actual aim which drove their desire to improve on the fairly inevitable mess-ups that the first half of A Levels usually holds. The summer would be spent investigating these targets i.e. what would come next?
The answer for most is usually university, with which comes the research of "where?" and "what?". Open days and trips to visit these places were common for most, and many would proceed to begin their personal statements and UCAS applications.
Elsewhere, none of this has even occurred to me. Maybe in part to me paying little-to-no attention to my Head of Year demanding we get our acts together, or maybe due to my own personal life going to hell and back. Either way, come the start of Year 13, I was definitely out of the loop. And frankly, I never found the motivation to catch up with the rest of the pack.
My priorities were simple - stabilise my life and correct my previous grades. I didn't have some kind of fantastic goal at the end of this, but I wasn't going to let personal troubles get the better of me by ruining my grades. 7 months of hell was not going to ruin 7 years of preparation.
To what end though? I disliked the idea of uni (I am a homeward bound kinda guy) but I didn't want to stagnate. So, with a growing hatred of all the talk about university, I looked down other paths. Previous ideas of studying dentistry, psychiatry, psychology, forensics, veterinary science, medicine and criminology all fell by the way side as time went on. I concluded I should join the police force, and work my way up via nothing but old-fashioned hard work. I still don't quite understand why I felt compelled to believe I could quite manage this...
While the idea of the police force is, and always has been, rather appealing to me, I don't believe missing out on university was really as good an idea I must have previously thought it was. Lacking a degree these days is quite the disadvantage. With the ever increasing problems of getting jobs in an ever-shrinking market, one must be able to stand head-over-shoulders above the rest. While in the past a degree would have been sufficient to do this, now most people have degrees. So what next, everyone gets Masters and then doctorates...? Regardless, a lack of any degree is now something that greatly goes against you in the job hunt.
So with this in mind, I am now sat here at the University of Nottingham with nothing but good intentions and an open-mind. Not that I arrived in that way, but I've found the transition to student life far easier than I was imagining I would. Perhaps the shake-ups of life over the past 2 years have long prepared me for coming here and dealing with it, but dealt with it I have. While I chose to study Zoology based more on personal interest than with a specific career goal in mind, I hope my decision will not backfire on me and that I'll leave here in 2013 with 3 letters at the end of my name, a once-in-a-lifetime experience under my belt and a better chance of not doing Braintree Council's filing anymore.
Average Ken. x
To confine a convoluted tale of treachery and debauchery into a finite number of sentences, it's best to say I was not in the same mind-set as the majority of my peers when Year 12 was coming to a close. Most people had just battled their way through AS Level exams with less than pleasing results and were now concentrating on rectifying the mess. However they would go on to do this with a target; an actual aim which drove their desire to improve on the fairly inevitable mess-ups that the first half of A Levels usually holds. The summer would be spent investigating these targets i.e. what would come next?
The answer for most is usually university, with which comes the research of "where?" and "what?". Open days and trips to visit these places were common for most, and many would proceed to begin their personal statements and UCAS applications.
Elsewhere, none of this has even occurred to me. Maybe in part to me paying little-to-no attention to my Head of Year demanding we get our acts together, or maybe due to my own personal life going to hell and back. Either way, come the start of Year 13, I was definitely out of the loop. And frankly, I never found the motivation to catch up with the rest of the pack.
My priorities were simple - stabilise my life and correct my previous grades. I didn't have some kind of fantastic goal at the end of this, but I wasn't going to let personal troubles get the better of me by ruining my grades. 7 months of hell was not going to ruin 7 years of preparation.
To what end though? I disliked the idea of uni (I am a homeward bound kinda guy) but I didn't want to stagnate. So, with a growing hatred of all the talk about university, I looked down other paths. Previous ideas of studying dentistry, psychiatry, psychology, forensics, veterinary science, medicine and criminology all fell by the way side as time went on. I concluded I should join the police force, and work my way up via nothing but old-fashioned hard work. I still don't quite understand why I felt compelled to believe I could quite manage this...
While the idea of the police force is, and always has been, rather appealing to me, I don't believe missing out on university was really as good an idea I must have previously thought it was. Lacking a degree these days is quite the disadvantage. With the ever increasing problems of getting jobs in an ever-shrinking market, one must be able to stand head-over-shoulders above the rest. While in the past a degree would have been sufficient to do this, now most people have degrees. So what next, everyone gets Masters and then doctorates...? Regardless, a lack of any degree is now something that greatly goes against you in the job hunt.
So with this in mind, I am now sat here at the University of Nottingham with nothing but good intentions and an open-mind. Not that I arrived in that way, but I've found the transition to student life far easier than I was imagining I would. Perhaps the shake-ups of life over the past 2 years have long prepared me for coming here and dealing with it, but dealt with it I have. While I chose to study Zoology based more on personal interest than with a specific career goal in mind, I hope my decision will not backfire on me and that I'll leave here in 2013 with 3 letters at the end of my name, a once-in-a-lifetime experience under my belt and a better chance of not doing Braintree Council's filing anymore.
Average Ken. x
Wednesday, 15 September 2010
Muse @ Wembley Stadium, September 11th 2010
Location: Wembley Stadium, London.
Supports: I Am Arrows, White Lies, Biffy Clyro.
As promised, I am a wealth of gig-based experiences and fancy using that to talk endearingly about some gigs I have attended. And as this was quite a recent one, I feel I should get to work soon!
Now Muse are a band with a reputation to uphold - they own the crown for being one of the most stunning and visually mind-bending bands to watch live and, as such, have it all to lose. Riding high in 2008 off the tidal wave of success that came with Black Holes and Revelations, they sold out arena after arena in just hours. This supersonic rise to the top ended with a double-date residency of Wembley Stadium and the band were pipped to the post of being the first to play the new venue by the devilishly sneaky George Michael. Many would argue that Muse, nonetheless, flattened poor George's success by staging a show featuring everything from 50 foot high satellite dishes to a backdrop-screen big enough to fill the stadium car park...
Such a landmark show was worthy of being captured on DVD and hence H.A.A.R.P was released. So what comes next?
If you've already soared to the pinnacle of success and are bigger than all bar maybe Oasis and U2, what can follow a 160,000 person sell-out weekend? The answer was simple - do it again. So two years on, fans are once again greeted into the endless cavern of Wembley. But long gone are the normal parameters of what a stage should look like. Before the fans stands one giant, geometrical mindfuck.
Best described as a "wedge with a dent in the middle", fans could only speculate as to what the thing would look like later that night.
But kicking off proceedings were Brit indie-rockers I Am Arrows (6/10). Trying to warm up the crowd after the long 90 minute wait since doors opening, and playing to a stadium barely one-third full, this relatively unknown band faced a difficult challenge. Featuring former Razorlight drummer Andy Burrows, the band play a set of easy-going and soothing rock music, with the air of a band who are more likely to cradle you to sleep on a sunny day that cause a lasting impression. This is by no-means a bad thing, but while their stage-banter is somewhat lacking and the music easily forgettable, they are pleasant to listen to. A cover of Tears For Fears "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" doesn't hurt either.
Following on are London-based White Lies (5/10). A band with a handful of radio-famous tracks and a noticeable fan-base present who sing along to singles "To Lose My Life" and "Farewell To The Fairground", they leave a greater impression than their predecessors. However this is not necessarily a great thing - their sound is a more downbeat and depressing affair. While they get the crowd singing, they leave a slightly displeasing after taste in the air.
Scottish heroes Biffy Clyro (8/10) blast all such feelings out of the water though. Greeted as if they were the headliners themselves, and holding a stage presence to match, they erupt onto the stage to "That Golden Rule" and the crowd are instantly sucked into an 11-song set, focussing heavily on the new platinum-selling album Only Revolutions. Fierce energy from "Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies" is matched by majestic sing-alongs for "Many of Horror". Old-favourite "Glitter and Trauma" is unfortunately lost on newer fans, who may yet not be up to speed with the Biffy's full catalogue. Looking like Norse God Thor after stumbling into trousers too tight and too bright to understand, Simon Neil cuts an interesting figure as he sways his hips and leads the crowd through uniting closer "The Captain". Stadiums will surely await this band as well before long.
By now, the lights are all that keep the stadium bright. The sun has set and clouds close in. To the sound of a siren and a parade of flags and political banners, Muse (10/10) kick-off the evening with a gob-smacking opening of "Uprising" and "Supermassive Black Hole"; the crowd can been seen jumping like the floor is made of hot coals. Fan favourites follow in "MK Ultra", "Map of the Problematique" and the very rarely heard "Bliss", leaving the air positively crackling with excitement and happiness. Aside from excellently delivered music, the band have once again upped the quality of their show - the wedge features enough lights to sink Belgium into the sea, with the sides acting as screens and a screen-come-disco ball adorning the top.
There are no sparks and there is no pyro, but a token use of the confetti cannon adds to the jubilant atmosphere. Further fan favourite "Citizen Erased" helps things reach fever pitch before the band later take to a scissor lift platform and ascend to the heavens and to the middle of the crowd. Here, they play the R'n'B influenced "Undisclosed Desires", with Dom swapping his kit for a set of bongos that look like the bastard child of a Christmas tree and a Pendulum lighting rig. "Starlight" and "Time Is Running Out" end the first part of the gig with sing alongs strong enough to shatter the stadium's walls.
Returning for an encore of "Exogenesis: Symphony, Part 1: Overture", things slow down while Bernie The UFO (complete with alien ballet-dancer) floats around to the highest stands in the stadium. "Stolkholme Syndrome" ends the encore with a burst of energy and a breakdown worth appreciating. However, no one can anticipate Matt's return for the 2nd encore. Adorned in a suit and glasses covered entirely in LED lights, the human Christmas decoration once again ascends on the scissor lift for "Take A Bow", before returning to the stage and ending the night with "Plug In Baby" and "Knights of Cydonia". Nothing is left afterwards except an air of triumph, 80,000 of the happiest punters you will meet all year and the world's most overcrowded tube station.
Where else can this Supermassive act go, other than upwards?
Average Ken x
Supports: I Am Arrows, White Lies, Biffy Clyro.
As promised, I am a wealth of gig-based experiences and fancy using that to talk endearingly about some gigs I have attended. And as this was quite a recent one, I feel I should get to work soon!
Such a landmark show was worthy of being captured on DVD and hence H.A.A.R.P was released. So what comes next?
If you've already soared to the pinnacle of success and are bigger than all bar maybe Oasis and U2, what can follow a 160,000 person sell-out weekend? The answer was simple - do it again. So two years on, fans are once again greeted into the endless cavern of Wembley. But long gone are the normal parameters of what a stage should look like. Before the fans stands one giant, geometrical mindfuck.
But kicking off proceedings were Brit indie-rockers I Am Arrows (6/10). Trying to warm up the crowd after the long 90 minute wait since doors opening, and playing to a stadium barely one-third full, this relatively unknown band faced a difficult challenge. Featuring former Razorlight drummer Andy Burrows, the band play a set of easy-going and soothing rock music, with the air of a band who are more likely to cradle you to sleep on a sunny day that cause a lasting impression. This is by no-means a bad thing, but while their stage-banter is somewhat lacking and the music easily forgettable, they are pleasant to listen to. A cover of Tears For Fears "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" doesn't hurt either.
Following on are London-based White Lies (5/10). A band with a handful of radio-famous tracks and a noticeable fan-base present who sing along to singles "To Lose My Life" and "Farewell To The Fairground", they leave a greater impression than their predecessors. However this is not necessarily a great thing - their sound is a more downbeat and depressing affair. While they get the crowd singing, they leave a slightly displeasing after taste in the air.
Scottish heroes Biffy Clyro (8/10) blast all such feelings out of the water though. Greeted as if they were the headliners themselves, and holding a stage presence to match, they erupt onto the stage to "That Golden Rule" and the crowd are instantly sucked into an 11-song set, focussing heavily on the new platinum-selling album Only Revolutions. Fierce energy from "Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies" is matched by majestic sing-alongs for "Many of Horror". Old-favourite "Glitter and Trauma" is unfortunately lost on newer fans, who may yet not be up to speed with the Biffy's full catalogue. Looking like Norse God Thor after stumbling into trousers too tight and too bright to understand, Simon Neil cuts an interesting figure as he sways his hips and leads the crowd through uniting closer "The Captain". Stadiums will surely await this band as well before long.
By now, the lights are all that keep the stadium bright. The sun has set and clouds close in. To the sound of a siren and a parade of flags and political banners, Muse (10/10) kick-off the evening with a gob-smacking opening of "Uprising" and "Supermassive Black Hole"; the crowd can been seen jumping like the floor is made of hot coals. Fan favourites follow in "MK Ultra", "Map of the Problematique" and the very rarely heard "Bliss", leaving the air positively crackling with excitement and happiness. Aside from excellently delivered music, the band have once again upped the quality of their show - the wedge features enough lights to sink Belgium into the sea, with the sides acting as screens and a screen-come-disco ball adorning the top.
There are no sparks and there is no pyro, but a token use of the confetti cannon adds to the jubilant atmosphere. Further fan favourite "Citizen Erased" helps things reach fever pitch before the band later take to a scissor lift platform and ascend to the heavens and to the middle of the crowd. Here, they play the R'n'B influenced "Undisclosed Desires", with Dom swapping his kit for a set of bongos that look like the bastard child of a Christmas tree and a Pendulum lighting rig. "Starlight" and "Time Is Running Out" end the first part of the gig with sing alongs strong enough to shatter the stadium's walls.
Returning for an encore of "Exogenesis: Symphony, Part 1: Overture", things slow down while Bernie The UFO (complete with alien ballet-dancer) floats around to the highest stands in the stadium. "Stolkholme Syndrome" ends the encore with a burst of energy and a breakdown worth appreciating. However, no one can anticipate Matt's return for the 2nd encore. Adorned in a suit and glasses covered entirely in LED lights, the human Christmas decoration once again ascends on the scissor lift for "Take A Bow", before returning to the stage and ending the night with "Plug In Baby" and "Knights of Cydonia". Nothing is left afterwards except an air of triumph, 80,000 of the happiest punters you will meet all year and the world's most overcrowded tube station.
Where else can this Supermassive act go, other than upwards?
Average Ken x
Sunday, 5 September 2010
Bandwagon
Not to try and make out that this whole blogging fascination is a bad thing, but a bandwagon it is nonetheless of late and it is one I feel curiously compelled to join. May it be that my blogs are of more or less interest to others than the more intelligent or amusing blogs out there, I'm not too bothered. You write for the sake of writing, and that's what I'm doing.
But what about? Well I am not going to write poetry as that's certainly not my strong point, nor do I lead a life of decisions made for me based on random chance, thanks to a pair of cubes. Though I would happily recommend both of these blogs for those seeking intelligence and a different view of things. And for the sake of another shameless plug, feel free to check out the musings of a drifter-kinda-guy.
Regardless, I cannot say that my blog will take such an approach. Rather, I'm likely to simply give my view on whatever I feel like doing so at the time. Not to rant, nor to lecture - simply to speak. As such, this blog will be a mixture of odds and sods, acting as more of an open diary than a sprawling epitaph of focus.
But as my passion is, inevitably, live music, then I would not count out the chance of detailed gig reviews. After all, I may end up as the editor of Kerrang one day. It seems to be the natural progression to take with a Zoology degree...
More to follow.
Average Ken x
But what about? Well I am not going to write poetry as that's certainly not my strong point, nor do I lead a life of decisions made for me based on random chance, thanks to a pair of cubes. Though I would happily recommend both of these blogs for those seeking intelligence and a different view of things. And for the sake of another shameless plug, feel free to check out the musings of a drifter-kinda-guy.
Regardless, I cannot say that my blog will take such an approach. Rather, I'm likely to simply give my view on whatever I feel like doing so at the time. Not to rant, nor to lecture - simply to speak. As such, this blog will be a mixture of odds and sods, acting as more of an open diary than a sprawling epitaph of focus.
But as my passion is, inevitably, live music, then I would not count out the chance of detailed gig reviews. After all, I may end up as the editor of Kerrang one day. It seems to be the natural progression to take with a Zoology degree...
More to follow.
Average Ken x
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