Kerrang! Tour 2012 Review

The start of February usually means the return of the magazine sponsored tours hiting Norwich UEA, and this year is no exception, with the Kerrang! Tour this week, followed next week by the NME tour.

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)

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)

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.