New Found Glory, Less ThanJake, Bayside @ HQ, Adelaide(06/03/11)

Wed 9th Mar, 2011 in Gig Reviews

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Once again poor little Adelaide gets the rough end of the stick by only having one Sidewave show from the myriad of options presented by the Soundwave tour. Luckily enough, the one show that we did get, was an absolute cracker. Fresh from a well received set the day before, Bayside were in good spirits, opening the show with a big sound and plenty of energy. The setlist paid heavy attention to the band’s new album Killing Time with first single Sick Sick Sick, being a stand out. Playing like they were introducing themselves for the first time the band left a good impression on the crowd and ended their time with Duality and Devotion And Desire.

Less Than Jake, the ultimate warm band, were up next, and exploded onto the stage making one thing very clear: don’t you dare get caught not having fun at a Less Than Jake show. The band members were far from afraid of singling people out of the crowd for texting or looking bored during the set, with classic lines such as “I didn’t realise we were playing a retirement home tonight.” The group were especially keen to have a good reaction during Conviction Notice, which they filmed for their website before pulling a guy from the crowd, chosen due to his moustache, and making him skull two beers before pulling his girlfriend up on stage to spank her twenty-six times for her birthday. As singer/guitarist Chris Demakes fittingly pointed out, “In case you didn’t notice, our music comes secondary.” The music however, was completely fun as the group spanned their catalogue ending with popular numbers All My Best Friends Are Metalheads and Help Save The Youth.

New Found Glory took the stage to Chariots Of Fire dressed as a basketball team and wasted no time, powering through All Downhill From Here and Something I Call Personality. The group humbly apologised for missing out on Adelaide during their last tour and promised to play “a shit load of songs” to make up for it. Jumping all over their timeline, and the stage, Understatement, Destined For Failure and Hold My Hand were received very well by an enthusiastic crowd who were more than happy to sing every word for vocalist Jordan Pundik. After asking who had been listening to the group for over ten years, the swan song Sincerely Me served as a trip down memory lane to the great days of pop punk. Better Off Dead, Don’t Let Her Pull You Down and Truth Of My Youth stepped the game up as Pundik’s voice improved before the emotional, The Story So Far.

Some rarer tracks were touched on, including the hardcore alter ego of the band with The Tip Of The Iceberg, as well as the cover version (which betters the original) of King Of Wishful Thinking. The newest single It’s Not Your Fault, scored the loudest sing-a-long of the night proving the band’s time is far from over as the main set ended in parallel with their first single Hit Or Miss. An encore featuring Radio Adelaide, which they only ever play in Adelaide, and the high point of the night, My Friends Over You, during which loads of punters jumped on stage, were all that it took to end the night and send many happy pop punk off into a new week.