Probably one of the most crowded gigs I've ever been to at the good old Astoria. It 's definitely a young crowd here tonight and there's an awful lot of girls around too!

The Billy Talents are over here on their first headlining tour of the UK since they thrusted their first album upon us way back in 2003. Now they're back with a new album and playing in quite a reasonably sized venue in London. We can now get to hear those songs we've been screaming along to over the last three years, played live.

Support comes from Reuben who introduce themselves as 'angry young men' , just while I was thinking that it was a pretty rubbish name for a band someone in front confirms their real name . Their first song is a fast screamo thing and I'm surprised to hear a well spoken English accent coming from the singer afterwards. They followed this song with what can only be described as something Kurt Cobain might've written in 1991, but the rest of the set is quite varied and actually rather good and it shows that this band are probably worth buying a CD from.

Billy Talent are on next and almost literally explode onto the stage. The four of them are brimming with energy and are probably quite pumped up by the sight of the writhing throng just below them. Singer Ben Kowalewicz strips topless almost straight away and makes the most of the stage area, while the pointy haired guitarist Ian D’Sa sticks to one spot harmonising with nearly every word while playing some quite difficult arpeggios at the same time.

They begin with playing quite a few songs from their new imaginatively titled album Billy Talent II but most come from their first self-titled album. While the new stuff sounds pretty good and is in keeping with their older songs, none of the new material seemed to really compare to 'Walking in the Rain', or 'Try Honesty' though , but that's just because bands usually only write tracks like 'Try Honesty' once in their lifetimes. This band really do outshine their peers in terms of style and song writing prowess, and who knows what they'll sound like further down the line.

So they can cut it live, they have the songs, with any luck they'll be around for quite a while.

billyK
7/10
Mon, January 05, 2009