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As we turned the
corner at about 6.40 pm it was immediately apparent that tonight’s show
was not only a sell out, but also that all the Zebrahead fans had been
queuing up outside for quite some time in anticipation for tonight’s show.
After nearly an hour of waiting and
chanting, the first of tonight’s two bands hit the stage, Hastings based
rockers Fleeing From Finales and a loud and enthusiastic cheer went up
from the all ages crowd.
Opening up their set with ‘Under Covers
Over You’, a track which is taken from their new CD and one that
immediately won the somewhat hyper crowd over.
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They continued with a set mixed of Emo
styled songs but with a little keyboards courtesy of front man Sam Little.
Although the sound wasn’t exactly perfect out front, the crowd were
definitely up for it jumping about and giving their all, which is always nice to
see. All ages gigs can sometimes be hit or miss events, especially for
the support act, but Fleeing From Finales had definitely made their mark on the
crown here tonight, especially with tracks like ‘An Emotional Summer Of
Cricket’ and the even more bizarrely titled ‘Mighty Ducks vs Thundercats’
which seem to get the crowd in the right mood for the main event,
which wasn’t long in following. |
As the lights went out, up went the chants
of Zebrahead, but it wasn't the band who hit the stage first but rather
one of the road crew, who entertained the crowd with a few jokes as the
band prepared for their set back stage with a little victory dance (if you
were down the front you too would have witnessed this!).
The band eventually came on stage and
immediately all hell broke loose as bodies leaped in the air as Orange
Counties own Matty, Ali, Ben, Ed and Greg burst on stage and unleashed
their infectious Pop Punk with the opener ‘Rescue Me’. Carrying on
into the next song ‘In My Room’, which seemed only to inject even more
adrenalin into an already hyped up crowd.
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'Here To You' was the first of the
songs taken from the band's new album ‘Broadcast To The World’, which went down
a storm before what has to be most bizarre thing I’ve seen at a gig.
Ali asked the crowd to take two steps back and all sit down on the
floor and when 'Jag Off' started they all leapt into the air and
carried on leaping up and down throughout the entire song which, was a bit discerning for
me as the floor of Academy 2 had to be reinforced last year and I was
wondering if the new supports could take such a vast beating.
The set continued to impress with the
excellent ‘Falling Apart’ from the bands 2003 MFZB album, then it was
back to the new album for the |
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next song ‘Postcards From Hell’,
which Ali dedicated to not only tonight’s audience, but also to the
City of Newcastle, as the band had apparently spent the past two days in our fair city to absorb
some of the cities culture ... well the Strip Club, the Cinema, and the Casino were
drummer Ed won two hundred pounds. |
The band continued with another song from
the new album ‘Back To Normal’ before dedicating the next song to all their
diehard fans, of which there were plenty in the room tonight, as they went back to MFZB for ‘Into You’.
By this time the band had the
crowd eating out of their hands and to prove it they asked Ed to suggest
something for the crowd to do to prove how much they loved the band ...
and so he did, he said he wanted to
audience to "Cluck like Chickens" ... and being an obliging sort of crowd, we
suddenly had a room full of 250 Clucking Chickens!, which then turned into 250 Meowing Cats
after another request courtesy of Ed.
It was back to the music after all the
merriment as the band ripped through the set with ‘Alone’, ‘Hello Tomorrow’
and finishing of the main part of their set with the classic Zebrahead song
‘Playmate Of The Year’.
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The band hadn’t left the stage before
the chants of "Zebrahead! Zebrahead!" were started.
The crowd turned it into "Oggy!
Oggy! Oggy!", which on returning to the stage, the band asked what the
crowd were shouting. They'd thought the fans were shouting "Ugly!
Ugly! Ugly!, Fun! Fun! Fun!".
This had the rooms in fits of
laughter both on and off stage and one which got a rallying "Oggy!
Oggy! Oggy!, Oi! Oi! Oi!" response from the thoroughly excited crowd. |
You
really had to be there to see it because it was one of those magic
moments that stay with you for a long time. The band were both
speechless with pride and astounded at what was going on off stage.
Once they came
round to their senses again they proudly
announced that Newcastle was now officially their favourite city in
the world to play, beating their previous favourite of Prague hands
down. |
It was back to the music as the band
continued their frenzied assault from were they had left off with a couple
more from the new album 'Broadcast To The World', ‘Wake Me Up’ and the superb
‘Anthem’, which really saw the fans take flight, before capping it off with
‘The Set Up’. Which started with a strange giant circle of fans
running around in the centre of the floor, before breaking into a huge
mosh pit which contained 100 fans. Given how tightly packed the room
was it was quite something to see.
All of which rounded off a superb night
and one which will surely be etched on the memories of the all who were
here tonight for many a long while, and maybe next time the band come they
will play the larger Academy 1, because I’m sure they will have no worries
filling it after tonight’s performance.
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