New Found Glory

With bands no longer afraid to fly, Drive-Thru records brightest stars finally proceed to get their European underway to a jam packed Leeds crowd. There was literally no room to breath as Rx Bandits hit the stage and about five crowd surfers kicked me in the head. Sigh, the joys of being right at the front I suppose. The Bandits were a credible support act musically but somebody needs to tell them that it helps to look at the crowd occasionally. Extra points to the trombone player who doubled up as the celebrity air guitarist when he wasn’t needed.

Next up were Fenix TX who hit the stage running through two tracks off their latest album “Lachuza” before breaking into some old numbers, the performance couldn’t have been more different from their So-Cal buddies as the band couldn’t keep away from the edge of the stage making eye contact and umm… spitting fire! The stand-in drummer who was filling some injured boots did an incredible job seems as he’d only had a day to rehearse. Passionate and entertaining performance making the very best of the 40 minutes they got on stage, unsurprisingly they left to a deafening roar.

With only one band left and an hour to kill, the pop-punk flavour of the last few months got up on stage and literally blew everyone away, although the crowd backing up might have something to do with the bassist deciding it’d be a good night to go topless and gurn at every beat… Everyone on stage looked to be having the time of their lives and it showed no ends in the performance they gave. Credit to New Found Glory for looking us fans in the pit by handing out water when the Leeds Met security refused to. It’s small things like that which when added together make a band that truly is 100% for their fans.

A great gig and if you can find a show which isn’t sold out yet you’d be a fool to miss it, even if the bands aren’t your favourite the live show sure as hell makes up for that and will leave you convinced these people deserve your attention