New Found Glory, Less ThanJake @ Billboard, Melbourne(28/02/2011)

Thu 3rd Mar, 2011 in Gig Reviews

So begins a very heavy week for Melbourne pop-punk fans. With Soundwave festival this Friday and many, many sidewave options offered throughout the week, it would have been almost understandable for fans to take it easy and conserve some energy at the New Found Glory and Less Than Jake co-headline show.

I guess that’s exactly what many in the sold-out crowd had planned, because Less Than Jake emerged on-stage to a surprisingly underwhelming response. You could probably chalk it up to the lack of an opening band, but for the first couple of songs the crowd honestly seemed semi-conscious. Rather than admitting defeat, Less Than Jake turned their obvious frustration into additional energy, ripping through classics like Plastic Cup Politics and All My Best Friends Are Metalheads to slowly but surely win over “about 69% of the audience” (their words).

Provoking those present into showing them some energy proved to be surprisingly effective, and the inclusion of a couple of punk/ska covers of the Spongebob Squarepants and Animaniacs theme tunes also seemed to get a few people excited. As always their stage banter was hilarious, with Chris Demakes insulting my haircut, making the security guard do shots of Jager and bringing New Found Glory’s drummer onto the stage to pick up the self-proclaimed “dirtiest girl at the show.” Perfect sound and a quality light show cemented Less Than Jake’s position as co-headliners for the night.

You may wonder how a bunch of tattooed guys now pushing into their thirties can still manage to pull off the pop-punk thing. In the live setting, New Found Glory songs are very different beasts from their recorded equivalents, coming off as surprisingly tough and ballsy. This, combined with the band’s obvious love for what they do, makes them a live powerhouse. Opening with Truck Stop Blues the band and crowd were all energy from the first second.

That energy continued to build throughout the set, maintained even throughout rare tracks including the twitter-requested I’ll Never Love Again and Singled Out which were thrown in amongst the more obvious inclusions. Something I Call Personality and Tip of the Iceberg absolutely raged in the live setting, and for once the inevitable pop-punk show circle-pit didn’t feel out of place. Even a special request from a crowdsurfing Batman couldn’t coax the International Superheroes of Hardcore out of hiding, but even without donning their alias the New Found Glory mosh pit was verging on all-out violence at times.

The sound was a little muddier than during Less Than Jake’s set, but still definitely passable, and their light show was just as awesome. The body of the set was capped off with classic Hit or Miss inspiring a wave of crowdsurfers and the best singalongs of the night. Re-appearing for a four song encore including a cover of Gorilla Biscuits’ No Reason Why and culminating with My Friend’s Over You New Found Glory left an audience of hardcore fans very satisfied.