This is the 12th time for me seeing The Blackout play live, so I am already prepared for an entertaining show from them. Tonight both The Blackout and Lostprophets only receive 45 minute set times due to this being part of a festival even though this show did require individual tickets.
The Blackout explode onto the stage showing that they are a band full of energy, using full advantage of the spacious stage, running around like Meerkats on drugs. ‘STFUppercut’ is delivered with intensity but one thing that brings TBO down tonight is the terrible sound quality, which is of course not down to them.
It’s no surprise that TBO got noticed by Epitaph with songs like ‘Children Of The Night’. Their performance of this tonight sounds damn near perfect with Sean Smith’s screaming vocals sounding as monstrous as usual. Sean Smith and Gavin Butler share the vocal work on ‘Its High Tide Baby’ which also gets a tremendous amount of help from the crowd. On CD, this track features guest vocals from Lostprophets front man Ian Watkins and seeing as he is here in the building tonight, an appearance by him on this song would be expected. But strangely the song finished with no assistance from him at all.
Another song by TBO that features guest vocals (from Josh Francheschi of You Me at Six) is ‘I Don’t Care (This is why we can’t have nice things)’. Yet he also doesn’t make an appearance has he has done on various occasions before. After hearing this song over and over and over at the video shoot for the single release id expect to be sick of hearing this song, but TBO seem to have a way of making everything sound so interesting live and manages to make this track sound fresh and exciting tonight.
The crowd has started to filter in and the room is starting to fill finally. There is a mixed crowd of various ages and of people who are here to see their favourite bands (dressed in band merch and with their eyes glued to the stage) and those who are here just as part of the festival weekend (standing at the back with drinks not paying much attention to the band). TBO then deliver another few delights from latest album ‘The Best in Town’. A personal favourite of mine ‘The Fire’, sounding elegantly heavy and cements the claims of them being one of Wales’ best bands. Sean Smith’s screams sound on top form in this song tonight. Whilst on the subject of Sean Smith I feel I should highlight how energetic he is as he jumps non-stop around the stage and even front flips onto the floor. It looks painful, but it sure helps aid the intensity of the music.
On another favourite of mine ‘We’re Going To Hell…So Bring The Sunblock’, Gavin Butler’s amazing voice fits perfectly with the screams produced by the blonde haired Energizer bunny and sounds excellent getting the crowd moving more than usual. Midway through ‘Save Our Selves (The Warning)’, TBO attempt to get the entire audience to kneel on the floor. Clearly a trick stolen from Slipknot, this request is met with enthusiasm at TBO headline gigs but tonight only half of the crowd seem willing to participate. Then when the song kicks back in they jump up half arsed. I’ve got to admit, Slipknot pull this off a hell of a lot better!
Unsurprisingly they close with the beast that is ‘Im A Riot? You’re A Fucking Riot!’. This ferocious song sends the crowd into a frenzy for the first actual time tonight (even producing a fair sized moshpit), apart from the weak attempt at kneeling down then jumping up. With this, The Blackout have made their mark on the Camden Crawl and undoubtedly earnt themselves a decent amount of new fans today.
With the Roundhouse a lot more packed out as Lostprophets are about to begin their overly short set of just 45 minutes I find it weird that the headline act should be given the same set time as the support act but due to the festival scenario this is what it has to be like. With 4 studio albums and many hit singles, I’m sure it was hard for LP to decide on their set list for tonight’s show.
When Lostprophets hit the stage they explode into the first single off their latest album ‘The Betrayed’ which is entitled ‘It’s Not The End Of The World (But I Can See It From Here)’. The crowd go insane for LP and it’s no surprise with this song sounding so huge! Even with the slightly dodgy sound quality tonight. Not slowing down one bit, they burst into classic ‘Burn Burn’ which happened to have its music video filmed in this very building a few years ago. Drummer Luke Johnson is recent addition to the bands current line-up and wasn’t with them when any of these early tracks were written, but you’d have never have guessed this as he plays so naturally as ‘Burn Burn’ sounds amazing.
Next up is the outrageously catchy ‘Can’t Catch Tomorrow (Good Shoes Won’t Save You This Time)’, followed by another older song ‘Last Summer’. In my opinion, I feel LP could have sacrificed this song from the set list to make way for a stronger song which was left off, such as ‘4:AM Forever’ or maybe even ‘A Town Called Hypocrisy’.
Latest single ‘For He’s A Jolly Good Felon’ is played and greeted as if it were a classic by the crowd. Then LP deliver an actual classic, ‘Last Train Home’. Everyone sings along to this as if their lives depended on it, and one thing’s for sure…I won’t be missing my last train home with this show set to finish so early.
Stuart Richardson (Bass), Mike Lewis (Guitar) and Lee Gaze (Guitar) are all on great form tonight as ever song sounds note perfect, although at times this cant be fully appreciated as the sound continues to be a problem. A song which enables Ian Watkins to display his great vocal skills is ‘Where We Belong’. With its anthemic chorus that would suit much of the larger venues, he unleashes his powerful voice, but at times it sounds a little under pressure. This is most probably down to their hectic touring schedule lately because on other occasions seeing LP his voice has sounded much better than this. But it’s only a minor issue as 99% of the time his voice is on form tonight.
They cover the opening of Guns’N’Roses hit song ‘Sweet Child’O Mine’ without the highly recognisable Slash guitar part. Only the original lyrics are used with a very poor guitar part, which makes for a boring attempt at covering a classic song. But something that Lostprophets are good at is creating highly accessible music that appeals to fans from various genres of music. A good example of this is ‘Rooftops (A Liberation Broadcast)’, but tonight it sounds a little bland at times, but on the most part is played with passion and sounds great.
Cameras swoop thought the air like an Eagle surveying the crowd as if they were its prey, as today’s how will be broadcast on MTV.
For their final song, LP give us a choice between two of their heaviest and greatest songs in my opinion, ‘Shinobi Vs. Dragon Ninja’ and ‘We Are Godzilla, You Are Japan’. And to vote for the song we want, we have to cheer when the song name is said. Unfortunately the ‘Shinobi’ cheer is greater than the ‘Godzilla’ cheer, and I was one of the people left gutted from this. Not that I don’t like ‘Shinobi’, I just prefer ‘Godzilla’. Lostprophets don’t disappoint anyone though, sending the crowd mental. Pleasing old school Lostprophets fans with the only song played tonight from their debut album ‘thefakesoundofprogress’.
Jamie Oliver (turntables, vocals, effects) has been crazy all night, like a guy possessed. He interacts with the crowd more than any other member of the band and he looks like he is really enjoying himself up there, as he throws himself around the stage really feeling the music.
As they finish, it is still light outside on the streets of Camden which is a rarity for gigs, and the show was over way too quickly. But both bands gave great performances and everyone leaves happy and ready to enjoy the rest of the night, and considering its not even 8pm yet, there’s plenty of the night left.
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