You Me At Six, The Audition,Kids In Glass Houses @ TheHi-Fi, Brisbane (24/9/2010)

Thu 30th Sep, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Cardiff boys Kids In Glass Houses were up first with a fairly short set in front of a fairly small crowd which was probably a big change from their Reeding & Leeds audience they played to a few weeks ago. Keeping in mind that this was their first ever show in Australia, the crowd seemed to respond to them well. There were even quite a few kids singing along to their songs. Throughout the set most of the energy came from their front man Aled Phillips but the rest of the band was tight and their pop rock sound was lapped up by the crowd. A few of the songs included in their set were Undercover Lover, their UK single at the moment, in which Phillips described as a disgusting pop song; Saturday from their old album Smart Casual which got the crowd on their feet and actually jumping and they closed the set with Matters at All from their new album Dirt. Kids In Glass Houses gained some new fans tonight.

The Audition were up next on what was meant to be a double headline bill with You Me At Six. For some reason though, they played a 30 minute set which was incredibly disappointing. These Chicago boys, and by boys I mean charismatic front man Danny Stevens, had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand for the whole set. From the first song Warm Me Up to the final song Don’t Be So Hard, they were energetic, tight and the vocals from Stevens were amazing; it was almost like the microphone was just for show. It was the Auditions’ fourth time in Australia and according to Stevens, ‘The shows get better and the ladies more beautiful’. Highlights of the set were My Temperature’s rising, You Ruined This from their new album Great Danger and Los Angeles. It would have been good to see them play a few more songs from their new album but with only a 30 minute set, there was only so much they could cram in.

British boys You Me At Six graced the stage next and after hearing that they almost brought down the Fort – literally – the night before at the all ages show, big things were expected. The first few songs of the set didn’t really stand out but by the end of the set this reviewer was won over. They opened with Consequence followed by Kiss And Tell. Further into the set they played Finders Keepers and Trophy Eyes which was the changing point in the set and saw circle pits generated and amateur crowd surfers go crazy. Stay With Me was a personal highlight and lead singer Josh Franceschi’s best vocal performance all night; in other songs it seemed like his voice didn’t have the strength to pull off some of the notes. Fireworks proved to be the slow, everybody get out your phone and lighter song of the set but was also another highlight along with Save It For The Bedroom. Franceschi got the crowd to split down the middle for the third last song for what I assumed was going to be an attempt at a wall of death but turned out to be one of the funniest things I have seen at a show; A moonwalk of death which turned into a fight pit crossed with drunk punters just throwing their limbs everywhere. You Me At Six closed their 60 minute set with Underdog from their new album Hold Me Down, with no encore to be seen, but they promised to return for shows soon. They said they would hunt down and kill those people at tonight’s show who don’t come to the next one, but all threats aside, I would go see them again.