Feeder at Norwich Waterfront on Thursday 26th April 2012 (Jon Luton)

The last time Feeder played Norwich Waterfront was at the end of 1999, when they released Paperfaces, the final single from Yesterday Went Too Soon. A lot has happened in the 13 years, the success of Echo Park and Comfort In Sound rocketed the band from the waterfront level to play huge arenas and headlining Festivals.

Tonight feels like a homecoming, Feeder used to play first The Oval then the Waterfront every few months for several years until their big chart breakthrough. In fact I first saw Feeder all the way back in 1997 at the Waterfront, when they were a more grungey rock band. Over the years their sound has mellowed, and they have turned in to an epic rock band. The set starts off with an acoustic and keyboard version of recent single ‘Children Of The Sun’ before the proper rock show starts with ‘Feeling A Moment’ and ‘Renegades’.

Feeder play an hour and a half of solid material, with the odd fault start thrown in. Despite mistakes and a few technical errors, the band have a sense of humour about everything, and the intimate setting allows them to have more interaction with the audience than the bigger stages the band have become used to.

The set mainly focuses on their new and recent albums, with Generation Freakshow only being released on Monday. The only songs that appear on the set list from the last time they played here are High from Polythene, and Insomnia from Yesterday Went Too Soon. Despite it being on the set list the band leave out My Perfect Day (to my personal disappointment). They also only play Buck Rogers from Echo Park, but finish with Just A Day from the Echo Park era.

Feeder at Norwich Waterfront on Thursday 26th April 2012 (Jon Luton)

Feeder at Norwich Waterfront on Thursday 26th April 2012 (Jon Luton)

We Are The In Crowd at Norwich Waterfront, 15th April 2012 (Jon Luton)

Despite being around for the past few years, this is the first headline tour that American female fronted We Are The In Crowd have done. Their infectious blend of pop punk has been winning them fans, thanks to support slots with Mayday Parade and All Time Low.

Promoting their debut album ‘Best Intentions’ and featuring most of their ‘Guaranteed To Disagree’ EP, the young crowd are transfixed by Taylor Jardine and Jordan Eckes catchy boy/girl vocals. It’s hard to fault We Are The In Crowds blend of pop punk, the only real problem with their set is that clocking in at around 45 minutes meant their set went really quickly, despite them playing the majority of their recorded songs.

We Are The In Crowd at Norwich Waterfront, 15th April 2012 (Jon Luton)

This years tour was meant to be a bit more balanced, with the heaviness of opening bands While She Sleeps followed up by the pop punk of New Found Glory and Sum 41. Unfortunately, Sum 41 had to pull out because of the continued injury to Deryck. Luckily The Blackout stepped up at short notice to replace them, but more on that in a moment.

When it comes to pop punk bands, no band does it better than New Found Glory, with 7 full length albums behind them they are seasoned pro’s. There’s advantages of headlining tours such as this for NFG, including the chance to play in front of other bands audiences and win new fans, the only downside being that there set is only an hour long, which means they have to cut down on some of their more popular songs, and only 3 songs from their new album Radiosurgery are played. Despite a shortened set, NFG decide to play three covers, when most fans would have preferred they put in more of their own material. New Found Glory still have such an energy about their performance, that they are great to watch, the only minor problem was Jordan Pundik vocals struggling, probably down to the current freezing weather having a bad effect on his voice.

New Found Glory at Norwich UEA, 8th February 2012 (Photographer: Jon Luton)

New Found Glory at Norwich UEA, 8th February 2012 (Photographer: Jon Luton)

New Found Glory at Norwich UEA, 8th February 2012 (Photographer: Jon Luton)

The Blackout always knew this was going to be tough for them, a lot of people were disappointed both by Sum 41s withdrawal from the tour, and secondly by The Blackout being announced as replacement. Now, this obviously wasn’t The Blackouts fault, they were helping Kerrang and the promoters out, at short noticed, but to Sum 41 fans The Blackout weren’t a band that appealed.

Taking all this in to account, The Blackout had a lot to do to win the crowd over, but pretty much managed it. They threw in an early cover of Fat Lip by Sum 41, and proceeded to hit the crowd with catchy hooks song after song. Hightide, Never By Your Side, Children Of The Night and Higher and Higher stand out. The Blackout may have not been to everyones taste, but they won new fans tonight.

The Blackout at Norwich UEA, 8th February 2012 (Photographer: Jon Luton)

The Blackout at Norwich UEA, 8th February 2012 (Photographer: Jon Luton)

LetLive were the band that everyone was looking forward to seeing. Having gained a buzz about them in the last year for their singers, Jason Butler, onstage antics. Off stage Jason is a calm mellow guy, but on stage he is all over the place, jumping off speaker stacks, getting in the crowd. Such a good performer.

LetLive at Norwich UEA, 8th February 2012 (Photographer: Jon Luton)

LetLive at Norwich UEA, 8th February 2012 (Photographer: Jon Luton)

While She Sleeps at Norwich UEA, 8th February 2012 (Photographer: Jon Luton)

While She Sleeps at Norwich UEA, 8th February 2012 (Photographer: Jon Luton)

Day Two of Groezrock kicked off for us with Sugarcult on the main stage. Having seemingly disappeared after ‘Lights Out’ a few years back, this was their first mainland Europe gig in over 4 years. The band played out the hits, but despite the energy of other members, lead singer Tim seemed to be missing something, and didn’t seem as into it as the others. It was good to see them play for old times sake, but feels like this return could be short lived.

Next up is Goldfinger, who are the exact opposite of Sugarcult. Singer John Feldmann is the perfect frontman, mild mannered off stage but a complete rock star on stage. He commands the crowd, berates them, and gets them moving. 45 minutes of non stop catchy pop and non stop jumping/diving round the stage and it’s over. Spokeman, Get Up and Open Your Eyes being the stand out tracks.

Second set of the weekend for Thursday, and after the amazing performance of Full Collapse they have a lot to live up to. With a set list limited by what their touring bassist knows, the set missed out songs such as ‘For The Workforce, Drowning’ but still managed to contain enough fans favourites to keep the crowd happy. Songs off new album No Devolucion sound more epic live than on the album, swirling keyboards and furious guitars everywhere.

After Thursday, we have our first chance of the weekend to have a proper look round the festival site and I have to say it beats many UK festival sites. The huge market tent is a good place to get away from the music for a bit, and full of great t shirt companies and record stores. Just outside this is the Macbeth stage, where we witness the last couple of songs of Attack! Attack! which ends with most of the audience on the stage.

Groezrock seems to have a much friendlier atmosphere than many other festivals, which explains why so many people travel from the UK and further afield to attend a festival in a small Belgium village.

Then it was time for the set a lot of people had been waiting for, The Descendants. Not only was the mosh pit packed for this, but side of stage was a who’s who of the bands playing over the weekend, everyone wanted to catch some of them. The biggest punk rock set of the weekend, went down so well, the band were on form, played all the songs people wanted to hear and everyone went away happy.

Back to the second stage, and Saves The Day entertain the crowd with a blend of old and new. The set is just a big sing along, and shows that Saves The Day still have loyal fans despite it being almost 10 years since their biggest album ‘Stay What You Are’. ‘At Your Funeral’ was the perfect singalong end to their set.

The Used end the festival. It hard to know what to make of The Used, technical problems delay their start, then they go through the old songs but fail to play anything new. It feels at times like a band out of practice going through the motions. Hopefully they’ll improve live once they come back with a new album.

Overall, Groezrock was a great weekend, a great festival, loads of great bands, and well worth visiting.

First up on the main stage were Army Of Freshmen, who won over an ever increasing crowd with their blend of catchy infectious pop tinged punk. HAving been on tour for two with the Freshmen I knew what to expect, but this performance blew even me away, and won the band many new fans.

The Blackout hit the Etnies Stage, and carnage ensued. Second song in ‘Children Of The Night’ found Sean Smith in amongst the crowd, starting a riot, whilst the rest of the band rocked out on stage. The Blackout keep on getting better and better over the years, and new album ‘Hope’ has allowed them to become more pop, whilst retaining their heavier edge.

Next up were Thursday, performing Full Collaspe from start to finish. Not only was the tent packed but side stage was full of other bands (including The Blackout, Underoath, Everytime I Die), singing/screaming along to every word. Whilst the set list wasn’t much of a surprise, the performance was full of energy, hard to believe that until recently they had never performed the album in full. Despite being ten years old, the songs still song current, and as good live as ever before.

Back over on the Main Stage, Millencolin pull off a similar feat as Thursday, playing the whole of Pennybridge Pioneers from start to finish, and with a 45 minute set they get to add a few other songs from their career (with a new backdrop for new song not on Pennybridge…). Highlight of the set is The Ballad, a song I never thought I’d see live. Most people wondered believe you could get a 10,000 strong punk festival tent singing along to an acoustic song. Breathtaking.

Etnies Stage headliners on day one were Underoath. Whilst the band put on a strong perfromance, the set mainly featured recent material, with only a couple of songs from breakthrough album ‘We’re Only Chasing Safety’ played.

Overall a good start to the festival.

Tina Dico

Norwegian singer songwriter Tina Dico put on an amazing performance at Norwich Arts Centre. Promoting her Welcome Back Colour CD, a collection of reworkings and new songs, she played a stripped back set, backed by just drums and keyboards. The stripped back band made her beautiful vocals shine more than ever, proving that she is an amazing vocalist.

Despite being hampered by technical problems at the start of the set, they managed to get through these problems with a sense of humour. Whilst they weren’t playing songs, Tina comes across as part storyteller, part comedian, always keep the audience smiling and laughing, but most of all entertained.