Kerrang Tour at Roundhouse

Kerrang! Tour – The Roundhouse – 6 February 2010

Words by Brendan Monteiro / Photos by Marcus Maschwitz

Anticipation for the London leg of the Kerrang tour has been building since way back in 2009 and with a line up of five up and coming bands it was surely going to impress. With a queue ranging of young and even younger fans rooting it’s way around the venue the excitement was now almost bubbling over, with ticket holders literally firing into the venue once past the security to secure their places.

Coming out on to a stage with only 50 or so people can never be easy but the guys from Jett Black don’t seem phased in the least and from the start they totally dominate the stage with big 80’s chugging riffs and hooks aplenty. Will Stapleton leads the charge as they take the growing crowd down a windy road to way back when hair and metal ruled the earth. Matt Oliver and Tom Wright make a formidable duo, driving the rhythm fast and in your face while Jon Dow and Stapleton shred away, and with songs like Two Hot Girls and Get Your Hands Dirty you can bet your bottom dollar you’ll be hearing more from this lot soon enough.

My Passion get the first screech levels up as bassist Simon Rowlands makes some final adjustments and engages with the crowd a little. Soon red lights transform the stage into an eerie darkness, as the intro to their set transforms from a chilled beat to an almost full fledged drum and base assault. Love them or hate them, My Passion definitely get the party started with enough synth and blood curdling vocals from Laurence René to wake the dead. Simon bounds and leaps around the stage like the energizer bunny during The Girl Who Lost Her Smile which is definitely my standout song from their set. The 30 or so minutes they are on stage all focus is on them and when they finish up an impressive set with Thanks For Nothing the venue is just about full.

Third on the night’s list is Young Guns, and from the first whispers of Winter Kiss everyone gets involved, then midway through the song the abrasive tones subside to the alluring sound of Gus’ as he whispers “I want to sleep but I hear voices”, it’s chilling and gets every hair on the back of my neck standing on end and has to be my song of the entire evening . It’s one thing to say that a band is doing well but the proof is in the crowd as arms are pumping and the floor gets moving. Every song is met with a cheer and it’s blatantly evident that Gustav Wood is on fire tonight. Weight Of The World sounds larger that life itself as Ben literally beats the hell out of his skins. Try Hard sees Gavin Butler of The Blackout join in on vocals. In The Night and Daughter Of The Sea bring a close to an amazing set that surely leaves a lot of fans, including myself, desperate for their debut come out.

The Blackout have a deafening scream awaiting them as they make their way on stage, as the uncanny intro to Children Of The Night plays out the screams increase and then all hell breaks loose on stage. With smoke cannons early on in the set it looks to already be a show-stopper and if I didn’t know any better I would of thought The Blackout were headlining. ShutTheFuckUppercut whips the crowd up into a frenzy and is closely followed by old classic Spread Legs, Not Lies with absolute extremities on stage like a Gavin backflipping over Sean and various other forms of extreme energy. By now the inner ring of The Roundhouse is moving in unison, maybe it’s the charm of their thick Welsh accents or just that they know how to throw together a proper party atmosphere but literally everyone was moving and going absolutely berserk. We’re Going To Hell…So Bring The Sunblock sees every member of The Blackout on the rampage again. I have been looking forward to catching this Welsh mob for some time now and I can say in all honesty that these young guys put in the most energy I have ever seen, there was acrobatics, there was fireworks. The only thing they didn’t do was throw a kitchen sink at the audience, maybe next time.

Finally it’s the Headliners and my ears get perforated by the banshee screams, Lost In Stereo is catchy as hell and gets every teenage girl in the venue jumping about. I must admit that All Time Low are not exactly my thing, their records are good, their live sets are equally good and you can’t see significant difference between them live and recorded which is always a good thing but they lose my attention with their silly jokes. I know that it’s supposed to be about the music but I can’t help that the jokes seem stupid and put me off a bit. Also following a band like The Blackout was never going to be easy but I don’t think that All Time Low stepped up to the plate and to me it definitely felt like The Blackout should of headlined, each band before stepped it up a notch but then at the end it felt like the whole show went down one gear. They do finish on a high with Dear Maria, Count Me In that is a definite crowd favourite but it’s just not enough against the flare of the prior bands.