Now Mondays aren’t great, in my opinion it’s one of the bleakest days of the week. This Monday however, saw Neck Deep, Save Your Breath and We Are The In Crowd take over Liverpool’s O2 Academy 2.
After playing a packed out headline show at The Picket on the 24th, Wrexham Pop Punks Neck Deep we’re back. This room is slightly smaller compared to their headline tour which in this case caused the crowd to get more involved in the show, and they did from the get go. Going from a headline slot to an opening support act can be a difficult thing to accept some times, but not for these guys. One thing I will say about Neck Deep is that they have amazing stamina. They just finished their headline run of shows and are now straight back on tour. Once this tour is over they are jetting off to America for another tour so fair play to them. The Stand Out Song of their set for me was ‘Over and Over‘.
Let’s draw our critique to the atmospherics of the gig, because they really do make a difference; during the intervals of two pop punk acts, no one really wants to listen to ‘Teenage Dream‘ by Katy Perry.
The next act to take to the stage we’re Save Your Breath. I’d personally never heard of the band before this show… man do I regret that. They had a strong sound and looked like they were actually enjoying what they were doing. The energy from the stage spread to the crowd as they got involved with what the band were asking. One thing I like to see in a band is good banter and having a laugh on stage with the gig goers, it adds humanity. In Save Your Breath’s case, calling for a boycott of Nestlé products (sorry Nestlé), and describing their drummer as looking like an Ostrich achieved this. One of the last things I was expecting to hear from this Newport based Pop Punk act was three part harmonies, yet in their song ‘Touchpaper‘, that’s exactly what I heard, and they were spot on!
Afterwards, New York based We Are The In Crowd graced everyone with their presence. The crowd were absolutely loving it and the band were feeding off that. Tay started with strong vocals and so did Jordan. They gave a really energetic show and had a awesome stage presence. Between two of the songs, the band brought up a little anecdote about their first ever UK gig, which happened to be in Liverpool. A girl who had a set list from that gig was at this one and they made an effort to recognise and acknowledge her and at the end of the show gave her a set list from this gig. Things like that really impress me with bands.
Like Save Your Breath, they had good banter both between the band members and with the crowd between songs, and even when Tay’s vocals started to fade due to a bit of illness. The mood was mellowed when they switched to just an acoustic guitar. This can be seen as a played out trick nowadays but it worked an absolute treat. It still held everyone’s attention. Instead of jumping straight back into to something a little more rocky, the song ‘Long Live The Kids‘ was the perfect transition song as it starts soft and reintroduces all the instruments and finishes on a high. What didn’t seem to finish was the set. The ending was unexpected and the band said thanks and walked off stage.
Thankfully there was an encore to properly round off the set. After a great performance from the We Are The In Crowd, I was struggling to choose a Stand Out Dong so I’ve settled for two – ‘Best Thing‘ and the last song of the encore ‘Rumour Mill‘.