Tonight is the first night from Kerrang’s week of gigs at the Camden Barfly in London as a build up to the Kerrang Awards which take place on tomorrow (25th Aug). All of these special gigs sold out within a week due to the Barfly having a capacity of only 200 people and also due to the fact that all the bands headlining these gigs would normally play venues at least 10 times the size of the Barfly. So tonight promises to be really good one and with 3 bands that have all made a lot of headway in 2005.
The Mascara Story are on first and impress straight from the get go. For a band that’s members are all only 18 years old they can obviously write songs that show they have talent well beyond their years. At times they sound like Taking Back Sunday and at other times sound like Finch which really is an exciting prospect. This definitely won’t be the last time I’ll be seeing these guys.
Next up are Emanuel who have grown a strong following on both sides of the Atlantic this year after the release of their debut album ‘Soundtrack To A Headrush’. I haven’t personally heard that album yet so tonight is my experience of Emanuel and they do well even if their lead singer is wearing a headband that makes him look like one of the Goldie Looking Chain. It’s obvious by the crowd’s reaction that they already have a few fans in the crowd but I’m not sure if they would have converted too many others. It’s a case of them being good but not that good and they fail to outshine this evening’s openers.
Fightstar have done a lot better than many people expected them to this year and have changed a lot of people’s opinions while doing so. When the band first appeared in Kerrang, a lot of the magazines readers weren’t too happy about it but a few months have passed and now Fightstar are headlining one of the Kerrang awards shows and are actually up for a couple of the awards at tomorrows ceremony. The bands kick straight off with ‘Speak Up’ and they sound good but strangely don’t seem to getting an amazing reaction from the crowd who seem to be paying more attention to their camera phones and trying to get a picture of Charlie Simpson.
The Barfly is a small venue and in my opinion people should have been concentrating more on having a good time and enjoying the music rather than trying to get a picture of the former Busted superstar. Not even songs like ‘Paint Your Target’ and ‘Palahnuik's Laughter’ hardly got much of a reaction let alone getting anywhere near to starting a mosh pit. Fightstar didn’t exactly do much to help themselves though as they played most of their well known songs early and left the second half of their set to be mainly dominated by newer never heard before material. They ended their set on a high though with ‘Lost Like Tears In Rain’ which sounded awesome but overall on the night they were a bit of a disappointment. Rather than the headliners being the highlight of the night, it was actually the evening’s openers The Mascara Story who outshone Emanuel and Fightstar and really look like one to definitely watch for the future.
To find out more about Fightstar - Click Here |
