Fightstar
It’s a freezing cold night in the city of Manchester and outside The Apollo Theatre are hundreds of fans waiting in eager anticipation for the doors to open whilst trying to warm themselves up by huddling together in a long line.
I’m lovely and warm however, cooped up on Fightstar’s tiny tour bus finding out what makes them tick and how they are finding life on the road with Feeder. You can read that delicious interview very soon!
But after the finish chatting I’m back out on the street and straight into an already packed venue where I only have time to get a bottle of water before the guys are on the stage and launching straight into Floods.
Fightstar have never really been on my list of top bands, but this set has utterly changed my mind and I find myself wanting to go out and buy their complete back catalogue. Here we have a band who were destined for big stages and huge venues because their sound is so loud and powerful you really can’t imagine them anywhere else.
The lighting is fantastic with the colours contrasting each other like a rock and roll rainbow with yellows and purple crashing out against blue and greens. It’s a spectacle for the eyes; and then there’s Charlie Simpson.
Fair enough it’s hard to hear his voice and not think ‘What I go to school for’ and imagine him jumping up into one of those cheesy boy band guitar leaps and twirling around. But in his cute striped jumper (How is he not melting under those lights) he is very focused and doesn’t leap around as much as he did in his Busted heyday.
In fact, he doesn’t really do that much, and neither do the other guys, except for bassist Dan Haigh who puts everything into his performance and is the true picture of a rocker. Sadly their drummer was absent because of a injury so they had someone else filling in and he was surprisingly good - I always hate it when there’s never a complete band there but to be honest it really didn’t show (Sorry Omar - we did miss looking at you though!)
Guitarist Alex Westaway seemed to go through phases of ‘lovin it’ and then coming over all shy and just ‘doing his thing’ in his own little area… but being super hot I thought I’d let him off because I know I wouldn’t be able to handle trying to impress a room full of people who were clearly here to watch an Indie band which Fightstar are most definitely not!
When they get to Paint Your Target, Charlie and Alex show off the versatility of their voices as they pull off the sort of hardcore vocals you would expect from a band like Across Five Aprils (R.I.P) or a Day To Remember, and its clear that they fit into their Post-Hardcore genre with ease.
Their voices are incredible, and you always worry with a voice like that whether or not they would be as good live, but they are good, in fact, they are better than good, they were incredible - the vocals were flawless and so delicious I just wanted to eat them all up like a giant bar of metal core chocolate.
The only downside has to be that the fans were clearly there for Feeder and didn’t give the guys the recognition they so clearly deserved; they didn’t move or scream or pump their fists. But regardless of that; they managed to win me over; and I’m sure I’m not the only one!
Check out our review of the main act Feeder here
FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison