Simon Rushworth
@ Newcastle O2 Academy, March 10 2011
An evening filled with powerpop and bubblegum punk shaped offerings is all it takes to get the young ones out in force and into the O2 Academy on a blustery night on Tyneside.
It might have looked like you’d just walked into the local school disco but the show you were about to receive would leave you with an ear to ear grin and a song with a chorus that would stick in your head for days.
Despite having been on a two year hiatus, Yellowcard owned the stage (and the crowd) as if they had never been away. Distinctively daring to be different, the only power-pop band to complete their musicianship with Sean Mackin, the delightfully rocktastic violinist, were a creative tour de force.
Their recipe for success works as well as it ever did but these days there’s an added depth to each of their light-hearted, catchy songs. On form and on fire they delivered a precision set which was as hook laden as you’d expect from this Jacksonville sextet.
The old crowd pleasers – Way Away, Lights and Sounds and Only One are met with an audience armed with every word and the band prove that they are here to stay with melodic punk rock Hang You Up and For You And Your Denial – both songs from their forthcoming album.
Ending on the anthemic Ocean Avenue to an uproarious reception proved Yellowcard’s status as the strongest band on stage for the evening.
The crowd had, of course, heard the radio friendly hits and responded with their parental buying power to snap up tickets to another sold-out All Time Low concert. The band erupted onto the stage after a reference to Home Alone they burst energetically into Keep The Change You Filthy Animal.
ATL brindle with passion for the cause and zoomed through a spirited set which represented something from every album, only stopping when technical glitches allowed them to have some well deserved audience banter.
Vocalist Alex Gaskarth had the crowd chanting along to each and every song because that is exactly the kind of song this band brings to the stage – singalong efforts and bouncing guitar stylings. Made for the airwaves Damned If I Do, Lost In Stereo and Break Your Little Heart seemed most familiar to the masses proving that ultimately they are as infectious as nits but only half as irritating.
Reminding the masses they can work the acoustic tracks just as well as the upbeat tunes, Therapy and Weightless balanced the show but undeniably this is a band here with one purpose, and one purpose only – to bring a smile to your face and a beat for your feet to bounce to.
And is there anything wrong with that? No, there certainly isn’t!
Louisa Kouzapas