Live Review: The Wonder Years, Save Your Breath and Apologies, I Have None - The Peel, Kingston - 20/2/11

It’s fairly rare these days, but every so often a show comes around that has literally everyone attending feeling a kind of excited anticipation, and this a show, the second headline date from The Wonders Years fresh from a run on the Kerrang tour was one of them.

I feel that before I go any further, I need to give a shout out to Banquet Records, not only for putting this show on, but for being a driving force in the Kingston independent music scene, and generally ensuring that music still has a positive impact and a role to play in the community, it’s not often you see a business care so passionately about its trade but Banquet do, and for that they need to be commended.

The Peel tonight, is disgustingly hot, and I arrived just as Apologies, I Have None start their set, and in all honesty they have the crowd captivated, their sound fills the venue out easily, and generally look a bit epic in a live environment, this was a very savvy booking, going down strangely well in a pop/punk show meant that they went home with a hundred or so more fans than they had before.

Next up were Save Your Breath, the Newport lot have a big reputation these days and with an album due out in the Summer, this was a great opportunity to build on this, with a set that mixed old with new, while starting off a bit ropey ended up brilliant, the new songs on the upcoming album, sound outstanding and a real step up in quality from their last EP while favourites such as “Stay Young” and “Rhys-O” go down a treat, there will be a lot more to come for these boys, and I look forward to catching them on the Fireworks/Make Do and Mend tour in March.

The Wonder Years have seemingly been going from strength to strength recently, with a new album recorded and already under their belt, this show felt like something of a party, not only to celebrate the future, but to celebrate everything that “The Upsides” has done for them and from the moment they hit the stage, it’s clear to see that this show means a lot to the band, at points they look genuinely overawed at the reception they were receiving, and I’m not surprised, from the opening of “Logan Circle” to the epic ending of “All My Friends Are In Bar Bands” and even in the two song encore, the crowd just did not let up, each song had them clambering/crowd surfing/stage diving, even Soupy collapsing in pain from what looked like his leg did not stop him, powering through to deliver one of the sets of the year so far, and probably the year to come.

This show was great, it really was, it’s rare to see such good feeling all round at shows these days, but this was an exception, and I look forward to releases from all three bands on the bill tonight

5/5

Words by Chris MarshmanL