Live review : Lower Than Atlantis (O2 Academy, Birmingham)
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Only three days after seeing them in a small, Parisian venue, I jetted off to Birmingham to watch Lower Than Atlantis embark on their biggest headliner tour to date. There’s a little over a thousand people in the room. That’s just a tad bit more than Paris then.
Eastbourne boys Roam open the night (well, it’s 6:15pm when they take the stage, so maybe “night” is pushing it a little bit. Evening? Late afternoon? Tea time celebrations?) with their infectious pop-punk tunes, their Sum 41 inspired riffs and, as always, enthusiasm by the truckload. Have we finally found a band that’s more stoked to be on a stage than Roam or have we called off the search because it’s hopeless? Every time they play, anywhere it might be, never mind if they headline or support, they give off some sort of “fuck, we’re actually DOING THIS, guys” vibe, and it might just be my favourite thing about them, if I’m completely honest. That, and how stupidly catchy every single one of their songs are. That, but absolutely not the fact they dared saying Eastbourne was better than Brighton. Come on, now, boys. You might have had Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, but we have Sticky Mike's and Architects.
It sadly seems, though, that Lower Than Atlantis’ fans aren’t in this for the pop punk, and the circle pit for Deadweight was one of the worst, if not the single worst one I’ve ever been a part of. The crowd seems to take a liking to Head Rush or Hopeless Case, though, and shy but well-deserved sing alongs are heard across the venue.
You can’t fault Roam on any of this. Not at all. They played beautifully and brilliantly, and they will get to that big stage level sooner than we think. Last Friday night, they just deserved a better crowd.
And then the world will have to follow.
I won’t beat around the bush when it comes to Hands Like Houses : they fully deserved to be main support on this tour. Watching them play only six songs, six tiny songs, only twenty-five minutes is like being given a present and then having Santa snatching it off your hands to give you a broken stick instead.
Maybe I’m grossly biased because they are at the top of the list of my favourite bands, but Christ, now that was a perfect set from start to finish. It’s not just the set any support act dreams of playing, it’s the set any band does and should dream of playing. Everything about this band and their performance was absolutely flawless : the way they played, Trenton Woodley’s vocals, the sound quality, the cohesion and communication between the band members, the way they inhabit the stage and make it their own, the message of honesty they are conveying (especially through a song like I Am), the fact that they are so confident in their new material that their setlist will only consist of songs from their excellent latest album, Dissonants, guitarist Matt Cooper’s shiny lamé shirt. Everything about the way these five extremely talented men play on a stage is pure gold, and I strongly believe they are one of the finest bands in the world, as we speak.
Christ that was frustratingly short. You barely have time to get pumped that it’s already over.
As closer I Am resonates across the overall impressed Academy, loud and proud, like everything they do, I am sure of one thing and one thing only : Hands Like Houses deserve to conquer the entire planet. We’ve slept on them for far too long, now. Let’s finally give them the popularity they so rightfully deserve.
Watching a band you love slowly fading away is the most painful thing there is, as a music lover. When you’ve poured a lot of your time, your love and your energy into a band, it hurts starting to fall out of love.
There’s a part of me that will love Young Guns forever, as sure as the sun will set tonight.
But there’s a part of me that’s trying to come to terms with the fact that I’ve grown out of them and it breaks my heart.
I’m not going to beat around the bush when it comes to them either - I don’t think they should have been main support. I know they’re more established than Roam and Hands Like Houses, but surely, a band on the way up should have been given more stage time.
They sound really, really good. I can’t deny that, and I never will. It’s not because I’m growing out of them that I will be awful for no valid reason. They do sound good. The older songs (Bones, I Want Out or Weight of the World) still get a strong reaction from the crowd and sing alongs can objectively be heard.
I, though, have a feeling it falls flat after Hands Like Houses’ brilliance. It’s good, but it feels incomplete, and the only thing I can do is clutch my drink and repress the tears because all those years ago, the last thing I was when I listened to Young Guns was incomplete.
It’s nothing short of brilliant to see Lower Than Atlantis fill such a big room. I’m one of those people that fight real hard against my natural underground music lover urge to keep my favourite bands in tiny venues, but I also like big props, fireworks, giant screens and singalongs more than anything else on the planet.
The Academy in Birmingham is not exactly the perfect theatre for fireworks, we’re not exactly there yet, but we still get nice, big fancy screens, a platform for drummer Eddy Thrower and amps decorated with the wavy lines of the band’s latest album, Safe in Sound. (Spoiler alert, these amps will be thrown across the stage at the end of the show by frontman Mike Duce. When in a rock band, I suppose)
The Academy in Birmingham might not be the time or place for fireworks and smoke cannons, but it definitely was the time and place for singalongs. The setlist was the exact same as the one in Paris on the Tuesday, but this time, the crowd’s answer wasn’t “shy at first” or “ew, feelings” moving on to “FINE, I actually like this band, might as well sing along”. The audience started belting out the lyrics to opener Had Enough from the first line and didn’t stop until the last words of closer Here We Go. It was a strong, beautiful hour and a half of a crowd who loved a band so much they were willing to replace their lead singer by singing much, much louder than him.
Said lead singer helped a little bit and didn’t really sing that much, in the end. I have a feeling I have sung more than him, which is, to be completely honest (and maybe a little bit picky) here, a little disappointing. (And probably what the people next to me paid for)
I love my singalongs. I repeat it in every single review I write. The best live moment of my entire life included sixty five thousand people involved in a singalong. But there is such a thing as too much - like when you start questioning if you’ve paid to hear the crowd sing or the band play.
Apart from this small glitch, Lower Than Atlantis delivered an incredible performance and showed the Midlands (before showing the rest of the UK) why they were going to the places they are. It’s no surprise they’re becoming one of the leading forces in Britain’s rock music. It’s no surprise they’ve been announced as support on blink-182’s upcoming German tour. They work hard, they have a knack at writing catchy songs, they have an array of dedicated fans willing to replace their frontman and open walls of death at inappropriate moments - clearly, they’re on the way up, and up, and up again, and it’s fully deserved.
They also have one of the best drummers of our generation. I’m no musician myself, I couldn’t play Wonderwall to save my life and I’ve never been able to play a note on a recorder, but I can tell when someone stands out, and boy, does Eddy Thrower stand out. I found myself being absolutely stunned and amazed by his drumming more than once, and it’s not something that happens a lot, believe you me. I know he is an excellent drummer, and I always known. I remember my friend Alice telling me about it five years ago. I suppose it had never struck me until that night.
What else can I say? This tour is a career defining moment for Lower Than Atlantis. And I’m excited to be by their side for what comes next.
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