You Me At Six, Luca Brasi @ The Roundhouse, Sydney (06/05/2015)
UK five-piece You Me At Six is known for their captivating live shows, and their performance to an almost sold out Sydney’s Metro Theatre, was anything but disappointing. With a large number of concert first timers (you hear a lot when you’re waiting in line for shows) and quite a few parents hanging around, the crowd was brimming with excited energy that matched the night’s performance ounce for ounce.
The show opened with Tasmanian locals Luca Brasi who stole the hearts of the fans in the quickly filling theatre. While still relatively new on the scene, this band has a great live show and a very quickly earning themselves a well-deserved big name. Their classic pop punk sound and energetic stage presence to match kept everyone up and jumping along with them. The set covered a great deal of their discography, with fan favourites Waves and Borders and Statelines getting the fans singing along with just as much enthusiasm as the band. And seriously, as great as it is seeing younger bands getting a chance to perform to new audience, there’s nothing better than a great Aussie band singing along with their fans. Finally, and with much anticipation and rather consistent cheers and squeals from the crowd, the boys of You Me At Six took to the stage. With strong back lights and heavy smoke, their entrance and extended intro to Room To Breathe kept up the anticipatory and almost eerie energy in the room before they exploded into their full set. As vocalist Josh Franceschi quite eloquently put it, “we’re going to be playing a lot of old shit tonight” and old songs they did play. |
Their set covered some of their biggest songs from Hold Me Down and Sinners Never Sleep, as well as their newest album Cavalier Youth. In fact, You Me At Six picked a perfect set list, with song after song keeping their fans at nothing less than completely captivated up until the final note.
The classics Loverboy, The Consequence, Underdog and The Dilemma were ideal for getting the crowd dancing around and belting out the lyrics. And while the crowd never quite built up into any decent moshing beside one attempt at a circle pit, it was great to see so many concert first-timers enjoying themselves to such a great band.
The night also featured some of You Me At Six’s best love-stuck and heartfelt, slower songs including Crash and my personal favourite No One Does It Better, which had fans caught up in more than sing-a-long, complete with lighters and candle apps on phones held aloft and all. And for those new to You Me At Six, there a few bands that can build a crowd up with heavy drums and wailing guitars before dropping the tempo into a soulful ballad without losing an ounce of energy and this band is one of them.
Unfortunately there was no encore for the night despite small pockets of desperate chanting calling for just one more song, but by the final note and even without the encore, the set felt finished. The final songs, including a brief pause during Bite My Tongue, as Franceschi rather gallantly called everything to a stop to allow security to get young girl who had passed out in the crowd, were some of the heaviest hitters of the set and finished the night off with a bang.
Overall, it was an absolute pleasure to see You Me At Six again, especially bringing along a highly deserving Aussie band. And for those who haven’t got a chance to catch them live yet, Franceschi made it clear that while there aren’t any specific plans currently in the works they will be heading down under once more as soon as they can, so make sure you don’t miss them next time.
Bethany Williams
The classics Loverboy, The Consequence, Underdog and The Dilemma were ideal for getting the crowd dancing around and belting out the lyrics. And while the crowd never quite built up into any decent moshing beside one attempt at a circle pit, it was great to see so many concert first-timers enjoying themselves to such a great band.
The night also featured some of You Me At Six’s best love-stuck and heartfelt, slower songs including Crash and my personal favourite No One Does It Better, which had fans caught up in more than sing-a-long, complete with lighters and candle apps on phones held aloft and all. And for those new to You Me At Six, there a few bands that can build a crowd up with heavy drums and wailing guitars before dropping the tempo into a soulful ballad without losing an ounce of energy and this band is one of them.
Unfortunately there was no encore for the night despite small pockets of desperate chanting calling for just one more song, but by the final note and even without the encore, the set felt finished. The final songs, including a brief pause during Bite My Tongue, as Franceschi rather gallantly called everything to a stop to allow security to get young girl who had passed out in the crowd, were some of the heaviest hitters of the set and finished the night off with a bang.
Overall, it was an absolute pleasure to see You Me At Six again, especially bringing along a highly deserving Aussie band. And for those who haven’t got a chance to catch them live yet, Franceschi made it clear that while there aren’t any specific plans currently in the works they will be heading down under once more as soon as they can, so make sure you don’t miss them next time.
Bethany Williams