Plus Not Advised and Me Vs Hero
9th September 2009
Understandably, tonight?s is a sold out show (You Me At Six will be playing venues many, many times this capacity in a few months), and it?s pleasing to see a sizeable crowd gather so early for tonight?s openers Me vs Hero. These guys have come a long ways since their Punktastic Recordings days and they honestly (and impartially, I?ll add) sound absolutely brilliant tonight. Sam has no problems puppeteering the crowd, and new tracks like the bloody epic ?Days That Shape Our Lives? receive a rapturous response (and even an attempted human pyramd). When the sound works in their favour like tonight, Me vs Hero sound and look like utter professionals and the whole room positively thrives off it.
We called their EP, ?Fight For This? the best UK pop punk record of the year so far, and while that?s a tall order, Not Advised?s set here at the Underworld only boosts that claim?s creditability. Slick just isn?t the word ? they absolutely own the room. ?Right Now? and ?A Red Light Situation? have choruses as big as the band?s own hairstyles, and even the odd technical hitch doesn?t falter their enthusiasm and ability. Throw In a cheeky Michael Jackson cover and you?ve got a chiselled set, and one those who executed it should be terrifically proud of.
This December, You Me At Six will be playing alongside Paramore to what some are already criticising as the most premature arena tour of recent years, but there was never any doubt they wouldn?t sell out the Underworld tonight. When Josh Franceschi walks out onto the stage of this dirty Camden boozer, the scream of what sounds like several hundred undersexed schoolgirls greets him and it makes you realise what sort of celebrity status these five young guys from Weybridge have earned themselves in the last year or so. Maybe it?s because of this that their set is somewhat underwhelming tonight ? it just felt a bit formulaic, a bit stale. Franceschi?s leans far too much on the audience?s vocal efforts to get him through (which is a shame considering he?s usually a pitch-perfect master of ceremonies), and collectively the group just don?t seem as ?into it? as they could be. Still, the likes of ?Kiss and Tell?, ?Gossip? and of course ?Save It For The Bedroom? seem to create enough reasons for the crowd to go batshit. Maybe I?m expecting too much from them but tonight, You Me At Six were simply good, and not great. They?ll have to do more than this is they want to impress at Wembley.
Andy R