Venue: Birmingham Ballroom
Support Acts: The Skints, Mayday Parade and Kids In Glass Houses.
Although this concert was a sell out, I hadn’t envisioned the length of the queue for the gig, so I admit to missing the first support act, The Skints’, performance – due to the length of the queue behind me I wasn’t the only one.
The second support was Mayday Parade, an American rock band. They were not a band I was aware of prior to the gig and in truth I wasn’t expecting much of the supports, however Mayday Parade pleasantly surprised me. They got the crowd warmed up, however the sound balance was pretty awful for their set, the music was too loud making it difficult to hear the lyrics. For me the sound ruined what otherwise would have been a great set. I’ve since got their album and they are a good rock band.
Favourite Mayday Parade song: When I Get Home You’re So Dead
Kids In Glass Houses (Welsh rock band) took to the stage next, their sound levels were a lot better than Mayday Parade’s which was a relief to me. Kids In Glass Houses definitely got the whole crowd jumping and excited, more so than the other support acts. Front man, Aled Phillips, sang well and got the crowd involved adding to the atmosphere. The band performed great, with a range of songs off all three of their albums, the best being tracks from their first album, Smart Casual.
Favourite Kids In Glass Houses song: Saturday or Fisticuffs
During the break between Kids In Glass Houses and You Me At Six, music was blasting around which kept the crowd excited. One highlight of the night was when 30 Seconds To Mars’ ‘The Kill’ (one of my favourite songs) was played – the whole crowd starting singing.
Then You Me At Six had the stage…
To open their set, ‘When We Were Younger’ was played and each band member held their prison number behind a screen. I thought this was a great way to start their set and was a nod towards their album art.
The first song the band performed was ‘Loverboy’ (lead single from their latest album ‘Sinners Never Sleep’), followed by ‘Little Death’ – one of my favourites. These songs kick-started their set well, and being crowd pleasing songs they really got the crowd going.
The band then played older hits, ‘Safer To Hate Her’, ‘Trophy Eyes’ and the fantastic ‘The Consequence’. ‘Jaws On The Floor’ broke up the older hits, to be followed by ‘Take Off Your Colours’ and ‘Finders Keepers’.
Josh then proclaimed “out with the old and in with the new… if you don’t know it then just move’, the band then began to play their latest single ‘The Swarm’, I was looking forward to seeing this song as it is another of my favourites, the band performed it great and it didn’t disappoint.
The band continued brilliantly with ‘The Dilemma’ and the epic ‘Liquid Confidence’. Josh Franceschi then made an amusing speech (which has since been dubbed the ‘Reckless Speech’) about love and friendship (in some parts he was drowned out by screams) ending with ” … and when you are young you can be as reckless as you want…”, which was an obvious introduction to ‘Reckless’ – another crowd favourite.
The band then performed their slower songs, ‘No One Does It Better’ and ‘Crash’, this slowed the crowd down before the band starting playing their best hits!
The last songs were ‘Underdog’ – a favourite of any and all “Sixers”, ‘Stay With Me’ – another crowd favourite, and ultimately ‘ Bite My Tongue’ – possibly the best track from Sinners Never Sleep.
Considering the fact it was reported that Josh was suffering from tonsilitis this certainly wasn’t evident, although I’ve since seen that its was Dan’s (the drummer) birthday they day before and he had a hangover – perhaps he was suffering more!
Favourite You Me At Six song: I can’t choose a favourite as I love all of their songs!
You Me At Six were definitely my favourite act of the night, it was great how they played songs from all three of their albums (Take Off Your Colours, Hold Me Down & Sinners Never Sleep). I would love to see You Me At Six live again and would recommend the band’s concerts to anyone!
I would also see Kids In Glass Houses and Mayday Parade again too!
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