Tonight’s gig takes place in the strangely named Solus 2 (when in actual fact the venue is the Great Hall cordoned off a little bit), and the turnout is slightly disappointing. This week Bury Tomorrow have managed to hit the UK Top 40 with their new album ‘Runes’, so it’s an exciting time for them. While it’s not a full room, the people that are here are rabidly enthusiastic, and it’s a sea of Bury Tomorrow shirts.
First supports are Napoleon and Demoraliser, who by all accounts are a lot of fun, but sadly Punktastic couldn’t make it in time (we unfortunately work real life jobs too 🙁 ), so tonight Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! are the first band we manage to catch. Despite having possibly one of the worst bandnames in history, Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! are pretty enjoyable to watch. The French five-piece sound a little bit like A Day To Remember on speed, and their show isn’t flawless, but it’s a lot of fun. They play a good deal off their 2013 album ‘Pardon My French’ (see what they did there?) and the crowd seem to love them.
Tonight’s headliners are Southampton’s own Bury Tomorrow, and they are completely and utterly on fire. This is a band who are brilliant both on record and in the live arena, and tonight they prove that they’ve completely honed their live performance. Coming on to recent single ‘Man On Fire’ is a huge hit with the crowd, who bellow along with the song as if it’d been around for years.
Bury Tomorrow play a fair few songs off new album ‘Runes’ tonight. It’s a risky move, but one that pays off. Despite the album only coming out three days previously, the crowd are fully onboard with the new songs, which is testament to how great the record is. Nevertheless, they haven’t abandoned their old material in any way, playing several songs off first album ‘Portraits’, including ‘Evolution Of Self’ and ‘You & I’ (after frontman Dani Winter-Bates jokes that they don’t play any of their old material).
The songs that go down the best are undoubtedly off their second album ‘The Union Of Crowns’, which is why the biggest hits are left until the end – ‘Knight Life’ and ‘Royal Blood’ end the main set, and then they come back on for a mini-encore, playing massive banger ‘Lionheart’ to finish off an amazing show.
Bury Tomorrow are the kind of band that can absolutely smash any stage in the world, big or small, and with new album ‘Runes’ tearing up the Top 40, this could see them reach the next level. Excellent work.
LAIS MW