Artist:  Zebrahead

Venue: 02 Academy, Newcastle 

Date:  27 March 2010 

Well it doesn’t seem like three years since Orange County's own Matty, Ali, Ben, Ed and Greg, a.k.a. Zebrahead donned the stage of Newcastle’s O2 Academy but it has.  And once again the venue is sold out well in advance of the actual show date.  To be honest I think it was sold out before it was advertised, such is the bands following in the North East. To say the crowd was excited would have been an understatement.  The energy around the room was building up to near fever pitch, fuelled on snot and Coke (those of you down the front know who you are!), the young crowd were about to explode.  As ten past eight came the waiting was finally over and the band hit the stage. The band opened up in emphatic style with ‘Hell Yeah’ and instantly the snot fuelled energizer bunnies in the crowd just leaped around as front man Ali played them like puppets and reveled in his puppet master roll, the crowd would do anything he asked. Anyone who thinks they’ve experienced a rock show but haven’t seen Zebrahead live in action, then think again.  This band sure can whip up a crowd and put on a show to remember.

The set continued with the likes of ‘Death By Disco’, the excellent 'Jag Off', which saw the crowd sit down on the floor and jump up in unison as Ali the puppet master demanded.  The band also included a Britny Spears cover in the set, yes you read right Britny, and what a great cover ... “Oops I Did It Again’ never sounded so good.  This American Pop Punk version was just sublime and if you have a chance check out the video do so.  In fact let's just say the band's new album 'Party Pants' is a covers album to top all covers albums.

The band continued to push the limiter to the max with the excellent ‘Mike Dexter..’, ‘Mental Health’ and ‘Playmate Of The Year’, although the best was yet to come as they just blew all away with ‘HMP’ and my favourite of the night ‘The Juggernauts’.  But the band didn’t finish there, they did away with the whole ridiculous going off stage and coming back on routine, and just played on topping off a great night with what else but ‘Anthem' and the icing on the cake ‘The Set Up’.

If you haven’t seen a Zebrahead show then you really don’t know what you're missing.  This is Orange County as you’ve never seen it before and never mind your Blink 182’s and the like, this is a real modern Punk Rock band with more edge than a box of razor blades and more energy than a electrical storm.  A must see no matter what your musical tastes.  You’ve got to admire these guys, they came to rock our world and rock it they did. 

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