The Blackout (TBO) and We Are The Ocean (WATO) made a perfect match at Crystal Club the other night. By the time I got to the club the place was bursting at the seams. The only reasonable answer as to why the show wasn’t sold out must be that both C-Club and C-Halle (which are next door) held shows that night and Elbow played at Huxley’s.
WATO, photo: Facebook
TBO and WATO have been touring the UK for the last two months before brining the show to Europe. In the UK they played sold out venues the size of C-Halle while in Germany and the adjacent countries you still get the chance to see these bands in more intimate surroundings.
Personally I prefer WATO over TBO and I would have wished WATO to headline the tour. However, TBO have made themselves quite a name in Europe supporting bands such as fellow Welsh band Funeral For A Friend, Bullet For My Valentine and Limp Bizkit no less. Their recent album Hope is their fourth full length in a row while WATO have released their second album earlier this year. This probably also accounts for the more mature audience that was there just to see TBO while most of the kids dancing and moshing to WATO were hardly old enough to drink (so a lot of Xs there on the back of their raised fists).
It was rather hot, photo: Facebook
WATO took the stage at 9pm. Well, that’s not exactly true because their singer Dan didn’t exactly spend a lot of time on stage but continually jumped in the audience to mosh with them and get people to sing along. I was happy to see that there was about twice the number of people there (including some familiar faces) than the last time I’ve seen them opening for Mayday Parade.
While Dan is certainly the front man there could have been a little more effort from his band mates, particularly clean singer Liam who always seems to feel a little uncomfortable on stage, kind of like a younger Patrick Stump when he was still in Fall Out Boy. On the other hand, the stage didn’t exactly offer much room for action.
TBO, Photo: Facebook
WATO’s setlist offered a good mix of old and new stuff. The only bad thing about it was that it was identical to the setlist they had earlier this year. Would be good if they would rehearse some more songs and come back for a headline tour already!
When TBO’s set kicked of, there was no restraint. They took of where WATO had left and their singer made himself comfortable all over the room. TBO offered a fair mix of all albums never restricting themselves too much to their latest release.
I hope that in the near future I won’t have to travel to the UK to see both of these bands play sold out venues!
