It was that time of year again and Kerrang! were passing through the LCR with slight newcomers Biters, power pop-punk band ROAM, the fearless and gritty Frank Carter with his gang of Rattlesnakes and the massive Sum 41; the band straight from the heart of pop punk.
I’ll start by saying Biters really caught me, and probably the rest of the crowd, by complete surprise. Having not heard anything about them prior to this show, I was pleasantly impressed with how sharp and composed Biters sounded, delivering a deliciously nostalgic performance that transported us all to the glory days of glam rock. Undoubtedly taking influence from Bowie, Alice Cooper and the like, Biters fashion the true 80s rock look; the leather jackets, the cowboy boots, the razor-sharp jawlines and the accompanying drummer with frizzy hair and large arms. Each song was neatly tied together with gorgeous guitar solos and complete confidence on the stage. The only let-down moment was their attempts at audience interaction, which generated a very lukewarm response.
Note to self: never kick-start your interaction with “Who here likes smoking weed?” because you will have to awkwardly repeat yourself in the response to silence. Maybe it was just me, but it felt like a complete bum-note, particularly when the front rows were filled with young teenage girls and boys. Nevertheless, despite being an opening band, Biters set a pretty high bar.
Biters were shortly followed by ROAM, tying closer to the genre of the headline act and credit where credit is due, they exerted their best efforts to pick up the energy in the room. After a couple of songs and repeated orders yelled by their lead singer, Alex Adam, the audience finally got on board to warm up, jumping during their fierce choruses and establishing decent mosh pits. It must be quite tricky for a modern pop punk band to be anything significantly interesting or different. For example, Neck Deep know exactly what their genre is and comically conform to all the tropes, from their album covers, to their videos, to their merch, they play upon what pop punk is as both a genre and an image. But, as good as ROAM sounds, and as much as we love the genre, you can’t help but think they’re just another pop punk band and at times, it felt like their second vocalist, Sam Veness, should be the lead vocalist. Veness just seemed to hold his vocals a lot stronger than Adam could and although having two vocalists help to keep your sound and performance dynamic and energetic, it would have felt more appropriate to have just the one here. In total, though, ROAM were decent enough and were successful to raise the energy right up, leaving us a bit sweaty and readily-charged for Frank Carter.
As expected, the stage just wasn’t enough to contain them. When you see Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, there’s no sense of us and them because as soon as he gets the chance, Carter is stage diving and moshing and working his way to the very back of the room. Teaming up with a big dude called Tank (obviously), Carter travels all around the building on his mighty shoulders, dishing out cockney banter whenever the opportunity arises. Oh, and they played really well, as always. Playing the roughest songs from their small catalogue, the crowd made no hesitation in stepping the mosh pits up a level, widening its circumference at any given chance. But it wasn’t all tooth and nail carnage and metal, for Carter took a solemn moment to sing a song dedicated to his recently-passed father in-law. He stood in the middle of the crowd, the lights were dimmed and we highlighted his figure with the lights on our smartphones. Quite a significant moment, reminding us that despite how much we idolise celebrity musicians and believe in this odd separation between the two of us, they’re still human beings who go through the same human struggles as we do. Frank Carter is just like any other guy, but he’s a guy with an excellent talent in maintaining a perfect performance on a stage as well as a grizzly and gritty vocal accompaniment to The Rattlesnakes.
They ended their set advertising their return to Norwich in October, and after what we all saw on that Tuesday night, I’m certain we’re all going to be buying tickets. They’re not to be missed.
Ok so Sum 41 were amazing, let’s just start by getting that out there. They played every single song they wanted us to play and they played every single song with absolute precision, and it was flawless; it was everything we wanted from a Sum 41 set. Having been away from the UK for three years, they proved why they were sorely missed, powering through eighteen tracks whilst still taking moments to interact with the audience. Not only that, but it seems that if you see a pop punk band, you will almost certainly be treated to some form of cover. Sum 41 gave us their own rendition of Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’, generating deep-throat chanting and fierce fist-pumping, and they even performed a cover of Rancid’s ‘Ruby Soho’, channelling us to the roots of pop punk.
I’m going to get real with you here, and if you disagree with me, then that’s fine. But honestly, about halfway through their set, it really dawned upon me how much of an important band Sum 41 are to their genre and how special it was to see them live in our home city. We’re really lucky to have a venue as decent as the LCR that can draw these genre-heavyweights to Norwich because I feel like we really would have missed out otherwise. At times, I was getting major Green Day-vibes and it really signified how brilliant it was that they’re still going and the genre is still rocking on. I really wasn’t anticipating how star-struck I was going to feel, and this wasn’t fully realised until I was heading back home.
As you can imagine, they ended their set with ‘Still Waiting‘ and ‘In Too Deep‘ before coming back on stage with ‘Underclass Hero‘ and ‘Fat Lip‘ and by god, was one of the most fulfilling moments I’ve experienced, even when I was probably too young to fully appreciate and experience the initial release of Sum 41’s records. I just can’t even begin to imagine how much more significant it must have felt for everyone else.
An evening worth remembering, it really makes me wonder what Kerrang! are going to come up with next year, as this will be quite difficult to top.
Words – Chris Hambling
Photography – Kayleigh Warren
