REVIEW: KERRANG! TOUR AT CARDIFF GREAT HALL FT. NEW FOUND GLORY + THE BLACKOUT (11/02/12)
The sold out Kerrang! relentless energy drink tour rolled into Cardiff’s sold out Great Hall for yet another year. Crowds came out and queued from as early as 10am to guarantee the best spot to watch American pop punk headliners New Found Glory play the Welsh capital.
This is the seventh Kerrang! Tour and the fourth under the stewardship of Relentless, last year the tour was headlined by Good Charlotte and previous years have included bands such as Biffy Clyro and All Time Low. This year’s line-up featured a mixed treat; New Found Glory, The Blackout, LetLive, and When She sleeps taking on the ten date tour.
Sheffield metalheads While She Sleeps kicked off the show with an amazingly slick set, powering through each track creating the crowd loving walls of deaths and most pits of the evening. Despite being the first band on the bill the Sheffielders have the crowd in the palm of their hands and are looking to have a bright future ahead of them.
This was the second time LA’s post hardcore band Letlive have performed in Cardiff. The Kerrang! Favourites were filled with plenty of energy (maybe from an overdose of relentless?) launched on the stage in pure force. The band performed like they should have been headlining the tour and proved that they are defiantly a band to be watching out for. Front man Jason Aalon attacked the venue to the securities disbelief, from hiding under the stage, running to the merch tables and proudly throwing himself in the crowd throughout their short but most memorable set of the evening.
Welsh favourites The Blackout are up next and in the crowd all you can see is their clan ‘the riot squad’ pushing to the front to catch a glimpse of their energetic and unpredictable favourites. The band were the centre of controversy after replacing Sum 41 on the tour. If you have had the opportunity to witness The Blackout at a live show before you know that the band from Merthyr Tydfil are really not shy of any energy or confidence. Performing an impressive set, the band performed favourites from their previous three albums. Kicking off the set with the chaotic ‘I’m a Riot’, the band seemed to win over the pop punk haters in the crowd. During the set a special cover of Sum 41’s hit ‘Fat Lip’ was performed in respect for the band. Concluding their set with Save Ourselves and Higher and Higher love them or hate them the band successfully made the audience forget who Sum 41 was.
Opening with the intro from the debut single from the album catalyst, thousands of screams came as expected for the band who have been in the music industry for as long as fifteen years. Playing a mixture of old and new New Found Glory had a well-built set and classics from the bands catalogue emerged; ‘All Downhill’ and ‘Radiosurgery’ got the band off with a great start. Lead singer Jordan Pundik had excellent interaction with the crowd and showed that they appreciate the fans who have stuck with them over the may years. After playing an impressive seventeen song set they didn’t tease the crowd with an encore and concluded their set with an abruptly crowd pleasing cover of Green Days ‘Basket Case’ and overall favourite ‘my friends over you’.
It was very clear that the audience, made up of young and old enjoyed tonight’s sold-out show. On paper the line up didn’t look spectacular in comparison to the tours previous years but when witnessed live it could easily have been the best tour Kerrang! have put together yet.
Words and photos: Mike Lewis
