blessthefall

12-3-09

Manchester Roadhouse

blessthefall

Bury Tomorrow

Marionettes

As if it wasn’t enough that they had a gorgeous merch guy who’s a clone for Alex Gaskarth (Dave Chapman, hello they’re twins!) they were absolutely astonishing live. My expectations were high and they exceeded them. The first support band were really good despite the fact that they were struggling to involve the crowd of stubborn teenagers but they were obviously trying really hard to win them over and they sure got my attention. They were Swedish and had really cool accents and they had talent! They got a thumbs up from me.

The second band, Bury Tomorrow, had a lot more fans in the audience of around 125 people. They got really involved with the crowd and at one point the bassist jumped on the box right in front of me (in case you’ve never been to the Roadhouse there are no barriers, instead there are movable blocks just a little higher than the stage that people normally sit on) and had to crouch from hitting his head on the ceiling. Although at the same time he was headbanging, which meant I had to lean backwards because his hair skimmed mine several times and I swear if I’d have been any further forwards he’d have headbutted me.

Then he jumped down off the block and told the crowd that standing on it made him feel like a ‘metal crab’ - funny guys in case you can’t tell. They did an amazing job and got the crowd really worked up for the headliners. As well it was the singer’s birthday so we stopped them from leaving the stage by chorusing ‘Happy Birthday’ through the tiny venue.

By this point I decided it was best to move towards the back of the room. It was so small that I’d have a clear view of the stage anyway and I really wanted to see the crowd’s reaction when blessthefall took the stage. I waited at the back until finally the lights dimmed and music began playing over the speakers. I was squealing like a fan-girl when I found out that the music they were playing around us was the Saw theme tune (for those who don’t follow my other blog and don’t know this, Saw I-VI are some of my favorite movies of all time).

So the band entered and as if on a timer everyone began cheering. They played a couple of popular songs including God Wears Gucci and Guys Like You…before some of their lesser known stuff. Kudos to Beau though, in every single song that was originally recorded with Craig (Mabbit, Escape The Fate), Beau managed to hit them note perfect. His voice is actually very similar to Craig’s which is really good because the sound of the band has not changed much at all and they’re all really talented from what I witnessed live.

As aforementioned I’d moved to the back of the room partly because of wanting to see the crowd’s reactions. I was shocked. I’ve never seen such a tightly-packed crowd gone so wild. There were several mosh-pits in each song, people wind-milling, stage divers, crowd-surfers, and there was even people forming a pep-rally style pyramidin the middle of a pit! It was insane. And then Beau began to complain about how he hadn’t seen any crowd-surfers and promised that whoever crowd-surfed the most in the next three songs would get a free shirt at the end of the night. At that point I doubt there was a single person on their feet. Crazy!

Also, their stage presence was amazing, they really involved themselves with the crowd and began to talk about ‘new words’ they’d learned during their time in the UK (basically everything from clunge to wanker and wanted us to teach them more at the end of the show). The atmosphere was amazing and everyone was in euphoria. Then Beau began to complain about those of us stood at the back not getting involved enough. I’ve never actually witnessed what happened next before. The room was split horizontally in a wall-of-death from the front to back. There was no where to run to for those who didn’t want to be hit with a flying unfamiliar body and no hiding behind anyone else. It was awesome.

By the end of their set everyone was hyped up. Almost instantly after the guys came down and met everyone, including everyone from the other bands too. I managed to speak to a couple of guys from blessthefall but mainly Beau. They’re all real nice guys and they applaud the hard work they put into their shows. I highly recommend them for anyone thinking of seeing them. If you don’t like pushy fans or bands that don’t talk much or play badly you have nothing to worry about, I can promise you you’ll enjoy the night.