It’s an early start to the show but Living With Lions have enough energy to make you forget that it’s only 5.30pm. Vocalist Stu runs on the stage wearing a Propagandhi t-shirt as the band go straight into Regret Song. Lyrically it’s almost like a bitter heartbreak anthem laced with positivity as the crowd sing along the words, "Everyone has to learn from their mistakes, And you were just one of the many that I'll make." The set is a good mix of the band’s new material from their Holy Shit album and older songs from their 2007-8 era. While the crowd is rather thin the band feed off the obvious love from one or two fans and when they play Rough Around The Edges everyone is clapping along. Before they play True Colours, Stu tells everyone it’s about holding on to the people you love, which is pretty sentimental until they shout for a circle pit in the next song they play.
If you saw The Ghost Inside play Rescue Rooms last April at the Hit the Deck festival you’ll know it was completely packed out but the sound wasn’t great. Now they prove they were made to play a big stage. The passion, the energy and the obvious fun they’re having show why hardcore music means so much to people. They mainly played songs off their 2010 Returners album including Greater Distance and Unspoken. The highlight of the set full of heavy breakdowns is their last song Between The Lines with the whole crowd shouting, "What do you stand for?" The band will be back in the UK next April with a new album and hopefully they’ll be sticking with the big stages.
August Burns Red come on stage to a drum and bass remix of Rozalla’s Everybody’s Free and for a minute you’d think you were at a hardcore rave judging by how quickly the crowd jump and wave their arms. The crowd reaction is like that for the whole set with vocalist Jake telling everyone he wants to see dancing and no moshing. It’s obvious that he genuinely loves the music his band makes and puts his fingers on his lips to signify silence for the melodic guitar parts. He does a lot of kneeling on the floor with his arms in the air and effortlessly makes everyone get their lighter out for the slower songs.
I think it was the first time I’ve ever seen a front man stand in a ball and walk on top of the crowd at Rock City, but thanks to A Day To Remember it’s now happened. While there more radio friendly pop anthems can be off putting they actually mix genres really well and there’s quite a few cheeky breakdowns. Now a fully fledged mainstream band with eleven released singles to their name, it can be hard to judge what genre this band actually fits in, but that’s exactly how they want it. Playing 19 songs in a one hour set, they manage to really represent the different styles from all four of their albums. The highlights were All I Want and The Downfall Of Us All, with the crowd also singing along to an acoustic version of If It Means A Lot To You.
The Eastpak Antidote Tour 2011 took place at Rock City on Thursday 17 November 2011.
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