ALL TIME LOW/ SET YOUR GOALS/ THE MOVIELIFE @ KINGSTON PEEL 15/05/08
I feel bad for anyone that wasn?t at this gig. Either you have terrible luck and couldn?t get a ticket, or else you have awful taste. Set Your Goals playing The Peel is a guaranteed sell out but add to that All Time Low being added to the bill at the last minute due to an off day during their tour and then finish it off with Vinnie Caruana doing a Movielife set with Set Your Goals as his backing band and you would be a cleft to miss it.
All Time Low open proceedings with a fine five song set. The band play fun, sugary pop punk that can cause no real offence, and although it is predictable it is in a familiar rather than tedious way. While I?m not impressed enough by them to head to any of their headline shows, their set flies by and, come set closer Dear Maria, Count Me In, I?m singing along with the rest of the crowd. They make a perfect start to the evening and I?ll be sure to listen to their album and ep again after this.
The internet really ruins surprises and anyone who had been looking through this website in the days leading up to the gig would have heard rumours of All Time Low being joined onstage by Gabe Saporta, front man of Cobra Starship and formerly of Midtown, during the two bands? tour and playing a Midtown song. Now the internet took this and ran, with claims of a six song set being touted around. As it turned out we were treated to just that one song, Become What You Hate, but it was lapped up. It was good and, although you could tell that it wasn?t Midtown, it just added to the special atmosphere around the night.
As much as I like Set Your Goals on record when playing live they sit on the wrong side of shambolic for me. They look awkward, sound muddled and, although the crowd seem pretty into it, to anyone who doesn?t know the album there is little to enjoy. Inevitably I will give them more chances in the future but tonight I left for the toilet before they had finished set closer, Mutiny!.
Vinnie made sure to reiterate thoroughly that this wasn?t The Movielife and that they would never play live again, but I would dare any one of the people who didn?t attend this gig because of that sentiment to have stood, with their eyes closed, during this show and tell me that this wasn?t them. They surely would have been humbled by quite how close this really was. To me This Time Next Year is one of the best pop punk albums ever and being able to the see the likes of Pinky Swear, Once In A Row and of course This Time Next Year live was something that I never expected and fuck me was it amazing. I never get involved at the front at shows anymore but, by the time that Jamestown was bringing an end to the set I had sweated through my jeans I was so into it. It was rammed and, bar a few morons, it was such a positive show; people acknowledging that they were involved in something special. On the train home we attempted to express our joy but failed, and I?m still struggling now. I can only thank Banquet for making me so giddy with excitement on a night of pure nostalgic brilliance.
Dan