The Vines @ The Forum, London,(29/08/06)

Fri 11th Aug, 2006 in Gig Reviews

The few times I have listened to The Vines third album, the first since manic lead singer Craig Nicholls was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, I was disappointed with the result. It seemed the winning formula that got The Vines success with their first two albums, Highly Evolved (2001) and Winning Days (2003), had all but dried up. Not expecting a big crowd, I rocked up to the Forum to discover scalpers selling tickets for more than double the price! It seems that the hype is still there for The Vines.

Exploding out of the blocks with Anysound The Vines had the crowds’ attention straight away. By the nights second song, Highly Evolved, the crowd was jumping it almost felt the old Forum floorboards were about to collapse. One notable difference about Craig was he has beefed up a bit, maybe the McDonalds diet has caught up with him?

There wasn’t much communication between the band and the crowd, but it wasn’t needed because everyone wanted to hear the next song. Plus it was the first time in almost three years since they had played the UK, it was suspected that The Vines may never play live again due to Craig’s illness. The best point about tonight was the vibe of the place, there was no anticipation. People were not here to just hear songs that made them famous like Highly Evolved and Get Free, they were here for every song.

With most of their songs just reaching the three minute mark, the crowd was in for a treat as all of the three albums received a solid work out. The highlights included a mix of their fast and slow songs such as Outtathaway, Ride, Gross Out, Vision Valley, Don’t Listen to Your Radio and Winning Days, which received a huge cheer. Ms Jackson, of course, got a spin much to the crowds delight. The fans lifted the roof off and basically drowned Craig’s vocals out in some parts. The best songs were saved for last for the one and only encore. Get Free and FTW ended what was a fine return to form for the Vines that it seemed they hadn’t been away for such a long time. Craig didn’t disappoint by smashing the drums at the end of FTW. I will never get sick of seeing him do that.

One of the best gigs I have seen this year because their new songs mixed perfectly with their old songs. Listening back to the Vision Valley album, I have now discovered it is a great album.