LIVE: You Me at Six @ Rock City [18/3/2012]

Ruth Ovens – Platform

After avoiding the queue that stretched around the block for You Me at Six’s sell out show at Rock City on March 18, I decided that a spot on Rock City’s balcony was the safest bet to avoid being squashed by clamouring 14-year-olds. The gig got off to a smooth start with London ska band the Skints opening the night. The band helped to calm down the masses of girls with their I heart Matt tops on but managed to find a good balance between chilled out and energetic covering well known songs such as Katy B’s ‘Katy On A Mission’.

Mayday Parade then followed playing a mixture of older songs as well as some of their newer material. As someone that has seen the band before I was disappointed that the vocalist Derek Sanders struggled to catch his breath between lyrics resulting in lines from the songs being missed out. The majority of the crowd seemed unfazed by this however I did hear a few remarks from fans that had paid purely to see this act. The highlight of the set was a rendition of Kids in Love which had every member of the audience singing along.

The next band, Kids in Glass Houses, killed their set (in a good way). Having been to and worked a lot of gigs I was pleased to see that the band managed to keep their performance fresh and really get the crowd going. The set was a mixture of old and new songs that seamlessly flowed into each other creating an energetic atmosphere that saw most of the crowd jumping in time to the music. Vocalist Aled Phillips sounds just as note perfect live as he does on stage which only added to the quality of show as he smoothly moved between high pitched singing and growly screams. Finishing their short set with ‘Matters at All’ the band left the crowd well and truly warmed up for headline act.

By the time the five piece band collectively known as You Me at Six, took to the stage it was hard to move, even on the usually spacious balcony. Launching into ‘Loverboy’ a track from their new album the crowd erupted spurred on by the large smoke cannons and requests from vocalist Josh Franceschi that everyone crowd surfs even if it’s not allowed.

The set lasted close to 90 minutes, made up of the best tracks from their latest work as well as those from older albums, such as ‘Reckless’, ‘Fireworks’ and well known favourite ‘Underdog’. The band closed the gig after a two track encore with ‘Bite My Tongue’, followed by one of the largest applauses I have ever heard and it was clear from the expressions on the faces of many of the young audience members that they had wished the gig could go on for much longer.

Tags: 2012, gig, kids in glass houses, loverboy, march, march 2012, mayday parade, nottingham, review, rock city, tour, you me at six