You Me At Six @ Fowler's Live,Adelaide (01/08/11)

Fri 2nd Sep, 2011 in Gig Reviews

I’m not going to lie, there was a little trepidation had by yours truly as I entered Fowler’s Live. Making my way through the masses of underage children gathered to see British pop-rockers You Me At Six, I was determined to find a spot at the back and avoid the screaming tweens as best I could. But it looked like all the over 18’s had the same idea. We created a barrier of sorts, accompanied by scowling at all of them singing to each other and screaming their heads off.

First up however were mighty impressive Sydney-siders The Mission in Motion. Being the first support act is always hard, especially when the two bands following you have an enormous worldwide following. No pressure, right? But these lads played like they were playing to thousands. Stand out tunes included We Take This To The Night and new track New Skin .

Florida boys We The Kings were the second support act for the night. However, it was more like they were a co-headliner. The support for these guys was almost parallel to You Me At Six’s. Lead singer Travis Clark was as charismatic as ever; charming the audience by telling them they were “sexy”. They played a variety of tunes from their three studio albums, ranging from All Again For You and Friday Is Forever to crowd favourites Secret Valentine and Skyway Avenue. And of course they closed the set with their most well known song Check Yes Juliet .

As the crowd grew anxious, we awaited the arrival of the You Me At Six. The lights dimmed and an eruption of girlish screams exploded. Wasting no time they launched right into Consequences. This was kind of surprising as it’s probably their biggest hitt, but nevertheless it started things off with a bang. Lead singer Josh Franceschi is full of energy, running around on stage, reminiscent of the on stage presence of Paramore singer Hayley Williams. No matter how big or small the stage, Josh made it his own.

Playing tracks mainly from their second album Hold Me Down they had the crowd absolutely hooked. Playing The Blame Game was stellar as was Safer To Hate Her. They also played a couple of tunes from their debut album Take Off Your Colours which gave the hardcore fans some recognition. Trophy Eyes garnered the first circle pit of the evening, with Josh encouraging the teens. Fireworks and Liquid Confidence followed suit (with another circle pit created in between). At this point in time most bands would do the whole ‘encore’ thing but the boys of You Me At Six powered through, finishing off an amazing set with Stay With Me and Underdog .

As the last show of their Australian tour, we were treated very well and before they left they hinted that they might be coming back for Soundwave 2012. Let’s hope that is true because I’ll definitely be there. Screaming teenagers aside, this was an absolutely brilliant performance from an incredibly talented international band. Good one boys.